Lightdeossk
Captivating movie !
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Bob Taylor
I borrowed this set from the public library. I am one of the few people, it seems, who did not see this series when it first aired on TV over fifty years ago. I can say that it gave me quite a bit of pleasure.The performances are generally fine. Paul Daneman does a great job as Richard III, really funny and menacing. He reminded me of Olivier. Since the discovery of Richard's bones recently, we can see that he was really deformed and that Shakespeare's making him a hunchback is only just. Mary Morris as Henry VI's queen is wonderful; wide-eyed obstinacy and toughness directed at all who don't respect her husband. Sean Connery in one of his very first roles is very funny and moving as Hotspur--love those sarcastic exchanges with Glendower. And Eileen Atkins as Pucelle in Henry VI is great--sexualized, passionate, unforgettable. (Pity the director chose to give a tight close-up on Atkins's eyes at one point to show a dancer reflected in her pupils.) The rest of the cast is occasionally memorable. You're probably not going to remember who is a Yorkist and who a Lancastrian, and does it matter that much anyway? There are so many individual moments that will please you: Jack Cade's aide saying "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers!" is one, and there are many others.
Nancy Dallaire
It was so very long ago (1960), but I have never forgotten this series and often wished it would reappear. So taken with it, I corresponded with Mr. Rathbun, then president of Standard Oil, which sponsored the presentation on PBS. He sent me a photo of the tapestry (actually a charcoal rendering) used behind the credits.To the opening theme music of Bayco's "Elizabethan Masque," my family and I gathered around our black & white TV to drink in Shakespeare's words as spoken by a group of excellent but relatively unknown players (at least to American audiences at the time).We were introduced to such actors as Sean Connery, Dame Judi Dench, Tom Fleming, Patrick Garland, Julian Glover and Robert Hardy. I have continued to enjoy their accomplishments ever since. One of the most interesting things was the way in which the actors continued to age in their respective roles as Shakespeare's "King" plays were presented, perhaps for the first time, in chronological order.I wish I could tell those actors just how much that series meant to me.If "Age of Kings" could be revived on VHS and/or DVD, it would so please those of us who long to see it again and those who missed it the first time around.GOOD NEWS! PBS HAS JUST ISSUED A DVD OF "AN AGE OF KINGS"! SEE THEIR JULY 2009 CATALOG, PAGE 19, OR CALL THEM TOLL FREE. I JUST ORDERED MINE!
hilarynu
Saw this series when it was broadcast by the BBC in UK when I was a child. (All in glorious Black and White 405 line transmission). Very good introduction to the history plays of Shakespeare, and in retrospect I now realise that this was the 'cream' of classic acting of it's day and certainly not wooden or histrionic. Many of the performers went on to make splendid films/theatre/videos/radio. Viz among them Sean Connery(James Bond) would you believe.
jpphipps
I believe it has been over 40 years since I saw this series, yet memory of it hasn't faded a bit. This would be a natural for DVD re-issue, it seems to me. Many of the performers have gone on to greater fame (Robert Hardy, Sean Connery, to name a couple); though it was a smallish role, I still remember Judy Dench, then in her 20's, as Katherine of France (Henry V). She was very lovely then as now.There is a hint on this site that the series was filmed in color - is this so? Who of us would know - virtually no color TV in those days. Mores the pity, no VCR's; if so, some might have recorded it. As a way of teaching English history, this series made it come alive in ways few class room teachers can manage.What a fine re-issue this would be!
