Bonnie Prince Charlie

Upon it's much delayed initial release, Bonnie Prince Charlie was a huge flop and even now, 70 years later, it's easy to see why. It's just plain dull.

The script, apparently revised repeatedly, manages to extract all suspense and intrigue from the tale of The Young Pretender attempting to establish Stuart royal claims over England and Scotland. The movie plays out theatrically, like some light, frothy,,drawing room farce, with none too many Scottish accents to be heard.

Poor old David Niven, (one of my personal favourites) is hopelessly miscast as Charlie and never convinces us, let alone all the Scottish nobles he depended on for support, of his rightful credentials to the throne.

Those expecting a rousing adventure filled with battle scenes need to think again. In this well over 2 hour film, the singular skirmish, takes up barely a minute of screen time and then ends up serving more as comic relief, it is so poorly staged. This is cinema where actors stand around and talk about various actions, without the audience being shown anything.

It's said that especially in the UK, Charlie's tale is an eternally popular one. If this is the case, may be some producer could do worse than seek to remake a far more exciting, suspenseful 21st century production, than this turkey.