Since I'm a fan of unusual romantic and adventurous stories, I immediately fell in love with this film at the age of 15. I was so interested in seeing it that I ignored my father's curfew rule one school night and watched the film on TCM. While watching the film, I was fascinated by the simple, unique story of political and royal intrigue set in an imaginary 19th Century European kingdom. The film was so influential that I soon began daydreaming and writing my own adventurous stories of ruling and residing in an imaginary European country of my own creation, which I am still doing unto this day. This particular film, along with my all-time favorite THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938), also inspired me to take up fencing lessons in high school. Due to my obvious enthusiasm in class, I received a high final score of 98 out of 100 points after battling some tough opponents for two years in the fencing class.<br /><br />On my 18th birthday, I finally received this wonderful classic film on VHS as a present from my father. Since then I've watched it many times and the story is always entertaining due to its uniqueness. And now the film is finally released on a double-feature DVD, containing the inferior 1952 scene-for-scene remake and looking and sounding far superior than my scratchy, faded, and fuzzy VHS.<br /><br />But I'll try to be brief in praising the vastly superior 1937 version—almost everything is perfect in this version. The direction is focused and effective. The extravagant production design is wholesomely convincing, making the audience believe that they are part of the fanciful European settings and not looking at studio sets. The black-and-white cinematography, by the great James Wong Howe, is atmospheric and menacing when it needs to be—whereas the 1952 remake looks a bit effeminate due to its quaint use of lavish Technicolor. The rousing, romantic music score by Alfred Newman is memorable and includes several classical source music pieces throughout in order to enhance the period detail. The pacing is nice and leisurely despite a few occasional lulls here and there in the fanciful, imaginative story. And the dialog, especially coming from the villainous Rupert of Hentzau (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), is very clever and never fades into banality.<br /><br />And the casting is very nearly perfect. Since this is the version I first saw, it's very hard to imagine anyone else in the lead roles, let alone in the smallest bit roles. However, I have one problem concerning the casting: I would have preferred the young and fresh Olivia de Havilland in the small yet pivotal role of Antoinette de Mauban, since Mary Astor looked old enough to be Douglas Fairbank's mother in the film. Too bad David Selznick, the film's producer, didn't cast Olivia in the role—and this film was made during preproduction of Selznick's GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). Other than that, I have no complaints on the casting. But it does look odd seeing the young, devilishly charming Fairbanks flirting with Astor, who looks homely enough to be middle-aged—to me, at least.<br /><br />If there's one other thing that had room for improvement in this film, it's the climactic duel scene between Rudolph Rassendyll (Ronald Colman) and Rupert within the dim chambers of Zenda Castle. For a time, I thought that it was a great yet brief duel scene in a classic film. While recently watching the 1952 remake, I noticed that the duel scene was much more imaginatively and elaborately staged that time—and even better filmed, since many of the shots of Colman and Fairbanks were mere close-ups in the 1937 version. So now I wish that the duel between Colman and Fairbanks was staged almost exactly like the one in the 1952 version. However, much of the witty banter between the two men was lost in the remake's duel scene. Still, an improved duel scene would have been just as innovative as the duel scene between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD.<br /><br />All in all, this is a superb yet obscure romantic adventure film that tackles an unusual subject—imaginary countries—and makes it work extremely well. Too bad it doesn't receive the strong recognition it deserves within today's generation, since many people my age tend to recoil upon seeing a black-and-white film...as well as hearing about my own imaginary country, Vasaria, due to its obvious unreality and its historical and escapist features.<br /><br />God save the king...and hail Vasaria!