In the 50s Disney specialised in boys own stories - Treasure Island, Third Man on the Mountain This was a rare "girl's own" and I don't think they were entirely comfortable with that fact. This should be all about Glynis Johns' character, the sister of Henry VIII - and she's kind of the focus of the film but the action keeps drifting over towards Richard Todd as Henry Brandon.
Taken on it's own merits this is a perfectly okay kids look at a famous romance but it really needed to focus more on Johns - make it more of a fairytale and so on, with Todd as Prince Charming. Johns' performance feels reigned in at the beginning then sparks up in the second half with some enjoyable come-hither looks at Todd.
The costumes and sets are fun. It could have done with more action - it's exciting at the end, but some more earlier on would have been good.
James Robertson Justice plays Henry VIII more like the well known Henry when in reality he was younger, which would have been interesting - but I understood why they did it that way. Michael Gough adds some oily villainy. They could have used a decent female support - more Catherine of Aragon, say.
Still, not bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment