SOURCE: O'Mealy, Joseph H. “Royal Family Values: The Americanization of Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III.” Literature/Film Quarterly 27, no. 2 (1999): 90-96.

In the following essay, O'Mealy presents an analysis of the screen adaptation of The Madness of George III as an example of Hollywood's tendency to downplay and simplify the political and constitutional issues explored in the original play.

When the film version of Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III appeared as The Madness of King George, the story circulated that the American backers had insisted on the title change because they feared the sequel-saturated Americans, not having seen the previous two Georges, would be confused.¹ This joke sounded plausible enough. After all, everyone knows that Hollywood producers have never gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. Like the poodle in the microwave, however, the story is probably apocryphal—though with typical slyness, the...