The title character is Elizabeth Beresford, the wife of the owner of Ladymead House, a Georgian mansion in the Surrey countryside. The film opens in 1946. Elizabeth's army officer husband John has just returned from service in the Second World War. Upon his return, however, they find that their married life together is no longer as easy as it once was. Her wartime experiences have given Elizabeth a taste for greater freedom and independence, something not to the liking of her more conservative-minded husband.
There then follow a series of flashbacks to earlier historical periods. Each features a woman named Elizabeth Beresford who lives at Ladymead and is married to an army officer named John. The four Elizabeths are all played by the same actress, Anna Neagle, but the four Johns are played by four different actors. In each case John has returned from service in a war- the Crimean War, the Boer War and the First World War- to find that his wife wants more freedom and independence, something which is not to his liking. There are other similarities between the four episodes- each features a servant named Frank and a character named Tommy Wrigley.
The first three stories, in fact, are virtually identical, with minor variations to take account of the relevant time period; the Crimean War Elizabeth, for example, is inspired to want greater independence by the work of Florence Nightingale and her Boer War counterpart by the suffragette movement. In each case our sympathies tend to lie with Elizabeth rather than her reactionary old stick-in-the-mud of a husband whose idea of a good time is to re-live old campaigns by chewing the fat with his old Army comrade Major Wrigley.
Things change a bit in the post-World War I story. In this one our sympathies are definitely with John; the Elizabeth of this story, portrayed as a Jazz Age flapper, has been unfaithful to him while he has been away at the front with Tommy Wrigley, who in this timeline is not an army officer but a draft-dodging war profiteer, and possibly with other men as well. In despair, John commits suicide. Neagle, who would have been 44 when the film was made in 1948 looked too old for the part; flappers were girls in their late teens or twenties, and a middle-aged woman who tried to dress like them would have been regarded as ridiculous.
For three quarters of its length the film does no more than tell a virtually identical story three times over, but in different historical costumes. (One of its few virtues is that it is visually attractive). The First World War story could have made for an interesting film in its own right, but here it is dealt with in a very perfunctory way. At the end there are a few platitudes about the progress made in advancing women's rights, but this theme does not seem to be borne out by the story, which shows how the Elizabeth of 1946 is struggling with just the same sort of problems which faced her namesake from ninety years earlier. This is one of those films that I couldn't really see the point of. 4/10
A goof. According to the cast list, the Crimean War scenes take place in 1854. The dialogue, however, makes it clear that the war ended before John returned home, and the Crimean /war did not end until 1856.
There then follow a series of flashbacks to earlier historical periods. Each features a woman named Elizabeth Beresford who lives at Ladymead and is married to an army officer named John. The four Elizabeths are all played by the same actress, Anna Neagle, but the four Johns are played by four different actors. In each case John has returned from service in a war- the Crimean War, the Boer War and the First World War- to find that his wife wants more freedom and independence, something which is not to his liking. There are other similarities between the four episodes- each features a servant named Frank and a character named Tommy Wrigley.
The first three stories, in fact, are virtually identical, with minor variations to take account of the relevant time period; the Crimean War Elizabeth, for example, is inspired to want greater independence by the work of Florence Nightingale and her Boer War counterpart by the suffragette movement. In each case our sympathies tend to lie with Elizabeth rather than her reactionary old stick-in-the-mud of a husband whose idea of a good time is to re-live old campaigns by chewing the fat with his old Army comrade Major Wrigley.
Things change a bit in the post-World War I story. In this one our sympathies are definitely with John; the Elizabeth of this story, portrayed as a Jazz Age flapper, has been unfaithful to him while he has been away at the front with Tommy Wrigley, who in this timeline is not an army officer but a draft-dodging war profiteer, and possibly with other men as well. In despair, John commits suicide. Neagle, who would have been 44 when the film was made in 1948 looked too old for the part; flappers were girls in their late teens or twenties, and a middle-aged woman who tried to dress like them would have been regarded as ridiculous.
For three quarters of its length the film does no more than tell a virtually identical story three times over, but in different historical costumes. (One of its few virtues is that it is visually attractive). The First World War story could have made for an interesting film in its own right, but here it is dealt with in a very perfunctory way. At the end there are a few platitudes about the progress made in advancing women's rights, but this theme does not seem to be borne out by the story, which shows how the Elizabeth of 1946 is struggling with just the same sort of problems which faced her namesake from ninety years earlier. This is one of those films that I couldn't really see the point of. 4/10
A goof. According to the cast list, the Crimean War scenes take place in 1854. The dialogue, however, makes it clear that the war ended before John returned home, and the Crimean /war did not end until 1856.