Excellent but underrated film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The first must-see film of the year.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

"That Hamilton Woman" is a dramatised version of the love story of Admiral Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton, the wife of the British ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples. Emma Hart (nee Amy Lyon) was a beautiful courtesan who became the mistress first of Sir Charles Greville and then of his uncle Sir William Hamilton, the British ambassador; it is said that Greville effectively "sold" Emma to Hamilton in exchange for assistance with his gambling debts. Despite this unromantic start to their relationship, the much older Sir William fell in love with the lovely young woman and married her. She, however, did not return his love, and when Nelson, then a dashing captain, visited Naples on official business she fell passionately in love with him. In this film the story, as the title might suggest, is told more from Emma's point of view than Nelson's. It opens in 1815, ten years after Nelson's death, with Emma, now ageing and impoverished, living in exile in France. She is arrested in Calais for a petty theft and while in prison tells her life story to a fellow inmate. The rest of the story is then shown in flashback. The film was a controversial one, particularly in the United States, when it first came out in 1941. There were two reasons for this. The first is that it violated the Production Code by showing an adulterous relationship as something romantic rather than something sinful. Emma is played as a romantic heroine rather than a wicked temptress, which is how the cinema of this period normally depicted adulteresses. Nelson's wife Frances is here played by Gladys Cooper as a jealous, vindictive and embittered harridan rather than as patient and long-suffering, which is how the cinema of this period normally depicted wronged wives (and how Lady Nelson seems to have been in real life). Emma is not only a romantic heroine but also a tragic one, a woman who gives her love to Britain's greatest hero but who after his death in battle is shabbily treated by an ungrateful nation and ends her days penniless in a foreign land- ironically, the land against whose forces her lover fought so gallantly. The second reason why the film was so controversial was that it was a quite blatant piece of propaganda. The Napoleonic Wars are seen from the British perspective, as a struggle against a ruthless and tyrannical dictator with ambitions to rule the whole of Europe. The parallels between Napoleon and Hitler are quite deliberate and are underlined by the Churchillian speeches given to Nelson. ("You cannot make peace with dictators. You have to destroy them–wipe them out!") Had the film been made in Britain, this sort of thing would have been par for the course in 1941, but it was actually made in America, albeit by the Hungarian- born Briton Alexander Korda, who acted as both producer and director, with a largely British cast. As America was not yet in the war, Korda was bitterly assailed as a warmongering propagandist by the influential isolationist movement, still blithely oblivious to the very real threat which the Axis Powers presented to their own country. According to one story Korda was summoned to appear before an angry Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was only excused attendance when the attack on Pearl Harbor took place a few days before his scheduled appointment. The two leading roles, Britain's Golden Couple of the 1790s, are played by Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Britain's Golden Couple of the 1940s, , then recently married. (This was the only one of their three films together made after their marriage). Leigh, if anything even more beautiful in 1941 than she had been in "Gone with the Wind" two years earlier, has all the glamour needed for her role, as well as the skill needed to make Emma a sympathetic figure, despite her ambiguous past, and Olivier makes Nelson suitably passionate and daring. There is also a good contribution from Alan Mowbray as Sir William, initially urbane and sophisticated but who later seems small-minded and mean-spirited, caring more for his collection of antique sculptures than for any human being, Emma included. The action scenes of the Battle of Trafalgar are surprisingly well done, given the limited special effects available to film-makers at this period. (Nelson's earlier victories at The Nile and Copenhagen, however, are not shown at all and mentioned only in passing; Korda evidently wanted to save the big show for the end). Seventy-five years on, we need no longer worry about the historical controversies which so exercised people when the film was first made. Today we can see it less as a piece of propaganda than as a fine costume drama. Certainly, it can seem a little melodramatic for modern tastes, but it is nevertheless an excellent example of the style of film-making that was in vogue during this period. 8/10

This is one of my favorite historic epic/romantic films. It stars Lawrence Olivier as Lord Nelson and Vivien Leigh as Emma Hart Hamilton, with Vivien Leigh fresh from her triumph in "Gone with the Wind" and at a time when the real-life romance and marriage between the two stars (Leigh and Olivier) was new.The film is largely accurate, which is unusual for an historical drama of its time since these usually took great license with the truth. The departures from the truth that the film took were largely to satisfy the censors of the time. The truth is that William Hamilton, Emma's older husband, accepted and even encouraged the affair between his wife and Lord Nelson. When Emma set up housekeeping with Lord Nelson in England, William Hamilton lived there with them in a menage a trois relationship that fascinated the public of the time. In 1941 this would have been unacceptable on the screen.The implication of the film is that Emma's daughter by Lord Nelson died. In fact their daughter married a man of the cloth, had ten children, and died at the age of 80. Emma's end as it is portrayed in the film is sadly accurate. Women of Emma's time were largely dependent upon their station in life and upon the whims of the men in their lives. If those men died, even if the man was great, women often found themselves in desperate poverty.

