THE VIRGIN QUEEN
US, 1955, 92 minutes, Colour.
Bette Davis, Richard Todd, Joan Collins, Jay Robinson, Herbert Marshall, Dan O' Herlihy, Robert Douglas, Leslie Parrish.
Directed by Henry Koster.
The Virgin Queen gives Bette Davis another opportunity to perform as Elizabeth I after her 1930s performance in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (with Errol Flynn). Here an older Queen Elizabeth, with Bette Davis at her best in this kind of autocratic role, is involved with Sir Walter Raleigh (Richard Todd, a popular leading man at this period) and Lord Leicester, the veteran Herbert Marshall.
There is an interesting supporting cast with Dan O'Herlihy and Robert Douglas, frequently a villain in this kind of film. Jay Robinson had just been Caligula in The Robe and Demetrius and the Gladiators. Joan Collins had moved from the United Kingdom and was appearing in a number of Cinemascope, colourful films including Land of the Pharaohs and The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. This popular cast made the film popular with contemporary audiences in the mid-50s as well as the veterans who wanted to see Bette Davis.
The film is entertaining, is more of a pageant rather than a psychological drama. It was Oscar-nominated for its costume design.
The director was Henry Koster who came from Germany in the 1930s, directed a number of films with Deanna Durbin, made some pleasant comedies in the 1940s including The Bishop's Wife and Come to the Stable and then made the first Cinemascope film, The Robe. He followed it with a number of films like this and some domestic comedies in the 1960s with Maureen O'Hara and James Stewart like Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation, Take Her She's Mine.
1. How well communicated was the personality of Elizabeth through this film?
Bette Davis's portrayal and its characteristics? The personality of the real Elizabeth? As a woman, as a queen, as a politician? Her personal whims, her changes of mind?
2. How successful a swashbuckling film was this? Why? The opening sequences and fights? The career of Walter Raleigh? The finale?
3. How well communicated was the character of Sir Walter Raleigh? Was he a rounded character? Or a mere historical figure? Initial ambitions? His ambitions to go to the new world? His maneuvers to get to the queen through Leicester? His relationship with Elizabeth? His enmity with Sir Christopher Hatton? His manipulating? His marriage to Beth? His fending himself from Elizabeth’s whims?
4. How important was the conflict and contrast between Elizabeth and Raleigh? As man and woman? In terms of love and emotion? In terms of chivalry (his famous cloak)? In a contrast of moods? In terms of politics and power? In terms of life and death and execution?
5. How visionary was Raleigh in his ambitions? His using of others? His nimble wit in arranging for the ships to leave?
6. How interesting were the court intrigues? The character of Sir Christopher Hatton as a villain? His assistant Chedwick? The political meetings and cabinet discussions? The manoeuvres to discredit Raleigh at the end?
7. Was the film successful as a genuine love story between Raleigh and Beth? Why did they all in love? The nature of their love? The secret meeting and their private marriage? Beth’s change of heart? Her decision to stand by Raleigh?
8. Ho important was caprice in the film? The caprice of power in Elizabeth? Thc caprices of Raleigh? The caprices of Hatton?
9. How melodramatic were the final sequences? Elizabeth’s change of heart? The role of Lord Derry. The imprisonment and the confrontation in the tower? The escape and the final deaths?
10. Was this an adult adventure film and character study? Was it more geared to popular audiences and even y0unger adventure audiences?
