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Top Seven Prince Henry Tudor Movies, in no particular order, a review by Hailey Lane, the definitive Tudor Reviewer
The Prince and His Princess (1949)
Most people think of the Broadway play since they haven’t seen the original movie, but Prince and His Princess is a stellar musical and rollicking good fun. It was actually the Prince and His Princess that got me started on Tudors. Danny Kaye, playing a dashing Prince Henry, sings and swings a sword in what was probably great choreography for the day (but now looks just a little silly). But you can tell Kaye is having just as much fun as the audience. Additionally, Basil Rathbone plays a wonderfully debonair Cesare Borgia and Barbara Bates is sweet as Princess Reneé.
And yeah, it’s campy, the Father’s Loss le motif is a little overused, and all the downer parts of Tudor history are totally ignored, but damn, you can’t help smiling after watching it.
The Decade of Anne Boleyn (2013)
Carey Mulligan has always been a problematic Anne Boleyn for me. Mulligan does a stellar job and watching her you get swept up in the story. But, for me, she comes off just too harsh to be Anne Boleyn. All of her contemporaries agree, for good or ill, that Anne Boleyn was charming. And Mulligan’s Anne Boleyn is just too sharp.
But the sharpness fits to the story. Unlike other movies about Anne Boleyn, her marriage to Prince Henry doesn’t take center stage. Instead the movie focuses on the religious efforts of Anne Boleyn and all she accomplished during the last decade of her life. Mulligan’s Anne Boleyn is driven and committed to the cause.
On the whole a very textured movie, and even with the conflicting interpretations of Anne Boleyn, I really enjoy this movie.
Lovely, Lovely Anne (2002)
Somewhere between a RomCom and a Historical Drama, Lovely, Lovely Anne is probably the most watched Tudor film of all time. Anne Hathaway has always been my favorite Anne Boleyn. Hathaway works well with Kenneth Charles Branagh who plays Prince Henry. Poignant and funny, thoughtful and playful, the movie straddles the cheer and joy of the courtship of Anne Boleyn and Prince Henry with the stress struggles from Prince Henry’s responsibilities as Regent for his son.
The film does pretty much drop the religious struggles of the day, choosing to focus on the Tudor family and exaggerate the disproval regarding Anne Boleyn and Prince Henry’s marriage. But it’s got great dialog and amazing costuming. All around great movie.
Anne and Reneé (2019)
Anne and Reneé simultaneously portrays two of Prince Henry’s marriages: his second to Anne Boleyn and his second to last with Princess Reneé.
Callum Turner wonderfully portrays just how dependent Prince Henry was on Anne Boleyn. Hailee Steinfeld does a wonderful job capturing Anne’s determination and religious fervor, really really intense religious fervor.
Jennifer Garner captures the balance between Princess Reneé’s fighting spirit and a sort of dignified fragility. But the best is Jeff Goldblum as Prince Henry. There’s one point during the movie where Prince Henry and Princess Reneé are talking religion and Prince Henry call her Anne, it’s a brutal heartrending scene, and Goldblum captures is perfectly.
The Two Princes (1995)
Now, normally I don’t like remakes. In general I think they’re pointless and derivative. But, as hard as it it to admit, The Two Princes (1995) remake of 2 Princes (1972), is much better than the original. Both films portray Cesare Borgia’s time as Prince Henry’s hostage, but after that they differ. 2 Princes (1972) is campy cheesy B-Flick. The Two Princes is an Indi film before Indie was a thing.
While neither film has anything resembling a plot, just series of loosely related events with no climax or finish, The Two Princes comes of as purposeful, a slice of life, instead of 2 Princes’s “I ran out of funds and can’t finish” wet mess.
Kalmar’s Birth (1965)
Kalmar’s Birth is the only Prince Tudor film to make this list that isn’t in English. The Kalmarian Film is at the heart a national film. It is rife with Kalmarian imagery and allusions towards future monarchs of the Kalmar Union.
One of the more positive portrayals of King John Albert, the film focuses on the effect both King John Albert And Prince Henry on Queen Mathilde. As the daughter of King John Albert, much of the film is taken up by flashbacks to her childhood. Even though Queen Mathilde never met her illustrious great-grandfather in person, the film does an amazing job of showing the effect Prince Henry has on her life.
The Last Trip (2014)
For all the setting lends itself to an Historical Drama, The Last Trip is most commonly known as a Father’s Day film. Many channels play the movie every year on father’s Day. The majority of the film deals with Prince Henry and the variety in his relationships with his many children.
The lion’s share of the film dwells on the relationship between Prince Henry and his youngest, Edmund Tudor. Thomas Brodie-Sangster does a wonderful job as young Edmund Tudor and plays off Daniel Craig’s Prince Henry (though Craig is much to young to play Prince Henry during the last trip) wonderfully.