GEORGE SIDNEY
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBB.5.
USA, 1953. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Screenplay by Jan Lustig, Arthur Wimperis, based on the novel by Margaret Irwin. Cinematography by Charles Rosher. Produced by Sidney Franklin. Music by Miklos Rozsa. Production Design by Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary. Costume Design by Walter Plunkett. Film Editing by Ralph E. Winters. Academy Awards 1953.
The earlier life of Queen Elizabeth I is explored in this so-so melodrama. It deals with the time when she was still a teenaged princess and living with Catherine Parr (Deborah Kerr), one of her father’s many wives. Parr is now married to Thomas Seymour (Stewart Granger), but Elizabeth loves him dearly and isn’t afraid to say so, even though she knows it will mean trouble with the woman she cares for like a mother. The costumes are sumptuous, and Jean Simmons is quite good in the lead role, but the film pales in comparison to other films about the great monarch.
