Richard Chamberlain was happily working in England when the government refused to allow this film to be shown. Chamberlain was extremely upset and said he never would have done it had he realized the Brits would be so angered by it.
The film is a sympathetic portrait of the King, in love with a twice-divorced woman, at a time when responsibility was paramount and took precedence over private desires. His decision was bold, controversial, and badly received.
Times change, and as the years have gone on and more of the story is told, people have differing opinions.
My British friends told me that Edward was so popular, people had his photos hung in their homes. He was right up there with JFK in popularity. He was not the old man we years later saw in the press with the rather sharp-featured woman, about whom there was always plenty of gossip.
In Chamberlain we see a young man who may or may not have wanted to rule. It's possible this love story was a way out. I don't think anyone really knows, and he was perhaps not the King for England during the second world war.
One thing is clear. He spent so much time on the turmoil of his abdication that he didn't think about what he was going to do with the rest of his life, which was basically nothing.
Chamberlain and Dunaway make a far more beautiful couple than their real life counterparts. They both do an excellent job as two people in love fighting the odds.
Looking at it from a human perspective, I suppose nabbing a king and possibly becoming queen was a very attractive prospect. But who really knows what goes on between two people, or did for the next 35 years.
