QUEEN VICTORIA

She ruled the British Empire for over 63 years. Elizabeth II has now surpassed that by about three years. But Queen Victoria as been a subject richly mined by Hollywood and the English film industry. I find her absolutely fascinating and her movies are also. Still in theaters as I write is Victoria And Abdul (2017) about the unlikely but true story of how the queen became fast friends with an Indian servant. Surrounded by sycophants and ungrateful children (9 of them, waiting for her to die), the queen is really lonely. Enter a handsome Indian sent to England to present the monarch with a commerative coin. Soon they are fast friends and he is teaching her Urdu and Hindi as well as cultural matters. Her court is outraged. Too bad, she’s still the queen! This movie is worth watching for Judi Dench’s perforance alone, but it’s an interesting story of an interlude no one would have predicted. 
A similar but louder outrage confronted Queen Victoria when her friendship with Scotsman John Brown, presented as the film Mrs. Brown (1997). After the death of her beloved husband Albert, John Brown (Billy Connolly) is positioned to befriend the distraught monarch. This works a little too well for the court and family. The title is one bandied about at the time as a sarcastic reference to the queen’s friendship with Brown. Judi Dench (who else?) again appears as the queen. There remain rumors that this pair ventured beyond friendship. Brown’s diary was destroyed by the royal hangers-on, so we probably will never know the truth. 
It is somewhat doubtful that Queen Victoria was ever as beautiful as Emily Blunt, who portrays her admirably as The Young Victoria (2009). But no matter. This is a somewhat fictionalized film about the teen-aged Victoria ascending the British throne. Rupert Friend is excellent as Prince Albert, the Prussian prince who woos and wins the reluctant Victoria. He aids her in her conflicts with the royal household and parliament, and their marriage is an extremely happy (and fruitful!) one. His unfortunate death at 42 left her bereft, and she wore black until her own death in 1876. 
Looking For Victoria (2003) is a made-for-TV docudrama by Prunella Scales about the long-lived queen. It is probably the most accuarate of the many films about Victoria, as Ms. Scales painstakingly assembled the story from many sources. She gathered her material into a one-woman show about the queen, which is a little dry but certainly engaging. 
And speaking of accuracy, the events portrayed in The Mudlark (1950) almost certainly never happened. Herein a street urchin journeys to Buckingham Palace to meet the queen and is intercepted as a possible assassin. Both prime minister Benjamin Disraeli and Victoria (Irene Dunne this time) believes this to be ridiculous. Anyway, somehow all this convinces her to come out of her strict mourning and resume her duties. 
Some other films about Victoria that are worth a look include Victoria The Great 
(1937 with Anna Neagle) and so successful that a sequel came out the next year (Sixty Glorious Years) also featuring Ms. Neagle. Also excellent is the Masterpiece Theatre series about Victoria in 2016 with Jenna Coleman. 
All of the movies in this article except Looking For Victoria and of course Victoria and Abdul are available on DVD. All are fine for everyone, including mature children.