''The Queen's Guards'' is a 1961 military drama film directed by

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...

from a script by Simon Harcourt-Smith and Roger Milner. It stars Daniel Massey,

Raymond Massey Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice. For his lead role in '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Amo ...

Robert Stephens Sir Robert Graham Stephens (14 July 193112 November 1995) was a leading English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. He was one of the most respected actors of his generation and was at one time regarded as the nat ...

, and Ursula Jeans. ''The Queen's Guards'' was made after Michael Powell had shot ''

Peeping Tom Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...

'' but before it was released. When ''Peeping Tom'' was released there was such an outcry that Powell never directed another feature film in Britain. Powell later called the film "the most inept piece of filmmaking that I have ever produced or directed. I didn't write the story (weak) or the screenplay (abysmal) but I take all the flak."

Plot

The film tells the story of John Fellowes ( Daniel Massey), an officer in the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

as he prepares for the

Trooping the Colour Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed every year in London, United Kingdom, by regiments of the British Army. Similar events are held in other countries of the Commonwealth. Trooping the Colour has been a tradition of British infantry regi ...

ceremony on 11 June 1960. John is the son of retired guardsman Capt. Fellowes (

) and Mrs. Fellowes ( Ursula Jeans). John's older brother was also a Guards officer, but he was killed in action and John feels he is being forced to follow in his brother's footsteps. The film follows John through his training where he makes some mistakes in an exercise and is told that it was a mistake like that which got his brother and a lot of his men killed at an oasis. But he makes friends with Henry Wynne-Walton (

) and Henry is invited home to meet Mr. and Mrs. Fellowes. Mr. Fellowes is quite fanatical about the Guards. The eldest son in the family has been a Guards officer for as long as anyone can remember, and they even live next door to the Guards barracks in London. Capt. Fellowes is disabled, his legs don't work and he hauls himself around the house by hooking canes into loops on an overhead rail. This system was designed by the elder brother that John is always expected to live up to. His mother thinks that the elder brother is just "missing in action" and will return someday. The father knows he's really dead but never seems to give John a chance. John is dating Ruth (Judith Stott), the daughter of George Dobbie ( Ian Hunter), a haulage contractor. When John goes to see Mr. Dobbie he tells John that he was fighting in the desert and was let down by a platoon of Guards that were meant to hold a certain position – the platoon that was led by John's brother. Months later John is in command of a unit of Guardsmen involved in a combat operation in an unnamed desert country. John leads an assault on a fortress held by some rebels. All the time he is haunted by thoughts about how his brother died, John manages to defend against a counter-attack until Henry arrives with his men in their armoured scout vehicles. The mission is a success. John has managed to do what his elder brother could not. Back in London, all is in readiness for the Trooping the Colour ceremony. Mr. Dobbie overcomes his dislike of the Guards to accompany Ruth to the ceremony. Capt. Fellowes manages to haul himself upstairs to see the ceremony out of the window. John is given the honour of commanding the colour party.

Cast

* Daniel Massey as John Fellowes *

as Henry Wynne-Walton *

as Capt. Fellowes * Ursula Jeans as Mrs. Fellowes *Judith Stott as Ruth Dobbie *

Elizabeth Shepherd Elizabeth Shepherd (born 12 August 1936) is an English character actress whose long career has encompassed the stage and both the big and small screens. Her television work has been especially prolific. Shepherd's surname has been variously ren ...

as Susan *

Frank Lawton Frank Lawton Mokeley (30 September 1904 – 10 June 1969) was an English actor. His parents were stage players Daisy May Collier and Frank Lawton (I). His first major screen credit was ''Young Woodley'' (1930). In the mid-1930s, Lawton appe ...

as Commander Hewson *

Duncan Lamont Duncan William Ferguson Lamont (17 June 1918 – 19 December 1978) was a British actor.Brian McFarlane (Ed): ''The Encyclopedia of British Film'' (BFI/Methuen • London • 2000) p397''Picture Show Who's Who on the Screen'' (Amalgamated Pre ...

as Wilkes *Peter Myers as Gordon Davidson * Ian Hunter as Mr. George Dobbie *

Jess Conrad Jess Conrad (born Gerald Arthur James; 24 February 1936) is an English stage and screen actor and singer. As a boy he was nicknamed "Jesse" after American outlaw Jesse James; as there was already an actor named "Gerald James" in Actors' Equity, a ...

as Dankworth

Cast notes

*Raymond Massey was the father of Daniel Massey and

Anna Massey Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011) was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel ''Hotel du Lac'', a role that one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, h ...

, who had one of the main roles in Powell's ''

''. *This was the only occasion Raymond and Daniel Massey appeared on film together.

