Mary Stuart, who was named Queen of Scotland when she was only six days old, is the last Roman Catholic ruler of Scotland. She is imprisoned at he age of 23 by her cousin Elizabeth Tudor, the English Queen and her arch adversary. Nineteen years later the life of Mary is to be ended on the scaffold and with her execution the last threat to Elizabeth’s throne has been removed. The two Queens with their contrasting personalities make a dramatic counterpoint to history. – Written by alfiehitchie
It cherishes a soap-opera approach to history, condensing several decades of pretty complicated diplomacy into an account of Mary’s three marriages, her second husband’s bisexuality, Elizabeth’s quirky affair with her Master of Horses, and so on. Vanessa Redgrave is a tall, straight-backed, finely spirited Mary, and Glenda Jackson makes a perfectly shrewish, wise Elizabeth.- Roger Ebert
Starring Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Patrick McGoohan.
Note: Many found this film to be too long and too much of a soap opera, but as period dramas focusing on Mary, Queen of Scots are limited, this may of interest. Mary, Queen of Scots was the heir to James V of Scotland, crowned before her first birthday in 1542. She also claimed the English throne and became involved in a power struggle with Elizabeth I.