The production of the film was frequently tense: Sellers qualms about the production and struggles with his declining health led to several angry confrontations with his wife and co-star, Lynne Frederick, as well as the films director, Richard Quine. Martin's Church in Klosterneuburg and Salzburg Cathedral. Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna represented the "Ruritania" royal palace other filming locations included Burg Kreuzenstein, St. Sellers liked the idea but not the script and requested a new one be written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Walter Mirisch pitched the film to Sellers while the latter was making Murder by Death.
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Hansom cab driver Sydney (or Sidney) Frewin (Sellers), the new King's half-brother from an affair with a British actress, rescues Rudolf from an assassination attempt. In order to secure the throne, General Sapt and his nephew Fritz travel to London, where the King's son, Rudolf V (Sellers), resides and lives through the day in London's pleasure establishments but the King's demented half-brother Michael (Kemp), thinking that he is the better claimant, sends an assassin after them. King Rudolf IV (Sellers) dies in a balloon accident upon the celebration of his seventieth birthday. It was also Quine's final film as director before dying in 1989. The score by Henry Mancini was a highlight of the film and gained some critical acclaim. Sellers also portrayed the aged King Rudoph IV at the start of the film, before he is killed in a hot air balloon accident. Sellers plays three roles: that of the Ruthenian King Rudolph V and the London cab driver Sydney Frewin who is brought in to portray the missing King with whom he shares an uncanny resemblance. It has echoes of not only Hope's book but also several other well-known novels, especially Dumas's The Man in the Iron Mask. It starred Peter Sellers, Lynne Frederick, Lionel Jeffries, Elke Sommer, Gregory Sierra, Jeremy Kemp and Catherine Schell.
The comedy was loosely adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. An earlier adaptation of the story was made into a film in 1952 starring Deborah Kerr and Stewart Granger, and directed by Richard Thorpe. The novel tells the story of a man ( Peter Sellers) who has to impersonate a king, whom he closely resembles, when the king is abducted by enemies on the eve of his coronation. The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1979 American comedy film directed by Richard Quine and adapted from the 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope.