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Lady Jane
For Historical Dramas, Hal Wallis is superb. Mary, Queen of Scots and Anne of The Thousand Days were both excellent movies. Lady Jane could have received Five Stars except for the historical misrepresentation of her head over heels love for Guildford Dudley, whom she at best tolerated. Lady Jane was a victim of parents who were cowards, especially her mother Lady Frances Brandon who "waived" her right to the Throne of England as well as the death by beheading sure to follow an unsuccessful usurpation of the Crown. Lady Frances had the Tudor ruthlessness as well as a streak of cruelty towards her daughter absent in other members of the Tudor Royal Family. Jane's mother was first cousin to English Queens MARY and ELIZABETH as well as King EDWARD VI and JAMES V of Scotland but this was barely touched on in the movie. John Wood's performance as Northumberland is superb as is Jean Laportaire as MARY TUDOR. It is ironic that MARY's mother Catherine of Aragon's marriage was conditional on the beheading of the last male Plantagenet, demanded by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain of HENRY VII while their granddaughter MARY was forced to execute another royal claimant of Tudor and Plantagenet blood as a condition to marry Archduke Philip, Prince of Spain - and as with her mother resulted in a wretched life and miserable sad death for both mother and daughter whom many claimed at the time were cursed as a result of shedding innocent blood for their marriages. Lady Jane's mother Frances, Duchess of Suffolk married very quickly after the death of her daughter and husband as she was pregnant by her horse master Adrian Stokes. The baby died and so did the scheming duchess whom history doesn't record as having plead to her cousin Queen Mary for her daughter's life. The duchess should have been the one beheaded, not her daughter the innocent pawn Lady Jane. As a historical note the Queen Mother of England is descended from Lady Jane's sister Katherine Grey, while Cary Elwes who played Guildford Dudley is actually descended from Guildford Dudley's elder brother Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick. Another irony is the last male Plantagenget who was executed by HENRY VII was also styled Earl of Warwick. Lady Jane and Guildford Dudley were also distantly related by being descended from England's King EDWARD I, the king made infamous by the movie BRAVEHEART which was entertaining but historically almost worthless as a work of non fiction.

A historical tragedy turned into more of a fictional romance
One of the most interesting instances of genetic and gender in the history of Western Civilization is found with the death of King Edward VI of England at the age of 15 in 1553. Too young to leave heirs, his older half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth Tudor were both considered illegitimate because of the martial history of their father Henry VIII. Going through the Tudor family the only other potential claimants, Mary of Scotland and Lady Jane Grey, were also female. It seemed that God that determined that a woman would sit on the throne of England and the political question was who that woman would be. The one with the best claim was Mary Tudor, but she was a devout Catholic and the creation of the Anglican Church had created a religious schism in England that would turn ugly with her on the throne.

Lady Jane first became connected with the English crown as a potential mate for young Edward, who was more interested in Mary of Scotland or another foreign princess. Jane was supposedly betrothed to the duke of Somerset's son, Lord Hertford, but was then informed by her parents that she was to wed Guildford Dudley, the youngest son of the duke of Northumberland. Handsome and only one year her senior, Jane did not like him and refused the marriage until her mother literally beat her into submission. The couple were married in May of 1553 and lived apart, although the marriage was consummated the following month at the expressed command of Northumberland. Jane was then informed that she had been named Edward's heir three days before the king's death. Northumberland kept Edward's death a secret in order to stop Mary Tudor from claiming the crown and made a speech announcing Jane was the new queen. Forced to accept the title, Jane dismissed the idea that her husband would be made king. When Northumberland went forth with his army to meet that of Mary, who was marching on London, the royal council declared Mary queen and Jane's own father signed the declaration. On November 13 Jane and Guildford we tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Jane believed the Queen would pardon her, but the revolt against Mary by Sir Thomas Wyatt in February 1554 hardened her heart against her enemies. Within days Guildford was executed, with Jane being beheaded on February 11th.

None of this historical information consistutes a spoiler because anyone familiar with the kings and queens of England knows that there was never a Queen Jane and even those unfamiliar with the specifics of English history will be aware early on that this is going to be a tragic tale. Even so, the 1986 film "Lady Jane" from director Trevor Nunn would more properly be considered a historical romance, with the emphasis more on the romance than the history as the marriage between Jane (Helena Bonham Carter) and Guilford (Cary Elwes) is turned into a tragic love story. Jane is presented as an intellectual (you would like to see her and Elizabeth Tudor have a conversation), and given a sense of nobility in that she and her husband apparently intend to rule in their own names, not only because it will thwart the plans of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (John Wood), but also because it is the right thing to do. In bed they tend to talk about their idealistic plans, such as not branding men or sending them into slavery because they are starving.

This new version of Lady Jane's marriage and her new found political ambitions work to add to the tragedy of her execution at the hands of Bloody Mary, even though her being an unwilling pawn in the machinations of some one else's power games makes her enough of a tragic figure. You have to appreciate the irony that these two privileged children of the British class system were idealistic friends of the common folk. The cast features the standard collection of British character actors, with Michael Hordern as Doctor Feckenham, Mary's teacher, Jane Lapotaire as Princess Mary, Joss Ackland as Sir John Bridges, and Sara Kestleman as Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk and Jane's mother. For me the low moment in the film is when Jane is betrayed by her father, especially since Patrick Stewart plays Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. Of course, both Bonham Carter and Elwes have gone on to much better films, although I was surprised that she made this after "A Room With a View," one of those much better films. "Lady Jane" runs a bit long, especially given that Jane's "reign" only lasted nine days, and while the fictional romance has its moments I would hope that one day the bleak reality of what happened to this young girl becomes the subject of another film.