The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. 1939. Directed by Michael Curtiz.

(5/8/01)

[I have fallen very far behind on my film notes. Those that follow will be necessarily sketchy.] [through 5/27/01]


I don't think that this film works. And it isn't because of Errol Flynn's acting. He has a role that is difficult to pull off. At the end Essex explains to Queen Elisabeth that he loves her but that he has a desire for power that he can't control and which is stronger than his love for her. So even if she pardoned him he knows he would try and seize power from her. So it is better for both of them that he should die.

So what we have to believe is that this man who is so ambitious for power that he can't control himself has such self-awareness that he can analyze and discuss the situation so objectively. Something about it doesn't work, doesn't come off. If this man were really that driven I would expect him to use all his wiles to get the queen to pardon him so that he could try once more to become ruler.

I really think that this film is just too cerebral. By that I mean that the characters tell us about their feelings, but we don't experience them along with those characters, those feelings don't become real to us. Essex is a hero, the darling of England. He can have any woman he wants, but loves only this dowdy old woman. We are told that he loves her, but we aren't shown that love in a way that makes it believable. And that's not because of the acting, it is in the writing.

There is that one scene when Elizabeth and Essex let their hair down and enjoy each other's company after his confrontation with Sir Walter Raleigh. Both become human figures in that scene, but it isn't enough.

I liked Errol Flynn better than Bette Davis during much of the film. He seems so natural before the camera while she seems to be working so damn hard. (And the saying goes that the highest art lies in the concealment of that art.) I think that Davis was shown to a great disadvantage by being made to look so unattractive--especially with that wig--in color. It was garish. This was probably her first color film and I suspect that her portrayal of Elizabeth might have worked better in black-and-white. I will say that her portrayal gained in power towards the end.

The film was disappointing, too, in that most of it was set inside the castle. It was cold and chilly and there was a claustrophobic atmosphere. The exterior scenes appeared to be grafted on to the drama, not really integrated. The costumes were beautiful, though, as was the beautiful cushion on Elizabeth's throne.

I did appreciate Elizabeth's loneliness and the film did bring across the difficulty of being a female sovereign. Elizabeth constantly has to assert herself as an authority figure. She is constantly on the defensive and suspicious, always tending to view herself as challenged. I enjoyed Alan Hale very much, as I always do. His scenes with Errol Flynn are some of the liveliest in the film, if not the liveliest.