The cinematography was by Joseph Ruttenberg, the art direction was by Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters, while the costume design was by Walter Plunkett.

In June 1897, English gentleman Rudolf Rassendyll takes a fishing vacation in Ruritania, a small kingdom in the Balkans.

With the coronation accomplished, Rassendyll returns to resume his real identity, only to find the king has been kidnapped by Rupert of Hentzau, Michael's charmingly amoral henchman.

Since Rudolf would be executed at the first sign of a rescue attempt, she proposes that one man swim the moat and hold off his would-be assassins, while loyal troops storm the castle.

Rassendyll fights and kills the guards, but must engage in a prolonged duel with Rupert while at the same time trying to lower the drawbridge to let Zapt and his men inside.

[4] According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, MGM was to pay Selznick $225,000 for the remake rights to the novel and the play by Edward Rose.

[2] The cast included Lewis Stone, who starred in the 1922 film version of the novel in the dual role played by Granger in this picture.

On June 1, 1952, in a piece headlined “Lewis Stone: Perpetual Prisoner of Zenda”, John H. Rothwell reported to The New York Times from the set of the film, then under production.

As a matter of fact, the illusion of the recklessness of hot, romantic youth is by far the most concrete satisfaction that this fabulous period film achieves… (I)ts pretense of ideal love relinquished is pretty quaint in this realistic day.

And it is this untarnished potential that has been seized upon by M-G-M, … The romance is overpowered by action, the sentiment by play with the sword… And Mr. Granger (or his athletic double in the more demanding scenes) is obviously the fellow who can master the verisimilitude.

He has the build of an athlete, a chest that can proudly be exposed and the face of a dauntless Adonis who gallantly leaps to muscular deeds… His climactic battle with James Mason, who is sheer Machiavelli in the role of the treacherous Rupert of Hentzau, is the dandiest excitement in the film… Deborah Kerr is winsome and warm …Louis Calhern is lordly and formidable…, and Robert Douglas is grim and malignant...

But it is Mr. Granger as the two Rudolfs, the gallant gentleman and the feeble, sodden heir, who combines with Mr. Mason in making this Prisoner of Zenda spin.

Theirs is the sort of play-acting that defies the solemnities of time, the smirks of sophistication and the rigidities of age.”[7]On November 9, 1952, Crowther wrote a piece for The New York Times headlined “Captive Story: Prisoner of Zenda and A Long Film Career.” that segues from the history of the story to his observations of what this picture bodes for the future in the then-current cycle of remakes: “A hopeful but ironic trend”.