Mary of Scotland (1936) - film review

The year is 1561.  Mary Stuart’s decision to end her exile in France and return to Scotland is ill-received by both her brother, James, who has governed the country in her absence, and her sister Elizabeth, the queen of England.   James resents having to restore the throne to his sister and Elizabeth is fearful that Mary may arouse enough support to have her deposed and take her place.  Mary’s only true allies are her chief lieutenant, the Earl of Bothwell, and her adviser, David Rizzio.  Although she loves Bothwell, Mary has no choice but to marry Lord Darnley to secure her claim to the Scottish throne.  When the union produces a son and heir, Elizabeth becomes even more certain of the threat posed by the Stuarts and decides to act against Mary...

Whilst the historians may cringe at its obvious pro-Stuart, anti-Tudor bias, Mary of Scotland is a compelling, well-staged piece of historical drama which affords Katharine Hepburn one of her better roles.  Director John Ford appears to be more preoccupied with lighting and camerawork to create a mood of stifling oppression than in directing the performances, which are pretty varied in their quality.  Whilst there are some commendable contributions from the likes of Hepburn, March and Carradine, others (notably Douglas Walton’s effete Darnley) are painfully mannered.  The film is highly regarded today but it was a commercial failure when it was first released.

Based on a play by Maxwell Anderson, this version of history portrays Mary Stuart as a righteous martyr and Elizabeth Tudor as a conniving paranoiac.  The treatment is simplistic (both characters were far more complex in reality than this drama suggests) but perhaps no more so than some of Shakespeare’s history plays.  Interestingly, Bette Davis had wanted to play Elizabeth in this film, but the part went to Florence Eldridge, wife of Fredric March, who played Bothwell.  Davis got to play the virgin queen a few years later, in Michael Curtiz’s The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939).

© James Travers 2009

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