9 More Films "Based On True Stories" That Missed Out The Best Part

2. Edward The Nazi Sympathizer - The King's Speech

It's pretty good that King Edward VIII didn't stay on the British throne for longer. By all accounts, he was in fact, a pretty big sh*t. And a Nazi-fancying one at that.

He's positioned as something of a villain in The King's Speech as it was his teasing that partly led to his brother's speech problems escalating (as well as the innate stress of being a royal and having to accept the advances of radio technology as an increasingly large part of his role).

Other than being a bit of a selfish rogue and tease, Edward is otherwise mostly harmless aside from mentioning some support for Hitler's government. Not enough to cause much more than a bit of a pained gulp, though.

Real life Eddie was WAY more problematic, and the film missed a trick to really show the complexity of the contemporary perception of the Nazis. He was actually a full-blooded fascist who dined with Hess, met Hitler, discussed overthrowing his brother when Hitler successfully beat his enemies and allegedly wanted Britain to be bombed effectively to bring an end to the war he blamed on “the Jews, the Reds and the Foreign Office.”

Such a barbed portrait probably wouldn't have fit with the film's royalist spirit, to be honest.