I suppose that revealing an historical fact might be considered a spoiler by people basically ignorant of history. So I'm guilty. So shoot me.I don't say that old movies are always better than new ones – but old movies are usually better than new. This is especially when they're the same movie, and generically so when the old movie has no clone. The old "Four Feathers" is better than the new. The old "Count of Monte Cristo" is better than any of the new. The old Disney movies are better than the new, especially when they're the originals of "What's-Its-Name" II (or III or XXXI). "That Hamilton Woman" is an old film that makes no secret of its aristocratic blood and as yet nobody has had the cajones to remake it.THW is a Brit film made during the Last Good War (1941) when the Brits were still going it alone and not doing all that badly. It's a wartime reminder of how the British navy kept that nutter Napoleon at bay for almost a generation – even as they kept that loony Hitler at bay during his (gottzei dank!) briefer career. Although the film isn't centered on the man who put paid to Bonaparte's naval pretensions, Horatio Nelson; however, he is an important character.The main character is Emma Hart, ne Amy Lyon(s) and latterly Emma, Lady Hamilton. The film opens about the end of Emma's life, while she's in jail in Calais for brawling. She tells her story to a cell mate who is also English. This opens in 1783, just as she arrives at the home of Sir William Hamilton – to whose tender care he has committed her now that he intends to marry a lot of money. Hamilton is ambassador to the King of Naples. Emma and her mother, Mary Cadogan-Lyon (formerly Mary Kidd), move into the Hamilton home, where she learns she's been palmed off. Eventually she gets over it and marries Lord Hamilton (1791). During the 1780s she befriends Queen Maria Carolina and moves virtually to the pinnacle of Neapolitan society after her marriage.The film, I should add, runs fairly close to history. In 1793 Horatio Nelson calls at Naples as part of a campaign to unite Italy against French aggression. Emma is smitten with him, but he almost immediately dashed off to confront a military emergency. After Nelson won the Battle of the Nile at abu-Kir (1798), he returned to Naples, minus an arm, an eye, and a lot of teeth. Nelson spent well over a year in the Hamilton home. Thence he returned to England with the Hamiltons and Emma's mother, arriving in 1800. Once in London, Nelson lived with the other 3. Nelson's daughter Horatia was born in early 1801. Late that year Nelson purchased Merton Place, a fixer-upper to which the quartet moved. The Emma-Horatio affair increasingly became a public scandal and Nelson's wife made their separation final. In 1803 Hamilton died and Nelson finally took up the sea again. He died in 1805 during his great victory at Trafalgar.We see Emma's downward spiral begin, but we never see its end nor really learn its cause other than unspecified money problems. Emma had a gambling addiction. She died in Calais of liver failure (1815; not in the film).The film itself is wonderful theater. Winston Churchill said he had seen it over 100 times. The director was the great Alexander Korda and the idiomatic music was by the brilliant Miklós Rózsa. The 5 principal roles are taken by a quintet of Britain's best. Horatio Nelson is played with enormous sincerity and passion by Lawrence Olivier. Sir Larry, which I'm certain nobody ever calls him to his face, was one of those dramaturgic prodigies of which Britain has produced so many and America so few. This rôle, relatively early in his career, already shows his mastery of the art of acting.As if being treated to Olivier weren't enough, Emma is played by the gorgeous Vivien Leigh. Leigh was a lively, intelligent, radiant actress – no wonder Olivier fell in love with her whilst they were making "Fire Over England". She made few films after THW, mostly due to persistent bouts with tuberculosis. Although she doesn't exactly resemble Emma, she is not exactly unlike her either. Her performance here is, until tragedy begins to overwhelm Emma, chock-full of joie de vivre.William Hamilton is played by the venerable screen regular (171 films), Alan Mowbray. His aristocratic yet warm bearing allowed him to play a wide variety of roles; he is marvelously effective here. Mowbray spent his last years (1956-1969) appearing in American TV programs.Emma's mother is portrayed by the estimable and talented Sara Allgood. Her warm, motherly face brought her many parts as a mother, a landlady, a neighbor, what have you.The important, somewhat smaller, part of Lady Nelson was taken by the wonderful Gladys Cooper. Her bearing and diction led her to such rôles as Duchesses and other nobility or others of like personality. Her best-known rôle was Mrs. Higgins, Henry Higgins' mother, in Shaw's play Pygmalion and the musical made from it, My Fair Lady. As Nelson's wife, her grief shows subtly and clearly below her forbearance. Many who take similar parts could learn much from watching her here.This DVD is of Chinese manufacture. There is no British or American copy yet. The subtitles are Chinese but not English, alas -- but the actors speak clearly and precisely. When the playback started, the main titles were unclear and the sound was badly reproduced. I expected the worst until the main film started. This had been digitally improved so that the sound was much better. The images were also clear, although the dark tones were somewhat muted. I'm sure the film will eventually come out with a better print, but this isn't half-bad.

The sense of pride of country also reminds me of Master and Commander, another English seafaring-based tale. It's rather stirring in both cases when the characters exclaim on the importance of their missions to decent folk everywhere who yearn to breathe free. We feel that passion and pride in the person of Lord Nelson when he storms into the port of Naples, Italy, requesting the help of British Ambassador Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray). It's urgent and requires the intervention of the Italian king, but the bureaucracy is such an impediment that the authorization will take days. Enter Lady Emma Hamilton (Vivien Leigh)—hubba hubba—who is in daily contact with the queen. She will help the admiral get what he needs that very day. ...For my complete review of this movie and for other movie and book reviews, please visit my site TheCoffeeCoaster.com.Brian Wright Copyright 2008