ENGLAND

ENGLAND

King Arthur

Boudica (2003) -- Boudica (died 60 or 61 AD) unites the tribes of Briton against the Roman invaders

The Viking Queen (1967) -- Druids battle occupying Romans in ancient Britain/(Boudica-like character)

X King Arthur (2004) -- the legend

X Camelot (1967) -- King Arthur and Court (legend)

X Camelot -- multi-DVD set; a French television series with a more "realistic" approach to the Arthurian legend

X Knights of the Round Table (1953)

X Siege of the Saxons (1963) – Arthur repelling an invasion of the Saxons

X Sword of Lancelot (1963)

Lancelot du Lac (Lancelot of the Lake) (1974) -- French film about Lancelot

Excalibur (1981) -- King Arthur and Court (legend)

Merlin (1998) -- Merlin fights Queen Mab who tries to destroy Arthur to save the old ways before the coming of Christianity

X First Knight (1995) -- life at Camelot

X Arthur the King (1985)

X World of Lancelot (1963) -- Cornel Wilde

House of Wessex, 802-1016:

X Alfred the Great (aka A King is Born) (1969) 9th century uniter of most of what became England

X The Saxon Chronicles (2006) -- Alfred has to flee from the Vikings

Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America (2007) -- in 1007 Vikings mistakenly leave two men behind and the men have to struggle with nature, Irish monks, Abenaki natives and their own natures to try to get back to the Viking settlement

House of Wessex (restored), 1042-1066:

Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955) -- during reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066); Norman conquest of England 1066

1066 (2009) -- Norman conquest of England in 1066 along with some Viking trouble

House of Normandy , 1066-1154:

The War Lord (1965) -- a Norman knight in the 11th century sent to built a defensive castle falls in love with a local maiden which leads to big problems

X Wilhelm Cuceritorul (William the Conqueror) (1982) -- Norman Conqueror of England, 1066

House of Plantagenet, 1154-1399 and the Crusades

Angevins: 1154-1399

X The Lion in Winter (1968) -- 1154-1189 Henry II and his estranged wife, Eleanore of Aquitaine

X The Lion in Winter (2003) TV -- ditto

Becket (1964) -- under Henry II, 1154-1189

Kingdom of Heaven -- the Third Crusade, involving Richard the Lion Hearted, among others

X El Naser Salah el Dine (Saladin)(1963) -- movie about the great Kurdish leader of the Arabs, Saladin

Soldier of God (2005) – a Knight Templar must re-examine his life after a disastrous defeat by the Saracens in 1187

X Vägen till Jerusalem (The Road to Jerusalem) (1998) – trilogy about a fictional Swedish Knights Templar named Arn Magnusson

Arn – Tempelriddaren (Arn – The Knight Templar) (2007) – part of a trilogy

X Arn – Riket vid vägens slut (Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End) (2008)– part of a trilogy

X Lionheart: The Crusade (2003) – Richard the Lion Hearted

X Lion-Heart (1987) -- Richard the Lion Hearted, son of Henry II, who ruled 1189-1199 -- ($25)

X Richard Ivinoye serdtse (Richard the Lion-Hearted) (1992) -- Russian film

X Rytsar Kennet (Knight Kenneth) (1993) -- Richard the Lion-hearted

King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) -- Christian Richard I of England faces off with Moslem Saladin

The Crusades (1935) -- historical drama from Cecil B. DeMille

Crusaders (2005) -- two young men swept up in the Crusades

X Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) -- with Errol Flynn

X Prince of Thieves (1948) -- Robin Hood against King John (1199-1216)

X Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952)

X Robin and Marian (1976) -- Robin Hood

X Robin Hood (1991) -- starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman

X Black Death (2010) – bubonic plague enters England, 1348

X Richard of Bordeaux (1955) -- Richard II (ruled 1377-1399) who took the throne at age 10 and overthrown by future King Henry IV

X König Heinrich IV (King Henry IV) (1975) – William Shakespeare adaptation

House of Lancaster (1399-1471)

X Richard of Bordeaux (1955) -- Richard II (ruled 1377-1399) who took the throne at age 10 and overthrown by future King Henry IV

The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) -- during the reign of King Henry IV of England (1399-1413), a talented and ambitious peasant tries to work his way up the ladder to knighthood and to get the hand of the fair lady of MacWorth castle

