Queenie

When I started out watching the 4-hour miniseries Queenie, I thought I'd certainly turn it off after the first fifteen minutes or so. How could an epic period piece starring the girlfriend in Ferris Bueller's Day Off be any good? Well, my apologies to Mia Sara, because not only was Queenie riveting, but she gave a very good performance as well!

The miniseries starts off with Kate Emma Davies as young Queenie, a fantastic look-a-like for Mia Sara. She's half Indian but passes for white; but she gets teased at school and shunned by white society. All she wants is out of life is to become a movie star. She doesn't have a crush at school, and she's not aware of any sex and power struggle between men and women. Unfortunately, because she's so beautiful, men can't keep their hands off her, starting with her schoolteacher. Throughout the episodes, when Mia Sara takes the lead, it's heartbreaking to watch Queenie change her life view. Because she's continually objectified and desired by men, she learns that she can use her body to get other things she wants, and she turns into a completely different person. It's tragic, but also true to life and quite fascinating.

I don't want to spoil the plot, because Queenie has such an eventful life and comes in contact with so many interesting characters, but I highly recommend this miniseries if you like the genre. With seasoned veterans joining the supporting cast-Kirk Douglas, Claire Bloom, Joss Ackland, Joel Grey, Martin Balsam, Sarah Miles, Topol, and Leigh Lawson-every scene is well-acted and compelling. I was on the edge of my seat during Queenie's journey, and just like every great miniseries, there's sadness, suspense, romance, violence, secrets, blackmail, and the perfect tying of all loose ends. For a very fun weekend with your mom, rent Queenie, light a fire, and bring out the china tea set!

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, since there may or may not be a rape scene, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

Queenie is the television mini-series based on the novel by Michael Korda who apparently likes using his famous family as subject matter. In this one he based the lead character on his aunt by marriage, Merle Oberon.

We are NOT seeing the Merle Oberon story in Queenie. Though the protagonist was Anglo-Indian this was something she kept a secret throughout her entire life, probably at great pain to herself. What Queenie does do is show the times in the Raj when she grew up in India.

Times were not easy for the real Merle or for young Mia Sara in Calcutta in the teens and twenties of the last year. For reasons that sound abominably stupid today, the British public which wanted to let India go was blocked by some very powerful folk, chiefly Winston Churchill and press magnate Lord Beaverbrook. The racist attitudes were summed up so well by Joss Ackland where he states that we can't leave India because the Moslems and Hindus will end up killing each other, but just as long as they don't bring the fight into their club. Racial and religious antagonisms which for reasons of policy both good and bad were encouraged.

Mia Sara's character is like Ava Gardner's in Bhowani Junction, struggling hard and not feeling she belongs in either British or Indian society. What Michael Korda does in the story is allow her to have a measure of pride in her heritage, something Merle Oberon could never do in her life.

But she married well and Kirk Douglas plays the fictional David Konig, the prototype for British film producer Alexander Korda. Douglas borrows liberally from his Oscar nominated role of Jonathan Shields from The Bad and the Beautiful to play Konig. I suspect there's more Shields than Korda in his performance though.

Best performances in the film are from Claire Bloom as Sara's mother and from Serena Gordon as the vicious young lady who was Ackland's daughter and her antagonist.

Queenie was done on location in Jaipur, India a city which is known for its traditional look and probably looks more like Calcutta in the twenties than Calcutta now.

I think Merle Oberon would have approved.

The pace was lethargic, the acting stilted and because there were some excellent actors involved, I can only assume it was the fault of the director.If you are committed to a 4 hour TV serial, it must take a lot of skill to maintain the tension. The ending was also false and typical American/Hollywood hypocrisy. Nevertheless, it told an interesting story and most certainly was not total garbage. What I do dislike, however, is "faction", when you are never sure how much you are being told, in this case about Merle Oberon, is true. Was there actually a suspicious death in India? Was her mother her servant at any time? Was she ever involved in making a film in India? If all this was fiction, as I suspect it was, then why drag Merle Oberon's name into it anyway?

Contrary to some of the comments regarding Queenie's character and ethnicity, I wish to clarify this. Queenie, (or Merle Oberon)was not a "Eurasian". There is a vast difference between someone who is Eurasian to that of an Anglo Indian in British India. Her mother in real life was of Indian heritage whilst her father was British. If her father was from another country that would have made the family "Eurasian". I say this not for any political reasons but for historic accuracy.

I found this film most enjoyable and entertaining.The acting is superb all around. Having seen it sometime ago, I was thrilled to be able to purchase the DVD on Amazon recently.

Based on Michael Korda's bestselling interpretation of the life of legendary movie star (and his aunt) Merle Oberon, this 1987 mini-series chronicles the life of a young Eurasian woman (Mia Sara) who flees India to England, where she hides the truth of her past (including her role in the accidental death of an important British official back in India) to become a famous movie star. The script for "Queenie" is extremely melodramatic, and the time frame doesn't seem quite accurate (in part II, Queenie returns to India to make a movie that one character describes as "more expensive than Gone with the Wind"--meaning she and a large British-American entourage are trapsing across the globe to make a movie at the height of World War II!!!), but the show is quite lavish and, thanks to an energetic cast--especially the lovely Miss Sara--quite entertaining. There's also a fine score by Georges Delarue. Worth seeing if you come across it on television--I'd love to have it on DVD.