Thoroughly Enjoyable
This is one of my favourite historical romps. It is enormous fun, and has many virtues. These include wonderful music from Maurice Jarre, fine costumes and set design, and an excellent cast. The action scenes are well staged, the plot involving, and the script provides both moving and amusing moments along the way. Even the title credits at the start of the film are attractively done.Yes, there are some historical inaccuracies, but not as many as might be expected. For example, the Duke of Norfolk (played extremely well by Rex Harrison at his most charming) really was sentenced to death in the last weeks of Henry VIII's reign, and really was reprieved by Edward VI just before his execution. The inaccuracy is that in the film Norfolk is restored to power, whereas in reality he was kept in prison, and only released by Mary I six years later, on her accession.
The cast is so impressive that even away down the cast list, there are still fine British character actors such as Harry Fowler, Dudley Sutton, Don Henderson and Michael Ripper. The billing is somewhat odd (Raquel Welch is billed second, but has only slightly more lines than Dudley Sutton, billed 25th, and Charlton Heston has a large number of scenes and lines as Henry VIII, but only gets guest star billing at the very end of the cast list), but this is hardly a major flaw. Most of the cast do well, whatever the size of their role, and collectively they add much to the quality of the film.
All in all, I found this thoroughly enjoyable the first time I saw it, and I continue to find it so every time I have seen it since.
score 9/10
alanrhobson 18 February 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2962970/35447
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