Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The tale is told in flashback by her former governess Catherine Ashley (Kay Walsh), just before Bess' Coronation ceremony. Film follows Bess from birth to her falling in love with another woman's husband through Court politics and treachery.Charles Laughton is good, if somewhat hammy, as King Henry VIII. His deathbed scene takes forever.Deborah Kerr is OK as the rather frail Katharine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII; she looks too healthy and pretty to be ill. Apparently, she's afflicted with a dread disease that leaves her looking lovely, with perfect make-up, not a hair out of place and in soft focus, while it kills. Actually, Parr died in childbirth after becoming immediately pregnant with Thomas Seymour's child after her marriage, while her four year marriage to Henry produced no offspring. This rather puts to bed (pardon the saying) Henry's affirmation that Henry was virile and sexually active up to his death. But I digress. Stewart Granger's Thomas Seymour is appropriately heroic and apparently gifted with second sight. It's too bad he wasn't gifted with two heads. Simmons is very good in the title role. Her voice has the commanding tones of one accustomed to being obeyed, and she convincingly ages from around ten to age 25. She is the best part of the film.Director George Sidney uses a subtle and effective trick to get the viewer on Simmons' side. In her scenes, the furniture is immense (in one scene, she sits in a chair that is twice her size), suggesting that Bess is dwarfed by the events taking place around her.The film received well deserved Oscar nominations for Best Art Direction and Costumes. "Young Bess" is a good showcase for Simmons' acting talents.

Yes, it's about a romantic love conflict during the time Queen Elizabeth I was developing into womanhood, but it's not as bad as some. The costumes are colorful and the acting meets professional standards, in the case of Charles Laughton as Henry VII, rather beyond that. What a slob. I had to memorize all these kings and queens in high school. I remember all of them precisely -- Ethelred the Black, Frederik the Fatuous, Donald the Impotent, and Ivan the Terrible. Maybe I remember them as well as I do because the class was taught by the venomous and ill-favored Miss Chelydra Serpentina, Spinster, she who must be obeyed.I've always kind of liked Jean Simmons, who plays Bess. She's not strikingly beautiful but she was splendid as Ophelia in Olivier's "Hamlet" and perfect as Estella in "Great Expectations." She's also good natured. I watched a location shoot in Echo Park and she played chipper word games with Ed Asner, a monster egotist. Here's Asner, shouting angrily to the director, "All right, let's get this thing going -- or are we only here to amuse the public!", meanwhile staring around and basking in the attention.Stewart Granger is always likable too, handsome, sun tanned, and sporting a reassuring baritone. Unluckily he's cast in the part of the Admiral who loves two women at the same time -- the sassy and independent Jean Simmons, and the delicate and understanding Deborah Kerr. He pays for it, traduced by his own brother.You'll probably enjoy it. It's a commercial entity. There are no scenes of action but not much abject sobbing either. A decent semi-historical love story with impressive wardrobe and production design.

Historical facts are very difficult to draw in films. I think that this material tried to present some features of lives of Elizabeth (Jean Simmons, his father and the members of the council once his father, the cruel King Henry VIII (Charles Laughton), died. The plot went through the love triangle of Bess and Catherine Parr (Deborah Kerr) with Thomas Seymour (Stewart Granger), a man loyal to the King but very much in love with Catherine and then with Elizabeth. It was clear that the council was doing everything possible to keep Elizabeth away from the throne, something that happened at the end of the film suddenly and without much explanation. At least someone like me, not knowing well this story, finished with several questions, whether her brother (the successor to the throne) died?, what happened to Ned Seymour?, the main instigator of the assassination of his brother Tom and the main one avoiding Bess to govern. May be with more complete plot and perhaps time for the film, this story may have looked much better than it is.

This is an entertaining movie and not a documentary. So, why not show "how it could have happened". This is what makes history interesting and exciting. The story is very well written, the actors are superb. And there is this sparkling chemistry between Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr I miss so much in modern movies. This is GOOD OLD HOLLYWOOD (even it is mostly a british movie). I hope that in the near future somebody produces a good DVD!! This movie is one of my all time favorites!!