The Prince and the Pauper

Two boys born in sixteenth-century London on the same day look so alike that they might be twins, though their lives could hardly be further apart. Tom Canty is a pauper raised in the city's poorest quarter, while Edward is the son of King Henry VIII and heir to the throne. When Tom slips into the palace grounds and meets the young prince, the two decide to trade clothes for a moment. The switch goes wrong: the guards take the ragged Edward for an intruder and drive him out, and no one at court will believe the boys when they insist on who they really are. With the old king dying, Tom finds himself surrounded by courtiers who assume he is the prince, while Edward, cast out among the poor, sees the harshness of his kingdom from the other side. The Earl of Hertford seizes the confusion for his own ends, and only the soldier Miles Hendon stands between the real heir and the plot against him.

William Keighley directed this adaptation of Mark Twain's novel, his second film in the chronological list of his work, following 'G' Men and preceding The Adventures of Robin Hood. Laird Doyle wrote the screenplay, and the credited cast numbers thirty-seven. Errol Flynn plays Miles Hendon, with Claude Rains as the Earl of Hertford, Henry Stephenson as the Duke of Norfolk and Barton MacLane as John Canty; the lookalike boys are played by Billy Mauch and Robert J. Mauch. On TMDB the film holds a 6.8 rating from 42 votes, placing it in modest but enduring favour with viewers.