Rent Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948)

Royal Rumpus - Saraband for Dead Lovers review by Steve

This royal melodrama is an outlier for Ealing Studios; it is neither the social realism they usually produced after WWII, nor the issues led advocacy often directed by Basil Dearden. Also, it stars Stewart Granger, but isn't the sort of historical romp he starred in for Gainsborough or the swashbucklers he made in Hollywood.

Now it is mainly remembered as the studios' first colour production which received a (well deserved) Oscar nomination for set design. And it looks extremely lavish. But if it was meant to bring zest to a nation entrenched in postwar austerity, then it failed because the audience stayed away. And what about that gloomy title?

My best guess is this was intended as rapprochement towards Germany as it's the story of the Hanoverian King who became George I of Britain, and so a reminder of our common heritage. But then he is portrayed (by Peter Bull) as a malign rogue! Still, it looks sumptuous, particularly the masked ball, with fireworks.

But it's overwritten and Dearden obviously not at ease in historical melodrama. Granger is ok in a static role, but otherwise the casting is a disaster; Joan Greenwood barely registers as a romantic lead and Flora Robson bizarrely plays a coquette! Critics say there is some real history here, but alas, not much entertainment.