Why so much hype?

Really Surprised!

Best movie of this year hands down!

The acting in this movie is really good.

Crown Prince Karl Heinrich (Ramon Novarro) hates being a prince. He can't go out and mingle or meet other people because of his station. He goes to Heidelberg to study. There he meets beautiful bar maid Kathi (Norma Shearer) and falls madly in love. She loves him too..but he can't marry beneath his station in life...Just stunning silent film. You watch the screen mesmerized by how beautiful it is. It's wonderfully directed by Ernst Lubitsch with some truly incredible images but it's Novarro and Shearer who carry this film. He's unbearably handsome--she's just incredibly beautiful. Together they look like perfection and both give superb performances - I believed they were in love completely! There's a just incredible sequence on a starlit night in a field of flowers. All kidding aside, it was so beautiful you could almost cry! It all leads to a tragic but realistic ending. Just simply a must-see movie. Don't miss this one!

I have seen both sound and silent versions of this movie and I actually prefer the silent one--even though it was based on a musical! Maybe part of this is because I am not the biggest fan of musicals, but I think more of this has to do with how beautifully made this film is. The film was directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch--a man renowned for his deft artistic touch and romanticism in films. All this is so apparent in this film, as it is just a work of art--gorgeous and romantic through and through. The sets, camera-work and acting are all exquisite and help to make this a very memorable film. If you want to see a sound version, help yourself. But for me, this is THE definitive version of the film.

Ernst Lubitsch's silent films are as graceful and enchanting as his sound pictures, but the director's silents are unfairly left in the corner and don't always get the distinction they truly deserve. Along with "Lady Windermere's Fan" and "The Marriage Circle", this heartbreaking silent classic is one of Lubitsch's most perfect and poignant American silent films. "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg"(surviving copies only say " Old Heidelberg") is a very moving and heartbreaking love story and pretty much in the best Lubitsch tradition of subtle, graceful, witty romantic comedy, tinged with an air of sadness and poignancy, much like what you see in the later Lubitsch sound masterworks like "The Shop Around the Corner", "Heaven Can Wait", and "Cluny Brown". Norma Shearer gives what could be her greatest and most satisfying silent performance as Kathi, a popular barmaid with fraternal students and townsfolk in the quasi-mythical university town of Heidelberg. Ramon Novaro is superb as her prince charming, the student prince who falls in love with her. If you liked this one, I recommend Lubitsch's other great silent love story from this period, the rarely seen and appreciated "Eternal Love."

I enjoyed this silent film version alot, it is 1000 times better than the 1950's musical version. Carl Davis' soundtrack for this one is passable, not one of his best. I kept wanting to hear Sigmund Romberg's melodies in the background for the soundtrack, too bad they couldn't get permission at the time, since the musical was introduced in 1924.