Royal Wives at War

England's 1936 abdication crisis and aftermath are the subject of filmmaker Tim Dunn's PBS-aired curious hybrid of documentary, dramatic re-enactment, and roundtable gossip. While King Edward VIII, who gave up the throne for love, and his younger brother Albert, who subsequently (and reluctantly) took up the crown as George VI, are not overlooked, the emphasis here is on their wives, who are portrayed as driving forces behind their husbands—and who obviously disliked one another intensely. A good deal of the film consists of snatches of their writings read (in period dress and settings) by actresses Gina McKee as Wallis Simpson (the American divorcee whom Edward insisted on marrying whatever the cost), and Emma Davies, as George's queen consort Elizabeth (and, after his death, Queen Mother to Elizabeth II). The recitations are among the recreations—some highly speculative—of events, accompanied by archival news footage and narration that mostly presents a conventional overview of the entire episode. Periodically, the narrative is interrupted by excerpts from a roundtable discussion featuring biographers of the major players, who offer their divergent insights about who did what and why (observations that frankly come across more as examples of pop psychology than scholarly analysis). Royal Wives at War puts a new spin on a scandal that had important geopolitical ramifications—Edward was quite enamored with Hitler, and Britain's attitude toward Germany in the later 1930s might have been very different had he remained king—but while interesting, the disparate ingredients here ultimately fail to gel. Still, this should be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)