X Henry V (1989) -- Henry V (1413-1422) with Kenneth Branagh

X Henry V (1945)

House of York (1471-1485)

Princes in the Tower (2005) -- story of Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be the heir to the British throne during the reign of King Henry VII (ruled, 1485-1509), first monarch of the Tudor dynasty

X Richard III (1955) -- Shakespeare version of King Richard III, 1483-1485

Richard III -- Shakespeare version set in 1930s England

X Looking for Richard (1996) -- Richard III, that is

X Tower of London (1939) -- questionable story of Richard III with Boris Karloff and Vincent Price

X Tower of London (1962) - remake of the 1939 film

ENGLAND TO AMERICAN REVOLUTION Back to Chapter V Back to Contents

Renaissance, Reformation and Religious Conflict

John Wycliffe: The Morning Star (1984) -- Wycliffe (mid-1320s to 1384) -- early English dissident from Roman Catholic Church ; founder of Lollard Movement, predecessor to Luther

House of Tudors: 1461-1603

Henry VIII

The Shadow of the Tower (1972) -- founding of the Tudor Dynasty by Henry VII

Princes in the Tower (2005) -- story of Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be the heir to the British throne during the reign of King Henry VII (ruled, 1485-1509), first monarch of the Tudor dynasty

X The Tudors (2007)-- mini-series with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Henry VIII

X Henry VIII (2003) -- 250 minutes

X Henry VIII (1991) -- 200 minutes

X Henry VIII and his Six Wives (1973)

X Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) -- of England, 1509-1547

X Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) mini-series --

The Sword and the Rose (1953) -- Henry VIII uses his sister Mary Tudor's marriage prospects as a pawn in international politics

X The Twisted Tale of Bloody Mary (2008) -- Mary Tudor as tragic figure

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) -- struggle between the two Boleyn women to marry King Henry VIII

Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) -- Anne Boleyn, 2nd wife of Henry VIII & mother of Queen Elizabeth

X A Man for All Seasons (1966) -- Sir Thomas More won't compromise

X A Man for All Seasons (1988) -- Sir Thomas More (1509-1547) gets in deep trouble with Henry VIII

Lady Jane (1986) -- tragedy of Lady Jane Grey, immediate predecessor of Mary, Queen of England

X Nine Days a Queen (aka Tudor Rose) (1936) -- Lady Jane Grey's short life ($95 for a new VHS tape)

The Pearl of York (2007) -- first woman to die for her religious beliefs following the start of the Reformation

Elizabeth I

X Elizabeth (1998) -- Elizabeth I, 1558-1603,daughter of Anne Boleyn and niece of Mary, Queen of England

Elizabeth I -- HBO drama focusing on the private life of the "Virgin" Queen

X Young Bess (1953) Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger

X The Virgin Queen (1955) -- Bette Davis

X The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

Elizabeth R (1971) -- miniseries about Queen Elizabeth I starring Glenda Jackson

Elizabeth: the Golden Age (2007) -- Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh and the Spanish Armada; starring Cate Blanchett

X Drake of England (or Elizabeth of England) (1935) -- privateer Sir Francis Drake brings lots of money into England

X Sir Francis Drake -- 3 DVD-set (26 episodes) about the famous privateer

X Seven Seas to Calais (1962) -- Sir Francis Drake

X Drake's Venture (1980) -- Sir Francis Drake

Mary of Scotland (1936) -- with Katherine Hepburn

Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) -- executed by Elizabeth for plotting against her

The Sea Hawk (1940) -- Spanish Armada (with Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh)

Fire Over England (1937) -- British-Spanish conflict of 1500s

The Stuarts (1603-1649) and the Commonwealth (1649-1659):

X Gunpowder, Treason and Plot (2004) -- Protestant Guy Fawkes's Gunpowder Plot of 1605 against the Catholic Stuart, King James I (1603-1625)

To Kill a King (2003) -- Cromwell, General Fairfax, Mrs. Fairfax and Charles I (1625-1649) struggle over the future of England

Cromwell (1970) -- English Puritan leader, ruled England 1653-1658

X The Crimson Blade (1963) -- love affair in the time of Cromwell's struggle

By the Sword Divided (1983) -- in the English Civil War the Lacey family supports King Charles I and the related by marriage Fletcher family supports Oliver Cromwell (BBC series)

