The fad of filming two movies back-to-back does not belong exclusively to Italian genre cinema, Jess Franco or recent Hollywood fantasy blockbuster franchises; this prestigious (shot in Technicolor by future triple Oscar-winning cinematographer Freddie Young) historical epic dealing with the lengthy reign of British monarch Queen Victoria came hot on the heels of the previous year's VICTORIA THE GREAT made by the same team of stars Anna Neagle and Anton Walbrook, producer-director Wilcox and co-screenwriter Miles Malleson. Unlike most follow-ups, this does not pick up where its predecessor left off but rather depicts events that were left out of the first movie; this entails that some actors reprised the same roles here: Felix Aylmer (as Lord Palmerston), Derrick De Marney (as Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli), Walter Rilla (as Prince Ernst), Gordon McLeod (as Mr. Brown) and Joyce Bland (as Florence Nightingale). Incidentally, Neagle would later portray the latter role herself in Wilcox's biopic of THE LADY WITH THE LAMP (1951) – where Aylmer would return yet again as the Hon. Lord Palmerston, M.P.!; having said that, in the film under review, the part of The Duke of Wellington is given more screen time than in VICTORIA THE GREAT and is in fact entrusted to one of the great character actors of his time, C. Aubrey Smith (apparently graduating from a bit-part in the earlier film). Before concentrating on the film proper, here are two final pieces of trivia: George Arliss won an Oscar for portraying Disraeli in the eponymous 1929 film that I recently caught up with, as well as Wellington in THE IRON DUKE (1934; which I own but have yet to watch)! Besides, I am also familiar with another screen encounter between Queen Victoria and Disraeli in THE MUDLARK (1950; with Alec Guinness and Irene Dunne) and have THE YOUNG VICTORIA (2009) in my unwatched pile
Although I have watched VICTORIA THE GREAT on Italian TV many years ago – I cannot sensibly compare the two movies – this second installment certainly does not strike me as being made up of footage which had ostensibly been left on the cutting-room floor the first time around or a compilation of B-sides as it were; for one thing, unlike the case here, its predecessor only used Technicolor sparingly. Even so, the film does follow a rigorous episodic structure in order to confine its 60 years of eventful history into just 95 minutes of screen time: from foreigner Albert's unpopular coming to Britain as incumbent Prince Regent to reaching his zenith as the brains behind the Great Exhibition of 1851 to his early death; from Victoria's battle-of-wills with the old-fashioned Duke of Wellington over his opposition to Albert to his becoming one of their closest confidantes and his own death as they are adjudicating a traditional Scottish dance contest; from Lord Palmerston's impassioned speeches in Parliament that leave no alternative but for Britain to engage in the Crimean War (including a re-enactment of the famous incident of "The Charge Of the Light Brigade") to Disraeli's scheming to acquire the Suez Canal for Britain; from General Gordon's defeat in Khartoum to Lord Kitchener's triumph at Omdurman, etc. The film obviously ends with the death of the Queen herself at the turn of the 20th century and the people's verdict that an era had veritably been brought to a close with her passing. The end result is less an epic that a glorified depiction of the family life of the elite British society but it is no less entertaining for that; indeed, the engaging central performances, the familiar faces and events and the solid production values (including Anthony Collins' music score) carry the day admirably.
In conclusion, although the hazy print I watched was preceded by the unmistakable logo of U.S. distributor RKO Radio, the title displayed on the opening credits is still SIXTY GLORIOUS DAYS rather than QUEEN OF DESTINY – which is how it was retitled in 1941 when it was paired with the Charles Laughton-Carole Lombard comedy THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED (1940) on the other side of the pond; what is more, a compilation movie called QUEEN VICTORIA was released in Britain in 1943, which re- edited the two films together in chronological order and accidentally destroying their original individual negative into the process!
