Mayerling (1968 film)
Mayerling is a 1968 romantic tragedy film starring Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve, James Mason, Ava Gardner, Geneviève Page, James Robertson Justice and Andréa Parisy. It was written and directed by Terence Young. The film was made by Les Films Corona and Winchester and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was based on the novels "Mayerling" by Claude Anet and "L'Archiduc" by Michel Arnold and the 1936 film "Mayerling", directed by Anatole Litvak, which dealt with the real-life Mayerling Incident. Plot. In the 1880s, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (Sharif) clashes with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph  I of Austria (Mason) and his mother Empress Elisabeth (Gardner), over implementing progressive policies for their country. Rudolf soon feels he is a man born at the wrong time in a country that does not realize the need for social reform. The Prince of Wales (Robertson Justice), later to become King Edward VII of Britain, visits Vienna and provides comic relief. Later in Hungary popular revolt broke out, which Rudolf begged his father, Francis Joseph, to tolerate, but to no avail. Rudolf finds refuge from a loveless marriage with Princess Stéphanie (Parisy) by taking a mistress, Baroness Maria Vetsera (Deneuve ). Franz Joseph I sends his son to supervise military training, and further exiles Maria to Venice. When back in Vienna, the couple's mutual untimely death at Mayerling, the imperial family's hunting lodge, is cloaked in mystery. The film's ending suggests that the two lovers made a suicide pact when they decided they could not live in a world without love, nor prospects for peace.