User Reviews

I was surprised to see the number of negative commentary on this made for TV film. Much of it I think fails to understand the limitations of the genre of the story book Victorian Romance.

A client once told me, "Middle class marriages of that era were all arranged; that is why they were more enduring!"

Of course in MAKING OF A LADY, we're dealing with the upper crust. In England, that's the landed aristocracy, enjoying its last hurrah in the time of the Queen-regnant Victoria.

In reality making of the Lady is two stories in one. The first story is how Emily is selected to become the Lady of the Manor.

Meet Emily Fox-Seton (Lydia Wilson) good-natured, tall, with a respected family name but no money. Boarding with the Cupps, mother and daughter, Emily acts as a as a secretary to Lady Maria Byrne. (Joanna Lumley). At Lady Marie's country home, Emily meets Maria's cousin Lord James Walderhurst, a retired 50 year old colonel.

Lord James is widower who needs to get marry and quickly produce an heir to his fortune. It's a set up and Emily elected. Notwithstanding a little hesitation, Emily trots off in white to wed Lord James in an impressive church service which concludes with the arch of swords.

Now, James for all his hurry proves to be a bit of a shy breeder, until he shows Emily the "priest hole," a secret passage that connects their rooms. Mission accomplished. Had the story ended there, this would be a cute Victorian Romantic comedy with the cheery assurance that life goes on.

Enter Part II: The struggle for the Family Estate. A critical facet of the Victorian Romance was the struggle for the family estate and wealth.

By the time James is recalled to service in India, Emily is pregnant. Against the advice of Jame's loyal servants who are abit frosty to Emily, Emily admits two of Jame's relatives: Captain Alec Osborn (James D'Arcy) and Alec's Anglo-Indian wife dark complexioned Hester Osborn (Hasina Haque) to the Estate. They stand to inherit the entire Estate if James and Emily are unsuccessful in producing a new generation of Walderhursts. There's an interesting play on words at work in Walder (forest) Hurst (treed hill) suggesting Emily is riding a slippery slope.

Naturally, Captain Alec, his Anglo-Indian wife and her Indian servant with the frightfully sounding name Ameerah though syrupy friendly to Emily at least initially hatch plot after plot against the pregnant Emily. James returns from India in the nick-of-time to keep Emily from being suffocated by the powerful servant Ameerah.

The art form is the Victorian romance: the conflict is preserving the family line. Told in the version adapted by MAKING OF A LADY, the forces of evil are the fallen cousin who is wasteful and profligate and has moved from the protection of the caste structure by marrying beneath his station.

There are variations on the basic structure of the Victorian Romance where the wife of the lord of the manor and a servant are plotting against order and stability of the realm. This sometimes takes the form of the Butler did it. A more modern version of this yarn might daringly make the Anglo-Indian wife of the spent-thrift poorer relative the heroine of the story.

I admit, my first go-through I wasn't convinced. The plot seemed to rush forward with so much momentum that there wasn't a great deal of character development, and I found the characters themselves utterly obtuse. But, a second watch-through convinced me of what an enjoyable piece of Victorian drama this is -- beginning out with the makings of an unexpected love story (the love comes after marriage, in this case) and turning into a thriller. It won't win any awards but the costuming is gorgeous, the cast is surprisingly good (in spite of any romantic spark between the leads), and it's something I'll watch more than once. Try it, you may be surprised how enjoyable it is.

I was recently shown this film by a friend and was very surprised by it, mainly because I am familiar with Frances Hodgson Burnett's other works: The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. I thought it a very strange story for her to have written and very out of character due to the suggestive content. I asked my friend if she had read the book, The Making of a Marchioness, and she said she had tried but found it very dry. As someone familiar with reading "antique" fiction, I decided to give it a try and I am very glad to have done so.

The Making of a Lady is quite the travesty of the authoress's original story. The film is a highly romanticized, sexed up affair that really should never have been made, no matter the high filming quality and excellent casting.

SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK AND FILM BELOW

Emily Fox-Seton is a kindly, good-natured, tall, big-boned woman of respected name but no means. Much of the book is given over to her friendship and boarding with Jane Cupp and her mother Mrs. Cupp, respectable ladies with a room to let. She does not live on a seedy part of town and all who meet her find her very sweet. Lady Maria invites dear Emily who is so indispensable as a secretary of sorts, to her home in the country where she meets Maria's cousin Lord James Walderhurst. He is a gentleman in his fifties who is rather dry and wear a monocle but must marry and produce an heir to his fortune. Of all the women he has met, he finds Emily to be the most complying and understandable and weds her in great style and pomp, for after all, her family name is still highly acceptable.

Lord Walderhurst's ungrateful heir apparent and relation Alec Osborn, his Anglo-Indian wife Hester, and her servant Ameerah come to live on the property in a beautifully fixed up house due to Emily's kind heart. Lord Walderhurst leaves as in the filmed version, for India and slowly Alec becomes enraged at all he will lose if Emily has a child. His own wife is pregnant and he desires to be his Lordship. Emily truly is pregnant and Alec plots murder through what appear to be accidents until Hester intervenes on a poisoned milk drink plot.

Emily leaves with her very loyal servant Jane Cupp and Mrs. Cupp and goes to live in London to await the return of his Lordship. The Osborns return to India following the birth of a daughter and James returns to find his wife having born him a healthy son, though gravely ill herself. His presence revives her (and leads him to realize his love for her) and all is well. In India, an "accident" happens to Alec with a loaded gun and he dies. Generous Emily calls Hester and the baby back to England, and all live happily ever after.

Apart from four very different murder attempts involving a ruined horse that Emily wisely does not ride, a bit of wood left at the top of the flight of stairs where she would walk, a broken rail on a bridge over a deep spot of water, and poisoned milk...one might not recognize the contrived and ruined story they dished out on film. The whole drugging with the milk and seduction of the maid Jane was pointless, as was his Lordship's undying love for Emily (no matter how touching). In reality he was married to her a good year before he realized his feelings could be love, as he is not sentimental. There is no passage between rooms, attempted strangulation, chaining of guns, brutal ride on a horse, murder of a servant and taking over of the house. Emily has the good sense to flee and take her loyal Jane with her and they completely removed her spine for this.

I give it 4 out of 10 stars for 4 reasons:

1 star for casting, which was well done. 1 star for costuming and sets, which were very accurate. 1 star for location filming. 1 star for filming quality.

The other 6 stars are missing because this is not even Ms. Burnett's story. While I do not expect adaptations to be word for word from the original novels, I do expect some of the original plot and behaviors of characters to remain. They could have changed the names and places and put it out like that...I assure you nobody who has read The Making of a Marchioness would have recognized it at all. It is a great disappointment and I hope that the next time it is adapted it will be handled with as much care as the recently produced Little Dorrit.

I love a sweet love story, rags to riches is great if done right. This movie had the making of being a generic cookie cutter romance but surprise the plot twists... In some parts it is predictable, some sweet ("Love comes Softly" almost), then sweetness gets a slap in the face. The main character's gullibility has you wanting to slap her to set her straight...

Yes, the movie is not paced perfectly, they lost a great opportunity to show the uppity aunt getting rightfully set in place because I guess TV time limitations (wish they released a director's cut). But a Hallmark movie this is not, it has a plot and a cunning cruel twist that is not often portrayed as capable of being evil (Bollywood would cringe at this movie). It was refreshing to see a new breed of boogieman once in a while, and this film noted the charm/cunning can bite like an adder.

Worked for me 9/10 for originality that overcomes the flaws of pacing.