(Updated from 2012.) It is happy news that one of the finest-ever Churchill films, Jennie, starring the late Lee Remick, is available in all seven episodes on  YouTube.  Click here for episode 1.

The film was originally a television documentary, “The Life and Loves of Jennie Churchill,” broadcast on ITV in Britain and PBS in the USA in 1974.

Gregory Peck on a great actress

Twenty-five years ago the old Churchill Centre held a dinner for Lee Remick on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. We wanted to present her with our Blenheim Award for notable contributions to THE understanding of Winston Churchill. It was a bittersweet occasion, because she was dying of cancer. Indeed it was her last appearance in public.

I am glad to say we succeeded in raising her spirits at a terrible time. But we could not have done it without Gregory Peck. He began with a recollection:

It was my privilege to work in only one film with Lee Remick. It was called “The Omen.” The plot involved Satanism, with some horrifying special effects. It was a spine tingler, excruciatingly suspenseful. It was complete nonsense—and a blockbuster! People lined up for blocks to see it.

The studio executives took bows as the money rolled in. But only Lee and I knew the secret of the film’s extraordinary success:

We did it! It was our special artistry, our sensitive portrayal of a married couple very much in love, to whom all these dreadful things were happening. We provided the human element that made it all work.

Mr. Peck said all this very much tongue-in-cheek. Then he added what he had really come to say:

There cannot be another American actress so well suited, by her beauty, her high spirits, her intelligence, and more than that, by the mystery of a rare quality which I would call a depth of womanliness, to play the mother of Winston Churchill….

Playing opposite this clear-eyed Yankee girl with the appealing style and femininity that graces every one of her roles just simply brings out the best in a man.

She was irreplaceable

Lee Remick was one of the most remarkable actresses America ever produced—from her debut in “A Face in the Crowd” (1957) and “The Long Hot Summer” (1958) through her Oscar nomination as the wife of Jack Lemmon in “The Days of Wine and Roses” (1962) and her final film, “Emma’s War” (1986).

She won seven Emmy nominations for her outstanding roles in television docudrama, including the role of Eisenhower’s wartime chauffeur/mistress, Kay Summersby, as well as Jennie Churchill.

Although it was a great honor to welcome Gregory Peck, it was a very sad night, because we all knew she would not long be with us. Her husband, the British film producer Kip Gowans, made sure to advise Mr. Peck, who hadn’t seen Lee in years and would otherwise have been taken aback. Great man that he was, he never hinted he had observed any change in his one-time co-star. And what a tribute he gave her.

From Hillsdale College Churchill video reviews:

Thames Television, seven 52 min. episodes, 1974, starring Warren Clarke as WSC and Lee Remick as Lady Randolph. Produced by Andrew Brown, directed by James Cellan Jones, written by Julian Mitchell. Despite what strong temptations have tempted others to give a skewed portrait of Winston’s mother, Mitchell proved that the truth is as dramatic as fiction, producing one of the top five Churchill bio-films. Lee Remick was not a Jennie lookalike, wrote critic Stewart Knowles: “What cast the illusion were clothes, wigs, and the talent of a great actress.” Viewable on YouTube starting with Part 1. You will not be satisfied with just one episode.

“Churchill in Film and Video,” Part 1: Dramatizations
“Churchill in Film and Video,” Part 2: Documentaries

Further reading

“Remembering Lee Remick,” 2021. (With more on our 1991 tribute.)

“American Jennie and Other Books on Lady Randolph Churchill,” 2021.

“His Mother’s Son,” edited by David Lough,” 2018.

Lee Remick 1935-1991

May 2021 marks thirty years since we lost dear Lee Remick. She was the accomplished actress who brought Winston Churchill’s mother vividly to the screen.

One of the finest-ever Churchill films,  Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, is available on CD. It was originally a television documentary, “The Life and Loves of Jennie Churchill,” broadcast on ITV in Britain and PBS in the USA in 1974. Co-starring with Remick were Ronald Pickup as Lord Randolph Churchill and Warren Clarke as young Winston.

