MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (COMBO BLU-RAY + DVD, ELEPHANT FILMS)

In the 16th century,  Mary Stuart and Elizabeth I of England, two queens with different temperaments, are engaged in a remote yet merciless confrontation. Mary, Queen of Scots is an outstanding 1971 historical film, starring Vanessa Redgrave as the title character and Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth.

 

It  is now available in France in a combo Blu-Ray/DVD (All Zone) from Elephant Films.

The story of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) inspired cinema as from 1895 with The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Katharine Hepburn played the monarch in John Ford's Mary of Scotland (1936). Alexander Mackendrick, director of The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), wanted to do a film about Mary Stuart since the 1950s. From 1967 to 1969, he worked on a movie project for Universal due to star Mia Farrow but it was cancelled just before production started (1). At the end of 1969, Universal released Anne of the Thousand Days, an adaptation of the play by Maxwell Anderson on the life of Anne Boleyn (1501-1536) co-written by scriptwriter John Hale and directed by Charles Jarrott. Both mostly worked for television until then.

The second wife of King Henry VIII (and mother of Elizabeth I) was portrayed by Geneviève Bujold, alongside Richard Burton as the king. The film was made in England by Hal B. Wallis, the Hollywood titan behind Casablanca (1942) for Warner Bros and the Elvis Presley movies at Paramount Pictures. Anglophile, he even produced the British historical drama Becket (1964) when at Paramount. After the U.K. box office success of Anne of the Thousand Days, Hal Wallis developed a follow-up centered on Mary Stuart and Elizabeth I (Anne Boleyn's daughter, 1533-1603): Mary, Queen of Scots, written by John Hale and helmed by Charles Jarrott. Like playwrights Friedrich Schiller (Maria Stuart, 1800) and Robert Bolt (Vivat! Vivat Regina!, 1970) before him, John Hale took liberties with history. He imagined a couple of encounters between the two queens though they actually never met. Hal Wallis and Universal wanted Geneviève Bujold to play Mary but she turned down the role, which finally went to Vanessa Redgrave (The Devils, Isadora, Blow-Up).

Glenda Jackson (The Music Lovers, Women in Love) became once again Queen Elizabeth I after the BBC serial Elizabeth R (1971), whose first episode was penned by John Hale. The shooting of Mary, Queen of Scots, took place at Shepperton Studios and on location in France (Château de Chenonceau), Scotland (Hermitage Castle), Northumberland (Alnwick Castle and Bamburgh Castle) and Sussex (Parham House) (2). Mary, Queen of Scotland returns to her country in 1560, after the death of her husband Francis II of France. Scotland is poorer than when Mary left and spilt between Protestantism and Catholicism. She must deal with the ambitions of her half-brother, James Stuart, Earl of Moray. Meanwhile, Elizabeth I fears that her scottish cousin will claim the throne of England and pledges that Mary Stuart will become heir to the English throne if she marries Lord Dudley, Elizabeth's favourite.  She sends him to Scotland with the younger Lord Darnley, knowing well that Mary will fall for the latter.

The two exceptional actresses of Mary, Queen of Scots are surrounded by a solid cast, which includes Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner) as James and a young Timothy Dalton as Lord Darnley in another period film after The Lion in Winter (1968), Wuthering Heights (1970) and Cromwell (1970). There's also Nigel Davenport, Trevor Howard, Ian Holm, Daniel Massey,  etc. John Barry was chosen by Hal Wallis to compose and conduct the great score of Mary, Queen of Scots and he worked again with the producer on Follow Me/The Public Eye (1972). Vivre Et Mourir is performed by Vanessa Redgrave. The Marie Stuart, reine d'Écosse combo Blu-Ray/DVD from Elephant Films allows to appreciate the superb cinematography by Christopher Challis (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), the costumes designed by Margaret Furse and the competent direction of Charles Jarrott.

After Mary, Queen of Scots, Jarrott directed Lost Horizon (1973), the now cult Condorman (1981), the excellent The Amateur (1981) or the miniseries Till We Meet Again (1989). From 1992 to 2015, Glenda Jackson took a break from acting to become a Member of the British Parliament (and a junior minister in Tony Blair's government). Amusingly, Vanessa Redgrave played Elizabeth I in Anonymous (2011). The Marie Stuart, reine d'Écosse combo Blu-Ray/DVD from Elephant Films contains Mary, Queen of Scots, in English and in French (with French and English subtitles), a very interesting presentation of the movie by cinema specialist Justin Kwedi, a trailer of the film and the trailers of other titles from Elephant Films in the same collection: Isadora (1968) and the recently released Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) and Follow Me. In 2018, Alexander Mackendrick's Mary, Queen of Scots was adapted as a BBC radio drama narrated by Glenda Jackson.

(1) https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/jun/04/3
(2) https://www.movie-locations.com/movies/m/Mary-Queen-Of-Scots.php 

  
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See also:

https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2023/04/follow-methe-public-eye-combo-blu-ray.html (Follow Me)
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2023/03/thoroughly-modern-millie-combo-blu-ray.html (Thoroughly Modern Millie)