A follow-up to the prestigious historical epic ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS (1969) which reunites several crew members (producer Hal Wallis, director Jarrott, screenwriter John Hale, costume designer Margaret Furse, etc.) and resumes the bloody Tudor saga. The same events had been previously filmed in Hollywood by John Ford as MARY OF Scotland (1936) with Katharine Hepburn (as Mary Stuart), Fredric March (as Bothwell) and his real-life actress wife Florence Eldridge (as Queen Elizabeth I); here these same roles are played by Vanessa Redgrave who had already appeared (as Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn) in the magnificent A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (1966), Nigel Davenport (ditto) and Glenda Jackson (who was currently starring as the same English monarch on British TV) and, like its above-mentioned predecessor (albeit to a lesser extent), the film found favor at awards ceremonies of the day with both Redgrave and Jackson being up for Oscar (the former) and Golden Globes (both). Also singled out was composer John Barry for his beautiful score, the somewhat disjointed script and, inevitably, the lavish costumes and sets. Still, where the film impresses most is in the performances of the ensemble cast: apart from those already pointed out, we also have Patrick McGoohan (who just died at 80 as Mary's devious half-brother James), Trevor Howard (as the English Queen's wily chief adviser), Timothy Dalton (as Mary's second and tyrannical husband), Daniel Massey (as Elizabeth's ambitious lover), Ian Holm (as Mary's link to the Vatican) and Andrew Keir (as a Scottish lord). As befits the time in which it was made, I suppose, side by side with the classiness on display, we have to contend with tastelessly 'accurate' portrayals of everybody's bed-hopping and histrionic antics from a red-headed Dalton's seduction of minstrel man-spy Holm to Redgrave's elopement with newly-married lord Davenport to Jackson's long-term and tempestuous relationship with the equally married Massey. For the record, I have a handful of other films dealing with the Tudors on my "To Watch" list but I decided to get to this sooner rather than later in view of McGoohan's passing.
Review of Mary, Queen of Scots