Witchfinder General (aka Conqueror Worm) (1968) -- Matthew Hopkins tours the land searching for and finding witches

X The Moonraker (1958) -- the Moonraker, the Earl of Dawlish, travels to the Windwhistle Inn on the south coast to prepare the escape of the future Charles II

Winstanley (1975) -- Gerard Winstanley leads the religious sect the Diggers to reclaim land for the poor, around 1649

X The Devil's Whore (2008) -- tv mini-series; an aristocratic lady goes through trials and tribulations because of problems associated with the English Civil War

The Stuarts (restored): 1660-1707

X Charles II: The Power and the Passion (2003) -- the restoration of the absolute monarchy for a brief time following the reign of Cromwell

X The Exile (1947) -- story of the restoration of Charles II to the English throne -- (discontinued by the manufacturer)

Restoration (1995) -- in the reign of Charles II of England 1660-1685

Forever Amber (1947) -- one of the many mistresses of Charles II

Nell Gwyn (1934) -- one of Charles II mistresses who enjoyed her great liveliness

Stage Beauty (2004) -- first woman to play the role of a woman on the stage in England under Charles II

The First Churchills (1969) -- John Churchill and his wife Sarah Jennings, ancestors of Winston Churchill

Libertine (2004) -- 17th century British poet who leads a life of debauchery

Black Swan (1942) -- Captain Morgan in Jamaica

Captain Blood (1935)-- set in the transition between James II and the reign of William and Mary

early years of House of Hanover: 1714-1901

Sarabande for Dead Lovers (1948) -- Sophie Dorothea seeks out Swedish Count Philip Konigsmark when her husband. the future King George I of Great Britain wants nothing to do with her

The Madness of King George III (1994) -- of American Revolutionary War fame

X Young Mr. Pitt (1942)

Amazing Grace (2006) -- 1807, William Wilberforce is the main force behind the passage of the bill eliminating the slave trade in the British Empire

X John Wesley (1954) -- John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of Methodism

X The Massacre of Glencoe (1971) -- massacre of the Macdonald Clan by the Campbell Clan, 1692

Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) -- British film about Prince Charles of 18th century Scotland

X The Battle of Culloden (1964) -- Bonnie Prince Charlie defeated at this 1746 battle

X Kidnapped -- a young man cheated out of his inheritance joins forces with Alan Breck, just escaping from the defeat at Culloden, to get the inheritance back

Chasing the Deer (1994) -- last Jacobite uprising; death of the Highland clans at Culloden Moor, 1746

Rob Roy (1995) -- 18th century Scotland

X Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1954) ($34)

Blackbeard (2006) -- Lt. Robert Maynard of the Royal navy is sent to the Bahamas to end Blackbeard's reign of terror

X Blackbeard the Pirate (1952) -- Edward Teach (Blackbird) captured in November 1718

X Morgan the Pirate (1961) --

X Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) -- 1787 mutiny on trip to get the breadfruit plant

X Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) -- the fictionalized story

X The Bounty (1984) -- the true story with Mel Gibson

In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) -- not only what happened on the Bounty, but what also happened afterwards

A Royal Scandal (1996) -- King George IV (ruling from 1820-1830) and Princess Caroline of Brunswick weave a tale of infidelity, illegitimacy and mistresses

X Mrs. Fitzherbert (1947) -- married the future George IV in 1785

VICTORIAN ENGLAND TO WWI. Back to Chapter VII Back to Contents

X The First Gentleman (Affairs of a Rogue) (1948) -- romance between the future King Leopold I of Belgium & the daughter of the Prince of Wales (later George IV), Princess Charlotte

X Victoria the Great (1937) -- Queen Victoria (ruled 1838-1901)

X Sixty Glorious Years (1938) -- Queen Victoria

Victoria and Albert (2001) -- love story of Victoria and Albert

X Network First: Victoria and Albert (1997) -- TV miniseries

The Young Victoria (2009) -- very charming love story of Victoria and Albert

Mädchenjahre einer Königin (Victoria in Dover) (1954) -- Victoria becomes the Queen of England and falls in love in Dover

Mrs. Brown (1997) -- Queen Victoria after death of husband Albert

X The Mudlark (1950) -- Queen Victoria after death of husband Albert

Disraeli (1978) -- the political career of Benjamin Disraeli

X The Prime Minister (1941) -- story of rise of Benjamin Disraeli who came to be the Prime Minister in 1868 and then from 1874-1880