Lee and Greg

In 1991, two months before she died,  we held an award dinner for Ms. Remick on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. It was a gala evening to celebrate her film contribution to our knowledge of Churchill’s life and times. And a bittersweet occasion, for she was stricken with cancer. This would be her last appearance in public. We did her proud, thanks to the participation of a special guest, Gregory Peck, who added luster and eloquent words.

It was fun to watch people’s reactions as Mr. Peck and his wife Veronique walked the ship’s passageways. But sadly, Lee was heavily medicated, difficult in speech. Mr. Peck hadn’t seen her in years. Her husband, British film producer Kip Gowans, briefed him in advance. The consummate professional, Gregory Peck spoke as if nothing had changed:

It was my privilege to work in only one film with Lee Remick. It was called “The Omen.” The plot involved Satanism, with some horrifying special effects. It was a spine tingler, excruciatingly suspenseful. It was complete nonsense—and a blockbuster! People lined up for blocks to see it.

While the studio executives took bows as the money rolled in, only Lee and I knew the secret of the film’s extraordinary success: We did it! It was our artistry, our sensitive portrayal of a married couple very much in love, to whom all these dreadful things were happening. We provided the human element that made it all work.

“A depth of womanliness”

David Franco, reviewing the film Churchill, starring Brian Cox, raises questions he says everyone should be asking. “Isn’t the ability to accept one’s mistakes part of what makes a man a good leader? …. To what extent should we rely [on] past experiences in order to minimize mistakes in the future? These are the questions that make a bad movie like Churchill worth seeing.”

Well, I won’t be seeing this bad movie. Described as “perverse fantasy” by historian Andrew Roberts, it joins a recent spate of sloppy Churchill bio-pics that favor skewed caricatures over historical fact.

Revisionism: A Thriving Industry

Makers of movies might think it novel to criticize Churchill, but this is far from the case. Attacks on his leadership began early after World War II and have continued ever since. There’s a thriving mini-industry in “Churchill revisionism.” But it started with books, not movies.

In 1963, R.W. Thompson’s The Yankee Marlborough portrayed Churchill as a man of flesh and blood, who made mistakes, like anybody else. In his 1970 study, Churchill: A Study in Failure 1900-1939, Robert Rhodes James focused on Churchill’s political gaffes, such as his dogged support of King Edward VIII in the 1936 Abdication crisis. Edward, later Duke of Windsor, gave up the throne to marry an American divorcee. The Duke’s tepid admiration of Hitler, and dismal performance as Governor of the Bahamas, caused Churchill to reflect: “I’m glad I was wrong.”

In 1993, John Charmley’s Churchill: The End of Glory rocked Churchill’s supporters by claiming that he should have backed away from the Hitler war to preserve Britain’s wealth, power, and empire. More recently, Max Hastings criticized Churchill’s war leadership on multiple issues in both World Wars: Catastrophe 1914, on the opening months of WW1, and Winston’s War, 1940-45.

Whatever we make of their assessments, these historians were qualified critics whose thoroughly researched theses merit consideration. Alas, we cannot say the same about the recent round of Churchill movies.

Movies Faithful to Reality

Churchill movies started off well and were honest for decades. Young Winston (1972), starring Simon Ward as WSC and Anne Bancroft as his mother, was a vivid presentation based on Churchill’s own account of his first twenty-five years. Its inaccuracies stemmed from Churchill himself in his autobiography. (In it, Anthony Hopkins played David Lloyd George. Lady Randolph says: “He has the most disconcerting way of looking at women.”)

In 1974, Lee Remick brilliantly reprised the role of Lady Randolph the television series Jennie: as accurate a portrayal as ever existed. We Churchlllians gave her an award for it—the dying Lee’s last public appearance. It was attended by Gregory Peck, who co-starred with her in The Omen, who praised her “depth of womanliness.”

That same year, Richard Burton played a believable Churchill in The Gathering Storm, about the years leading up to World War II. Again, it didn’t deviate from fact, although Burton spoiled the effect by denouncing Churchill for fictitious acts against Welsh miners, including Burton’s father. Privately, Burton had expressed his admiration for “the old boy”.…but later, the cameras were on.

