Kadun kasvatti

The Mudlark is a story of a dark period of mourning in British history. So few love matches are found in the history of royalty that when one does occur, it's treated with great reverence. So it was with Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert who gave her a bunch of kids that have insured the succession down to today.

Albert died toward the end of 1861 of typhoid fever and Victoria went into an unusually long period of mourning. She boarded herself up in Windsor Castle, conducted her state business there, and made no public appearances for well over a decade.

Now it's the Mid-1870s and the monarchy is losing its appeal. Subjects like to see their ruler every now and then, but Victoria will not leave her seclusion.

All that is disturbed when a young street urchin played by Andrew Ray for whom the Queen has taken on mythic proportions has journeyed from London and crashed Windsor Castle, disrupting things pretty good. Of course security is breached, but Victoria gets a lesson in her duties and obligations as Queen.

Irene Dunne in her next to last big screen appearance plays a regal and imperious Victoria. A good supporting cast is led by Alec Guinness as Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and Finlay Currie as John Brown her equerry and companion. Currie is the best in this film, he fits my conception of Brown as the rough Scot who likes his drink, but loves his monarch.

An interesting tale of how the black veil of mourning for Queen Victoria is lifted.