There was an English Civil War and we beheaded our own king. I think that's Big History. And then Cromwell became a kind of dictator without a Parliament. In many ways the most interesting part of the story is what follows - Cromwell's strictly religious Puritan England where celebrations like Christmas and Easter were discouraged, as was the performance of music and plays. Or Cromwell's massacre of innocents in Ireland.
What we're given is an expensive interesting film of most interest I guess seeing Richard Harris scowling and shouting as Cromwell and Alec Guinness being as subtle as ever as Charles.
Those big battle scenes must have cost a fortune and taken ages to film, avoiding English weather these scenes were shot in Spain. Parliament Square was recreated at Shepperton. Geoffrey Unsworth shot it in Panavision with Wilkie Cooper on second unit.
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| The money shot that opens the picture |
Has a good part for Michael Jayston. Also with Dorothy Tutin, Robert Morley, Frank Finlay, Timothy Dalton, Patrick Magee, Charles Gray, Geoffrey Keen.
Can't believe they'd start a battle with "Shall we say, ten o'clock?" "Let's make it nine - I'm starving!" sort of thing.
Composer: Frank Cordell. Editor: Bill Lenny. Production design: John Stoll. Costumes: Nino Novarone. Columbia.
Ken Hughes was a writer-director known for things like Joe MacBeth (1955), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), and The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963), progressed into bigger budget stuff like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Career sank after this.
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