A year after playing an otherwise sensible woman in love with Errol Flynn in "The Sisters", Better Davis got her greatest role, playing Queen Elizabeth I, madly in love with but scared of the ambitious and proud Earl of Essex, played by Errol Flynn. She had no affection for Flynn in real life and the feeling was mutual. Flynn, in her view, lacked dedication to the profession of acting and she desperately tried to get Lawrence Oliver, who was in town with his wife, Vivien Leigh, who was making Gone With the Wind/ Olivier was not yet famous here, (but soon would be with Wuthering Heights and Rebecca), and Jack Warner, who spent a lot of money on this film, insisted on Flynn to help guarantee the box office. Years later, Bette's pal Olivia DeHavilland sat down with her to watch the film and Davis pronounced Flynn's performance "brilliant". But he was no longer around to enjoy the praise.
Flynn lacks the Shakespearean passion and presence Olivier would have brought to the role but he surely understood this proud, ambitious man and gives a capable performance. It's high praise to say that he's not blown away by Davis, for whom this film is a symphony of emotion. She not only has the love-hate relationship with Essex but, even late in her reign and life, (or perhaps because of it), she is both domineering and insecure. Her anxiousness for the fate of her fragile country, (England's great power came in later centuries) and the pain of a lifetime of unsuccessful relationships comes through in every scene, especially in the one where she commands that all the mirror in the palace be destroyed so she won't have to look at herself and be jealous of the pretty young ladies in her court.
The love story between Elizabeth and Essex is one of the many 'improvements' on history to be found in Flynn's films as well as many other movies of Hollywood's Golden Era, (and since). Elizabeth was twice Essex's age and there's no evidence of any kind of May-December romance. But in this film it becomes a tragic love story, one the emotional level of Romeo and Juliet but much more complex because R and J's fate was determined by a conflict forced upon them whereas this is about internal conflicts and flawed relationships. The final scene where Essex climbs what had been a hidden staircase for his final scene with his Queen and the descends again when they both agree that he must die is haunting. It's as if he's voluntarily entering Hell to save her and her England.
The film is a little unnerving these days, (2021) as we hear about Essex's army taking over the palace and being described as a 'mob'. I prefer to consign such thoughts to an 80-year-old movie. Maybe someday we will be able to do so again. The look of the film is fantastic, particularly if you've got the remastered DVD version. One quibble: the gunshots in the Ireland sequence sound as if some six-shooters were left over from Dodge City. The matchlock weapons of the time would have fired, (infrequently) with a small explosion. In fact, they were sometimes called 'hand cannons'.
Olivia De Havilland appears in a Flynn film for the 6th time but it wasn't a happy occasion for her, either. She plays a lesser role as one of the young pretties the Queen despises. She winds up conspiring against her and Essex and is told that this will cost her her life in the final scene. Olivia had fought hard to get to play Melanie in GWTW and Warner 'punished' her by giving her this lesser role in this film. It's also the third and last film in which she doesn't wind up in Flynn's arms, preferring Patrick Knowles in 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and 'Four's a Crowd'. For the second and last time Alan Hale is Flynn's antagonist instead of his buddy. He lost a sword duel to Flynn in 'The Prince and the Pauper' but whips him in battle in this one.
The action of this one takes place about a decade after the action in "The Sea Hawk", a film Flynn made a year later that has some similarities but also some he differences to this one. I'll be discussing that comparison when I review that film.
Flynn lacks the Shakespearean passion and presence Olivier would have brought to the role but he surely understood this proud, ambitious man and gives a capable performance. It's high praise to say that he's not blown away by Davis, for whom this film is a symphony of emotion. She not only has the love-hate relationship with Essex but, even late in her reign and life, (or perhaps because of it), she is both domineering and insecure. Her anxiousness for the fate of her fragile country, (England's great power came in later centuries) and the pain of a lifetime of unsuccessful relationships comes through in every scene, especially in the one where she commands that all the mirror in the palace be destroyed so she won't have to look at herself and be jealous of the pretty young ladies in her court.
The love story between Elizabeth and Essex is one of the many 'improvements' on history to be found in Flynn's films as well as many other movies of Hollywood's Golden Era, (and since). Elizabeth was twice Essex's age and there's no evidence of any kind of May-December romance. But in this film it becomes a tragic love story, one the emotional level of Romeo and Juliet but much more complex because R and J's fate was determined by a conflict forced upon them whereas this is about internal conflicts and flawed relationships. The final scene where Essex climbs what had been a hidden staircase for his final scene with his Queen and the descends again when they both agree that he must die is haunting. It's as if he's voluntarily entering Hell to save her and her England.
The film is a little unnerving these days, (2021) as we hear about Essex's army taking over the palace and being described as a 'mob'. I prefer to consign such thoughts to an 80-year-old movie. Maybe someday we will be able to do so again. The look of the film is fantastic, particularly if you've got the remastered DVD version. One quibble: the gunshots in the Ireland sequence sound as if some six-shooters were left over from Dodge City. The matchlock weapons of the time would have fired, (infrequently) with a small explosion. In fact, they were sometimes called 'hand cannons'.
Olivia De Havilland appears in a Flynn film for the 6th time but it wasn't a happy occasion for her, either. She plays a lesser role as one of the young pretties the Queen despises. She winds up conspiring against her and Essex and is told that this will cost her her life in the final scene. Olivia had fought hard to get to play Melanie in GWTW and Warner 'punished' her by giving her this lesser role in this film. It's also the third and last film in which she doesn't wind up in Flynn's arms, preferring Patrick Knowles in 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and 'Four's a Crowd'. For the second and last time Alan Hale is Flynn's antagonist instead of his buddy. He lost a sword duel to Flynn in 'The Prince and the Pauper' but whips him in battle in this one.
The action of this one takes place about a decade after the action in "The Sea Hawk", a film Flynn made a year later that has some similarities but also some he differences to this one. I'll be discussing that comparison when I review that film.