The 1981 TV series Churchill: The Wilderness Years, remains the model Churchill bio-pic. Herein Robert Hardy showed us both Churchill’s human frailties and his greatness. Hardy and his writers partnered with Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert to portray the anxious politician of the 1930s, out of power, vainly warning of the Nazi menace. Brilliantly cast, the result was a masterpiece.

More Recently…

Albert Finney was a solid Churchill in the second Gathering Storm (2002), a 90-minute film for television. As skillfully cast as The Wilderness Years, it featured Vanessa Redgrave in a bavura performance as Clementine Churchill. The story line, while not uncritical, did not deviate from fact. Even in the cynical, anti-heroic 21st century, it seemed, filmmakers could still tell his story without reducing Churchill to a flawed burlesque or godlike caricature. Then came “Into the Storm,” a 2009 television drama broadcast by the BBC and HBO. Here in a series set in 1945 with 1940 flashbacks, Brendan Gleeson gave us the most accurate Churchill since Robert Hardy. Things were looking good.

Or so I thought. Alas, in the last couple of years, we’ve had three films which can only be described as “fake history,” and a one-dimensional documentary that fails to tell the full story.

A Turn to the Worse

The Crown, a 2016 Netflix series covering the early reign of Queen Elizabeth II, was well acted. But John Lithgow portrayed a senile prime minister who hides his 1953 stroke from the Queen and repeatedly paints his goldfish pond in a muddle of depression. Factually, the Queen knew of Churchill’s stroke three days after it happened—and he was never so dotty as to make repeated paintings of his fish pond. The Duke of Windsor resurfaces here, promising that he will get the new Queen to move into Buckingham Palace if Churchill restores his royal allowance. Where do they think of this stuff?

Viceroy’s House has not been seen yet in the US, and we’re missing nothing. A visually elaborate production, it covers the end of British rule in India, under the last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, whitewashing the latter at Churchill’s expense. Mountbatten’s insistence that Britain leave before the India-Pakistan boundaries were settled led to violent strife and the massacre of millions. Somehow, the film manages to blame this on Churchill, who was not even in power at the time.

* * *

Churchill starring Brian Cox is built around the myth that Churchill opposed D-Day virtually to the moment of the Normandy landings. In reality, Churchill had sought “a lodgment on the continent” since the British were thrown out of Dunkirk in 1940. His concept of floating “Mulberry Harbors” for landing tanks and equipment dated back to 1917. This hasn’t prevented Mr. Cox from flaunting his ignorance in interviews repeating a host of canards, including the notion that Churchill wanted to invade Germany over the Alps.

I held my breath when the film Dunkirk appeared, hoping it would not be another dose of lame propaganda. Churchill doesn’t appear in it. But his absence, along with other heroes of the Dunkirk evacuation, reduces the film to a one-dimensional portrait. It’s war on a beach, with moving scenes of heroism and survival. Who was the enemy? A viewer has no idea why Churchill said after Dunkirk, “We shall never surrender”—though his words are read movingly by a soldier in the final scenes.

Hope Ahead? We’ll See

There’s no question that fictitious scenes and conversations are legitimate devices in bio-pics. But they must not depart from what we know. And thanks to historians like Martin Gilbert and the Hillsdale College Churchill Project, we know a lot.

There is cause for hope. This autumn, Gary Oldman will star as Churchill in another bio-pic, Darkest Hour, about facing Hitler’s armies in 1940. Promisingly, Oldman has consulted with qualified historians, striving to find “a way in” to the real Churchill. Colleagues who’ve seen previews say he has Churchill down perfectly. But his script contains some bizarre counterfactuals.

One can only wish him success. Perhaps this film will answer David Franco’s questions. Yes, accepting one’s mistakes does make a person a good leader. Yes, Churchill did learn from his mistakes. He was a man of quality—a good guide for our troubled decade. And after a long lapse, he deserves a film that does him justice.