Queenie

The pace was lethargic, the acting stilted and because there were some excellent actors involved, I can only assume it was the fault of the director.If you are committed to a 4 hour TV serial, it must take a lot of skill to maintain the tension. The ending was also false and typical American/Hollywood hypocrisy. Nevertheless, it told an interesting story and most certainly was not total garbage. What I do dislike, however, is "faction", when you are never sure how much you are being told, in this case about Merle Oberon, is true. Was there actually a suspicious death in India? Was her mother her servant at any time? Was she ever involved in making a film in India? If all this was fiction, as I suspect it was, then why drag Merle Oberon's name into it anyway?

Contrary to some of the comments regarding Queenie's character and ethnicity, I wish to clarify this. Queenie, (or Merle Oberon)was not a "Eurasian". There is a vast difference between someone who is Eurasian to that of an Anglo Indian in British India. Her mother in real life was of Indian heritage whilst her father was British. If her father was from another country that would have made the family "Eurasian". I say this not for any political reasons but for historic accuracy.

I found this film most enjoyable and entertaining.The acting is superb all around. Having seen it sometime ago, I was thrilled to be able to purchase the DVD on Amazon recently.

is it Merle Oberon portrait ? maybe. but the feelings is than it is far accuracy, scene for silhouette of American dream, melodramatic and nice. it has a lead virtue - the cast. Mia Sara does a splendid work in a role who remains clone of so many fragile characters. Joss Ackland is perfect bad guy and Kirk Douglas creates an interesting drawing of providential man. but, behind atmosphere, fight of ambitious young woman, it seems be not exactly a portrait but a mask. one of Hallmark films style, slices of pink novels, it is beautiful and touching first for a special public. window out of dusty reality, it is a large isle of fiction as diaphanous curtain for a dancer.

Queenie is the television mini-series based on the novel by Michael Korda who apparently likes using his famous family as subject matter. In this one he based the lead character on his aunt by marriage, Merle Oberon.

We are NOT seeing the Merle Oberon story in Queenie. Though the protagonist was Anglo-Indian this was something she kept a secret throughout her entire life, probably at great pain to herself. What Queenie does do is show the times in the Raj when she grew up in India.

Times were not easy for the real Merle or for young Mia Sara in Calcutta in the teens and twenties of the last year. For reasons that sound abominably stupid today, the British public which wanted to let India go was blocked by some very powerful folk, chiefly Winston Churchill and press magnate Lord Beaverbrook. The racist attitudes were summed up so well by Joss Ackland where he states that we can't leave India because the Moslems and Hindus will end up killing each other, but just as long as they don't bring the fight into their club. Racial and religious antagonisms which for reasons of policy both good and bad were encouraged.

Mia Sara's character is like Ava Gardner's in Bhowani Junction, struggling hard and not feeling she belongs in either British or Indian society. What Michael Korda does in the story is allow her to have a measure of pride in her heritage, something Merle Oberon could never do in her life.

But she married well and Kirk Douglas plays the fictional David Konig, the prototype for British film producer Alexander Korda. Douglas borrows liberally from his Oscar nominated role of Jonathan Shields from The Bad and the Beautiful to play Konig. I suspect there's more Shields than Korda in his performance though.

Best performances in the film are from Claire Bloom as Sara's mother and from Serena Gordon as the vicious young lady who was Ackland's daughter and her antagonist.

Queenie was done on location in Jaipur, India a city which is known for its traditional look and probably looks more like Calcutta in the twenties than Calcutta now.

I think Merle Oberon would have approved.

"Queenie" stars Mia Sara as a half-caste young girl in India who leaves her homeland, goes to England to be discovered, and becomes a movie star. This was inspired by the life of actress Merle Oberon, who was half-caste, and in fact, the book this was based was written by her stepson Michael Korda. I have mixed feelings about that, as his book was what is called a roman a clef, a fictional book whose main character is a real person. Her plight was the basis from which all things fictional happen in the book and therefore the movie. I feel like he profited by her private life, though none of the dramatics here really happened. Not knowing or considering the real actress, the movie is a good fast-moving and involving film with Kirk Douglas as the producer who makes her a star and Claire Bloom as her mother with very soap opera-ish melodramatics. Is that redundant? I would recommend this to anyone who didn't know about the life and career of Merle Oberon, but for those who do, it may feel a bit disrespectful of her memory to indulge in Korda's imagination and fantasy.