Director Vincent Korda mounts a handsome-looking historical costume drama about the open affair between Emma Hamilton (Vivien Leigh) and Horatio Nelson (Laurence Olivier) during the Napoleonic wars.In fact, I was struck by how frankly their affair was dealt with given the time period, and wonder if it was shocking to audiences in 1941. Alan Mowbray and Gladys Cooper, respectively, play the jilted spouses who resign themselves to the shenanigans, him more willingly than her. Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier do nice work, and Leigh especially makes the viewer wish that she had made more films. She could do more with a subtle facial expression than most actors could with a page of dialogue, and there's something modern and ahead of its time about her acting. The film starts out strongly enough, but it unfortunately settles into a rather plodding rhythm by the end, constrained by the determination of the screenwriters to focus almost exclusively on the love story between Lady Hamilton and Nelson at the expense of the historical events taking place around them, despite the fact that the love story stops being interesting mid-way through the film when we realize it no longer has anywhere to go. Still, if romantic swooning is your thing, you could do far worse than this movie.The film won an Oscar for Best Sound Recording and was nominated in the additional categories of Art Direction (B&W), Cinematography (B&W), and Special Effects, for an impressive sea battle in the film's final scenes.Grade: B+

That Hamilton Woman (1941) feels like two different movies competing for attention: a star cross'd romance made to capitalize on real life lovers Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier and a propaganda film trying to coax the US to getting involved in the Second World War.This sort of mix can be done well. Casablanca, considered one of the greatest films ever produced in Hollywood, blends romance and propaganda so well the two are inseparable. One element does not work without the other. Rick and Ilsa's love affair is in direct opposition to the greater good, that is, the Allied effort against the Axis represented in the character of Ilsa's husband. This is not the case in That Hamilton Woman. One minute the Napoleonic Wars take the center stage, with Olivier's Nelson giving patriotic speeches. The next, we're watching two lovers torn between passion and social convention. The two stories do not mesh.While the direction is competent and the art direction spellbinding, the film as a whole is uneven. The only outstanding performance comes from Vivien Leigh, who outshines Olivier constantly even when merely entering a room in one of those luscious Regency era gowns. The pacing is poor and the run time overlong. I found myself losing interest more than once.Honestly, the behind the scenes information and historical context are much more interesting than the film itself. Otherwise, That Hamilton Woman is a by the numbers melodrama.

Vivien Leigh's career is usually defined by her two most famous films, "Gone With the Wind" and "A Streetcar Named Desire". Although certainly good in the first she is magnificent in the second, with an unparalleled maturity and sensibility that defies all explanation. For me Blanche Dubois IS Vivien Leigh.Having seen "That Hamilton Woman" for the first time recently, Leigh's portrayal kept me riveted and anxious for her next interpretation of that tragic woman's life despite the fact that I am familiar with her history. Perhaps it is because of that familiarity that I was anxious to see how she would act out the events. Nonetheless I was very impressed and can say that "Hamilton" is now my second favorite Leigh film after "Streetcar".My only beef is with the naval scenes. They needlessly interfered with the film's flow and had little if anything to do with Lady Hamilton's life other than in the way they affected her love affair with Nelson. They could have easily been removed without penalty. Nelson's death at Trafalgar could have easily been covered in the scene where his lieutenant breaks the news to Emma. There was no need for the naval battle scene. After all this wasn't a movie about Nelson but about Emma Hamilton. All that chest beating and heroic music simply took away from what ends up being a tragic love story.So watch it for Vivien Leigh and fast forward through the battle scenes.

The movie features a great and intriguing story, set during the Napoleon era, when England was in war with France. It's a story about love and war. In other words a great typical epic historical drama.It features a still young Laurence Olivier in an also early role from him. Especially his voice and accent makes him see and sound almost unrecognizable. His acting is great but I also must admit that his acting improved more over the years. He probably is one of my favorite actors of all time actually. Vivien Leigh still gives the best performance of the movie and her character carries the movie. No big surprise of course, since this movie is an autobiographic one about Emma Lady Hamilton, the character played by Vivien Leigh, who is historically known as the mistress of Lord Horatio Nelson. Of course the acting is quite melodramatic at parts but that is due to the movie its time settings and genre and the time period it got made in. The movie got made shortly after Laurence Olivier en Vivien Leigh got married together. A marriage that would last for 20 years, which is quite long for an Hollywood marriage, even an early one.It's a great written movie with wonderful dialog in it. It's a story that is being told with lots of class and pace, ensuring that the movie gets never dull in parts. It also really isn't as melodramatic as you perhaps would expect from a movie from within such a genre and time period it got made and set in. Quite surprised it didn't get nominated for any important Oscar's at its time. Perhaps it was because due to the very reason that the movie wasn't as typical and melodramatic as most other movies of its time. But oh well, it got released in a tough year, with other nominees such as "Citizen Kane", "Sergeant York" and "The Maltese Falcon". It still did get nominated for 4 Oscar's though, of which best cinematography, black-and-white, was the most important one. It only won the one for best sound, recording.But it's not hard to see why this movie still got mostly nominated in the visual categories. The movie is a great looking, not only due to its settings but also its costume design, sets and of course most importantly it's nice dynamic camera-work, that in parts also seemed quite modern for its time. Cinematographer Rudolph Maté would receive a total of 5 Oscar nominations during his life and career but he unfortunately never won any. Oh well, at least he still had a great career, with also some great classics behind his name, such as "Stella Dallas", "The Lady from Shanghai", "Dodsworth", "Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey" and really many, many more.Even though the movie is just 2 hours short, it feels much longer because the story is so epic and so many things happen in it. The movie is also set at many different location in Europe, which enhances the movie its epic feeling.A great, grand romantic drama, based on real events.9/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/