A ROYAL ROMANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1938, Page 7

A ROYAL ROMANCE

"VICTORIA THE GREAT"

The last year or so has produced an immense volume of literature on the Victorian Age, and a revaluation of the period which,'-a generation ago, was beginning to be the standard comparison for ugliness and confinement of the spirit, forbidding furniture, bad taste, and absurdities of dress. But time, which ever brings romance to the day .before yesterday, has done its work, and the centenary of the accession of Queen Victoria has been made a point of departure for a new, and a truer, valuation of the Victorian era. For there was not one Victorian Age, but many; it was a time of struggle and repression, but also a time of achievement and release; it was the age of Samuel Smiles, but also the age of Shaw, the era of Bowdler, and the era of Ibsen. It is seen, also, as a time when the British Empire came into being in a new and vital form, when science was remade, and when the wealth and power of the world went, by a new attraction, to some tiny islands off the coast of Europe which had found a new and mystic formula for the combination of peoples in common allegiance to one Crown. In common with this general .reassessment of the age, this new appraisement of its inventiveness, adventurousness, and strength, there has been a revaluation, of the figure which gave it a name, Victoria, the last British ruler to enter into conflict with, her Ministry in the claim* for executive powers for the Crown, has suffered since her death the fall and rise which was her history in -her lifetime. Today she hasj emerged from the long obscurity of the Georgian Age to b°rcme a national symbol and a national heroine, a* she emerged from her Irmg period of mouvnint? to prove to h<"* nprmje the nower of th" Foval svmhol and Ihe Poval lpTo n r|, And it is in this ?r>H-it that her film biography has approachrr*

her. "Victoria the Great," which has oeen -produced by Herbert Wilcox, with Anna in eagle and Anton Walbrook in the leading roles, and which began its Wellington season at the Plaza Theatre last evening, is biography in the Victorian manner. That is to say, its emphasis is aiway_ on the pleasant side oi her character. One may come away from the film without 'a hint of the very real constitutional struggle in which Queen and Prince Consort embarked against the representatives of the people, when the government was disturbed at the growth of power of a person unknown to the British Constitution. One may come away with rather vague ideas about the texI ture of her mind; a pleasant scene in which Albert gives Victoria a lesson 'in elementary German does not survive the knowledge that Victoria had a German' mother and knew German quite well. But the general colour of the film, the presenting of the two chief figures in famous episodes (even if a little edited in their own interest), the relating of the tale in terms of simple humanity, of the love story of two people who managed to snatch romance in the midst of formalities of Court and immense piles of work,, are excellent and make splendid entertainment. The simplicity and humour of the' courtship, the patient approach to their labours with the Prince up long before dawn to make the necessary notations so that the Queen, may understand the affairs of State with a minimum of labour, the early insistence of the young ruler that she will listen to nothing as dull as politics from her adored husband (a man of great political ability), and her later complete dependence upon him—these things are set amidst a series of great events, the rise and fall of Ministries', the fighting of wars, the beginnings of the modern world, the expansion andgrowing wealth of England. The film embraces the whole scope of the reign, with the famous ride through ' the dawn to break the news to the young Queen, the attacks on the Prince Consort and on the Queen herself because of her refusal to play a Royal role,and her parsimony, the coming and going of Prime Ministers, the repeal of the ] Corn Laws, the' proclamation of the" Queen-Empress, and the Jubilee. It is magnificently equipped with authentic material, from Royal apartments to the train which carried the Queen on her honeymoon, and the very guns which fired the Royal Salutes. And it is embellished with striking performances by Anton Walbrook, who makes thePrince Consort a very sympathetic character, and by Anna Neagle, .who goes through the changes' from, young wifehood to old age with subtlety- and feeling. Decidedly, it is one of the most outstanding historical .films yet seen.

The supporting' programme, which is of a high standard, includes "shots" taken at the Empire Games, a "March of Time" short, and other interesting features. '