Mayerling [1968] [DVD] [English language version]

Despite a fine cast, this take on the tragic love affair between Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Baroness Maria Vetsera is a little heavy-handed. Relating the story of Rudolf's doomed romance with his mistress, which ended in a suicide pact at his country retreat.

As the star-crossed couple, Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve compare unfavourably with Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux in Anatole Litvak's definitive 1936 version. The presence of James Mason, Ava Gardner and Genevieve Page merely adds surface gloss to the slow trickle of syrup.