Mary, Queen of Scots

The creators of Anne of the Thousand Days - producer Hal B. Wallis, writer John Hale and director Charles Jarrott - craft another Tudor epic every bit as good as their take on Henry VIII. Helped by a lavish production, sharp script and perfect supporting cast, Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson bring the two most famous female monarchs in British history - Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, and Elizabeth I of England - to vivid life.

Mary Stuart (Vanessa Redgrave) returns to Scotland after the death of her husband, King Francis of France (Charles Denning) - much to the displeasure of Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson), fearing Mary's claims on the her throne. Mary finds Scotland in a prickly situation - the mostly-Protestant lairds despise her, and her brother James (Patrick McGoohan) is in the pay of Elizabeth's spymaster William Cecil (Trevor Howard) - she's in no position to handle. Her marriage to the headstrong Lord Darnley (Timothy Dalton) only complicates matters. When Mary tries to assert her authority, Darnley throws in with the Scottish nobles, murdering Mary's secretary David Rizzio (Ian Holm). Only with the help of the Earl of Bothwell (Nigel Davenport) does Mary avoid a similar fate, and a counter-plot against Darnley and his suporters backfires. Mary finally takes refuge in England, leaving her at Elizabeth's mercy.

Mary, Queen of Scots avoids the stilted melodrama of John Ford's Mary of Scotland (1936) through its focus on royal politics. A distaff version of Anne of the Thousand Days, noblemen like Darnley and Robert Dudley (David Massey) are used as pawns by their queens and bitterly resent it. Mary's expressions of tolerance and mercy towards her subjects are completely misplaced, earning her contempt rather than love, and her impetuous marriages to Darnley and Bothwell destroy her. Mary's pampered upbringing leaves her with a sense of unearned entitlement, while the shrewd Elizabeth has had to fight for everything and knows how to deal with plots and intrigue. Essentially a contrast in management styles, the film nonetheless shows that Elizabeth's success leave her lonely and barren, ironically elevating Mary's son to the throne.

As expected, Wallis and Jarrott mount an impressive production, with handsome French and Scottish locations and lavish Shepperton sets. John Hale's script is marvelously literate doesn't dumb down the complex wheelings-and-dealings for its audience. John Barry provides one of his best scores, a beautifully regal work that complements perfectly the film's high tragedy.

Vanessa Redgrave is a superlative Mary. She's the right mixture of impulse, charming naivety and subdued haughtiness (not quite arrogance), making Mary a far more compelling heroine than Katherine Hepburn's take. Glenda Jackson, who'd already played Elizabeth in the BBC's Elizabeth R, is equally imposing. Her Elizabeth is a fiery hellcat - especially in her dealings with sometime-lover Dudley - with cruel intelligence and pragmatism tempering her passions: to survive as Anne Boleyn's daughter requires immeasurible skills. The two (fictional) meetings between the Queens are almost superfluous: Mary and Elizabeth make a wonderful pair of off-setting, irreconcilable women, one fit for the throne and the other only fit for heaven.

Complementing Redgrave and Jackson is an impressive array of British talent. Nigel Davenport (A Man for All Seasons) gets one of his biggest and best roles, his Bothwell charming and heroic yet slippery enough to survive English and Scottish scheming. Patrick McGoohan (Braveheart) is suitably devious. Ian Holm (Lord of the Rings) gets a meaty part as Rizzio and Timothy Dalton, fresh off The Lion in Winter, is superb as the simpering, arrogant Darnley. Groggy favorite Trevor Howard (Brief Encounter) gets some choice scenes as Elizabeth's ruthless minister. Familiar faces David Massey (In Which We Serve), Andrew Keir (Lord Jim) and Vernon Dobtchef (The Day of the Jackal) toil in smaller roles.

Mary, Queen of Scots is an all-around wonderful film, a beautiful depiction of two great historical figures and a lavish account of late Tudor England.

Anne of the Thousand Days

This sterling adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's play is one of the few Tudor-related films worth watching. Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) provides both a fine history lesson and a gripping drama, helped along by excellent writing and a near-perfect cast.

