Sixty Glorious Years

I saw only the first fifteen minutes of this talking-waxworks show, but that was more than enough. This picture is lame and prissy, the kind where the viewer is expected to feel a naughty thrill and a glow of pride at Victoria's daring--"Oh, look! the Queen is dancing the waltz!" Anton Walbrook is debonair but demure, and Anna Neagle is a typical dim debutante. After seeing several real-life royal weddings live on TV, the spectacle of actors stiffly pretending to get married is less than overwhelming, especially with no attempt at characterisation or humour. People who worship the royal family on bended knee may like this kind of thing, but anyone wanting a movie with intelligence or charm had best look elsewhere. Give me The Smiling Lt., with Maurice Chevalier in the title role, who raises havoc in the bedrooms of the royal palace, any day!

I envy the previous individual who had the opportunity of viewing this in the UK as, to my knowledge, it has never appeared on home video or been broadcast on American television in recent memory. One interesting fact that I found about this film is that, while all reference sources list the USA release title of this British film as QUEEN OF DESTINY, some research I was doing for something else turned up an interesting fact. This film premiered in the US at Radio City Music Hall (December 1938)under its original British title. Subsequent releases may have used the alternate, but it at least played in New York as Sixty Glorious Years.

I caught this when it was shown on a digital channel as a last-minute replacement recently. In the UK at least there has been a lot about Queen Victoria recently as last month was the one hundredth anniversary of her death.

I understand that this film is largely a colour remake of the earlier 'Victoria the Great', made in black and white with much of the same cast a year earlier, but which concentrated much more on the Queen's early life. This film opens with her already Queen and largely deals with her life with Albert until his death in 1861. The rest of the film is a very quick gallop through the political ups and downs and technological achievements of the last 40 years she was on the throne.

Dame Anna Neagle, whose husband Herbert Wilcox was the producer of this, is less imperious than perhaps she could have been, but I suppose one must remember that this was made 62 years ago and the Queen had only then been dead some 37 years.

The sets and costumes are sumptuous, the expense when this was made must have been immense. It would also appear that the Palace, having seen the success of the earlier film, and the Royal family being shell-shocked by in the Abdication, saw this as a blessed piece of positive spin. The result is that this has exteriors shot at Balmoral, Windsor Castle, Osborne House (where much of 'Mrs Brown' was filmed) and Buckingham Palace, where they appeared to have had access to the inner courtyard which has probably unprecedented for the time. I don't believe any other commercial film has had permission to film inside Buckingham Palace.

The history is accurate if sanitised but it all seems a little stilted to modern ears but is still worth a look, museum piece as it is.

This is a tremendously well made film that fans of movies about the royalty should love. Unfortunately, while very good, it also comes off as a bit episodic because the film tries to cover too much material and would have been better off with either a narrow focus or a series.

The film begins at the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign in 1837. Very shortly after this, she marries Prince Albert and the film specifically focuses on their relationship. In many ways, it's like the recent film "Young Victoria" though it places a greater emphasis between her relationship with her husband and covers a much longer period. Both films are terrific and would make a great double-feature. Heck, if you have a chance, also see "Mrs. Brown"--making it a terrific triple-Victoria viewing experience.

So what did I like about it? Well, Anna Neagle (Victoria) and Anton Wallbrook (Albert) did terrific jobs and their interplay was very nice. Additionally, the direction and quality of the production were superb. It also helped that the film makers got permission to use many of the royal residences in the movie--so they really got the look down right. All in all a very good film that tries to encompass a bit too much of for a film that is this short. You'd think you'd need at least three hours to do the topic justice since she lived so long and so much happened in Great Britain during her reign.

This film is something of a puzzle to me in that Anna Neagle played the same role in a film released a year earlier which covered a lot of the same ground in the long life of Queen Victoria. A great many members of the cast covered said ground with her, most prominently Anton Walbrook who fits my conception perfectly of what Prince Albert must have been like.

Sixty Glorious Years which was released on this side of the pond as Queen Of Destiny is a bit slow and ponderous, but Neagle makes an unforgettable Queen Victoria in all the stages of her 64 years. The British people are currently going through the same experience as Queen Elizabeth II has reached her 60th year, her Diamond Jubilee year of her reign.

Matching her in every way is Anton Walbrook who played HRH Prince Albert who set a standard of behavior for a male consort to follow, one that Prince Philip has matched in his time as well. It took a while for him to win over the British people, but he managed.

One thing that was glossed over and I wish was given more attention was that in 1861 Albert played a great if back channel role in preventing the USA and the UK from going to war over the Trent Affair. During the early years of our Civil War, an American navy captain seized the British ship Trent carrying some accredited Confederate agents bound for London and Paris. Two wars was not something Abraham Lincoln was ready to handle as was this nation. He was in the early stages of the illness that claimed him, still he labored tirelessly for peace.

Standing out in the vast supporting cast of a pageant of British statesmen and personalities of the 19th century are C. Aubrey Smith as the aged Duke of Wellington and Felix Aylmer as Viscount Palmerston. Again fitting my conception of what these two guys were like.

Sixty Glorious Years is a bit ponderous and slow, still it is a fine tribute to a woman who molded and shaped the character of the British monarchy today.