The Mudlark

Infobox Film
name = The Mudlark


caption = Original film poster
director = Jean Negulesco
producer = Nunnally Johnson
writer = Theodore Bonnet (novel)
Nunnally Johnson
starring = Irene Dunne
Alec Guinness
Andrew Ray
Beatrice Campbell
Finlay Currie
music = William Alwyn
cinematography = Georges Périnal
editing = Thelma Connell
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = flagicon|UK 30 October 1950
flagicon|USA 28 November 1950
runtime = 99 min.
country = UK / US
awards =
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:103134
imdb_id = 0042757
"The Mudlark" (1950) a film made in England by 20th Century Fox, is a fictionalized account of how Queen Victoria was eventually brought out of her mourning for her dead husband, Prince Albert. It was directed by Jean Negulesco, written and produced by Nunnally Johnson and based on the 1949 novel of the same name by American artillery sergeant and newspaperman Theodore Bonnet (1908-1983). It starred Irene Dunne, Alec Guinness and Andrew Ray.

"Mudlarks" were street children who survived by scavenging and selling what they could find on the banks of the River Thames. The film was a hit in England and made an overnight star of Andrew Ray, who played the title character.

Plot

A street young urchin (Andrew Ray), half-starved and homeless, finds a locket containing the likeness of Queen Victoria (Irene Dunne). Not recognizing her, he is told that she is the "mother of all England." Taking the remark literally, he journeys to Windsor Castle to see her.

When he is caught by the palace guards, the boy is mistakenly thought to be part of an assassination plot against the Queen. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (Alec Guinness) realizes that the boy is innocent and pleads for him in Parliament, delivering a speech that indirectly criticizes the Queen for withdrawing from public life. The Queen is infuriated by the speech, but she is genuinely moved upon meeting the boy for the first time, and once again enters public life.

Cast

*Irene Dunne as Queen Victoria
*Alec Guinness as Benjamin Disraeli
*Andrew Ray as Wheeler
*Beatrice Campbell as Lady Emily Prior
*Finlay Currie as John Brown, Queen Victoria's servant

Award nomination

"The Mudlark" was nominated for the Academy Award for Costume Design in a black and white film (Edward Stevenson and Margaret Furse).

Historical inspiration

In the semi-historical novel upon which this film was based, the story of the young mudlark Wheeler (age ten in the film, but seven in the book) sneaking into Windsor Castle in 1875 to see Queen Victoria was inspired by a December 14 1838 incident. A boy was discovered in Buckingham Palace. At first mistaken for a chimney-sweep, until he ran off across the lawns, he was apprehended by a policeman. (Sweeping of chimneys by boys was not made illegal until 1840.) The boy gave his name as Edward Cotton and said that he had been born in the palace; later he claimed to have been living there for only a year, after having come from Hertfordshire. In fact, his name was Edwin Jones, the 15 or 16-year-old son of a tailor who lived in Bell Yard, some 300 yards distant from the palace, who had turned him out for ill conduct. He had been employed as an errand boy by a carver and gilder in Coventry Street. He had disappeared three days previous to his arrest after saying that he wanted to see the palace's Grand Staircase to sketch it and also to see the Queen (who was actually then at Windsor). At the Westminster Sessions on December 28, the magistrate's court jury found him not guilty of theft and he was taken back by his employer, who described him as an extremely good lad. (Some details were taken from contemporary reports in the London newspapers "The Times", "The Sun" and "The Standard".)

External links

*imdb title|id=0042757|title=The Mudlark
*amg movie|id=1:103134|title=The Mudlark