Disraeli (1929) -- Conservative Party prime minister. George Arliss play Disraeli

Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill (1974) -- Jennie Jerome's life with Lord Randolph Churchill; parents of Winston Churchill

X Dickens of London (1976) -- 4 DVD box set of a British tv miniseries about the great British writer Charles Dickens

X Little Dorrit (1988) – novelist Charles Dickens' political indictment of early 19th century England

River Queen (2005) -- in the 1860s a young Irish woman and her family find themselves torn between the British and Maori during the British colonization of New Zealand

Utu (1983) -- in the 1870s, Te Kooti's War, a Maori soldier seeks revenge after the British army destroys his home village and kills his uncle

X The Last Stand (1938) -- Maori girl helps her people in a last stand against the British

The Four Feathers (2002) -- man declared a coward has to go to Sudan to fight the Mahdi's forces to prove he is not a coward

X In Desert and Wilderness (1973) -- two kids kidnapped by the rebels during Mahdi's rebellion in Sudan

X In Desert and Wilderness (2001) --

X Jack the Ripper (1960) -- serial killer in Victorian England 1888

X Jack the Ripper (1988)

X From Hell (2001) – Jack the Ripper

Wilde (1997) -- homosexual writer and brilliant social critic; height of career 1895

X Oscar Wilde (1960)

X The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960)

X Salome's Last Dance (1988)

X Feasting with Panthers (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1974) -- Oscar Wilde in prison

Lillie (1978) (mini) -- story of beautiful British actress Lillie Langtry admired by Prince of Wales and Oscar Wilde (as well as Judge Roy Bean of Texas)

X Topsy-Turvy (2000) -- Gilbert and Sullivan

X Elephant Man (1980) -- John Merrick with terribly disfiguring disease finally treated with some dignity (becoming a favorite of Queen Victoria)

Edward VII (1901-1910)

Edward the Seventh (a.k.a. Edward the King) (1975) -- the life of Queen Victoria's son who became Edward VII

George V (1910-1936):

Carrington (1995) -- love affair between painter Dora Carrington and gay author Lytton Strachey

CRIMEAN WAR -- Russia (under Nicholas I & Alexander II) vs. Turkey (Ottoman Empire), England and France (under Napoleon III)

Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) -- Crimea, 1854-1856

Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) -- love triangle in India solved by British involvement in the Crimean War

Charge of the Lancers (1954) -- affairs set against the Crimean War

Florence Nightingale (1986) -- the great nurse at work during the Crimean War fighting against prejudice to be of service to the soldiers

Lady with a Lamp (1951) -- nurse-crusader Florence Nightingale

X The White Angel (1936) -- Florence Nightingale ($45)

X Bronte (1983) -- Irish film

X Les Soeurs Bronte (Bronte Sisters) (1979) French film

X Devotion (1946) -- Bronte sisters

X The Brontes of Haworth (1973) -- TV mini-series about the Brontes

Great Britain:

X Made in Dagenham (2010) -- female workers walk out in protest against sexual discrimination in 1968 at the Ford Dagenham car plant

X Titanic (1997) -- 1912 sinking of the passenger ship Titanic

X S.O.S. Titanic (1979)

X Titanic (1953) -- 1912 sinking

X A Night to Remember (1958) -- 1912, sinking of the Titanic

X Atlantis (1930) -- fictionalized story of Titanic

X Atlantik (1929) -- fictionalized story of Titanic

X The Unsinkable Molly Brown -- 1912, lively survivor of the sinking of the Titanic

Gallipoli and Turkey:

Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) (2006) -- soldiers on both sides call a Christmas truce in 1914 and are punished for it

Gallipoli (1981) -- British, New Zealander and Australian troops against Turkey (Ottoman Empire), 1915

X The Battle of Gallipoli (Tell England) (1931) -- Battle of Gallipoli 1915

Western Front 1916 onwards:

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) -- horrifying effect of trench warfare and its impact on a small cohort of young German soldiers

All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) -- ditto

X Le Conscrit (The Conscript) (1974) -- Belgium film that illustrates the appalling condition under which soldiers were forced to serve

The Trench (1999) -- 1st of July 1916, "The day British idealism died "

