HOLLYWOOD movies don't get much classier than The Prisoner Of Zenda (Pearl, 2.00pm), the great Anthony Hope adventure that has been filmed more times than Madonna's cleavage. This is the 1952 version, which is second best of the lot. The best is the 1937 version, which starred Ronald Colman and Douglas Fairbanks Jnr.
This one stars Stewart Granger in the doppelganger roles of Rudolph Rassendyl/King Rudolph V and Deborah Kerr as Princess Flavia. Granger is sometimes rather wooden, but his duel with Rupert (James Mason) has more swash and buckle than it did in Colman's hands.
The film opens with Rassendyl arriving in the mythical European kingdom of Ruritania, startling citizens who believe he is their prince. He is spotted by two royal aides and ends up dining with his royal double.
The next morning, however, the prince lies in a coma having been poisoned by the dastardly Rupert of Hentzau. Rudolph is asked to stand in for the prince at his forthcoming coronation. Of course this entails not only impersonating him in matters of state, but also in matters of love. He has to convince Princess Flavia that he is indeed her fiancee.
The film copies the 1937 version almost scene for scene. Granger is a better swashbuckler than Colman, but the improvements stop there.
PETER Benchley's first book, Jaws, was made into a splendid film by Steven Spielberg. His second, The Deep (Pearl, 9.30pm), was turned into a film by director Peter Yates, who made a hash of it. But then the book was hardly a masterpiece to begin with. Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset are the innocent couple who stumble across treasure while scuba diving in Bermuda. It's a handsome production, scuppered by violence, titillation and a completely incredible plot.
THE surreal and very black comedy Delicatessen (Pearl, 12.10am) is set in a rundown building where the manager keeps tenants supplied with meat by chopping up applicants for the job of caretaker. The problem is that the butcher's mousey-haired, myopic daughter (Marie-Laure Dougnac) keeps falling in love with these sirloins-to-be. In the past, gastronomical necessity has always overcome true love, but when a new applicant arrives (Dominique Pinon), she insists he be kept alive.
