That Hamilton Woman (1941)
film; he reportedly saw it 83 times.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Winston Churchill’s favorite film; he reportedly saw it 83 times.
It’s a patriotic film released during WWII, whose theme is that you can’t
make peace with a madman who is trying to rule the world—you must destroy
him (the reference to Hitler was obvious and wasn’t lost to the public
who made the film a box office hit). The historical romantic drama is energetically
directed by Alexander Korda (”Rembrandt”/”The Private Life of Henry VIII”/”Fire
Over England”), a close friend of Churchill’s, and written by Walter Reisch
and R.C. Sherriff. It features spouses Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh,
who prior to their marriage both had a well-publicized affair while married
to others. In this Hollywood made but very British film they depict an
affair between Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, an illicit relationship between
the marrieds that caused a national scandal.
The film opens in Calais, where a destitute English woman is caught
stealing a bottle of wine and put in jail. There she tells another English
prisoner that she’s Lady Hamilton and then tells her life story.
Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray), an elderly rich widower who
is the British ambassador to the Court of Naples, receives in 1786 the
beautiful 18-year-old Emma Hart (Vivien Leigh) who arrives in Naples with
her chaperone, the crude and earthy mother of her low birth, Mrs. Cadogan-Lyon
(Sara Allgood). Sir William’s nephew Charles Greville passed Emma onto
him without her knowledge and never intended to marry her as she thought.
Impressed with her beauty, the old codger tutors her to be a lady and marries
her. A few years pass and the dashing Captain Horatio Nelson (Laurence
Olivier) visits Sir William in Naples to say England is at war with France
and needs troops from Naples. When her hubby is too slow to respond, Emma
helps Nelson see the Queen of Naples immediately and she talks the king
into giving Nelson 10,000 troops. Five years later Nelson returns and when
the neutral Naples is too frightened of Napoleon Bonaparte to help Nelson,
Emma helps him get his supplies. She’s also shocked to see Nelson has been
blinded in one eye and has lost an arm. Nelson now goes to fight Napoleon’s
fleet in Egypt’s Nile and wins a smashing victory. Upon returning to Naples,
the now promoted to admiral, Nelson, starts his affair with Emma and after
rescuing the Hamiltons and the royals from the revolutionary mob. Nelson
then follows his original orders to go to Malta. His disobeying orders
to save Lady Hamilton, receives the ire of the British Admiralty. They
order him to return to England alone. Back in London the dour Lady Frances
Nelson (Gladys Cooper) meets her hero husband, and when she soon finds
out that hubby knocked up Lady Hamilton glumly announces she’ll never give
him a divorce. Emma in 1801 has the child, a girl, and refuses to reconcile
with Sir William, choosing to live happily instead with Lord Nelson in
a country cottage. In 1805 Nelson is called upon to defend England’s fleet
from being attacked by Napoleon and his ally of Spain, at the cape of Trafalgar.
Nelson gives England its greatest naval victory at the Battle of Trafalgar,
but dies in the battle. Though he provided amply for Emma, the British
courts refused to allow her to collect and she would become a debtor and
her life would end tragically as a pauper.
