That Hamilton Woman (1941)

Very Cool!!!

Sick Product of a Sick System

Just perfect...

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

So many reasons for see it ! from the status of testimony about the spirit of a period to the performances - Vivien Leigh is magnificent as Emma Hilton - to the naval battle and the imposible love story. it is not a film for define it. and not an artistic delight. or a masterpiece. after its end, you discover it as a very personal message. sure, romanticism is present. and it could appear as the basic ingredient. but the film gives more than a sensitive story. but a kind of ...spell. about succes and sacrifice and fall. using the perfect couple.

Alexander Korda's historical drama pivots on and beautifies the real-life adulterous romance between Emma Hamilton (Leigh), a courtesan-turned-wife-of-British-ambassador and British Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson (Olivier) during the dawn of the Napoleonic war in the beginning of 19th century. First and foremost, it is a star vehicle unflinchingly banks on Leigh and Olivier, the then newlyweds' prestige, then gauging by its release date, it also functions as a patriotic war propaganda urging USA to join the ongoing WWII against the Axis. (which soon would be precipitated by Japan's stealth raid on Pearl Harbor) However, after watching this sketchy account of the scandalous relationship against a very broad historic outline which Korda and his screenwriters have devised, one's natural leaning would tend to be rather ambiguous, Horatio is an out-and-out national hero (Olivier gives a very measured, even somewhat stiff performance which doesn't consonant with his reputation), who devotes his life to fight for the right cause and accrues many victories for his fatherland, which costs him an eye, an arm and eventually his life. Yet, in the end of the day, his country downright fails him, too moralistic to pay due care to Emma, the woman he truly loves, after his untimely demise, not to mention, it is "that woman" who plays a critical role not once but twice (according to the movie's story-line), when Nelson and the Great Britain desperately need aids from Naples, she proves to be much more tactful than her then husband Sir William Hamilton (Mowbray), the British ambassador to Naples. Thus, why would anyone be spurred by this account into laying down one's life in the face of that one's country cannot even promise to safeguard the ones he or she loves ? So, the war propaganda train has gone off-rail, but as a showpiece, Vivien Leigh is utterly ravishing in this tailor-made character, which boils down to her actions, reactions, line-delivery, miens and gestures, are all highlighted with subdued close-ups exude a dainty aura of divinity and desirability, and the story is almost exclusively told through her eye's-view, a young woman unwittingly sold by her dissolute lover to enter a marriage (under which circumstance she caves in) where she is regarded as a precious art collection by her well-off husband, impeccable, forever young but with no love, and for once, the husband, is not a man possessed by the green-eyed monster when Emma finds passion and attraction in another man, an apotheosis of virtues, he can suavely dole out constructive advice to her but never stands in their way. Emma is not a grasping soul, mirrored by the happy-go-lucky temperament of her mother (a jolly and welcomingly earthy Sara Allgood), she isn't craving for William's fortune because she knows she doesn't deserve it, but there is no way Horatio can marry her because Lady Nelson (an animosity-simmering Gladys Cooper) refuses to relinquish her title and gives her blessing to the love birds. At any rate, Emma and Horatio spend their last days together in modest comforts, until he is summoned for the famous Battle of Trafalgar, and for the first time (also the last time), we are steered to the epic sea battle scenery, understandably jerry-built in its studio-bound model conjuring, nevertheless an impressive feat in the eyes of its original audience. As ineffable as Ms. Leigh is, the film itself doesn't pan out as a classical stunner, impeded by its innately episodic narrative, a rash flashback frame and a lackluster co-star, it is best to be served as a scrumptious feast to ogle Ms. Leigh's glamor and glory in her acme, and taking into account of her rather scanty filmography, it might as well sneaks into that must-see list for film lovers all over the world.

Director Vincent Korda mounts a handsome-looking historical costume drama about the open affair between Emma Hamilton (Vivien Leigh) and Horatio Nelson (Laurence Olivier) during the Napoleonic wars.In fact, I was struck by how frankly their affair was dealt with given the time period, and wonder if it was shocking to audiences in 1941. Alan Mowbray and Gladys Cooper, respectively, play the jilted spouses who resign themselves to the shenanigans, him more willingly than her. Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier do nice work, and Leigh especially makes the viewer wish that she had made more films. She could do more with a subtle facial expression than most actors could with a page of dialogue, and there's something modern and ahead of its time about her acting. The film starts out strongly enough, but it unfortunately settles into a rather plodding rhythm by the end, constrained by the determination of the screenwriters to focus almost exclusively on the love story between Lady Hamilton and Nelson at the expense of the historical events taking place around them, despite the fact that the love story stops being interesting mid-way through the film when we realize it no longer has anywhere to go. Still, if romantic swooning is your thing, you could do far worse than this movie.The film won an Oscar for Best Sound Recording and was nominated in the additional categories of Art Direction (B&W), Cinematography (B&W), and Special Effects, for an impressive sea battle in the film's final scenes.Grade: B+

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.