Henry VIII (Richard Burton) is angry that his wife, Catherine of Aragon (Irene Papas) is unable to produce a male heir. He becomes infatuated with Anne Boleyn (Genevieve Bujold), the pretty, headstrong daughter of a minor nobleman (Michael Hordern), but finds Anne less than thrilled by his attention - not the least because Henry's minister, Cardinal Wolsey (Anthony Quayle), has refused her request to marry Henry Percy (Terence Wilton). Anne demands Henry annul his marriage to Catherine before submitting to his advances, initiating the "Great Matter" where Catherine's intransigence and the Catholic Church's subservience to Spain lead England to break from Rome. Henry and Anne are finally wed, but Anne proves equally unable to bear a son. With his eye now on demure Jane Seymour (Leslie Paterson), Henry enlists the wholly unscrupulous Thomas Cromwell (John Colicos) to affect Anne's downfall.

A lavish Hal Wallis (Becket) production, Anne of the Thousand Days is a ravishing film to behold. Director Charles Jarrott provides restrained but beautiful direction, helped immeasuribly by Maurice Carter and Lionel Couch's impeccable art direction. Georges Delerue's lively period score is another highlight. But Anne isn't just a bloated costume drama: Bridget Boland and John Hale contribute a script bursting with muscular period dialogue, wit and well-drawn characters that make this messy slice of history understandable and interesting.

Anne's center is a twisted romance with a pre-ordained tragic ending. Anne's intransigence intrigues Henry, and their early scenes crackle with spark and wit. Some of the film's best scenes have the clever Anne outflanking Cardinal Wolsey, unafraid to exercise her sexual hold on the King. But once Henry actually possesses her, Anne's days are numbered. When her position is threatened, Anne becomes believably shrewish, demanding the execution of dissidents like Sir Thomas More (William Squire) and Bishop Fisher (Joseph O'Conor) for questioning her right to rule. The headstrong Anne, forced into a romance she didn't want, and the capricious Henry, ruled by a wandering eye and tempestuous emotions, are a match made in hell.

Unlike other takes on the subject (The Tudors, The Other Boleyn Girl), Anne never degenerates into mere soap opera through the quality of writing and characterization. Henry and Anne's romance is the main subject, but the political and religious upheaval resulting from their doomed love affair is given full breadth. A centuries-old clerical system is uprooted, England's political system revolutionized, and the body count is staggeringly high. It's easy to argue that the English Reformation did much good, allowing England to flower through increased independence, but Henry's reasons for affecting the break are supremely selfish - all for a romance that will dissipate at earliest convenience.

Anne's biggest fault is a rushed second act, which hurries through Anne's reign with undue dispatch. This is redeemed by some powerfully-staged scenes, like More's execution and especially Anne's final confrontation with Henry, but the movie ends with a leaden clunk, as Anne's monologue is echoed in narration as we see Princess Elizabeth toddling about. Yeah, Elizabeth will be Queen one day - we get it.

Genevieve Bujold is by far the best screen portrayal of Anne Boleyn. While many films portray her as a scheming bitch queen (looking at you, Natalie Dormer), Bujold's Anne is an intensely sympathetic character. Trapped by her relatives and ensnared by Henry, Anne refuses to bend to his will, engaging him in verbal one-upsmanship and taking full advantage of Henry's infatuations: if the King wants her, it will be on Anne's terms. Only after they're married does Anne fall for the King, and by then it's too late. Bujold's sensitive, layered performance maintains the audience's sympathy throughout: we tear up at her tragic monologue recounting her "thousand days," and cheer when she bitterly tells Henry off in their last confrontation.

Opposite Bujold, Richard Burton gives one of his best performances. Burton was never a subtle actor but his hammy stylings fit Henry perfectly. Besides a passible physical resemblance, Burton wonderfully embodies the capricious, hot-tempered monarch and bites off Boland and Hale's meaty dialogue with gusto. Aside from Robert Shaw in A Man for All Seasons and Keith Michell in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, he's one of the best screen Henries.

The film benefits greatly from a stellar supporting cast. Anthony Quayle (Lawrence of Arabia) got a well-deserved Oscar nod for his tragic portrayal of Cardinal Wolsey, far more sympathetic than his usual showing as an arrogant, greedy schemer. John Colicos's (Battlestar Galactica) shifty fly-on-the-wall Cromwell makes a suitably devious antagonist, and Michael Hordern (Royal Flash) is dryly amusing as Anne's scheming dad. Dependable pros William Squire (Where Eagles Dare), T.P. McKenna (Straw Dogs), Esmond Knight (A Canterbury Tale) and Vernon Dobtchef (The Day of the Jackal) also make impressions. Only the awkwardly-cast Irene Papas (The Guns of Navarone) is disappointing.

Anne of the Thousand Days is one of the best Tudor-related films to date. With its skillful mixture of romance, political drama and period detail, it comes highly recommended.