Britannic (2000) -- sinking of the sister ship of the Titanic, November 1916

The Monocled Mutineer (1986) -- 2 DVD set of a tv series about the mutiny of soldiers against the harsh British training Camp Etaples, France in 1917 on the eve of the Passchendaele battle, June 11, 1917

Passchendaele (2008) -- Battle of Passchendaele (June-November 1917) in which 10th Battalion of 1st Canadian Division set record for highest number of individual bravery awards for a single battle

X Mata Hari, agent H21 (1964) -- with Jeane Moreau (currently unavailable)

X The Lost Prince (2003) -- Prince John, the youngest child of King George V and Queen Mary of Great Britain, who died of epilepsy at the age of 13 in 1919

All the King's Men (1999) -- a military company from the estate of the mother of King George V just seems to disappear

Behind the Lines (a.k.a., Regeneration) (1998) -- Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, two of England's most important WW1 poets

X Legends of the Fall (1994) -- very good WWI trench combat scenes

My Boy Jack (2007) -- Author Rudyard Kipling pushes to get his son into the army; son is reported missing, probably wounded; Mrs. Kipling moves heaven and earth to learn the truth about what happened

Aces High (1976) -- RAF squadron and its high turn-over

X Eagle & Hawk (1933) -- air war with Royal Air Force squadron

Dawn Patrol (1938) -- Errol Flynn; air war with British flying aces

X Testament of Youth (1979) -- tv mini-series based on Vera Brittain's autobiography for the years 1913-1925 who becomes a nurse & is almost overwhelmed at seeing the faces of dead and horribly wounded friends and family

Time Between WWI and WWII:

Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978) (mini) -- in 1936 King Edward VIII abdicates in favor of marrying the former Mrs. Simpson

Bertie and Elizabeth: The Reluctant Royals (2002) - The Story of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth (2002)

The King's Speech (2010) -- story of King George VI and his speech therapist

Gathering Storm (2002) -- Winston Churchill warns against the rising power of fascist Germany

X Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years --- 4 DVD box set; in 1929 Churchill was nearly cut completely out of power; 10 years later he makes a come-back

X Glorious 39 (2009) – mystery surrounding anti-appeasement movement before WWII

They Flew Alone (Wings and the Woman) (1942) -- 1930's British pioneer aviatrix Amy Johnson

Post-War England

Into the Storm (2009) -- Winston Churchill during and after World War II

X Soho Boho (2005) -- bohemian life in post-war England

Scandal (1989) -- John Profumo scandal in England

X Bradford Riots (2006) -- TV movie about tension between far-right fanatics and Asians in the Manningham area of Bradford leads to riots

CIVIL RIGHTS -- GREAT BRITAIN

My Beautiful Launderette (1986) -- multiculturalism in Great Britain

My Son the Fanatic (1997) -- Pakistani taxi-driver caught between British culture and Islamic fundamentalism

Vera Drake (2004) -- simple woman sent to prison for giving poor women abortions with no charge

CIVIL RIGHTS -- NORTHERN IRELAND

X The Dawn (aka The Dawn over Ireland) (1938) -- the "troubles" in Ireland in the early nineteen hundreds

Bloody Sunday (2002) -- quasi-documentary style dealing with Br soldiers firing on a peaceful civil rights demonstrators

X Sunday (2002) -- about Bloody Sunday

Some Mother's Son (1996) -- mother becomes involved in IRA hunger strike

Hunger (2008) -- last ten weeks of the life of Bobby Sands, an Irish Republican Army hunger striker who starved himself to death

Cal (1984) British film based in Northern Ireland

In the Name of the Father (1993) -- British try to frame innocent for bombings by I.R.A.

The Boxer (1997) -- set in Northern Ireland

Omagh (2004) -- aftermath of the 1998 IRA bombing that killed 29 people in Omagh, Northern Ireland

The Crying Game (1992) -- a Br soldier, Jody, is captured by the IRA; Jody develops a friendship with IRA man Fergus, things go wrong & Fergus winds up seeing Jody's girlfriend

This is the Sea (1997) -- troubles for a Protestant and a Catholic who fall in love in Northern Ireland

X Mo -- Labor politician Mo Mowlam serves as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and signs the Good Friday Peace Agreement April 10, 1998 on Good Friday