Prisoner of Zenda

As I was recovering from an especially brutal migrain last night I watched The Prisoner of Zenda from 1937...yes it is in black and white. It is laugh out loud funny with lots of good action scenes. Rudolf Rassendyll, the hero, is so funny, I adore him. I know we already talked about the connection with Kinbote's Zembla story, but after watching it I have no doubt. There is a King Charles that is facing a revolt, he's captured, there is a passageway somewhere, a man from England...any of this sounding familiar? We could argue that Kinbote read all of the books on the shelf and was influenced by them, but that means he came up with the Zembla story after moving into Judge Goldsworth's house. Well, he had no friends, and he had to kill time when he was waiting to watch Shade.

Pale Fire and The Prisoner of Zenda: an exchange between Neil Hornick and Brian Boyd

Click on the link above to read the exchange between Hornick and Boyd on this subject, it is interesting to follow the discourse. Specifically pay attention to The origins of Zembla section. But the whole conversation is interesting.