The opening credits of 'The Vagabond Queen' betokens both the slipshod and the accomplished: the former by the misspelling of the director's name (which would be apt for one of the characters), the latter by the name of Oscar-winning Hollywood cameraman Charles Rosher.
This British retread of 'The Prisoner of Zenda' builds its narrative around the tiny but substantial frame of Betty Balfour (adorned at one point by a chic trouser suit), backed by an unusual supporting cast including one of only two film roles for the eminent stage actor Glenn Byam Shaw (the other being as Colonel Redfern in 'Look Back in Anger') as a rather passive leading man (the initial plot device that he's an inventor working on an experimental television transmitter rather surprisingly soon abandoned), Ernest Thesiger wearing at least three top hats - judging from the amount of punishment they take - a wing collar and a frock coat; while Harry Terry as the pretender to the throne provides an ugly face that reached its apogee ten years later in the title role of 'The Face at the Window'.
