Mary of Scotland (1936)
Directed by John Ford, Leslie Goodwins

Film Review

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).

Film Synopsis

In 1561, Mary Stuart, the widow of Francis II of France, makes herself two dangerous enemies when she opts to return to Scotland.  Her brother James Stuart is in no mood to hand over the Scottish throne to her, and her cousin Elizabeth Tudor, the Queen of England, sees her as a potential threat to her reign.  The only people that Mary can count on are her chief lieutenant, the Earl of Bothwell, with whom she is deeply in love, and her devoted Italian secretary, David Rizzio.  Mary's only hope of securing the Scottish crown for herself is to marry Lord Darnley, who is the man most likely to inherit the English throne after Elizabeth.

Narrowly escaping a plot to discredit her, Mary escapes to safety with Darnley and one year on she has a son and heir.  Darnley dies in horrific circumstances after denying that the child is his own.  Forced to surrender the Scottish throne by her enemies, Mary flees to England, expecting Elizabeth to offer her support in her hour of need.  Unfortunately, her cousin still regards her as a dangerous rival and has no choice but to imprison her.  Elizabeth offers to spare Mary's life if she will only sign a document renouncing forever the Stuarts' claim to the English crown.  It is a demand that Mary can never agree to...