Thus says Vivian Leigh when asked "What happened then, what happened after". As she lies in prison, drunk and penniless, she describes to a fellow prisoner, her life as the beloved mistress of one of England's greatest heroes.
This is a film that stays with you, not only for the story of the ill-fated romance of Admiral Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton, but also for the perfect casting of the leads, Vivian Leigh and Laurence Olivier. They were impossibly beautiful and besotted with each other in real life (they had just married). That attraction was obvious on the screen and reflected the love affair of the characters they portrayed.
The story follows Lady Emma's life from a possession passed from nephew to uncle (Sir Edward Hamilton, well played by Alan Mowbray), to her marriage to Hamilton and her meeting with Horatio Nelson. From that point, it's time to bring out the hankies as the love affair, doomed from the beginning, moves to its inevitable conclusion. There is more than enough pathos to move the most jaded movie lover.
One of my favorite scenes in the film is that in which Nelson returns to Naples against orders to rescue Emma and she collapses against him saying "I would have died if you would have left me here".
The film may not be for all tastes, as it contains a plethora of propaganda aimed at the US which was still neutral in WWII, and does not portray the characters exactly as they may have been. But I say "Who cares"??? It's the kind of love story that will grab your heart and bring you back to watch it again and again.
It seems impossible to find it on anything but tape......my copy is on BETA which goes to show how badly I want to have repeated viewings!!!!
This is a film that stays with you, not only for the story of the ill-fated romance of Admiral Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton, but also for the perfect casting of the leads, Vivian Leigh and Laurence Olivier. They were impossibly beautiful and besotted with each other in real life (they had just married). That attraction was obvious on the screen and reflected the love affair of the characters they portrayed.
The story follows Lady Emma's life from a possession passed from nephew to uncle (Sir Edward Hamilton, well played by Alan Mowbray), to her marriage to Hamilton and her meeting with Horatio Nelson. From that point, it's time to bring out the hankies as the love affair, doomed from the beginning, moves to its inevitable conclusion. There is more than enough pathos to move the most jaded movie lover.
One of my favorite scenes in the film is that in which Nelson returns to Naples against orders to rescue Emma and she collapses against him saying "I would have died if you would have left me here".
The film may not be for all tastes, as it contains a plethora of propaganda aimed at the US which was still neutral in WWII, and does not portray the characters exactly as they may have been. But I say "Who cares"??? It's the kind of love story that will grab your heart and bring you back to watch it again and again.
It seems impossible to find it on anything but tape......my copy is on BETA which goes to show how badly I want to have repeated viewings!!!!