Dir: Terence Young | Drama
Terence Young was riding high on his reputation as the original director of James Bond when he was entrusted to make an opulent new version of the tragic love story of Prince Rudolf and Marie Vetsera that ended in tears at Mayerling in 1889.
Despite a distinguished supporting class headed by James Mason as Franz Joseph and Ava Gardener as the Emperor Elizabeth, an expensive production and Khachaturian on the soundtrack to give it a veneer of class, as a whole it’s all rather tinny and lifeless. Omar Shariff isn’t really mad enough to be convincing as Rudolf and even with the addiction of spectacles Catherine Deneuve is too robust to be so easily persuaded to cooperate in Rudolf’s (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) mad scheme. @RichardChatten
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