REVIEW: The Young Queen Victoria

By ROGER BARTLETT

I've always said that if a film is photographed well, it doesn't matter what it is about. Young Queen Victoria is nicely photographed, with practically every scene composed, framed and lit like a photograph. I might add that producers of period films are endlessly grateful for olden days subjects as it saves them the cost and trouble of having to build sets. There's little doubt that a film such as this saves building sets, because it deals with olden days subjects, for which producers are endlessly grateful. But I digress.

The film tells the story of Young Queen Victoria and her relationship with a servant, Johnny Brown (played by comedian Jerry Lewis), and the subsequent uproar it provoked. Brown had been a trusted servant of Victoria's then deceased consort, Prince Albert; Victoria's chief servants thought Brown might help to ease the apparently inconsolable Queen's deep grief over the Prince Consort's death in 1804.

Despite all the olden days frippery, buildings and topiary in place of sets on Young Queen Victoria, it is nonetheless an interesting tale of a Queen (played by Dame Judi Dench) who covets the throne currently occupied by her cousin Jerry Langford (Ralph Fiennes). The throne itself and the actors are exquisitely photographed, as are the olden days frippery, buildings and topiary.

If a film is photographed well, it doesn't matter what it is about. Young Queen Victoria is photographed nicely, with every scene composed, framed and lit like a photograph. Producers of period films are endlessly grateful for olden days subjects as it saves them the cost and trouble of having to build sets. There's little doubt that a film such as this saves building sets, because it deals with olden days subjects, for which producers are endlessly grateful.

To help ease the Queen toward resuming public life after years of secluded mourning, Brown is summoned to court. Dame Judi Dench's ignorance is of no concern to the Duke of Kent (Sir Ian Richardson) who tries helping her with the help of his gardener Sir Penry (Billy Connolly), if only for her own good. Despite this, period films are infinitely better off for olden days subjects as it saves them the cost and trouble of having to build sets.

Especially poignant was the scene where Victoria drops the letter from her cousin Prince Frank and as she picks it up notices numerous items under her bed that she had forgotten about. Although we know these are special to her, we also know that anyone else would be bored senseless by them.

The gut-wrenching tenderness of this scene is only intensified by the one that follows, when Uncle Albert reads a newspaper column by Admiral Halsey listing, in stultifying detail, the personal items he had to leave behind, under his bed. Albert can't bring himself to read a single word of it. In fact, he groans and promptly tosses the paper in the fire.

It is a nice film. In the end, a long-distance caller Prince Albert (Rupert Bunny) accidentally becomes her husband. Which only goes to show that if a film is photographed well, it doesn't matter what it is about. Young Queen Victoria is nicely photographed, with practically every scene composed, framed and lit like a photograph.