Wonderful, wonderful stuff; Mark Rylance is a terrific actor.

Henry is on the third of his fourth Thomases, shortly after the
execution of his second wife and through his fourth marriage.

Thomas Cromwell (Rylance) is low key but shows anger after a slow
burn. Jealous Duke of Norfolk (Timothy Spall) gives him plenty of trouble, Henry (Damien Lewis) is more and more venal, Wolsey's daughter blames him
for her father's death, and Cromwell find he has an insta-growed daughter.

Henry doesn't get along with his third wife Jane Seymour (Kate
Phillips), but she bears him short-lived Edward VI. She will die shortly
after giving birth.

Cromwell falls out of favor for arranging the marriage with Anne of
Cleves. She thinks Henry is old; Henry finds her disagreeably pious.
It's to form an alliance that turned out to be unnecessary.

Like Thomases Wolsey and More before him, Cromwell is accused of
treason. He takes it in stride and disrespects his inquisitors. Now,
Cromwell wasn't executed, having died before he could be killed.

Rylance has several moving scenes at the end, and of course we get the
scene in which he tips his executioneer.

Norfolk, desperate for power, has foisted his giggly teenage niece onto
Henry, Catherine Howard, fifth wife. Why Norfolk despised his niece so
much to arrange that marriage is not stated.

Highly recommended.

By coincidence, I recorded A Man for All Seasons off TCM, which is about
Thomas More. I'll get to that next. I've never seen a fictional
representation of Thomas Cramner.

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On Fri, 2 May 2025 03:55:05 -0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
<[email protected]> wrote:

By coincidence, I recorded A Man for All Seasons off TCM, which is about >Thomas More. I'll get to that next. I've never seen a fictional >representation of Thomas Cramner.

For me the best part was when he debates (I think it was with his son
in law) whether he would bend the law to arrest the Devil - it's a
well known passage but Paul Scofield does the scene better than pretty
much any other movie scene I've ever seen.

If you have somehow missed it before now you are truly in for a treat.

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The Horny Goat <[email protected]> wrote:

Fri, 2 May 2025 03:55:05 -0000 (UTC), Adam H. Kerman <[email protected]>:

By coincidence, I recorded A Man for All Seasons off TCM, which is about >>Thomas More. I'll get to that next. I've never seen a fictional >>representation of Thomas Cramner.

For me the best part was when he debates (I think it was with his son
in law) whether he would bend the law to arrest the Devil - it's a
well known passage but Paul Scofield does the scene better than pretty
much any other movie scene I've ever seen.

If you have somehow missed it before now you are truly in for a treat.

I've seen this but it's been years.

It's one of those wonderful adaptations by people who wanted to adapt
the best aspects of the play for the movie, adapted by the playwright
himself. I am aware that Scofield's West End (and later Broadway)
performance was the stuff of legend, and that several better-known film
actors simply turned down the movie for fear of being adversely compared
to Scofield.

I've always wished that plays were routinely filmed but this is the next
best thing.

Despite not having a "bankable" star, the movie had a decent box office.
Oops. I almost said it was profitable.

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