THE STUDENT PRINCE (1954) Directed by Richard Thorpe. ***
Up front, I'll say that this is not my type of film, despite my huge admiration for the wonderful tenor voice of Mario Lanza. There are conflicting stories about why Lanza did not appear in the film himself as originally intended, including a conflict with the director (whether this was Thorpe or the original director, Curtis Bernhardt, is unknown) over how the songs should be sung. The more likely reason was Lanza's continuing weight problems. Edmund Purdom lip-synch's perfectly and all the cast are more than up to what is essentially a light weight piece of nonsense. Musically the film has two outstanding moments, the rousing "Drink, Drink" and the beautiful "I'll Walk with God", both have rarely, if ever, sounded better.
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