Tudor Rose

"Nine Days a Queen" is the story of how Jane Grey became, briefly, the queen of England. Considering she was not in line to become queen upon the death of her cousin, Edward VI, the film focuses on how a small group of greedy men maneuvered to make her queen in place of the rightful heir, Mary Tudor.

The film begins with the death of Henry VIII and his supposed curse on anyone who would try to make anyone other than his daughter Mary if his son, Edward die without issue. This is almost certainly fictional. It then follows Edward during his six year rule...one where he was essentially held prisoner and governing was done by courtiers. And, not wanting to lose this power, they conspire to make the young Jane queen upon Edward's death...as she was 16 or 17 and was rather weak. But her reign is short and the people of England supported Mary's claim to the throne.

This is a very nice looking film. It's in black & white because color film stock wasn't readily available in Britain when it was made in 1936. The costumes, acting and sets are very nice. My only concern is that such a historical drama will be seen as pretty dull stuff when seen today, though it sure kept my interest.

This film is a misfire, but it was hard to put my finger on why, at first. The acting is superb, led by Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the Duke of Northumberland, Nova Pilbeam as Jane Grey, a young John Mills as Guilford Dudley, and fine character actors such as Miles Malleson and John Laurie, to name but a few. The camera work and particularly the lighting make for many a striking composition. The music, however, though of adequate period flavour, is what pulls down all of the proceedings. It is simply too dull, too slow, and entirely out of sync with the tone of many scenes. A score by someone of the calibre of, say, Miklos Rozsa would have worked wonders with this picture! Or John Greenwood, Muir Mathieson, or any number of musicians who worked on British films in the 1930s. Alas...

Also, I was surprised at how patently ignored Lady Jane Grey's faith in Christ was. Only John Knox (played by Laurie) or those surrounding her execution make any mention of God or the Scriptures. This is one area that was more satisfactorily explored in the 1986 film "Lady Jane" (with Helena Bonham Carter playing the title role).

Though I haven't checked the historical accuracy of TUDOR ROSE, I greatly recommend it. Although on paper the cast looked impressive, one can never be sure until after watching the film if it was worthy. In this case, my expectations were more than rewarded: Jut listing the cast is an enormous pleasure: Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Martita Hunt ( always outstanding whatever small the part is), John Mills, Felix Aylmer and many others.

Nova Pilbeam, so delightful as a Hitchcock ingénue , does not disappoint in the title role. Although the characters in most cases are not fully developed, the cast is so talented that they bring out so many nuances that most of the time the situations play as real as life itself. The production values are adequate, though no super production it is far better than many more pretentious biopics or historical pictures of that or any year. I found it outstanding not only for the talent involved but for the overall quality, if we take into account the British production in general at the time of its release (1936) . I strongly recommend it.

The tragedy of the week and a half reign of "Queen" Jane Grey Tudor is one of the bizarre briefly successful coups that collapsed. Lady Jane Grey was a blood cousin of King Edward VI, and his two half sisters, Princess Mary and Princess Elizabeth. Edward VI is recalled today, if at all, for the novel by Mark Twain called THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, as the son of Henry VIII who trades places with the poor street boy Tom Canty. That was a piece of creative fiction, but it shows how relatively unimportant Edward VI really was because he died after a six year reign (1547 - 1553) in which he was never an adult but under a series of grown-up advisers called protectors. The first one was his uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. Somerset's attempt to carry out the religious policies of his late brother-in-law King Henry VIII came apart due to the opposition of other powerful nobles, and the antics of his ambitious and stupid brother Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour. Thomas Seymour had married King Henry's last queen, Catherine Parr, and when she died, he attempted to carry off and marry the Princess Elizabeth. He was arrested and executed for treason (this is the story in the Steward Granger film YOUNG BESS). It seriously compromised Edward Seymour, who was overthrown, tried for treason, and executed as well. The man who gained by all this was Edward Dudley, Duke of Warwick (Cedric Hardwicke in the film TUDOR ROSE), who was made Duke of Northumberland by King Edward VI, and was Lord Protector when Edward was dying.

Northumberland was too ambitious, as Thomas Seymour had been. Seymour hoped, by marrying Princess Elizabeth, to have her replace King Edward when he died, and he would be the real power behind Elizabeth's throne. As it was, Seymour actions were to bring Elizabeth under a cloud of unjust suspicion for awhile (there is no evidence that she had agreed to this harebrained scheme). But Northumberland considered the situation similarly to Tom Seymour. He did not want to see Princess Mary, the oldest of the two half sisters (and a Catholic) succeed Edward. But he thought Elizabeth (already showing her brains and independence) unmanageable. Instead, he turned to their cousin Lady Jane Grey. Northumberland figured that Lady Jane would be a perfect match for his son Guilford.

