Young Bess

Simmons stars in this fine costume drama as the young princess who became Elizabeth I. Beginning with Eliazabeth as queen, the film shifts to flashback. As a girl, Bess is sent away by her father, Henry VIII (Laughton), because her mother, Anne Boleyn, is to be beheaded. Henry goes through a series of wives until he marries Catherine Parr (Kerr), and Bess finally is allowed to move back into the palace, finding some measure of love with her new stepmother. Henry dies not long after, and sickly Edward (Thompson), Bess' younger half-brother, becomes the king. Bess loves Thomas Seymour (Granger), the first lord admiral of the navy, but she arranges to have her brother...