What to expect
W. C. Fields builds comedy from injured pride, class anxiety, and the dangerous confidence of a man who explains everything. The film gives his later screen character a silent form without depending on the voice that made him famous.
How to ease in
The invention and the false princess are the two engines. Notice how Sam’s neighbours change before he does once they believe status has entered the room.
Heads-up
A small-town inventor, humiliated after his invention fails publicly, mistakes a sympathetic young woman for royalty and finds his social standing unexpectedly transformed.
Sam wants recognition so badly that he accepts the first story grand enough to repair him. I watch the town’s manners change faster than any piece of evidence.
Open the note ↓
Sam wants recognition so badly that he accepts the first story grand enough to repair him. I watch the town’s manners change faster than any piece of evidence.
— Momo
Credits & versions
Version map
Where to go next
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