Simply Perfect

Purely Joyful Movie!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A love story really, between two "heavyweights": Elizabeth I (Bette Davis) and the Earl of Essex (Errol Flynn). Essex has returned victorious from Spain, but the success of his mission is questioned by the Queen, who drained the treasury and taxed her people to support him, only to have him return, and earn the people's favor, without the needed spoils (funds) of war. Therefore, he is a threat to her throne.Donald Crisp plays an adviser to both, but friend to Essex. Henry Daniell, Henry Stephenson and Vincent Price play political opponents of Essex, who conspire to ruin him. Olivia de Havilland plays a lady in Elizabeth's court who adores Essex, even after she discovers that his love is for the Queen only, though she's unknowingly used by Daniell's character against him. Alan Hale, instead of playing his typical role as Flynn's sidekick, plays his opponent in another war.Davis overacts a bit, but otherwise gives her usual solid performance, though Flynn is every bit her equal.Directed by Michael Curtiz. Nominated for five Academy Awards: Art Direction, Color Cinematography, Special Effects, Sound, and Musical Score. Based on Maxwell Anderson's play, the screenplay was co- written by Norman Reilly Raine.

The love life of a queen! Stupendous! Colossal! Mind Numbing! Dull! Bette Davis is Elizabeth I, desperately in love with the dashing younger Lord Essex, Errol Flynn, who loves her deeply in return but whose character is tainted with ambition to share the throne. Or to just sit on it by himself, what the hell.Watch the palace intrigue as the queen's courtiers, including the ever-evil Henry Daniell, try to screw up the love affair -- and succeed! See the lovely and always virginal Olivia De Havilland reduced to a secondary role as the young woman whose adoration Flynn blithely flips off.Gape at the battle between two titans of the silver screen, each in love with the other, each too proud to give up the contest for power! Flynn and Davis hated each other. In the first few minutes the two have an argument, at the end of which Davis must slap Flynn across the face. She does. Hard enough to jar his cheek. He looks genuinely surprised.The plot is laid out in the first five minutes when Flynn returns from a battle in Cadiz and Davis chews him out for wasting the tax payers' money on an unnecessary war or something. The love affair is made clear but so is the conflict. Over and over (and over) we hear that the queen cannot allow her feelings as a woman to interfere with her responsibilities as regent. First, Flynn is in. Then he's out. Then he's in her favor again but he must go conquer Ireland. He loses, so he's out again. But then he's back in, until -- finally -- he's REALLY out of favor once and for all. The story is not a swashbuckler. There are less than five minutes of battle in a studio-bound Irish swamp. It's a love story that repeats itself repeatedly.You have to hand it to Bette Davis, though. She presents us with a Queen Elizabeth who is a neural shambles. She rolls her eyes, twitches, paces back and forth in the cavernous rooms of Whitehall, wrings her hands. And she has this thing she does with her left fist, constantly clasping and unclasping her fingers, worse than Captain Queeg and his steel balls. She puts everything she has into the role and it's too much. Any more energy and she'd perform some kind of on-screen Big Bang and create her own planetary system.Flynn has never looked more handsome nor been so miscast as the earnest lover who is filled with ambition and conceit. He treats nothing lightly, which is a great big mistake, because what he does best as an actor is treat things lightly, even his own degradation. However, it's not all his fault if he fails, nor is it Davis's. Who can conquer such lines as, "Don't you 'Your Majesty' ME, you slimy toad!" (That a direct quote.) Good for a few laughs but, OMG, does it drag.

A talky and rather dramatically inert period drama starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.The sparks are apparently supposed to fly between these two big-time stars, but they instead only intermittently flicker. Davis gives a one-note performance as the woman who struggles between her duties as a queen and her love for her man -- she was such a contemporary actress that it's a shame to see her stifled behind period garb and mannerisms. Flynn is appropriately dashing as the man who loses his head over his queen, but there's not much to his role. The film was based on a stage play and it shows; the usually reliable director Michael Curtiz couldn't seem to find a way to rid the story of its staginess.The Technicolor looks great though, and fans of production and costume design may want to check the film out for those aspects alone.Grade: B-

Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The (1939) *** 1/2 (out of 4) An elderly Queen Elizabeth (Bette Davis) and the younger Essex (Errol Flynn) battle their hatred through their wild passion for one another in this historical drama, while not accurate, still manages to hit all the right marks. Once again it's director Michael Curtiz pulling all the strings and getting every right. Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Vincent Price, Alan Hale and Henry Daniell all deliver wonderful performances but even they look poor next to Davis who is absolutely remarkable. I just love the way Davis is constantly fidgeting around during every scene. You can just look at her and see a tormented woman burned by her love for this younger man. The scene that starts off with her playing chess to having all the mirrors removed is among the greatest work I've seen from any actress in any film. The love story is beautifully told and is quite touching especially the ending, which is pulled together very nicely. Also, is it just me or at the start of the film when Davis slaps Flynn, did it strike anyone else that Flynn really wanted to knock the hell out of her?