If I Were King
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Starring: Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone, Frances Dee
Director: Frank Lloyd
Writer: Preston Sturges
Producer: Frank Lloyd
If I Were King is a 1938 American biographical and historical film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee. It is based on the 1901 play and novel, both of the same name, by Justin Huntly McCarthy, and was directed by Frank Lloyd, with a screenplay adaptation by Preston Sturges.
Trivia
- Nominated for: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; Academy Award for Best Production Design; Academy Award for Best Original Score; Academy Award for Best Sound.
- Based on If I Were King (1901 novel by Justin Huntly McCarthy).
- Nine months in France were required to prepare for If I Were King, and the French government cooperated by allowing a replica to be made of the Louvre Palace throne.
- Whether Preston Sturges, who at the time was Paramount's top writer, had a collaborator in writing the script is unclear: some early drafts have the name "Jackson" on them as well as Sturges', but the identity of "Jackson" has not been determined.
- In any event, Sturges finished a draft by February 1938.
Previous Showings
8 Runs • 6 Festivals
Original Billings: 1 run (November 10, 1938)
Original Run: November 10, 1938 (Thursday - Saturday)
All runs on record (8):
- November 10, 1938 (Thursday - Saturday)Ronald Colman, Frances Dee
- October 9 - 10, 1991w/ We Live Again
- July 23 - 24, 1998Dear Old Hollywoodw/ The Mark of Zorro
- September 4, 2002summer02w/ The Beloved Rogue
- May 3 - 6, 2006Ronald Colmanw/ Under Two Flags
- May 22 - 25, 2010Spring 2010w/ A Tale of Two Cities
- June 24 - 26, 2015Summer 2015 Forty Classics from the Golden Age Including Kurosawa in Augustw/ A Tale of Two Cities
- August 14 - 16, 2018Summer 2018w/ The Prisoner of Zenda