From the 1950s: Young Bess

1953 Historical Drama

From Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Directed by George Sidney

Starring

Jean Simmons

Stewart Granger

Deborah Kerr

Charles Laughton

Kay Walsh

Guy Rolfe

Rex Thompson

Kathleen Byron

Cecil Kellaway

Robert Arthur

Leo G. Carroll

Elaine Stewart

Dawn Addams

In the first half of the fifties, Hollywood was obsessed with big, lavish, costume dramas.  They seemed to not be able to push them out of their dream factories fast enough.  Most of these movies had religious backdrops although England's House of Tudor was always good for another rendering.

Young Bess concerns itself with Queen Elizabeth I's childhood (played early on by Noreen Corcoran) and ends with her coronation. By early teen years Jean Simmons had inherited the role.  It also concerns her father, Henry VIII (Charles Laughton in a role he knew well) and his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr (Deborah Kerr) and her young half-brother Prince Edward (Rex Thompson).  Also front and center is the Seymour family... Thomas (Stewart Granger), a naval hero who had grand plans for a life in politics and helping manage young Edward, his nephew, when he became king.  His brother Ned (Guy Rolfe), the first Duke of Somerset, and his manipulative wife Ann (Kathleen Byron) also watch over the young king.  The Seymour siblings were former brothers-in-law of Henry when their sister Jane became the king's third wife.

King Henry isn't in the story for long but Laughton, of course, makes the most of it.  After the King had her mother beheaded, Bess (as she was then called) was banished to a home some distance away with her beloved nanny (Kay Walsh).  She was never referred to as Princess Elizabeth because she became illegitimate when Henry had his marriage annulled.

In one of my favorite scenes, the four principals are aboard a ship, shortly before Henry's death, and he and Bess get into a fierce row.  We know he's a big slob of a blisteringly loudmouth but it's our first glance at knowing just how much daughter has become like father.  She certainly holds her own and the king expresses how proud he is of her.   

After Henry's death the focus shifts to the new king, Edward (Rex Thompson), who was nine.  He is very close with sister Bess and Uncle Thomas.    

In the screenplay Elizabeth falls madly in love with Thomas.  She doesn't care if he is married to her favorite stepmother, Catherine Parr.  Elizabeth even sanctioned the marriage but her heart seems to rule her more at the time than her head.  Catherine and Thomas, by the way, were in love before she married Henry but when he requested her hand, she had no choice.

Young Bess is about court intrigue... there is not a battle scene to be found.  That intrigue focuses mainly but not entirely on romance.  Additionally, the plot involves Elizabeth's attempts to survive the shifting fortunes of the English court and she has great concern over her fleet of ships.  She is about the only one standing as the film comes to an end.

The great George Sidney was on a roll in the 50s at his home studio where he himself was treated as a king.  Before Bess he made Annie Get Your Gun, Show Boat and Scaramouche and afterwards Kiss Me Kate, and others.  Sidney invested this entertainment showpiece with a great deal of vitality.  It is leisurely paced though interest never lags.  Every scene has a beginning, middle and end.  Sidney and MGM pulled out all the stops. 

Many of the craftspeople were pulled off other jobs or required to speed up their work so they could handle chores on Young Bess.  Charles Rosher does the film and his studio much good with his brilliant and colorful cinematography. Miklós Rózsa's stirring music is emotional but unobtrusive.  He had become well-known for researching historical times and fitting in his music appropriately.  Walter Plunkett's costumes are gorgeous (I liked Granger's the best) and he deserved his Oscar nomination as did Jack Moore and Edward Willis's set decoration and Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary's for their stunning art direction.  To be assured, this movie has the MGM imprint throughout. 

There was some other more recent English history to deal with as well... it concerns the three leads.  In the late 40s Kerr and Granger were very much in love though he was married to actress Elspeth March.  Their longtime relationship was conducted in secret until one day they mutually decided they couldn't do it anymore.  He introduced her to her first husband and after Granger divorced March, he married Simmons.

In 1947 Kerr and Simmons appeared in Black Narcissus so they certainly had an acquaintance.  (In1960 they would again share the screen in the marital comedy The Grass Is Greener.)  In 1960 Granger and Kerr traipsed off to Africa to film King Solomon's Mines with Simmons in tow part of the time.  There have been mixed responses on whether the Kerr-Granger affair continued during filming but I'm betting on the affirmative.  If one isn't safe to resume a romance in hot and sweaty Africa, where could one do it?

