1994 - THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE, yes another film about the British royals

Yes, it's another film about British royalty which means powdered wigs, women's gowns with lots of major bosom uplift and lots of uniforms and starched pants.  The film is adapted from the play of almost the same name.  The play is actually called The Madness of King George III.  For some reason they dropped the roman numerals in the screen version.

 

 

The film is a character study of England's King George The III the monarch who saw the American colonies gain their independence from England.  Apparently George The III had a few mental problems which is the story line of the play.  The drama comes from seeing if George will get his marbles back before the British Parliament strips him of his powers and gives them to his indolent son.

The cast is one of those only in England can we find this bunch.  Ian Holm, Rupert Everett, Rupert Graves, Amanda Donohoe, Geoffrey Palmer, Helen Mirren (with her clothes on for a change) and Nigel Hawthorne recreating his stage role as the nutty King.

The film is a good character study and very well acted although George the III is so extremely dislikable when he's sane that it's a little hard to work up much sympathy for him when he is trying to recover from his mental illness.  In any case the film is probably best enjoyed by that certain bunch of people known as Anglophiles.  Frankly, you can see this kind of stuff on public television Sunday nights often.

107 minutes, written by the playwright Alan Bennett.