THAT HAMILTON WOMAN, Vivie Leigh Laurence Olivier

[film_eccentrik]

That Hamilton Woman, made in 1941 was to be the final of the three films Olivier and Leigh collaborated on together. It is in my opinion certainly their best.

World War Two had recently broken out and the Oliviers desperatly wanted to return home. They had atttempted a very lavish production of Romeo and Juliet into which all their savings had been invested. Paradoxically, the play was an immense failure and they lost all their savings in the production.

Happily, Alexander Korda (Producer and head of the largest film studio in England) offered Lady Hamilton to the Oliviers who accepted immediatly due to their desperate need of money.
For Korda it was to be a film of immense patriotism. Priminister Winston Churchill had enlsited Korda to produce a film which would increase American sympathy towards the British war effort.
The film took 6 weeks to shoot and on a very low budget. The problem of money was in such dire straights that Merle Oberon (Korda's wife and Olivier's costar in Wuthering Heights) invested a large sum of her fortune into the production.

Vivien Leigh with her magical screen presence is enchanting. She is able to develop from a beautiful, intelligent and often amusing Lady Hamilton to a dramatic tradgedian by the fade out. Laurence Olivier in turn gives a commanding performance as Lord Nelson. His skill as the consumate actor once again conceals the fact that his screen presence is perhaps not quite as powerful as Vivien Leighs.

This film would become Winston Churchill's favourite movie and would be constantly screened at his home whenever he received visitors. Can we really argue with that?

[Robin]

It's said that this was one of the few American movies that Uncle Joe Stalin allowed to be shown in the Soviet Union.

It must have been pretty good!