Director Mike Fraser on docu-drama 'The Honourable Rebel'
In 2003, a memoir was released recounting the life of an extraordinary aristocrat, linguist, producer and musician. The memoir was entitledThe Honourable Rebel and its subject was Elizabeth Montagu. Producer, writer and filmmaker Mike Fraser now adapts Montagu’s memoir and her extraordinary life to the silver screen, examining her life as an heiress, secret agent and rebel.
“When I first read her book, I was totally astonished because I didn’t know anything about her,” says Fraser, “the breadth of her story and how she coped with everything is incredible.”
Elizabeth, a member of the infamous Montagu family, lived a life of considerable notoriety from a young age. An aspiring actress, Montagu spent a period of her life on the London West End before spending much of the 1930s studying music in Switzerland. It was during this time that Montagu, in her mid-twenties, witnessed the growth of Nazism and, during the outbreak of the Second World War, astounded her family by remaining in France instead of evacuating to England.
Since residing in Switzerland during the outbreak of the Second World War, Montagu became a secret agent for the British and American allies, helping to interrogate a Nazi agent involved in the plot to execute Hitler. Despite her tremendous war efforts, linguistic skills, notable love life and prominent family, there is little footage of Montagu during her early years.
“I didn’t know anything about her, I couldn’t any information about her on the internet,” recounts Fraser. The director affirms that this was primarily the reason for the film’s incorporation of fiction drama as well as documentary style. “I wanted to fold in interviews with people who knew her when she was much older, but it was impossible for it to be a straightforward documentary because there was no footage of her.”
The Honourable Rebel recounts the life of Montagu through her most exciting and often scandalous endeavours. “I needed someone who was going to hold the film together, primarily because she was going to be in every single scene,” explains Fraser, and the person to do so is British actress Dorothea Myer-Bennett, a theatre actress currently completing her run as Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice at The Globe. “Casting Dorothea is the best decision that I made – she is an example of the brilliant actresses that this nation produces.”
Myer-Bennett is not the only actress to take on the role of Elizabeth Montagu as Dame Diana Rigg provides the narration throughout The Honourable Rebel. “I’d decided quite early on that I needed somebody that was going to tell everyone exactly what Elizabeth felt,” says Fraser, “I needed somebody who would be perfect as the older Elizabeth looking back on her life.” Rigg has remained a national treasure throughout the entirety of her career, gaining recognition for her roles in The Avengers (1961-69), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) and her current role as Lady Oleena Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2011-). “Diana Rigg has the most wonderful, tremendous, melodic voice. With her fantastic voice, I was able to look back on Elizabeth’s life by telling people how she felt at the time of any specific incident.”
Fraser has remained a producer and writer in the film and television industry for over 50 years and is only just taking a seat in the director’s chair. “Although I’ve been in the industry for five decades, I had never directed a film before but have worked with directors and producers all my life.” However, despite Fraser’s innate enthusiasm for this project and the history of the Montagu family, the filmmaker was adamant from the beginning that he was not the man for the job. “I was going to get someone else to do it,” he recalls, “but everyone kept asking me why I wasn’t directing it because I knew more about her than anyone. I thought to myself that I needed to surround myself by people who really were experienced, I used them like a wall to protect me and it worked.”
Since her birth in 1910, Montagu was raised to become an heiress for the Montagu family until the birth of her brother, Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, the recently passed Third Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. During the mid-1950s, Edward was charged and imprisoned for engaging in a homosexual act and became one of the most well-known figures in Britain. “There is a certain amount that the Montagu family are sick of hearing about,” explains Fraser, “the main aim was to make a film about Elizabeth that her family would love which, thankfully, they do.”
The Honourable Rebel recounts the life of a woman that not many know of. Elizabeth Montagu was well known for her integrity, intelligence and formidable attitude, yet she is running the risk of being lost to history. “Here was a woman who really wanted to know about people – everything about her was so compelling,” explains Fraser, who adds, “This is an amazing story of someone’s life and it’s never been made public before. She had feistiness, incredible ability and amazing talent, but no many people know that.”