Producer Hal Wallis and director Jarrott hoped lightning would strike twice after ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS with MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.
However, John Hale's basic screenplay, constantly switching between the courts of Mary and Elizabeth I, never delivers a firm momentum and, as with every screen representation of Mary, she remains an enigma - a woman who things were done to, never an instigator.
Unsurprisingly, the film comes alive in the scenes we know are fiction, the two confrontations between Mary and Elizabeth. They never met in actuality but it's too good an opportunity to pass up for dramatists - as in Schiller's MARY STUART - and of course it delivers the electric shock of Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson having at each other.
Glenda, in the same year as playing Elizabeth for the BBC, is all fire and brimstone while Vanessa is the ultimate willowy, romantic Queen, all air and light.
Shelf or charity shop? Shelf. Ultimately it might be a bit of a dull plod but it is worth the climb for the two confrontation scenes where Vanessa and Glenda light up the screen with their on and off-screen personas. The male supporting cast hold their own against their warring Queens: Trevor Howard, Ian Holm. Timothy Dalton, Patrick McGoohan and Nigel Davenport all deliver strong performances while John Barry's score and Margaret Furse's costumes make it a pleasure for the ear and eye. It's a pity Jarrott couldn't bring a more powerful flourish to match his leading ladies - still, I will take this every time over the turgid Josie Rourke version.
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