Tudor Rose

Nova Pilbeam draws the short straw in this interesting, if not exactly enthralling, depiction of the power-struggles that followed the death of Henry VIII in England. Edward VI (a rather lively performance from the 17 year old Desmond Tester) is not the healthiest of young men, and those in his council - initially led by Edward Seymour (Felix Aylmer) then by the Earl of Warwick (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) try to manipulate the succession. The latter prevails and upon the untimely death of the young king, he places the Lady Jane Grey - whom Henry VIII directed be 4th in the line of his own succession (she was his great niece) - ahead of the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth and so she is now, reluctantly, the Queen. To cement her precarious position she is quickly married off to a rather jolly, put politically unaware Guilford Dudley (John Mills) - the son of Warwick, so he can consolidate his control over the new puppet queen. Unfortunately for him, Princess Mary (Gwen Davies) raises troops and subverts this cunning treason. The story is established history, and the plot follows it fairly honestly. Pilbeam does elicit some degree of sympathy as she is clearly a pawn in the games of others - and both Aylmer and an on-form Hardwicke manage to create some sense of the duplicity with which these two men sought to usurp the Royal authority. The sets and costumes look fine, the dialogue maybe a bit too wordy, but it even features some genuine music written by Henry VIII and if you like a good old historical drama, then this will happily pass 80 minutes.

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?

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.

With all the talk of no history education in the schools in the United States, this film can be used to whet the appetite. When some of us older viewers will remember that great novels were turned into Classic Comics to teach the lazy about great written works, the movie studios were churning out historic films, frequently firming some biographies with fictional text. This film is excellent. For those parents who want to give a "sense of history to their children" they should rent or look for the following movies: YOUNG TOM EDISON, EDISON, THE MAN; ELEANOR, FIRST LADY OF THE WORLD; WILSON; ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS; JUAREZ; SUEZ; DISRAELI; PANCHO VILLA; STANLEY AND LIVINGSTON; DR. EHRLICH'S MAGIC BULLET; HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD; CARDINAL RICHELIEU; THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR and TRUMAN as well as documentary films like THE GUNS OF AUGUST. TUDOR ROSE is a must see, the viewer should program IMDb to advise when these films are on television.

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).