Mrs. Fitzherbert

Based on a 1945 bodice ripper by Winifred Carter. The cast (including Peter Graves, already ubiquitous as upper class twits but here playing the dashing young Prince) gather about stiffly in fancy dress discussing affairs of state and matters of the heart in this drama with echoes of the recent Abdication Crisis while providing an escape for those trapped in postwar Austerity Britain into a harsher but plusher era. (The script is careful to identify luminaries of the period like 'Mr Pitt' and 'Mr Haydn' by making sure they are habitually referred to by name.)

Feline Viennese actress Wanda Rotha fleetingly makes quite a vivid impression (as she usually does) in the first of a tiny handful of English-language roles as Caroline of Brunswick.

Obviously made to cash in on the success of the Gainsborough costume dramas.However lacking the dash and élan of those films,and of course lacking a Mason or Lockwood.Its 96 minutes pass exceptionally slowly.

As an account of the doomed affair between Mrs Fitzherbert and the young Prince George, this is engaging and quite moving in places. Certainly an expensive production for British National at the time, with a huge cast and some exquisite costumes together with lavish sets. It's all presented in rather straight-laced fashion though, failing to capture the Rabelaisian flavour of the times, something the rival Gainsborough studios would not have overlooked.

Peter Graves is too much of a lightweight for the part, his presence being another testament to the scarcity of leading men in British pictures of the time. Leslie Banks as Charles Fox and Margaretta Scott as the intriguing Lady Jersey are notable in support.