Theatrical Release Date:December 18, 1969 Release Date:September 18, 2007 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days Shipping:International shipping available Condition:BRAND NEW sealed shipped daily. International Shipping via Air Mail.
Product Description Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/18/2007
Amazon.com As costume dramas go, this is a passionate and feisty one, keyed by the ever-luminous Vanessa Redgrave in the title role and the sharp-edged Glenda Jackson as her jealous cousin, Queen Elizabeth I (who knew a thing or two about palace intrigue). Mary, who was raised in France as a Catholic, claims the Scottish crown from her mother upon her death. But she runs up against religious prejudice, both from the Protestant Elizabeth (who had encountered anti-Protestant bias before she took the throne) and from Mary's Protestant half-brother James Stuart (Patrick McGoohan). Elizabeth, whose own reign is shaky (given a strong Catholic presence in her country), is nervous about her Catholic cousin--and made more so by Mary's seeming inability to appreciate the political niceties of the period. Redgrave received an Oscar nomination for her performance. --Marshall Fine
Grateful to be a commonerDecember 1, 2008 Having recently returned from London I wanted to better understand some of English history. These movies are well done. I appreciate they are paired together like prequel and sequel. There is enough treachery in every day life without compounding it to the millionth degree by being born into a royal family.
A movie classic of literary brilianceOctober 12, 2008 "Anne of the Thousand Days" is one of Hollywood's finest. Richard Burton is superb as Henry VIII. The movie is thought provoking and well acted. The final scene of Elizabeth headed down the garden lane with great determination is an historical statement one does not easdily forget.
great period piecesOctober 8, 2008 If you like period pieces, you are going to love these two movies. I had not seen these movies before and I very much enjoyed them. Both are beautifully done with very good acting.
Great movieSeptember 15, 2008 Enjoyed Mary Queen of Scots have yet to see Anne of a Thousand Days, but look forward to seeing it. Wonderful together and a great deal.
One more and it would have been a hat trick!September 14, 2008 5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Here we have two terrific films, appropriately packaged together. You get two DVDs packaged in a single case, each individually labeled. Perhaps if the distributor would have included Cromwell (1970, Richard Harris) it would have been the ultimate CD package ever, (considering the great price in this instance).
"Anne of the Thousand Days" is the superior of the two entries for a couple of reasons. First, it stars Richard Burton whom, as expected, plays his role brilliantly. Secondly, all the scenes are brightly lit and colorful, thereby overcoming a frequent problem with films such as these.
The story is a well-known one about the first failed marriage of Henry VIII of England and his solution to rid himself of this unwanted wife so that he could pursue his lust with a second, the lovely Anne Boleyn (circa 1525 C.E.) The tale is a complicated one but this film yields the story in a coherent and comprehensible manner. Henry was initially guided to marry his recently dead older brother's wife (Catherine, a Catholic), a princess of Spain whom was said to have not consummated her marriage with Henry's brother. She had a child, Mary, but produced no male heir which Henry desperately desired.
In order to rid himself of Catherine and marry Anne, Henry had to proclaim himself to be head of the church of England, thus the Pope had him ex-communicated. Still, he married Anne who produced yet another female child, Elizabeth. (So do you see why the next film in this package is "Mary Queen of Scots"?). You probably know what happened with Anne as a result of her failure to produce a male heir for Henry but I'll stop there anyway.
The focus of this 1969 film is centered on how Anne, having seen her own older sister's mistake of becoming Henry's mistress and receiving nothing, learned to exploit her own sexual power over the King to entice him into marriage. She is portrayed as both evil (in her power-monging) and good (as a devoted mother). This is a pretty fair rendering of the actual story.
This film was directed by Charles Jarrott and the original music (very good!) was composed by Georges Delerue. It runs at an epic length for a full 2 hours, 26 minutes.
The second film of the package, "Mary Queen of Scots," is of course a follow-up to the first movie, albeit Henry VIII had many wives after Anne Boleyn and a great deal of politics transpired in the period between the two. Still, "Mary Queen of Scots" seems a natural sequence for this movie package.
The cinematography in this 1971 feature is excellent and the brisk writing moves this one right along, again a frequent complication with such films. The scenes, sets, scenery, and casting are all excellent here. Vanessa Redgrave plays Mary Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) and Glenda Jackson plays her cousin, Elizabeth I.
This film was more difficult for the writers in that Mary Stuart was looked at, and is still viewed, differently by various people and factions -- some still consider her to be conniving and evil while others see her as a heroine and a heraldic victim of Elizabeth I. This film leans more toward the latter view, so the correctness of the history here is somewhat called into question. You can tell which way the wind is going to blow in the film, though, because Elizabeth is made up to LOOK mean and evil while Mary's appearance is lovely.
Mary returns to Scotland from France where her husband (the king) had died and so she accedes as the rightful heir to the Scottish throne. Her half-brother becomes her advisor but he clearly has his own agenda. Mary makes some missteps in love and in marriage which is mostly what led to her ultimate demise.
At one point, she is forced to meet with her cousin Elizabeth face-to-face in England (a "fact" which many astute historians still assert never happened) and the meeting does not turn out to Mary's benefit. I'll stop there to avoid a spoiler but most folks are aware of the conclusion of this sordid tale.
Again, this is a fine film and while it's not quite as good as "Anne of the Thousand Days," it still fully earns the five stars. It was directed by Charles Jarrott and the original music was by John Barry and Sidney Margo (the latter being uncredited). This film runs for 2 hours, 12 minutes.
Both movies are Universal releases and they are beautifully conveyed in color, letterbox format. When I received this DVD package, the shrink wrap had a "Made in Mexico" sticker on it, a fact that appears not at all to have affected the quality of these excellent film prints.
These two DVDs (in a single package) are high-up amongst the treasures of my ever-expanding film collection and I highly recommend them.
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