Welcome to the Active Farming Price Comparison Store. We're very excited to offer to our friends this great resource.
By shopping here you will get the best deals possible on the internet and you will instantly see where you can purchase whatever
you are trying to find at the best price. Not only that, by making your purchases here you are helping to sustain activefarming.org
Rating: - Brilliant Portrayal of Young Elizabeth I
Ann Seymour: "Do not attempt to confuse me by using words beyond my understanding."
Bess: "I am sorry, madame, but they are difficult to avoid."
~from "Young Bess" (1953)
Every generation has its own interpretation of the complex soul of Elizabeth Tudor. The 1953 film "Young Bess," starring Jean Simmons as the future Elizabeth I of England and Stewart Granger as Thomas Seymour, is a romanticized version of Margaret Irwin's historical novel. I read the book as a young teen, and first saw the film when it ran one night on the late movie back in the '70's. Although it is replete with 1950's technicolor glamor, "Young Bess" still surpasses many contemporary renditions of the life of Elizabeth I for its fairly authentic exploration of the unique situations of her youth. The focus is on her tragic involvement with her stepmother's husband Tom Seymour, who in the film is shown as being Elizabeth's overwhelming first love. Simmons and Granger, who were married in real life, are able to communicate the intensity of the dangerous infatuation while hardly touching each other. I remember, watching the film way back when, how my mother said, "Those old movies were so full of passion and no one ever took their clothes off."
While the film, like most films, can be picked apart from a historical point of view, Jean Simmons' portrayal of the teenage Elizabeth Tudor is positively brilliant. Jean is much prettier than the real Elizabeth, but her beauty does not prevent her from becoming Bess. She captures the combination of intense vulnerability and insecurity of a motherless girl whose paternity had been questioned. In Jean's first scene she projects with a flash of the eyes the strong will, the indomitable determination of the adolescent princess to survive at all costs. Always one feels Bess' sense of her dignity as the daughter of a king, a dignity which she will not compromise even though it strives against her longing to be loved.
Jean Simmons' Bess confronts her changes of fortune with incredible poise and self-possession, while emanating the very real anxieties that the daughter of Anne Boleyn had to face. One can understand in her portrayal why the love-starved girl became smitten with Tom Seymour. Yet in spite of her devastation at the tragic outcome of the highly inappropriate relationship, she keeps her head, and does not let herself be destroyed.
Charles Laughton is the best Henry VIII ever, a villainous old swine, conflicted over his past deeds, and especially torn ... Read More
Rating: - "Young Bess"
I own this on VHS and am looking forward to when it's translated to DVD. I enjoy this 1953 film for its sets, costuming, and Technicolor treatment, but I can't say the same for Jean Simmons in the title role. She takes a valiant shot at portraying the temperamental Bess, but she just isn't convincing, maybe because she's too old for the part and she's trying too hard to make the rest of us believe that she isn't. I also don't care for Stewart Granger's performance as Thomas Seymour. It too is unconvincing because Granger plays him as a cheerful, romantic bon vivant while the real Seymour was a swaggering, hot-headed schemer who plotted to seize power from his older brother who was Lord Protector of England during the first half of Edward VI's reign. Rex Thompson, who plays Edward, does a cute job, but the real-life boy king was too precocious and serious to behave like your next-door neighbor's kid. I do enjoy Deborah Kerr as an elegant, dignified Catherine Parr, but Parr in reality was called "Kate" and not "Cathy", and Thomas Seymour viewed her as just as much a stepping-stone in his schemes as he did Bess. Charles Laughton's reprisal of his old Henry VIII role is a delight; I saw him in the title role of "The Private Life of Henry VIII" and very much enjoyed his work.
Rating: - When Are They Going to Release this Wonderful Film on DVD???
This is one of my all-time favorite MGM costume dramas. The costumes and settings are scrumptious; Jean Simmons in the title role and Deborah Kerr as Katherine Parr are lovely, and Stewart Granger (who I believe might have still been married to Simmons at the time) is his swashbuckling gorgeous self. The story, which is taken from Margaret Irwin's historical novel, is romantic as well as compelling. All this and Charles Laughton as Henry VIII and Elsa Lanchester as Anne of Cleves, not to mention a Miklos Rosza score!!!
I don't give a fig whether this film, which, after all, is not a documentary, is accurate or not. It is absolutely entertaining; and what's more, it inspired me to to take a few thoroughly enlightening graduate university courses in Tudor-Stuart history on my way to getting my PhD in Ancient History.
Historians in the twenty-first century are in no position to be snobbish!
Rating: - The Royal Pas de Trois
Fictionalized, glamorized, and purified, "Young Bess" is a highly entertaining and lavish production, with a fabulous cast, lovely costuming, and a terrific Miklos Rozsa score. Though far from resembling Elizabeth I, Jean Simmons is exquisite as the strong willed young queen, who has an adoring fascination for the Lord High Admiral Thomas Seymour, and is conflicted by her fondness for her stepmother Catherine Parr, who was to marry Thomas. Thomas in real life was a bit of an ambitious schemer, and a charmer with the ladies, but in this film, as played by a dashing and handsome Stewart Granger, he is portrayed as a romantic character in love with both women.
The cast is remarkable, with Deborah Kerr as Catherine Parr, Charles Laughton as Henry VIII, Guy Rolfe as Protector of the king and villain of the plot, Ned Seymour (brother of Thomas), and Rex Thompson giving a delightful performance as young King Edward VI. The direction by George Sidney is meticulous, and Charles Rocher's cinematography a visual treat. This 16th century period of English history is complex and fascinating, and even this "movie treatment" (based on Margaret Irwin's novel) is riveting.
Simmons and Granger were married at the time of this filming, and have great chemistry together, and with the addition of Deborah Kerr, we have 2 of the most beautiful women who ever graced the screen in the same film. Purists will quibble with the liberties taken with the plot, but anyone else with an appreciation for historical drama will thoroughly enjoy this film.
Rating: - Young Elizabeth, Hollywood style
Jean Simmons (Elizabeth I) and Farley Granger (Tom Seymour) make a handsome couple in this stylized treatment of Elizabeth's early days before she assumes the mantle of Queen of England. This film centers on the young Bess, who is enamored of Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour, who is also very married, to Catherine Parr (Deborah Kerr). Tom Seymour is trapped in a familiar power struggle, a member of one of the great influential families seeking favor through access to the throne of England. The young King Edward (Rex Thompson) is a pawn of his uncles, Ned Seymour (Guy Rolf) and Tom Seymour (Granger), a child who savors his power over the court that must do his bidding, unaware of the extreme consequences of his whims.
Played out in the traditional Hollywood manner, circa 1953, the black and white film adds drama to Bess's youthful passion, as yet untried, although, given the machinations of the Seymour's, she quickly learns what the influential courtiers are capable of in their pursuit of influence. Simmons smolders as Bess, her intensity luminous, her eyes revealing her love for Seymour. Granger cuts a romantic figure as Tom, a man in his prime, adored by women, especially the one who will be Queen. Tom Seymour's long-suffering wife, Catherine Parr (Kerr) dies in her husband's arms, but before the lover can be united, he is hanged. Elizabeth exacts her revenge on Ned Seymour, savoring her new-found position, yet grieving for the loss of her love.
Young Bess is a product of Hollywood's love affair with English history. Although rife with inaccuracies, Young Bess is enjoyable when viewed through the perspective of a lover's tragedy, Simmons in her element, playing off her real-life spouse, Farley Granger. This period of history, the subject of prodigious writing and film, is always fascinating, as these historical giants stalk the chilly halls of Whitehall and the Tower of London. Luan Gaines/2005.
- 
- 