The Fortunes & Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (1996) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the BBC/Masterpiece version of MOLL FLANDERS (most recent version) and definitely a film to buy if you are fond of English literature adapted for film. This is a long film 3 hours and 40 minutes, and was shown over several nights on our local PBS station. I own the DVD and it is excellent. The costumes, settings, etc. are fabulous and accurate and comparable to other Masterpiece dramas on DVD such as the recently released WIVES AND DAUGHTERS.
Moll Flanders (played by Alex Kingston) was an incredibly resourceful woman. Daniel Defoe (author of ROBINSON CRUSOE, 1719) wrote Moll Flanders and in some respects Moll is a mirror-twin to Robinson. While Robinson battled nature Moll battled civilization. Civilization in late 16th-early 17th Century England was ragged around the edges. We hear much about slavery during this period, but life for the ordinary working-class male and female was just as ugly. Through Moll we learn just how ugly life could be and what it meant to survive, especially for those not "To the Manor Born" and in some cases those who were. Poverty, illness, sexism, seduction, rape, murder--Moll sees it all. In spite of all this, Moll has her moments of gracious living, so you won't be watching a poor tattered Moll during the whole film. Moll is elegantly dressed most of the time, and the settings for the action in this film include everything from the finest drawing rooms in Tudor style manors to a plantation house in the English colony of Virginia.
Moll marries five times, and each marriage is perfectly logical, pragmatic, and a choice she makes to survive. Moll turns to the camera in each instance and asks, "What would you do" much as Defoe asked the reader the same question. Her marriages face incredible odds. Her favorite beau Jemmy, played by Daniel Craig (The Ice House), surfaces over and over. Are these two star-crossed lovers or destined to be together? The end will tell.
I like Moll, and though she's been characterized as a "bad girl" I don't think she was at all. Moll took what she was handed and made the best of it. Moll was street smart before the term was invented. More than one of us is descended from someone who faced these incredible odds of survival. Does Moll beat the odds, you'll have to see the film to find out. A special treat--the wonderful Diana Rigg as Mrs. Golightly.

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FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES OF MOLL FLAN - DVD Movie

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The First Churchills (1971) Review

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(More customer reviews)Anyone seeking to widen their acquaintance with either history or historical drama need look no further than this wonderful BBC set from 1969.
Based on Winston Churchill's Marlborough: His Life and Times, this production is virtually faultless in scripting, acting, direction, costumes and just about everything else. All the settings are completely believable (putting French television's Les rois maudits into unfavourable contrast); even the battle scenes are convincingly done, although the cast is not huge.
But dominating everything is the magnificent performance of Susan Hampshire as Sarah Churchill, which justly won her an Emmy; right now I can't think of a more commanding performance in any medium, even Paul Scofield's Thomas More. Neither are any of the supporting cast less than first rate -- I must make particular mention of Margaret Tyzack's lonely and rather pathetic Queen Anne, John Standing's lovely sympathetic Sidney Godolphin, and a host of delightfully repulsive political back-stabbers and other minor characters.
I do not have Churchill's huge Marlborough opus to hand, but I do have The History of the English-Speaking Peoples, and in nearly nine hours the only historical error I noticed was a brief glimpse of a lute with machine-heads.
If you loved Elizabeth R and I, Claudius, then this saga of the most brilliant soldier of his day, sandbagged by dim-witted monarchs and spiteful politicians, will not fail to fascinate you too.

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Based on Sir Winston Churchill's biography of his ancestors, the first Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, this classic BBC miniseries is a tender love story played out amid the intrigues of the 17th-century English court. At a time when most marriages were made for money and position, Sarah Jennings and John Churchill married for love. And their love lasted throughout their long lives spent at the epicenter of political power in England. He was a military genius who never lost a battle. She was the intimate friend of a princess who later became queen. This addictive drama follows them from their budding romance in the bawdy court of King Charles II through five decades and five monarchs from the tumultuous House of Stuart. The popularity of The First Churchills helped establish Masterpiece Theatre as a venue for the best of British drama. Starring John Neville (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) as John Churchill with Susan Hampshire (Monarch of the Glen, The Pallisers) in an Emmy®-winning performance as the tempestuous Sarah. DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE an exclusive interview with Susan Hampshire, photo gallery, cast filmographies, and full-color insert with a sampling of the real love letters of Sarah and John Churchill, glossary of historical figures and terms, and House of Stuart family tree.

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