Entertaining film. I watched the film on mute as the modern score (by Carl Davis) is terrible and anachronistic. I played the soundtrack to "The Kiss" a Synchronized picture from 1929 along with the film to have a more authentic viewing experience. The film would have been better with a few songs added from Romberg's 1924 operetta, but MGM didn't start adding talking sequences to their films until late in 1928.Navarro and Shearer and great together. It's a shame they didn't make more films together.

I disliked this story the first few times I saw it because of the selflessness (look it up ... in an Ayn Rand dictionary) demanded of the Student Prince.Seeing it again on Turner Classic Movies on 3 Nov 2015, in a marathon of Norma Shearer movies, I was so overwhelmed by the performance of Miss Shearer I could almost overlook the psychological destruction of Karl Heinrich.If Norma Shearer has ever given a better performance, I've not seen it and really can't imagine a better. She was lovely, and her character "Kathi," was innocent, beguiling, strong-willed, honest, exuberant, simply adorable. Simply wonderful.Henceforth, I am a confirmed Norma Shearer fan, a worshiper.Jean Hersholt has a great role as a lovable tutor who realizes the lonely little boy who is Crown Prince needs a friend as much as he needs a teacher.That Crown Prince is beautifully played by Ramon Novarro, whose career later fell on hard times for some reason, but who was so great in so many silent films, including this one and "Ben Hur."He was a good-looking young man, and more than capable. Watch his eyes, and his expression, especially during the drinking scene as the Crown Prince arrives at the school in Heidelberg. Especially watch his eyes. Magnificent performance.And watch him when he's told "Duty. Obligation. Tradition." Collectivist concepts are so destructive of human happiness.How an individual human being is subordinated to collectivist concepts is one key element of "A Student Prince" and we get a suggestion of why everyone needs to read I Samuel 8, for a look at the other side of the point of that biblical chapter.As sad as "A Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" ultimately is, it is still a classic film, with a superb cast in the sad story, and one reason it is a classic is its director: Ernst Lubitsch was one of the absolute masters of this visual art. (He directed a 1925 version of "Lady Windermere's Fan," the Oscar Wilde story. Just imagine a silent version of that talkative author's work! Yet Lubitsch pulled it off -- beautifully.)Carl Davis, a marvelous modern composer, is probably the perfect choice to create a score for a silent -- or talkie -- film, and he produced the one used here, adding one more layer of art and beauty to a moving movie.Obviously I do recommend, highly, "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg."

From time to time and in order to remember older better times, it is good to watch again those films that the European aristocracy and especially this German count likes most. Such is the case with "The Student Prince In Old Heidelberg", film directed by Herr Ernst Lubitsch during his Amerikan career.And this German count especially likes this silent film not only because in the oeuvre can be seen Teutonic aristocrats and even crowned kings, not to mention stiff laws about etiquette, uniforms with plenty of medals, tradition, obligation and, last but not least, royal duties. Another reason is because the film has style and classic elegance, primal emotions in motion, beautiful scenery and almost real decors, an impossible but idealistic true love story and memorable and skillful direction. There are a lot of superb silent moments, as for example, the first and unseen kiss in the garden, the night meadow scene, each and every shot starring the heartbreaking Dame Norma Shearer and a charming Herr Ramon Novarro. Besides those indispensable and unforgettable supporting silent actors, there is finally a magnificent, cruel, real and sorrowful ending."The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" is a film about youthful dreams, the first painful love and the greatness and illness of falling in love. It's about the passing of time and those glorious memories of loves past that nobody can take away in spite, after all, of those unbearable and unjust social actions of people in high places against working class folk.Obviously this German count is talking about a classical, universal, wonderful masterpiece, a joy to the eye of a serious Teutonic aristocrat.Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

Before Sigmund Romberg and Dorothy Donnelly wrote their immortal score for The Student Prince, it had originally been performed as a straight dramatic work by the great turn of the last century stage actor, Richard Mansfield. Entitled In Old Heidelberg it is what we are in fact seeing here as opposed to a silent version of the musical, an oxymoron if there ever was one.I do so love the music of Romberg and Donnelly, especially what they wrote for The Student Prince. Yet I was able to appreciate the fine dramatic work of Ramon Novarro as the prince of Karlsbad and Norma Shearer as Kathi the barmaid. They certainly were as romantic a couple as ever graced the silent screen.Without the music, this version of The Student Prince went for characterization instead. There is a long sequence of about a quarter of the running time of the film that goes into Prince Karl's childhood with young Philippe DeLacy playing the prince as a child. We see the relationship with the very stern King played by Gustave Von Seyfertitz and later on when he's introduced to his tutor and closest friend, Jean Hersholt. Hersholt has the best performance in the film.Novarro plays a most charming prince and Shearer is a fetching barmaid with whom he falls in love with. After the childhood prologue, the rest of the film is pretty much the same as the 1954 version with Ann Blyth, Edmond Purdom and the voice of Mario Lanza.For reasons I don't understand MGM which held the rights to the Student Prince did not make a sound version until 1954. Odd when you consider that during the Thirties they had Allan Jones under contract who would have been wonderful in the part. Having heard him sing Deep In My Heart I can attest to that. Failing that it sure could have been a property for Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald.I believe the German locale of the story probably had something to do with it not being filmed. Also the subject of an errant prince refusing to face his responsibilities was a big international story with the once and future Edward VIII giving it all up for the woman he loved. I can believe that Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer probably did not want to anger the British market at that time.Though I missed the Romberg/Donnelly score, I still enjoyed the performances of Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer and the rest of the cast being transported back to Old Heidelberg under the masterful direction of Ernest Lubitsch. Try to see this if it is ever broadcast again.