doug-17357 Very beautiful Vivien Leigh is perfectly cast as very beautiful Emma Hamilton, and her performance is one of her very best. Laurence Olivier is very good as Horatio Nelson, although I think that Lesley Howard might have been even better. The movie's chief failing is not showing the love and respect both Emma and Horatio felt for Sir William Hamilton, who was their constant companion while he lived. I suppose that wasn't possible in 1941 under the code. 9/10

valdelli The screenplay would give a different role to Lady Hamilton and to Nelson different than the real history. Lady Hamilton actually was a very frivolous courtesan, closely linked to the to the equally frivolous Neapolitan court, Nelson's lover and capable of managing a a triangular relationship, very similar to the extended families of the current time, but also to convince Nelson to condemn to death more than 100 people of the Neapolitan Revolution without understanding the meaning of her act. All this sense doesn't shine through the film, there is just an unfortunate woman almost heroic. The story is completely different and has some implications and completely different meanings.

GusF Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh's third and final film together and the only one made during their marriage, this is a hugely enjoyable romantic period film which tells the story of the rise and fall of Emma, Lady Hamilton in Georgian society and her long lasting and very well known affair with Lord Nelson, which ended with his death at Trafalgar in 1805. I am not an expert on either those two individuals or the Napoleonic era in general so I don't know how closely it hues to or how greatly it departs from actual history but tells a wonderful story of two lovers who were in many ways doomed. One thing that I did know about the couple is that they had an illegitimate daughter named Horatia (subtle). Given the film standards of the day, I was expecting this little fact to be left out and I was very surprised that they acknowledged her existence, although they never show her. The film has a very strong script by Walter Reisch and R.C. Sheriff, top notch direction from Alexander Korda and beautiful sets designed by his younger brother Vincent.Olivier and Leigh are both sublime in the leading roles and just make it seem so effortless. It's such a shame that their on screen partnership was limited to a mere three films as their chemistry is fantastic. I do know that Olivier wanted to make at least two films with her before they divorced: his unproduced and seemingly cursed version of Macbeth and The Prince and the Showgirl. In the latter, she was to reprise her stage role as Elsie Marina from The Sleeping Prince but she was replaced by the considerably less gifted actress Marilyn Monroe. The couple are certainly the strongest performers but they receive great support from the hilarious Sara Allgood as Lady Hamilton's Irish mother Mrs. Cadogan-Lyon, Alan Mowbray as her cuckolded husband Sir William Hamilton, the great Gladys Cooper as the imperious yet still sympathetic Lady Nelson, Henry Wilcoxon as Sir Thomas Hardy (of "Kiss me, Hardy" fame), Gilbert Emery as Lord Spencer and Heather Angel as Lady Hamilton's Calais cellmate.Although the film was made by Hollywood, it is British to its core and fiercely patriotic. It was intended as an anti-Nazi propaganda piece, which caused controversy in the US as it was released almost eight months before Pearl Harbor. It is well known to be Churchill's favourite film and he actually wrote two of Nelson's anti-Napoleon speeches. The Nazi allegory is most clearly seen in the scene when Sir William explains to his wife that the British Empire is periodically attacked by military adventurers, in Nelson's line "We are alone but unafraid" and his speech denouncing the idea of negotiating with dictators which Churchill could have delivered in Parliament if five or six words were changed. I imagine that it was quite a stirring film for the Britons of the day. In this sense, it is reminiscent of Olivier's later, better and more subtly propagandist film "Henry V".Overall, this is an excellent film which works as both a great romantic story in its right and a very effective social commentary on its own troubled time.

Catharina_Sweden I loved this movie - although it was over two hours long, it was so interesting all the time that it did not feel long at all. The only thing wrong was that they had omitted both Lady Hamilton's first daughter that she had already at 16, and also the second daughter with Nelson, who died as an infant. Except for this, I think this was an exhaustive and faithful rendering of Lady Hamilton's life. Oh, what a roller-coaster that life was! It is difficult to know if one should envy, pity or despise her... maybe a little of everything..? The actors were very good all round. Vivien Leigh even looked like the Emma Hamilton of the portraits! Slim, petite and exquisitely beautiful. Laurence Olivier as Lord Nelson was excellent as always.I like it that the movie also gave a fine picture of the culture and the times in these upper-class circles, in Britain and on the continent. And Lord Nelson's career and victories are of course a piece of British and European history.