Not a film for Republicans, Victoria The Great, with a miscast Anna Neagle (far too attractive) and Anton Walbrook as Prince Albert, certainly bangs the gong for Britain's achievements in the nineteenth century.
Herbert Wilcox who was Anna's husband and directed all of her films, sends up the flags for Great Britain here, illustrating the long reign of the Queen, her early ascendancy to the throne at 18, her romance and love for Prince Albert, the tragedy of his passing and her subsequent stoicism coping with his death.
It shows how she had a stubborn streak early on and her no nonsense approach to most things. She was reluctant at first for Albert to help her in public duties but he is depicted here as becoming bored with sitting around doing nothing and she finally relents and lets him start to do things to help.
Acting is fine and in spite of being far too good looking to play the Queen, Anna Neagle holds her own and is really convincing to the end. Anton Wallbrook makes a fine Albert with many ageing character actors like H B Warner and Felix Aylmer playing leading politicians of the time. Really quite enjoyable and being dated it adds a sense of the period which is sometimes hard to achieve with more modern films. If you like films about the royal family and the old Empire, this may be for you.
Herbert Wilcox who was Anna's husband and directed all of her films, sends up the flags for Great Britain here, illustrating the long reign of the Queen, her early ascendancy to the throne at 18, her romance and love for Prince Albert, the tragedy of his passing and her subsequent stoicism coping with his death.
It shows how she had a stubborn streak early on and her no nonsense approach to most things. She was reluctant at first for Albert to help her in public duties but he is depicted here as becoming bored with sitting around doing nothing and she finally relents and lets him start to do things to help.
Acting is fine and in spite of being far too good looking to play the Queen, Anna Neagle holds her own and is really convincing to the end. Anton Wallbrook makes a fine Albert with many ageing character actors like H B Warner and Felix Aylmer playing leading politicians of the time. Really quite enjoyable and being dated it adds a sense of the period which is sometimes hard to achieve with more modern films. If you like films about the royal family and the old Empire, this may be for you.