B - “Blenheim Palace”
According to the IMDb, over 80 films and television shows have listed Blenheim Palace as a filming location, including Barry Lyndon (1975), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015), and Spectre (2015). Branagh would return to direct Disney’s live-action version of Cinderella (2015) at the opulent Oxfordshire estate, which has been the ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough (the Churchill family) for over 300 years.
Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim, and is a direct descendent of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Churchill famously turned to the Bard of Stratford for inspiration in his life and political duties. He was a voracious lifelong reader, and committed many tracts of Shakespeare to memory, Hamlet being a particular favorite. Richard Burton, playing Hamlet on stage with Churchill in the audience, recalled that the man knew every scene, every line, and would give a tremendous roar at every part that was cut from the text.
John Spencer-Churchill, the 11th Duke of Marlborough, makes a cameo appearance in Hamlet as Fortinbras’ general. He is also credited as the Blenheim location manager in Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part 1 (1981), which features famed Shakespeare filmmaker Orson Welles as the narrator.
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