Film Review
Warner Brothers spared no expense for this grandly flamboyant
historical drama, an adaptation of a popular Broadway play by Maxwell
Anderson.
The Private Lives of
Elizabeth and Essex was one of the most lavish period dramas to
come out of Hollywood in the 1930s, one that offered the unbeatable
pairing of two iconic film stars, Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.
(The two had appeared together once before, in the 1938 film
The Sisters). Although little
of what the film shows us has much factual basis, this doesn't prevent
it from being a great piece of cinema, beautifully shot in the recently
perfected Technicolor, with compelling performances (watch out for
Vincent Price in a break-through role) and an appropriately majestic
score from the legendary screen composer Erich Korngold.
The tensions between the various leading players in the production has
been well documented, particularly the friction between the two lead
actors. Bette Davis's lack of respect for Errol Flynn as an actor
was surpassed only by her loathing for him as a man, and she would
regard the casual way in which he approached his work with nothing less
than contempt. Davis's antagonism towards her co-star was
partly down to her failure to persuade the studio to hire Laurence Olivier,
an actor she greatly admired, for the part of Essex. Meanwhile,
Flynn had his own bête noire, in the shape
of director Michael Curtiz, whom he often had difficulty working
with. After her glorious triumph in
Gone With the Wind, Olivia de
Havilland found herself flung into a minor supporting role, a kindly
"Welcome Back" gesture from studio boss Jack Warner, who didn't want
her to get above herself now that she was famous. With so much
combustible material in such a confined space, it's a miracle the whole
production didn't end up as a raging inferno of temper tantrums.
Errol Flynn has been widely criticised for his performance in this
film, which does mark a slight departure from his previous roles.
No one does the swashbuckling adventure hero better but his limitations
as an actor become apparent when he is asked to play straight dramatic
roles. That said, here he is up against Bette Davis, one of the
greatest screen talents of his era, and despite their feelings for one
another off-screen, on screen they make a convincing couple, bringing
immense charm and poignancy to what would appear, on the face of it, to
be an implausible romance.
Bette Davis was destined to play Elizabeth I and looks so right in the
part that you wonder how anyone could ever dare to play it after her
(she reprised the role in the 1955 film
The Virgin Queen). The
actress undertook considerable research to portray the monarch as
accurately as she could and the result is one of her finest
performances. Davis's Elizabeth is no caricature, but a
sensitive yet tough woman who is visibly torn between her duty and the
only love she has known. The realism and intensity with which she
conveys this inner conflict is what makes the film so powerful and its
ending so extraordinarily heart-rending.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Michael Curtiz film:
The Sea Hawk (1940)
Film Synopsis
Content in having dealt the Spanish a resounding naval defeat at Cadiz, Robert
Devereux, the Earl of Essex, returns to England, expecting a hero's
welcome. Instead of showering him with words of gratitude, Queen
Elizabeth condemns him for his failure to capture the Spanish treasure
fleet. The criticism is a double blow for Essex, since it
downplays his achievement and wounds the profound love that he has for
his monarch. Fearful of Essex's growing popularity, his rivals
manoeuvre the Queen into having him lead an army to quash a rebellion
in Ireland. When this mission ends in failure, an embittered
Essex returns to England and organises an uprising against the
queen. Essex confronts Elizabeth and offers to submit to her will
if she will agree to share the crown with him. Although she is
deeply in love with Devereux, Elizabeth knows that her duty to England
must come before all else...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.