THE LIFE OF A QUEEN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22318, 4 February 1938, Page 18

THE LIFE OF A QUEEN

Spectacle and Drama in "Victoria the Great"

If anyone had predicted five years ago that the life of Queen Victoria would make an enthralling and spectacular film he would not have been believed. A preview of "Victoria the Great," which begins at the State today however, reveals that it is one of the best films to have come from Great. Britain for a long time. Herbert Wilcox the producer and director, has made of it not only an exciting spectacle of a period in history that now proves to be unusually interesting, but an intriguing human story in which the two main characters. Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, appear as characters who are sure to arouse the sympathy of any audience. The film is an RKO-Radio release. Anna Neagle as the Queen is an appealing figure. As a young girl when she first comes to the throne, she is lovely, but shows the stateliness which was always characteristic of the great Queen. After her meeting with Albert (played by Anton Walbrooto she becomes more human, and the story of the 20 years of their married life is very happily presented. As the years go on she becomes more like the Queen whose figure is impressed on the national memory—the mother of her people, commanding and very sure of herself, but always humanly sympathetic. The change in her features is a masterpiece of make-up. Anton Walbrook presents a very interesting interpretation of the character of the Prince Consort, a man who is still badly understood. His acting is really admirable and at times his performance overshadows that of Anna Neagle. He makes the Prince a quiet and understanding man, passionately concerned for the welfare of his adopted country. Most of the film deals with the first

25 years of the Queen's reign, beginning with the announcement to her of the death of her uncle. King William IV, and her accession to the throne.

No pains are spared to make the background historically authentic. All the castles and palaces in which Victoria lived were duly filmed both as to interiors and exteriors, including Buckingham, Windsor, Balmoral, St. James, Kensington, and others. From the Liverpool Museum was taken the ancient locomotive and cars which constituted the first train that ever ran in England, which steamed under its own power from Liverpool to London, a distance of 200 miles, and then from London to Windsor. This is the train in which the royal couple are seen starting upon their honeymoon. The state coach in which Her Majesty rode is. her Diamond Jubilee was also lent by the government for the reproduction of that historic event. The film traverses many of the chief political events of the reign, from the Corn Law riots to the Queen's assumption of the title of Empress of India under the tutelage of Lord Beaconsfield. Scenes in the House of Commons are admirably done, particularly Disraeli's speech on the occasion of Peel's change of front about the Corn Laws. Equally interesting is the gradual change in the popular attitude to the monarchy, from the dislike and distrust at the beginning of the reign to the universal affection with which the Queen was regarded at the jubilee. The final sequences in the film are done in colour, which makes the pageantry of court functions and the jubilee all the more striking. "Victoria the Great," which has been strikingly successful in London and New York, is sure to be universally popular in New Zealand.