Lady Caroline Lamb (1973)

Best movie of this year hands down!

disgusting, overrated, pointless

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I gave the movie an 8 out of 10 stars--because I thought the actors gave convincing portrayals of a drug-addled Caroline Lamb, and an ambitious William Lamb 2nd Viscount Melbourne, and an equally ambitious mother of William Lamb. Without seeing Lady Caroline Lamb as one addicted to laudanum, the viewer misses an important part of the Sarah Miles portrayal; I was convinced from the acting and make up that Lady Caroline was addicted and emotionally disturbed--the cropped hair, the pale--wan look, the bugged eyes. Lord Byron, played by Richard Chamberlain came across as the cad Byron was in real life. The other actors more than fulfilled their contract and gave exemplary performances.As always, anything from Hollywood and its environs in England or Italy or Germany, etc. is to be suspect. The business of Hollywood is to tell a story, not to describe history. Apparently Lady Caroline Lamb died at the early age of 43 (in January 1828) of influenza-- the dramatic collapse of Lady Caroline is just that--drama. The viewer can readily conclude from the movie that addiction to laudanum severely compromised her health. One turns to books to verify the information in the movie.The movie portrays William Lamb as long suffering with an unstable and unfaithful wife--where in reality, William Lamb himself was no slouch in the infidelity department. William Lamb did not become Lord Melbourne till his Father's death in 1828-- after Caroline had died; Melbourne did not become Prime Minister till 1834--again, years after Lady Caroline died.The movie is available on YouTube and is worth spending the two hours it takes; like I say, I'm glad I didn't spend the $2 to see it in 1973. There were many better movies to see at that time.

I have never understood why or how Sarah Miles became a film star. I assume that early in her career she must have been good in something, which led to her being promoted to leading roles, but whatever that magical film/play/TV role was I must have missed it. However until I saw Lady Caroline Lamb I had never thought her a truly terrible actress. I do now. In an unbecoming blonde wig and with weird, drag queen makeup (pencil thin eyebrows and pale pastel blue eyeshadow), Miles is strangely reminiscent of a faded Danny La Rue. In fact, Mr. La Rue might well have given a more nuanced, and almost certainly more entertaining performance. The most astonishing thing about this film is that it was written specifically for Miles by her then husband Robert Bolt as a showcase for her "talents". And to ensure success she was backed up by a supporting cast including the likes of Laurence Olivier, John Mills and Ralph Richardson. Playing a smallish role is Margaret Leighton, and she effortlessly steals the film. Leighton is sublime - a magnificent actress who commands attention and brings depth and meaning to her every line. Her genuine talent further exposes Miles as an amateur who is simply out of her depth. And as a delicious irony, Robert Bolt has Leighton say of Miles, to her screen husband, "Your wife is a mass of nothing. She has no centre, nothing at all". Talk about art imitating life!

Screenwriter Robert Bolt who wrote such great work for David Lean in Ryan's Daughter, Doctor Zhivago, and Lawrence of Arabia and for Fred Zinnemann in A Man For All Seasons, tried his one and only hand at directing in Lady Caroline Lamb. The problem was that screenwriter Bolt was done wrong by director Bolt. Especially let down was Bolt's then wife Sarah Miles.Miles who when directed by David Lean in Ryan's Daughter turned in such a spirited performance, was not given the same inspiration for Lady Caroline Lamb. Whatever else Caroline Lamb was she was not dull to be around. Miles does all right, but the rest of the cast just seems to walk through the parts, even the two guys playing the men in her life, Richard Chamberlain as Lord Byron and Jon Finch as William Lamb the future Lord Melbourne and Prime Minister of Great Britain.I think these guys and the rest of the cast knew this was a vehicle for Miles the minute they walked on set and performed accordingly. Even Sir Laurence Olivier as the Duke of Wellington is strangely lifeless. Of course after seeing Christopher Plummer as the perfect Wellington in Waterloo, I'm kind of spoiled.In real life Melbourne was hardly an injured party. He had a couple of other scandals attached to his name that had nothing to do with Lady Caroline. He never let the grass grow under his feet. Byron was notorious all over Europe for bedding everything in skirts within reach. It's likely he did want to call it a day with Caro, but probably because she was crazier than him. Still the escapades of George and Caro titillated all of Georgian Great Britain, but they don't move the audience a bit here.

As a work of fiction, this is an unexceptional piece of melodrama with a familiar story: the heroine falls in love with a man who abandons her cruelly. Then she does it again, and finally dies miserable and alone. Unfortunately, the main characters in this story are *supposed* to be real people. In the course of presenting Caroline Lamb (played by his wife) as a woman wronged, Bolt rides roughshod over historical facts and turns a blind eye to some of her less noble moments. In particular Lord Byron, her sometime lover, is presented as a poorly researched caricature. (On the bright side, the crippled leg that plagued him throughout his life has miraculously vanished.)It is true, as depicted in the film, that 'Caro' and Byron had an affair, and that Byron was the one to break it off as she became more and more obsessed with him. But the film completely fails to note that she went on to conduct a vicious campaign of revenge against him that lasted for considerably longer than the original affair, and played a major part in ruining his reputation in England with accusations of crimes up to and including murder. Byron was certainly a flawed human being, but Bolt magnifies and distorts those flaws while ignoring many of Lady Caroline's.It appears that Bolt is more interested in making a good story than in representing the life of the real Caroline Lamb, which would be forgivable if he *had* created a good story. But there's nothing exceptional about this one, not even the costumes; just a run-of-the-mill "woman ruined by heartless men" tale. If it's 19th-century fiction you're after, a Jane Austen dramatization would be a better choice; if it's historical accuracy you like, you won't find it here.