The Virgin Queen
(1955)
Let your mind drift back, back, far back . . . to a time when the queen of England spoke like a Cockney, vehicles could travel freely in central London, and Joan Collins was in her early 20s.
Gee whiz, I thought last year's Elizabeth: The Golden Age was crap--and it was, make no mistake--but with Collins (far from the accomplished actor she became by the Dallas era), the scenery-chewing Richard Todd (you remember him from . . . OK, you don't remember him at all) as Raleigh, and Bette Davis, as uncomfortable as I've ever seen her until about the last 15 minutes (starting when she rips off that silly cap and exposes her hairline to Collins's Beth Throgmorton, Lady Raleigh), this is some seriously bad cinema. I'd feel bad about saying that, since the DVD was a gift, except that I know that the gift giver got a bunch of copies for free, and I strongly suspect that she shares my assessment.
Mainly, I'm looking forward to the featurette, in which Good Wine Under $20 maven Dr. Debs appears in her non-superhero secret identity. I hope she'll tell me whether Good Queen Bess really would have said "me" for "my."
2 comments:
Isn't it--let's be honest--AWFUL? All that pale mauve satin. All that striding around twitching hands. Two interesting things: Todd clearly understands combat--his battle scenes are done well; Joan Collins is not as bad as you expected, and especially good at delivering her lines at break neck speed.
Davis's best scenes are when she's being peevish. No one does a peevish ER like Ms. Davis.
PS. Please set low bar for DVD extras...but it was filmed in my living room, so you can see how much we love chotchkes.
Whew--what a relief to hear (as it were) you say that. I don't share your tolerance for Ms. C's work--yes, it's true, she can talk fast, but I never got any sense that she understood any of the words. I found her just abysmal--and, far more surprising, completely unattractive; I figured she'd at least be a little hottie (or "minx," in the lingo of the time).
Oh boy! Chotchkes! (Right now I'm running the isolated score--it's actually much better as a silent pic!)
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