So Northumberland plotted two steps. First, he arranged Lady Jane and Guildford be married. Then he arranged that the dying Edward be pressured into altering the line of succession, disinheriting both his half-sisters, and putting his cousin on the throne. It was not too difficult to manipulate the poor dying boy, but Northumberland failed to realize that unless he could fully count on a sizable number of nobles accepting this weird dynastic switch it would be doomed.

That was the failure of the scheme. Although Edward's death was followed by the announcement of the reign of Queen Jane, the public did not buy it. Lady Jane was known from being a court personage, but she was a non-entity for all that. Both Mary and Elizabeth were far better known, moreover they were the children of King Henry VIII (not of one of his sisters). As for the nobles, they had not liked Tom Seymour's scheme with Elizabeth, so why should they like Northumberland's scheme with Jane and Guildford? The Protestant nobles and government officials, like William Cecil, favored the Protestant Elizabeth. The Catholic nobles and even some Protestant clergy (like Stephen Gardiner) favored Mary. All Northumberland's stupid plan did was to unite the two rival Princesses factions in a determination to remove a usurper.

It's amazing she lasted nine days. One can only conclude that due to communication problems in 1553, and a general sense of amazement at the speed of this coup, nobody acted quickly at first. But once they got over it the two factions united and poor Lady Jane was removed to the Tower of London. Interestingly enough she had barely known young Guilford, but now they got to know each other - and found they actually liked, even loved each other. One of the supreme tragedies of this story is that Jane Grey and Guilford Dudley might, had they been left alone by Northumberland, have found happiness together as a married couple at the court. Instead, within a year, Northumberland, Guilford, and finally Jane all were beheaded.

The film is a short one (the film made in the 1990s with Helen Bonham Carter is longer and more detailed), but it gets the main points of the tragedy. Ms Pilbeam was a sweet, charming young lady, and gave a memorable performance. So did a youngish John Mills, really just getting his great career underway. As Northumberland Cedric Hardwicke is properly unscrupulous, and (in one fictional scene) shows his real character to the dying Edward VI by treating that monarch, when alone, with the contempt of a grown man for a sickly youth. Felix Aylmer (as Somerset) has one moment, when he realizes how his idiot brother's actions with Elizabeth have compromised and destroyed them both.

One final irony. After she finally ascended the throne in 1558, Elizabeth noticed a young man in court named Robin or Robert Dudley. He was the younger brother of Guilford, and he was married to a young woman named Amy Robsart. Elizabeth and Robert became very close - how close is still a question historians debate. They usually conclude that under normal circumstances Elizabeth would have married Robert. However, Amy Robsart died in 1560 under peculiar circumstances (she fell down a staircase when alone in the Dudley mansion at Kenelworth). Robert was now free to marry. Elizabeth rejected his availability. She kept him close to her at court as an important adviser, but never went beyond that. She couldn't trust him, not only because of what happened to poor Amy, but because of his family's involvement with poor Jane.

Having just witnessed Elizabeth II hit the landmark of being Queen for 70 years, things were very different in 1553 and 1554 when they had 3 different monarchs within the space of a year, none of whom lasted very long in the job! I've always wanted to know the story of Queen Jane and thanks to the internet I can now read about it. The film does a good job in helping to explain the different factions with an eye on power.

My problem with the film comes from the rather insipid lead characters - Nove Pilbeam (Lady Jane Grey) and John Mills (Guildford) - who are just bland. The film lacks something. There isn't much action as such as it is more a film about intrigue. This is fine. But you need strong acting skills to carry this off. Unfortunately, the picture quality and sound aren't too good which isn't the fault of the film, but these things add up to an overall feeling I had of disappointment. It's ok to watch but not a keeper. Read about the story instead - it's more interesting.

Back to Her Majesty's 70 years of reign, and I think that the monarchs of olde, especially during this film's period of mid 1550s would have been horrified and bored senseless by having to sit through a concert with Ed Sheeran, Duran Duran and whatever other nonsense was put on. Where are the be-headings! What a savage people we are. It's very sad that this still continues in the world today and that we were recently just as guilty as those we today accuse of barbaric behaviour. Why can't Cliff Richard be king and sing his songs to heal the world?