A prince consort who insists on being more than a consort

Tim W. writes:

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of classic films and have a large collection of them on DVD. Criterion has released a box set of four Ernst Lubitsch musical romantic comedies from the early sound era. I watched the first one tonight, which is “The Love Parade.” It’s from 1929.

Jeanette MacDonald plays the queen of a fictional European nation called Sylvania. Her cabinet and the citizenry are obsessed with the idea that she needs to get married, so she eventually ties the knot with a diplomat played by Maurice Chevalier. The law prohibits anyone not of the royal bloodline from becoming a monarch, so Chevalier becomes a prince, but not a king. The queen retains all her powers.

After a few weeks Chevalier grows increasingly frustrated over the fact that his wife has more power than he (in fact, he has none at all). He begins defying the queen at every opportunity. At first she gets upset about this, since she’s been accustomed all her life to people deferring to her. But he explains to her in no uncertain terms that he’s the man and he should be in charge. He’s never violent. He never raises his voice. He’s always chivalrous. But he’s firm about being the head of the household.

And guess what? She concedes! She totally gives in, and is glad to have a real man for her husband. I’m so accustomed to men in films losing any battle of the sexes that I was floored by this ending.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 26, 2009 02:10 AM | Send