More Elizabeth I

In last week's Thursday Movie Picks post about strong female characters, I mentioned The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, in which Bette Davis plays Elizabeth I of England. Of course, she would go on to play Elizabeth I again, in The Virgin Queen, which is going to be on FXM Retro tomorrow morning at 9:05 AM.

Elizabeth I has shown up in a whole bunch of movies, probably because her story makes for something cinematically interesting. There's her father, the rise to power after Henry VIII's death (Mary of Scotland and Young Bess), the Spanish Armada (Fire over England), and the various men in her life (The Virgin Queen deals with Sir Walter Raleigh).

Try imagining an engaging movie about, say, Benjamin Harrison.