In 1952 they were again teamed in The Prisoner of Zenda but perhaps they kept a hands-off policy due to filming on the MGM lot.  Granger and Simmons appeared together in Adam and Evalyn in 1949 and again in 1955 in Footsteps in the Fog.  Granger had just finished making Salome (1953) with Laughton and in 1960 Laughton would appear with Simmons in Spartacus.

Simmons and Granger

Simmons, who had just completed one of her best roles in RKO's Angel Face, arrived at MGM in 1953 to star in Young Bess.  It only made sense since she was married to Granger and he was at the top of his game on the MGM payroll. Costume pictures had become his specialty and he was awfully dashing in them.  The studio assigned Simmons to The Actress (1953) where she would play a young Ruth Gordon and was the daughter of Spencer Tracy.

Simmons would go on to make her share of costume dramas as well with Androcles and the Lion, The Robe (where she had her own well-publicized affair with Richard Burton), The Egyptian, Désirée and Spartacus.  One wonders why an actress of this caliber appeared in costume dramas but it was the thing to do at the time since they were immensely popular.

If one should think this is a setup to berate her performance in Young Bess, nothing could be further from the truth.  She is magnificent in the role.  Her voice has the commanding tone of one accustomed to being obeyed.  One can't imagine anyone else doing it although Kerr, Janet Leigh (!) and a few others were considered.  In those days, complementing her youthful, incandescent beauty, was such an innocence when she didn't speak.  I fell in love with her a hundred times over the years.  And when she spoke, oh Lordy, was she ever direct, sometimes cutting, always so self-assured.  She was not one to trifle with.  Is there any wonder why she was chosen to play this famously domineering queen?  We don't usually get to see Elizabeth this young and it is a joy to watch Simmons bring her to life.  

There is little doubt that the love scenes between Simmons and Granger have a little more oomph since they were married at the time.  Of course he has more romantic scenes with Kerr and one can only wonder how that worked out.  But then, it could all get very cozy in Hollywood.

I always appreciated the energy Granger brought to his roles, especially the costumed ones.  He always looked like he was having a real good time.  I think he loved dressing up and was delighted that his characters were usually as randy as he was in real life.  Though Scaramouche, The Prisoner of Zenda and Young Bess brought him deserved worldwide fame, he didn't like any of them.... or any of his other films either.

Kerr is given very little to do.  She does all she can to appear wan although her dreaded disease didn't seem to take any toll on her beauty and famed hairdresser Sidney Guilaroff might have considered messing up a few of those red hairs.  

Laughton, that old ham, is comfortable playing Henry VIII for a second and far briefer turn.  Again, who could have done it better?  It amused me watching him lightly running his hand back and forth on the necks of two wives he beheaded.  Nice touch, George.

Young Rex Thompson

Child actor Rex Thompson has an ambitious role as young King Edward... very engaging and entertaining.  His future looked bright and although he worked for Sidney again in The Eddy Duchin Story and was Kerr's son in The King and I, his movie career petered out.  Too bad.  I'm guessing he's the only one in the cast still alive.

Guy Rolf and Kathleen Byron are properly menacing as the Seymours.  Were either of them ever anything other than villains?  It's those faces, isn't it?  She was most memorable as the crazy nun in Black Narcissus along with Kerr and Simmons.

Boyishly handsome Robert Arthur plays a servant enamored of Bess.  Walsh is polished as her trusted maid.  Other character actors... Cecil Kellaway, Leo G. Carroll and Norma Varden... shine in smaller roles.  New Hollywood beauties, Elaine Stewart and Dawn Addams, appear briefly with their heads as two of Henry's unfortunate wives.

If you haven't noticed, we have yet to address the elephant in the room.  Yes, yes, it's the historical inaccuracy.  I find myself usually siding with the purists on this matter.  On the other hand, after all these years of movie-watching, it's a losing battle.  I'm likely to be more pissed with modern-day stories rather than this old time stuff.  

The writers elected to tell Elizabeth's story as a romance drama.  Somebody had to give the virgin queen a man.  Who cares about facts?  The real Thomas Seymour was around in those days and was an ambitious naval hero, wanting very much to join the Tudor court, but he and Elizabeth apparently never engaged in any romance.  They say she wouldn't.

Relaxing while they can

Apparently Thomas was more the bad brother (before Granger) and Ned was the good one.  The latter was not at all responsible for his brother's death either and was, in fact, grief-stricken.  

There is more fiction but oh well...  Most folks can forgive MGM for the hijacking of historical truth because this is a most satisfying film at every level.  It may even have been on the verge of being a great one.  Beautiful to look at, it is directed by a most competent professional of many entertaining pieces and performed by an elegant ensemble of actors.  

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