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| Korda Spectacular
This recently released propaganda film made in early WWII at the behest of Winston Churchill has long been awaited on DVD. For readers of Michael Korda's "Charmed Lives", Random House 1979, the film itself and Michael's 1 hour description of its making in Los Angeles as special feature of the DVD it will be especially memorable. Michael Korda to those who may not be familiar is in my opinion the most articulate speaker on a variety of diverse subjects. When he talks about his family and films making you are held spellbound.
One of the Greats!My mother took me to see "That Hamilton Woman" sixty-eight years ago in a Hollywood movie theatre, and I have never forgotten either the film, or its poignant last line. I am therefore happy to discover that far from being a remnant of my child's imagination, the film has lost none of its charm. In Black and White, its excellence exudes virtual "colour" because of its splendid combination of romance and history, its magnificent cinematography, and the acting of its protagonists.
Vivien Leigh portrays Emma, Lady Hamilton, with coquettish grace, and Lawrence Olivier endows Horatio Nelson with proper "heart of oak". Both of them suggest a selfishness of the "all for love and the world well lost" variety. Alan Mobray, who plays Sir William Hamilton, conveys a quiet dignity as he acknowledges the inevitability of the notorious love affair of his wife, who was some thirty-four years his junior. Hamilton, British Ambassador to the court of Naples at the turn of the 18th century, was a a noted antiquarian who, along with the King and Queen of Naples, "collected" artifacts from the newly discovered Pompeii and Herculaneum. He has married Emma out of charity, and, because of guilt, she accuses of him of collecting her along with his statues and art objects. The only character I did not care for was Lady Nelson, who was relentlessly glacial. One gets the feeling that Alexander Korda directed her to be as unsympathetic as possible, in order to weight the audience's sympathies in favor of the lovers, since the morality of the affair was considered unsuitable in the cinema of the 'forties.
The Battle of Trafalgar is breathtaking. HMS Victory was constructed to scale, but the ships-of-the-line in the background were the size of dinghies, manipulated like puppets by prop men inside of them. The battle took place in a tank with wind machines that roil the water convincingly. One would never guess that this elegant set was jerrybuilt on a low budget. It makes many of the CGI effects in films today seem paltry in comparison.
According to Michael Korda's fascinating interview, Churchill encouraged Alexander Korda to make the film for propaganda purposes in order to get the United States to join the war--a problem that became irrelevant by December of 1941; and while the anti-Napoleon/tyrant message may seem quaint to today's audience, it certainly did not when I first saw the film. To us Americans, Nelson epitomised British courage in the face of the onslaught of the twentieth-century tyrant, whom I am not going to dignify with a name, and what can, without hyperbole, be termed the forces of evil. Although the same message was conveyed with slightly more subtlety in "Casablanca" of the previous year, considered in its historical context, it is not out of place in "That Hamilton Woman," the performances of which transcend the message.
That Hamilton Woman DVD ReviewThis is one of the all-time classics with literate script, nice costumes and sets, fine score by Miklos Rozsa, and superb acting.
Winston Churchill's favorite movie. Need I say more?This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
That Hamilton Woman is a British film made during World War II at the personal request of British PM, Winston Churchill. It is war film based on the true story of Lord Horatio Nelson and his mistress Lady Hamilton. The film was intended to boost morale among Britons during the war and it worked incredibly well and became Churchill's favorite movie and he is reputed to have watched the movie over a hundred times.
The starring roles are played by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Their acting is incredible and the film's editing style is great too. The most memorable scene for me is a distant night shot of the Royal Navy's ships in harbor with the crews beautifully singing "Londonderry Air." I think this is one of the greatest scenes ever used in a movie. This is a timeless classic and on lists of the greatest British films ever made.
The special features include an interview with director Alexander Korda's nephew, Michael Korda, a promotional radio presentation for the film, the theatrical, and audio commentary by film historian, Ian Christie.
I recommend this film highly.
Love and warAs soon as you see Alexander Korda's classic 1941 film of the star-crossed love of Lord Horatio Nelson and Emma, Lady Hamilton you'll see why it was Winston Churchill's favorite film, which he reputedly screened dozens and dozens of times. Korda spared almost no expense on the sets, which are grandly elaborate on a scale worthy of MGM; the sea battles, particularly at Trafalgar, are beautifully and elaborately detailed, and show terrific models in almost convincing military action; and there are multiple propagandistic speeches about standing up to tyrants and allowing little England its freedom that clearly spoke to the Second World War (right then near its darkest hour). And in the leads there are the real-life couple of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, showing genuine sexual chemistry and intelligence between them. The part of Emma Hamilton is basically tailor-made for Leigh: she gets to show off some of her usual bursts of minxish energy in the film's early sections, when she's a foolish thing being wooed by Sir William Hamilton; later, bowed by worry and love, she gets to show her more skills as a mature woman that did not endear her to her public quite as much as her vixenish sulks (as with Scarlett O'Hara in the early scenes of GONE WITH THE WIND) but where she showed her genuine talents laid. And this is one of Olivier's best roles: he's quite sexy as Lord Nelson, despite the convincing makeup that shows his wounds and ruined eye after the Battle of the Nile, and he manages to seem simultaneously sure of himself in battle and winningly underconfident in matters of the heart.
They are given little help from their supporting cast, the film's weakest aspect: to stack the deck in terms of the audience's sympathies in favor of Lady Hamilton, Gladys Cooper, in her most inflexible and unlovable form, is cast as the frowning Lady Nelson; Alan Mowbray fares slightly better as the limping elderly Sir William Hamilton; and Sara Allgood gets a few good jokes as Emma's mother despite her clumsy line readings. The best reason to see the film, other than for its stars, are for its gorgeous cinematography, restored to almost pristine purity by Criterion, and its astonishing sets (there is an interior of the main hall outside the old House of Lords that is a kind of miracle of matte painting effects).
DescriptionOne of cinema's most dashing duos, real-life spouses Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier enact their greatest on-screen romance in this visually dazzling tragic love story from legendary producer-director Alexander Korda. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars of the late eighteenth century, That Hamilton Woman is a gripping account of the scandalous adulterous affair between the British Royal Navy officer Lord Horatio Nelson and the renowned beauty Lady Emma Hamilton, the wife of a British ambassador. With its grandly designed sea battles and formidable star performances, Korda's film (Winston Churchill's favorite movie, which he claimed to have seen over eighty times) brings history to vivid, glamorous life.
Stills from That Hamilton Woman (Click for larger image)
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