Trivia / Mary of Scotland

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $864,000. $1,276,000.
• Creator Backlash: This wasn't one of John Ford's favourite works, losing interest early on. He didn't think the story was very strong, and didn't like the blank verse dialog. The film did not do well at the box office and he seldom mentioned it in conversation.
• Directed By Castmember: According to Katharine Hepburn, during the filming of Mary and Bothwell's love scene, John Ford, rather fed up with the idea of directing a romantic costume drama written in blank verse, simply said to Hepburn, "Here; you direct this scene." And she did.
• Fatal Method Acting: Katharine Hepburn credited John Ford with saving her life one day on the set. They were shooting a scene of Hepburn on horseback when the horse she was riding kept going unexpectedly. Ford yelled at Hepburn to duck just before she was about to collide with a low branch.
• Fake Brit: Everybody in the film about British history & politics is played by an American.
• Real-Life Relative: Fredric March and Florence Eldridge were married.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Katharine Hepburn wanted George Cukor as director, but after the failure of Sylvia Scarlett, producer Pandro S. Berman refused to let them work together again.
  • Bette Davis and Ginger Rogers were both interested in playing Elizabeth, the latter even doing a screen test.

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