Bonnie Prince Charlie

Unfortunately a number of technicolour productions made in Britain in the forties were great failures.In this case Niven was miscast and the script was a total bore.

When I saw this had a rating of 4.9 and a running time of 130 mins I was expecting a disappointing long slog of a movie and I admit it's no great film by any means but it's also no way as bad as the 4.9 rating suggests. The DVD that I watched which was from The David Niven Screen Icons collection was only 112 minutes and had a good for its age unremastered colour picture that made the most of the rich colours of the costumes and landscape. Expecting it to be a longer film I saw it in two sittings and it was hard to get into at first but by about halfway I was quite engrossed by the story and thought it was well told. No doubt its failure at the box office along with its high cost has dented its reputation but that doesn't mean it's a terrible film. I would give it a 6/10.

Bizarrely this version shows us only the aftermath of Culloden, but anyone who has ever seen Peter Watkins' 1964 cinema-verite TV version will never forget Olivier Espitalier-Noel's callow, French-accented Bonnie Prince Charlie snootily looking on from horseback as the Jacobites are routed. He couldn't be further removed from David Niven's dashing Young Pretender in this monumental Technicolor folly, upon which the critics fell en masse following a long and troubled production.

You know what to expect after the first five minutes when lovely shots by the second unit of authentic highland heather is replaced by a fascinatingly unreal studio glen where Niven meets Morland Graham as Donald the Shepherd for the first time.

And so it continues for the next two hours as scenes between men in wigs huffing & puffing alternate with further phony-looking studio exteriors shot at Shepperton in which the clouds never move; relieved by very occasional (and brief) second unit footage actually shot in Scotland, and by a darting-eyed Charles Goldner as the relentless Captain Ferguson.

I was anxious to rent Bonnie Prince Charlie, because I knew the backstage story behind the movie. David Niven met his second wife while filming in Scotland, and after a whirlwind courtship, brought her back to America. What a surprise for her to first see him on the set, blond, without his signature mustache, and in a 1700s costume!

If you're actually interested in the story, you'll get to see The Niv rallying troops and trying to take back the throne that belongs to his family. He sparks a great rebellion as he tries to assert his birthright, and along the way, he gets to romance Margaret Leighton and make friends with Jack Hawkins. I'll gladly sit through anything and everything with David Niven, but it's not really a subject matter that would normally hold my interest. Unless you really love that particular struggle of Great Britain and Scotland, you might be bored. One sad tidbit about the movie: it was a pet project of Leslie Howard, who planned to star in the movie after the war. His pal Niv took the mantle up for him.

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.