User Reviews

It's sad that Audrey Hepburn's version of Mayerling was not originally done on the big screen. She seems so right for the lovely teen mistress of Prince Rudolf, heir to the Hapsburg Empire. The murder/suicide of the two of them is the stuff legends are made of and one certainly has sprung up concerning the lovers.

Audrey's fans are interested in it because of the fact she appears with her then husband Mel Ferrer as Rudolf. Ferrer is all right as the heir who has traces of madness in him. My favorite mad king performance is that of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Catherine The Great. If Doug were 20 years younger and did it with Audrey it would have been a great production. But the package was the married couple.

Rudolf inherited the wild side from his mother Empress Elizabeth who was a wild child. See Franchot Tone and Grace Moore portray young Franz Joseph and the young Cissi in The King Steps Out. She like Rudolf never settled down though you would not know it from Diana Wynyard playing it here.

Basil Sydney is the proper Emperor Franz Josef who always thought of duty first. The real sleeper performance here is that of Raymond Massey as Count Taaffe the Prime Minister. You decide whether he's a villain or a hero. Nehemiah Persoff and David Opatoshu play Massey's personal gumshoes from the secret police assigned to Rudolf as a Rosenkrantz&Guildenstern act.

This was supposed to be done in color, but only a black and white print survives. The sound is not of the best quality either.

But Audrey's fans will love it.

For years, Audrey Hepburn fans have wanted to the 1957 television production of Mayerling with Audrey playing Baroness Maria Vetsera and her then husband Mel Ferrer playing Crown Prince Rudolph, It seems a natural: a famous romantic tragedy with the sort of lavish costumes we'd just seen in War & Peace. Now it's finally available and Audrey fans can add it to their collection. But be forewarned: this is not "Romeo and Juliet". It certainly isn't "Love in the Afternoon", either. This is a rather sordid story with the mentally unbalanced Prince talking a 17 year old mistress and then murdering her and himself.

Audrey is introduced with the Prince saying that there is no innocence left in the world. He meets her and his aide asks him if he still thinks that. But Maria is no innocent. She is invited to his lodgings and clearly knows what the purpose of her visit is. She's not dismayed in the least when invited to his bedroom and says "I don't know if I can please you: I'm just a wisp". No- there's no real sex. In fact, in a badly written scene, he impulsively orders her to leave, thinking she's after something, like everybody else is. But all she's after is him. Later she attends a ball hosted by the Prince and his wife and boldly dances with him.His wife stares icily at her and we are made to realize that sweet, innocent Audrey is breaking up a marriage - and doesn't seem to care.

Later, for the only time in her career, Audrey's character dies, (she's already dead when she plays the Angel in "Always"). In fact, she gets shot to death. it's done about as tastefully as it could be: We see the servant cleaning up around the fireplace and he hears a shot. Then we see Audrey looking as if she's asleep except there's a small trickle of blood on her forehead, (it must have been a tiny little bullet). But still, if you were expecting a frothy romance, you're going to be surprised.

The production values are strong, (although it was originally in color, which is lost on this kinoscope). The performances are strong. It's directed by Anatole Litvak, who directed the 1936 movie version, generally considered the best, (this is a boiled down version of that film). It's always fun to see the many recognizable actors who went on to TV fame, including Raymond Massey, Lorne Greene, Nehemiah Persoff, David Opatoushu, Pippa Scott and Nancy Marchand as Ferrer's wife. She's better known as Marty's girl in the 1953 teleplay, Lou Grant's Mrs.Pynchon and Tony Soprano's Mom.

By the way, current evidence suggests that Maria was never shot. The thinking is she died after a botched abortion.Then the despondent Prince, feeling guilty, offed himself.

But you'd never have seen that on 1957 television.