By Violet LeVoit
The King's Vacation
Brief Synopsis
Monarch thinks he can find a simpler life with his former wife.
Cast & Crew
Read More
John G. Adolfi
Director
Mr. George Arliss
Phillip [the King]
Marjorie Gateson
Helen
Dudley Digges
Lord Chamberlain
Patricia Ellis
Millicent
Florence Arliss
Margaret
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Romance
Release Date
Feb
25,
1933
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 19 Jan 1933
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
The Vitaphone Corp.; Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
60m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Synopsis
King Phillip is bored with court routine and realizes how expensive it is for the common people to support the royal family. He is upset that his ceremonial role does not enable him to act on his country's behalf, as it was in order to help his country that he gave up his wife and child years before to ascend the throne. After an attempted assassination convinces him to abdicate for the country's good and his own, his queen, Margaret, encourages him to return to his first wife Helen, whom he married morganatically and had to divorce eighteen years earlier in order to become king. When he demurs, Margaret leads him to believe that she was once in love with someone else, too. Eagerly, Phillip journeys to France to visit Helen. He is surprised to find that she no longer lives in their simple cottage, but has purchased an enormous palace. Expecting an intimate lunch with Helen and their daughter Millicent, who was three months old when he left, Phillip is disappointed to see that Helen has invited many people to meet him. Helen tells Phillip that Millicent is in love with a mechanic, John Kent, of whom she disapproves. Phillip meets John by accident during a trip to his old home and, after a demonstration of John's invention, is convinced that he is a talented inventor. He cannot change Helen's mind about the young man, however. As they are to remarry, Helen asks Phillip for the gift of an expensive tiara. On the trip he takes to purchase it, Phillip runs into Margaret, and she invites him to visit her at her new home. He learns that she was never in love with another man and spends such a pleasant afternoon with her that he misses his train and wires Helen that he will be home late. Helen does not want to miss a party that night, so she is escorted there by Mac Barstow. Meanwhile, the royalists in Phillip's country beg him to return as their king. They are now willing to accept Helen as queen, and Helen is eager to return to the palace. Phillip, on the other hand, suggests that they sell the palace and return to their cottage. When Mac calls on Helen to tell her he is leaving forever because they cannot be together, Phillip realizes that Helen is in love with him. He suggests that they part as friends and returns to Margaret, whom he has come to love and with whom he intends to live a simple life.
Director
John G. Adolfi
Director
Cast
Mr. George Arliss
Phillip [the King]
Marjorie Gateson
Helen
Dudley Digges
Lord Chamberlain
Patricia Ellis
Millicent
Florence Arliss
Margaret
Dick Powell
John Kent
O. P. Heggie
[Joe] Thorpe
Vernon Steele
[Mac] Barstow
James Bell
Anderson
Douglas Gerrard
Count Gouvain
Helena Phillips
Comtesse
Charles Evans
Page
Maude Leslie
Amelia
Alan Birmingham
Baron Munsie
Harold Minjir
Fred Neerhoff
Desmond Roberts
Sergeant footman
Crew
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Romance
Release Date
Feb
25,
1933
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 19 Jan 1933
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
The Vitaphone Corp.; Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
60m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels
Articles
The King's Vacation -
"What happens when a king is free to love as he pleases?" teases a trailer that only slightly predates the epochal affair between Wallis Simpson and Edward, Prince of Wales. British actor George Arliss has the perfect combination of patrician authenticity and comic aggrievance to play the frustrated monarch in this romantic comedy. King Phillip (Arliss) is fed up with the personal sacrifices he's made in order to become nothing more than a figurehead. Disenchanted with royal life, he steps down from the throne in order to remarry his true love, Helen (Marjorie Gateson). However, Helen's lifestyle has become grander in recent years. Can the king find the humble life he yearns for? Or should he return to his queen (Florence Arliss, his real life wife)? Co-screenwriter Arliss, who had a great deal of creative control over his movies, praised screenwriter Ernest Pascal for performing the rare feat of remaining his friend after collaborating on a film together. (The two conjured up the plot during long strolls together at Arliss's vacation cottage.) After its speedy premiere at Radio City a mere two months after the script was completed, Arliss moved on to starring versus Bette Davis in The Working Man (1933).
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
The King's Vacation -
"What happens when a king is free to love as he pleases?" teases a trailer that only slightly predates the epochal affair between Wallis Simpson and Edward, Prince of Wales. British actor George Arliss has the perfect combination of patrician authenticity and comic aggrievance to play the frustrated monarch in this romantic comedy. King Phillip (Arliss) is fed up with the personal sacrifices he's made in order to become nothing more than a figurehead. Disenchanted with royal life, he steps down from the throne in order to remarry his true love, Helen (Marjorie Gateson). However, Helen's lifestyle has become grander in recent years. Can the king find the humble life he yearns for? Or should he return to his queen (Florence Arliss, his real life wife)? Co-screenwriter Arliss, who had a great deal of creative control over his movies, praised screenwriter Ernest Pascal for performing the rare feat of remaining his friend after collaborating on a film together. (The two conjured up the plot during long strolls together at Arliss's vacation cottage.) After its speedy premiere at Radio City a mere two months after the script was completed, Arliss moved on to starring versus Bette Davis in The Working Man (1933).
By Violet LeVoit
