That Hamilton Woman (The Criterion Collection)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Heather Angel, Julie Compton, Laurence Olivier, Leonard Carey, Vivien LeighBrand: IMG
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 128 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-09-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of That Hamilton Woman (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: One of the Greats!
Summary: 5 Stars
My mother took me to see "That Hamilton Woman" sixty-eight years ago in a Hollywood movie theatre, and I have never forgotten either the film, or its poignant last line. I am therefore happy to discover that far from being a remnant of my child's imagination, the film has lost none of its charm. In Black and White, its excellence exudes virtual "colour" because of its splendid combination of romance and history, its magnificent cinematography, and the acting of its protagonists.
Vivien Leigh portrays Emma, Lady Hamilton, with coquettish grace, and Lawrence Olivier endows Horatio Nelson with proper "heart of oak". Both of them suggest a selfishness of the "all for love and the world well lost" variety. Alan Mobray, who plays Sir William Hamilton, conveys a quiet dignity as he acknowledges the inevitability of the notorious love affair of his wife, who was some thirty-four years his junior. Hamilton, British Ambassador to the court of Naples at the turn of the 18th century, was a a noted antiquarian who, along with the King and Queen of Naples, "collected" artifacts from the newly discovered Pompeii and Herculaneum. He has married Emma out of charity, and, because of guilt, she accuses of him of collecting her along with his statues and art objects. The only character I did not care for was Lady Nelson, who was relentlessly glacial. One gets the feeling that Alexander Korda directed her to be as unsympathetic as possible, in order to weight the audience's sympathies in favor of the lovers, since the morality of the affair was considered unsuitable in the cinema of the 'forties.
The Battle of Trafalgar is breathtaking. HMS Victory was constructed to scale, but the ships-of-the-line in the background were the size of dinghies, manipulated like puppets by prop men inside of them. The battle took place in a tank with wind machines that roil the water convincingly. One would never guess that this elegant set was jerrybuilt on a low budget. It makes many of the CGI effects in films today seem paltry in comparison.
According to Michael Korda's fascinating interview, Churchill encouraged Alexander Korda to make the film for propaganda purposes in order to get the United States to join the war--a problem that became irrelevant by December of 1941; and while the anti-Napoleon/tyrant message may seem quaint to today's audience, it certainly did not when I first saw the film. To us Americans, Nelson epitomised British courage in the face of the onslaught of the twentieth-century tyrant, whom I am not going to dignify with a name, and what can, without hyperbole, be termed the forces of evil. Although the same message was conveyed with slightly more subtlety in "Casablanca" of the previous year, considered in its historical context, it is not out of place in "That Hamilton Woman," the performances of which transcend the message.
Summary of That Hamilton Woman (The Criterion Collection)
Synopsis:Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: NR
Street Date: 09/08/09
Wide Screen: no
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: yes
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
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