A talky and rather dramatically inert period drama starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.
The sparks are apparently supposed to fly between these two big-time stars, but they instead only intermittently flicker. Davis gives a one-note performance as the woman who struggles between her duties as a queen and her love for her man -- she was such a contemporary actress that it's a shame to see her stifled behind period garb and mannerisms. Flynn is appropriately dashing as the man who loses his head over his queen, but there's not much to his role. The film was based on a stage play and it shows; the usually reliable director Michael Curtiz couldn't seem to find a way to rid the story of its staginess.
The Technicolor looks great though, and fans of production and costume design may want to check the film out for those aspects alone.
Grade: B-
The sparks are apparently supposed to fly between these two big-time stars, but they instead only intermittently flicker. Davis gives a one-note performance as the woman who struggles between her duties as a queen and her love for her man -- she was such a contemporary actress that it's a shame to see her stifled behind period garb and mannerisms. Flynn is appropriately dashing as the man who loses his head over his queen, but there's not much to his role. The film was based on a stage play and it shows; the usually reliable director Michael Curtiz couldn't seem to find a way to rid the story of its staginess.
The Technicolor looks great though, and fans of production and costume design may want to check the film out for those aspects alone.
Grade: B-