The Swan (film)

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The Swan is a 1956 remake by MGM of a 1925 movie (also remade in 1930 as One Romantic Night) about the daughter of a minor branch of a European royal house who is being considered as a wife for her cousin, the heir to the throne. The film was directed by Charles Vidor, produced by Dore Schary from a screenplay by John Dighton based on the play by Ferenc Molnar. The original music score was by Bronislau Kaper.

Grace Kelly is the princess, her cousin the crown prince is played by Alec Guinness, and her brothers' tutor, a commoner for whom she thinks she may feel more affection than she does for the prince, is played by Louis Jourdan.

The princess's relatives — played by Jessie Royce Landis, Estelle Winwood, and Brian Aherne — are comically eccentric, and Agnes Moorehead, as the queen who shows up near the end to find out if the princess has made the grade, is crankily imperious. Leo G. Carroll plays their butler. Van Dyke Parks also appears in this movie.

The movie features exterior views of the Biltmore House — its first appearance in a feature film.

[edit] Other versions

The 1925 silent film with the same title was directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki and starred Frances Howard as Princess Alexandra and Adolphe Menjou as Crown Prince Albert.
One Romantic Night (1930) starred Lillian Gish as Princess Alexandra and Rod La Rocque as Prince Albert, with Conrad Nagel as the tutor. It was directed by Paul Stein (no relation to the accordionist). This version was adapted from The Swan by Maxwell Anderson, a noted playwright himself.