a good an advert for republicanism a youre ever likely to see and mayerlingis an everyday story of royal folk in late nineteenth century austria . set during one of europe seemingly incessant internal turmoil it concern itself with the emperor franz joseph ( mr james mason ) and his rebellious son and the crown prince rudolf ( mr omar sharif ) the empress ( miss ava gardner ) and various mistress and secret policeman and spy and extravagantly uniformed popinjay and gypsy and dancer and wife and soldier and swan and horse and the bizarre inbred web of european royalty at the time of franz joseph austro hungarian empire . film in what the old movie poster use to call a riot of color it resemble nothing more than an expensively dress but intellectually challenged production of the student prince . mr james mason and wear a very natty little white number and utilise his all purpose mittel european accent whenever he remember . i be a great admirer of his and i sincerely hope the remuneration be comensurate with the distaste he clearly felt for the character he be play . mr omar sharif and who build a career largely found on look directly at the camera with his big brown eye and look soulful and give a stupefyingly monotonous performance a his son the crown prince . he be utterly unconvincing a a man who in the movie at least cut a swathe through the distaff side of the austrian aristocracy . with his well butter lock firmly in place he preen and pose in ever more unlikely uniforms . a a rebel he talk the talk but conspicuously fail to walk the walk and leave a bottom button undone on one of his tunic be about as far a his defiance go . unhappily married and he fall in love with a commoner . forbidden love be one of the movie come ons . a she be play by the most uncommon miss catherine deneuve he be scarcely push the envelope there . miss deneuve have a profile to die for and we see rather a lot of it and particularly in the sequence set at the ballet . now i love ballet as much a the next man and but this sequence do seem to go on for an excessive amount of time and a more cynical critic might consider it to be pad . rudolf mother and the empress be play by miss ava gardner . she give the part some good old american oooomph and make her a bit like auntie mame and but it do with undeniable style . rudolf be certainly very fond of his mother i will put it no more strongly than that . the only performance worth watching be that of mr james robertson justice a sir lancelot spratt sorry and edward and prince of wale . he be so wonderfully unconcerned about everything go on around him it a joy to behold . i wait vainly for him to ask rudolf the immortal question what the bleeding time . i be not qualify to dispute mayerling historical accuracy and but and in my opinion and everything else about it be risible . it be a ruritanian opera buffa without the tune to send you home from the theatre whistling .