StudioCanal Blu-ray Film Review

Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) • Blu-ray [StudioCanal, Vintage Classics]

Forced into a joyless marriage with the future King George I of Great Britain, Sophia Dorothea falls in love with another man.

Helen Simpson’s 1935 novel Saraband for Dead Lovers might seem an odd choice of source material for a British film conceived just after the end of World War II. Its backdrop, the ambition of the 17th-century Hanoverian court to establish its Electoral Prince George Louis as King of Great Britain and Ireland, can be seen as a scheme for a German takeover of the British throne, or for a German-British alliance. But perhaps the contrast between the reality of Anglo-German relations in 1948 and the world of Basil Dearden’s film only heightened its credentials as a serious historical drama, which was how Ealing Studios sought to position its first colour feature.

Encouraged by its owner the Rank Organisation to start filming in colour to make its movies more attractive to overseas markets, Ealing decided with Saraband for Dead Lovers to depart from…