Production

Powell says the film was based on the idea of a friend of his, Simon Harcourt-Smith, who was inspired watching the Household Cavalry outside Buckingham Palace. His basic idea was to encapsulate the story of a British military family with the ceremony of Trooping the Colour, where the climax would be the arrival of the Queen to take the salute. Powell was enthusiastic - "I'm a sucker for stories about the services," he said. He sold the story to

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

and the Queen gave her permission to film the Trooping of the Colour. Roger Milner wrote a script. Powell liked Milner, but said he was "more a sketch artist than a full blown dramatist" and "our collaboration was uneasy." He later said the film was "a broken backed feature when it should have been a family saga and an epic of military glory... We shouldn't have tried to compete with AEW Mason." Though released as "A

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

Picture" with a CinemaScope credit at the beginning of the film, ''The Queen's Guards'' was filmed in

Technirama __NOTOC__ Technirama is a screen process that has been used by some film production houses as an alternative to CinemaScope. It was first used in 1957 but fell into disuse in the mid-1960s. The process was invented by Technicolor and is an anamor ...

. 35mm Technirama release prints were compatible with CinemaScope release prints. In March 1960 Powell and several crew members were invited by the War Office to accompany the Guards on a NATO exercise in Libya. Powell had worked with Raymond Massey several times before. It was Daniel Massey's film debut. The intention of this film appears to have been to promote the Guards regiment in some way. Powell was certainly given access to the Guards barracks and to their training areas on

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wit ...

. He was given permission to include many sequences of real guardsmen at the Trooping of the Colour But the production, especially the plot, is very scrappy with many details left unexplained. According to the second assistant director Michael Klaw the script was rewritten constantly during production. Klaw says that although the action scenes were set in Kenya during the

Mau Mau Uprising The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the ''Mau Mau'', an ...

, the Guards never actually served in Kenya. Sequences set in Libya were meant to be shot on location but the studio cut the budget at the last minute and so they had to be filmed in England.

Historical background

When on ceremonial duties outside

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

and at

Horse Guards Parade Horse Guards Parade is a large parade ground off Whitehall in central London (at grid reference ). It is the site of the annual ceremonies of Trooping the Colour, which commemorates the monarch's official birthday, and the Beating Retreat. H ...

, the Regiments of Guards wear red

dress uniform Full dress uniform, also known as a ceremonial dress uniform or parade dress uniform, is the most formal type of uniforms used by military, police, fire and other public uniformed services for official parades, ceremonies, and receptions, ...

s and

Bearskin A bearskin is a tall fur cap, usually worn as part of a ceremonial military uniform. Traditionally, the bearskin was the headgear of grenadiers, and remains in use by grenadier and guards regiments in various armies. Bearskins should not be c ...

s (not Busbys). Originally the

sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'. The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...

's own troops, and some of the oldest regiments in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

. They perform most of the ceremonial duties at state occasions, but they are not just "toy soldiers" intended only for public display. They are fighting regiments that also do ceremonial duties. One of the main aims of the film was to show this. There are two mounted regiments of guards, the

Life Guards Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy transf ...

and the

Blues and Royals The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons) (RHG/D) is a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry Regiment. The Colonel of the Regiment is Anne, Princess Royal. It is the second-most senior regiment in ...

. There are five regiments of foot, the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

, the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

, the Scots,

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

and

Irish Guards ("Who Shall Separate s") , colors = , identification_symbol_2 Saffron (pipes), identification_symbol_2_label = Tartan , identification_symbol = , identification_symbol_label = Tactical Recognition F ...

. The mounted regiments can be differentiated by the colour of their uniforms (Life Guards – red, Blues & Royals – blue) and the regiments of foot by the arrangement of their buttons (and their cap badges and collar tabs if you get close enough). Grenadiers have evenly spaced buttons on the front of their tunics, Coldstream have buttons in pairs, Scots in threes, Irish in fours and Welsh in fives. In their combat roles, the Guards are light armoured and reconnaissance troops. In '' A Bridge Too Far'' (1977),

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

leads a squadron of Irish Guards to spearhead the ground-based push towards

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...

. The ceremony of "Trooping the Colour" dates back to the distant past. "The Colour" is the regimental flag with all their battle honours on it. So that they could properly recognise and thus know which side they were on and where they should rally, the Colour would be paraded (trooped) in front of the regiment in a special parade before a battle. This was then turned into a ceremony. Because of the importance attached to the Colour, it is considered a great honour to be the soldier actually carrying it (the ensign), one of the Colour party protecting it, or to be in charge of the Colour party.

Reception

''The Queen's Guards'' almost entirely disappeared after its initial release. Contemporary reviews of it were not kind, and it had only a short run in cinemas, and was shown on British television just once. Michael Powell said that 20th Century Fox "didn't like the film... they didn't understand it."

References

Notes

External links

* * *
''The Queen's Guards''
at

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

''The Queen's Guards''
reviews and articles at th
Powell & Pressburger Pages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Queen's Guards, The 1961 films 1961 drama films 1960s English-language films Films directed by Michael Powell Films by Powell and Pressburger Grenadier Guards Guards Division (United Kingdom) Films set in London British drama films Films set in 1960 20th Century Fox films CinemaScope films 1960s British films Fictional soldiers