Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)

Director:

Charles Jarrott

Writers:

Maxwell Anderson (play)
Bridget Boland (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

18 December 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

He was King. She was barely 18. And in their thousand days they played out the most passionate and shocking love story in history!

Plot:

Henry VIII of England discards one wife, Katharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of the young and beautiful Anne Boleyn.

Plot Keywords:

Heir | Queen | England | King | Male Heirs

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 wins & 16 nominations

Cast

Richard Burton	...	King Henry VIII
Geneviève Bujold	...	Anne Boleyn
Irene Papas	...	Queen Katherine of Aragon
Anthony Quayle	...	Cardinal Wolsey
John Colicos	...	Thomas Cromwell
Michael Hordern	...	Count Thomas Boleyn
Katharine Blake	...	Elizabeth Boleyn
Valerie Gearon	...	Mary Boleyn
Michael Johnson	...	George Boleyn
Peter Jeffrey	...	Duke of Norfolk
Joseph O'Conor	...	Bishop Fisher
William Squire	...	Thomas More
Esmond Knight	...	Kingston
Nora Swinburne	...	Lady Kingston
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	Mendoza
Brook Williams	...	Breareton
Gary Bond	...	Smeaton
T.P. McKenna	...	Norris
Denis Quilley	...	Weston
Terence Wilton	...	Lord Percy
Lesley Paterson	...	Jane Seymour
Nicola Pagett	...	Princess Mary
June Ellis	...	Bess
Kynaston Reeves	...	Willoughby
Marne Maitland	...	Campeggio
Cyril Luckham	...	Prior Houghton
Amanda Walker	...	Anne's Lady-in-Waiting
Charlotte Selwyn	...	Anne's Lady-in-Waiting
Elizabeth Counsell	...	Anne's Lady-in-Waiting
Juliet Kempson	...	Cahterine's Lady-in-Waiting
Fiona Hartford	...	Catherine's Lady-in-Waiting
Lilian Hutchins	...	Catherine's Spanish Lady-in-Waiting
Anne Tirard	...	Catherine's Spanish Lady-in-Waiting
Amanda Jane Smythe	...	Baby Elizabeth
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kate Burton	...	Serving Maid (uncredited)
Liza Todd Burton	...	Beggar Maid (uncredited)
Harry Fielder	...	Servant (uncredited)
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Courtesan (uncredited)
Rita Tobin-Weske	...	Midwife (uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Jarrott

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Maxwell Anderson		play
Bridget Boland		writer
John Hale		writer
Richard Sokolove		adaptation

Produced by
Richard McWhorter	....	associate producer
Hal B. Wallis	....	producer

Original Music by
Georges Delerue

Cinematography by
Arthur Ibbetson

Film Editing by
Richard Marden

Casting by
Sally Nicholl

Production Design by
Maurice Carter

Art Direction by
Lionel Couch

Set Decoration by
Peter Howitt
Patrick McLoughlin

Costume Design by
Margaret Furse

Makeup Department
Ron Berkeley	....	makeup artist: Richard Burton
Joan Carpenter	....	hair stylist
Tom Smith	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
James H. Ware	....	production supervisor (as James Ware)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Simon Relph	....	assistant director
Nicolas Hippisley-Coxe	....	second second assistant director (uncredited)
Nigel Wooll	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
John Feehan	....	property master
Ferdinand Bellan	....	scenic artist (uncredited)
Andrew Campbell	....	sketch artist (uncredited)
Frank Graves	....	scenic artist (uncredited)
W. Simpson Robinson	....	scenic artist (uncredited)

Sound Department
John Aldred	....	sound dubbing mixer
Colin Miller	....	sound editor
Don Sharpe	....	dubbing editor
Robin Clegg	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Gerald Larn	....	matte painter (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Wilson	....	camera operator
Norman Gryspeerdt	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Ivy Baker	....	costume supervisor (as Ivy Baker Jones)
Vi Murray	....	wardrobe mistress (uncredited)
Arthur Newman	....	wardrobe master (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Mary Kessel	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Valerie Booth	....	continuity
Inez Easton	....	location manager
Patrick McLoughlin	....	researcher
Mary Skeaping	....	choreographer
Jeremy Taylor	....	horse master (uncredited)
Joan Williams	....	production secretary (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Hal Wallis Productions

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1969) (UK) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1969) (USA) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1979) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Universal Pictures (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• MCA Home Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (199?) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (USA) (laserdisc)
• Universal Pictures France (UPF)

Also Known As:

Anne of a Thousand Days

Runtime:

145 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (35 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (1988) | USA:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:M (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Hal Wallis Productions

Trivia:

Although "Anne of the Thousand Days" opened on Broadway in 1948, it had to wait until 1969 to be filmed, due to its frank discussions of adultery, illegitimacy, and incest, on which the storyline relies heavily. The old censorship code still existed in the 1940s and 1950s, and would not have allowed a play in which these subjects were discussed to be filmed, no matter how tastefully.

Goofs:

Continuity: Toward the end of the film, Anne uses wooden markers of one-hundred each to count her days as queen. However, she counts out only 9 markers, or only 900 days.

Quotes:

Anne: But Elizabeth is yours. Watch her as she grows; she's yours. She's a Tudor! Get yourself a son off of that sweet, pale girl if you can - and hope that he will live! But Elizabeth shall reign after you! Yes, Elizabeth - child of Anne the Whore and Henry the Blood-Stained Lecher - shall be Queen...

Movie Connections:

Version of Anna Boleyn (1920)

Grand entertainment

Anne of the Thousand Days is an enjoyably lavish entertainment from the days when duelling kings and commoners were all the rage at the box-office – Beckett, A Man For All Seasons, The Lion in Winter – before Cromwell and Mary Queen of Scots all but killed off the genre. As history, its better at the general details than the specifics, but it's magnificently staged and not without some dry wit and humour ("We used the incest excuse last time. We can't make a habit of it."), most of it intentional – there's not a writer alive who wouldn't be aware of the effect that giving Richard Burton dialogue like "Divorce is like killing – after the first time it's easy" would have on an audience. There's even some pathos in the final image of Henry callously riding off to his next bride as his last one's blood stains the hay on the executioner's scaffold. Burton is on good form before he lurched into drunken autopilot mode, and Genevieve Bujold does well as the alternately innocent and vindictive Anne Boleyn. Even the usually arch and hammy John Colicos is fine as the overambitious Thomas Cromwell, but it's the eternally undervalued Anthony Quayle who steals the acting honours as Cardinal Wolsey, even making you feel for the old monster as he falls from favour.