The Prince and the Showgirl, 1956

Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, 1956

Among the dignitaries from the Balkan State of Carpathia in London for the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in June 1911 is the Regent, His Serene Highness the Grand Duke Charles. The London foreign office places great importance on Carpathia because of an unstable geopolitical situation with Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany set to overthrow its monarchy government if allowed. The Regent, a Prince originally from Hungary, and the most-recent, now-deceased Queen married for convenience. As such, the Regent has spent time with a series of lady friends while on his travels in his somewhat “free” state. In meeting one of those London women, music-hall actress Maisie Springfield, and the company of her current production “The Coconut Girl,” the Regent has his eye on one of the show’s minor players, American actress Elsie Marina. When seemingly-simpleminded Elsie receives a party invitation from the Regent for that evening, she clearly understands the implications when she learns upon her arrival at the Carpathian Embassy, where the Regent and the Carpathian entourage are staying, that the party is just for two. On the Regent’s relatively short stay in London, he just wants to have some fun; Elsie doesn’t mind fun within a proper context: no dinners for two without a formal getting-to-know-each-other period. Elsie gets caught up in the diplomatic and geopolitical side of the issues when she inadvertently meets the other two royal members of the Carpathian entourage: the Queen Dowager, the Regent’s mother-in-law, who isn’t as hard-of-hearing as she suggests as she carries out her duties; and Nicholas VIII, the Regent’s son and 16-year-old current King, who will take over official duties when he comes of age in 18 months–and who, unlike his father, is sympathetic to both the democratic process in wanting free elections in Carpathia and to the Germans he’s related to on his mother’s side. All these goings-on make for a difficult few days for Northbrook, the foreign office’s envoy who has just temporarily taken over this file.