In order to convince us of its importance before it even gets started, Charles Jarrott’s Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) assaults us with an overture by composer John Barry. It doesn’t sound much like Barry, but rather it sounds like any of those trumpet-blasts-and-timpani outbursts the BBC slaps on period dramas. And it’s not through with us, since it pops up whenever anything important happens and during the intermission. (The movie’s not really long enough to need an intermission, but it’s impressive to have one.) Despite these best efforts to sap the very life from the viewer, Mary, Queen of Scots turns out to be a much livelier affair than you might imagine — as long as you take it as high-toned soap. It has intrigue. It has secret passages. It has all sorts of illicit romance, duplicity, plotting, murder and of course — a beheading. (You may be sure that the last is decorous.) It also has an array of nice costumes and an even larger collection of dodgy wigs. But best of all, it has Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson as Mary and Elizabeth, respectively. These fine actresses play their roles for all they’re worth — and then squeeze a few more drops out. History tells us Mary and Elizabeth never met, but that doesn’t stop the film from correcting that dramatic oversight — twice. Redgrave may get top billing and the title role, but Jackson has the showier turn. (I particularly liked her beating up on Daniel Massey.) The rest of the cast is good and certainly game. Timothy Dalton and Ian Holm — as Mary’s suitor/husband and adviser, respectively — also have a surprisingly frank romance of their own going on. Trevor Howard gets special billing — with a box around his name — but whether this is because of his prestige, or the fact that he’s always on-hand when anything needs declaiming, I don’t know.
The Hendersonville Film Society will show Mary, Queen of Scots Sunday, Nov. 10, at 2 p.m. in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.
And that concludes this weeks episode of ‘How to Recognize Different Parts of the Body’ adapted for radio by Ann Hayden-Jones and her husband Piff. And now we present the first episode of a new radio drama series, ‘The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots.’ Part One: The Beginning.
(Music)
Man: You are Mary, Queen of Scots?
Woman: I am!
(sound of violent blows being dealt, things being smashed, awful crunching noises, bones being broken, and other bodily harm being inflicted. All of this accompanied by screaming from the woman.)
(Music fades up and out)
Announcer: Episode Two of ‘The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots’, can be heard on Radio Four almost immediately.
(Music, then the sound of saw cutting, and other violent sounds as before, with the woman screaming. Suddenly it is silent.)
Man: I think she’s dead.
Woman: No I’m not!
(Sounds of physical harm and screaming start again. Then music fades up and out)
Announcer: That was episode two of ‘The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots’, adapted for the radio by Bernard Hollywood and Brian London. And now, Radio Four will explode.
And from whence did you lift that?