''My Friend the King'' is a 1932 British comedy film, directed by

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a serie ...

and starring

Jerry Verno Jerry Verno (26 July 1895 – 29 June 1975) was a British film actor. He appeared in 39 films between 1931 and 1966, including five films directed by Michael Powell, and two with Alfred Hitchcock. He was born in London. As well as appearing i ...

. The film was a follow-up to ''

Two Crowded Hours ''Two Crowded Hours'' is a 1931 British comedy drama film directed by Michael Powell and starring John Longden, Jane Welsh, and Jerry Verno. It was made as a Quota quickie and is the first film where Powell is credited as the director. No known ...

'', Powell's unexpectedly popular directorial debut of the previous year, with comedian Verno reprising his role as a chirpy Cockney taxi driver who gets mixed up in shady doings. This film however was less well-received, with Powell recalling it as "a complete failure", also noting that he worked on six films during 1932 and that "they couldn't all be good...and they weren't". ''My Friend the King'' is one of eleven

quota quickies Quota may refer to: Economics * Import quota, a trade restriction on the quantity of goods imported into a country * Market Sharing Quota, an economic system used in Canadian agriculture * Milk quota, a quota on milk production in Europe * Indi ...

directed by Powell between 1931 and 1936 of which no print is known to survive. The film is not held in the

BFI National Archive The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955, its name became the N ...

, and is classed as "missing, believed lost".

Plot

Taxi driver Jim (Verno) befriends

Ruritania Ruritania is a fictional country, originally located in central Europe as a setting for novels by Anthony Hope, such as ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1894). Nowadays the term connotes a quaint minor European country, or is used as a placeholder name f ...

n child King Ludwig while the latter is on a visit to London. A plot is afoot by sinister forces to kidnap Ludwig, and Jim becomes caught up in the drama. After the child is abducted Jim uses all his ingenuity, including cross-dressing as a Countess and becoming involved in a car chase, to rescue him from his captors.

Cast

as Jim * Robert Holmes as Captain Felz * Tracy Holmes as Count Huelin * Eric Pavitt as King Ludwig * Phyllis Loring and Princess Helma *

Luli Deste Luli Deste ( Bodenhausen; 7 November 1902 – 7 July 1951) was a German-American stage and film actress. Deste studied dancing with Mary Wigman in Berlin but changed to acting. She was an understudy to Elisabeth Bergner, acted in repertory theat ...

as Countess Zena *

Harold Saxon-Snell Harold Saxon-Snell (1889–1956) was a British stage and film actor. He appeared in twenty-three films during the silent and early sound eras. He is often credited as H. Saxon-Snell or Harold Snell. He and actress Kathleen Boutall married in 19 ...

as Karl * Vicotor Fairley as Josef

Reception

Contemporary reviewers enjoyed Verno's performance but felt he was let down by the feeble material with which he had to work, with ''Bioscope'' commenting "a better vehicle really should have been devised for a comedian of such ability as Verno." ''Picturegoer Weekly'' found: "There is not much subtlety about the burlesque, but it is presented with plenty of action...not great stuff this, but helps pass three-quarters of an hour quite pleasantly."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:My Friend the King 1932 films 1932 comedy films Films directed by Michael Powell Films by Powell and Pressburger Lost British films British black-and-white films 1930s English-language films British comedy films 1932 lost films 1930s British films