I cannot tell you how many people I have come across who do not get that this is a black comedy and not a factual representation of the life of Henry VIII, despite the dryness of the title. One person even said they shut the film off after the first inter title quips that Katharine of Aragon was not worth mentioning because she was a good woman. Do they not realize that was a joke or are people THAT dense? If you don't realize it's supposed to be humorous after witnessing the circus-like attitude toward Anne Boleyn's execution at the opening, then surely you did by the time it gets to the wedding night between Anne of Cleves and Henry, where they play cards as they nonchalantly discuss terms of divorce.Ranting aside, if you're one of those people who DOES realize that this is a comedy, then you're bound to have a good time. The Private Life of Henry VIII (1934) is an episodic picture going through the many marriages of one of England's most infamous monarchs. Charles Laughton is amazing in the lead, portraying a Henry that is commanding and powerful as well as humorous and poignant. He's especially moving during his final scenes, where Henry tries fighting against his advancing age to impress his much younger fifth wife and especially when he breaks down after discovering she has been carrying on with a much younger man. Other notable performers are Elsa Lanchester as Anne of Cleves who plays off of Laughton well, and the gorgeous Merle Oberon as Anne Boleyn who faces death with dignity and a bit of humor.Turn your inner historian off and enjoy!

Anybody expecting a history lesson on Henry VIII are better off reading a book about the Tudors instead. However, it is not about the historical accuracy/inaccuracy that I am going to judge The Private Life of Henry VIII. In all honesty, having studied the Tudors and read countless books and seen various documentaries on the subject I was not expecting a history lesson in the first place, just an entertaining, sumptuous and well acted film, and that is exactly what The Private Life of Henry VIII is. If there was anything that I would've preferred to have been done better was for the first part of the film to be less rushed through. Other than that it was great, while occasionally creaky the production values do look splendid with sumptuous costumes and gorgeous-looking decor. Kurt Schroder's lush score and the witty script are also things to like, as well as how compelling the comedy of the Anne of Cleves' scenes and the moving tragedy of Catherine Howard's were. Alexander Korda directs solidly, never allowing the pace to lag and making effort to make the characters interesting. And interesting they are, helped enormously by the performances. I completely agree with those who praise Charles Laughton's performance, alongside Quasimodo and Captain Bligh his funny, subtle and very clever turn as this complex monarch is one of the best performances of his career, underneath the flamboyancy there is a tinge of poignancy too which enables us to sympathise for him. He has a fine supporting cast, most notably the hilariously good Anne of Cleves of Elsa Lanchester and the dashing Culpepper of Robert Donat. All in all, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The film, entitled the "Private lives of Henry the VIII" tells us that this encompasses his activities inside the royal palace, and there were many. While maybe not historical fact one hundred percent, the performance and players do well to transcend this.Laughton is at his best here, ..."ah the things I must do for England"... he sighs mischievously as he enters the master chamber to be with his fourth wife Anne of Cleves well portrayed by Elsa Lanchester. He is very amusing and while the story give us some history it also gives us an amusing peripheral view of what life may have been like for the king.The scene where he tears a capon apart, eating it and commenting on the ills of humanity, and what is wrong with people. His court is silent, as they do not want to be next on the chopping block.Merle Oberon is lovely as Anne Boleyn, dark and attractive, as she wonders if her hair will stay in place after the guillotine.The costumes and sets in the black and white are part fiction, part real. Theatrical but not over the top, as later Technicolor would be.Overall an enjoyable version which even today does not seem dated, literally one could almost imagine Laughton stepping off the screen, and coming to your living room to play King Henry today. Amazing in retrospect, how gifted actors, truly talented can transcend their time period and make an indelible impression.

Rollicking historical bio-pic of the notorious love-life of Britain's most married monarch in this early talkie directed by the celebrated Alexander Korda and featuring a bravura performance by the young Charles Laughton.Of course, condensing six marriages into one 97 minute movie (a famous BBC series of the early 70's allocated one hour to each wife!), means that cuts are made, for instance Katherine Of Aragon (his divorce of whom saw Henry excommunicated by the Pope and effectively make England a Protestant country, in other words, no insignificant event), is sidestepped completely and we only see Anne Boleyn, possibly the most interesting and charismatic of the wives as she readies herself for her beheading. So really we only get four and a half wives for the price of six but to be fair the film is pretty much all about Henry, as the title makes clear.Laughton is terrific in the title role even if one may smile now of the casting at the time which saddled the homosexual actor with six women (not to mention the more than occasional mistress), all of whose prime purpose was to beget a male heir to Henry's throne. The movie also gets across well the excesses of Henry's court as well as the sycophancy which inevitably accompanied this despot with at different stages his songwriting and wrestling prowess lauded to the heavens.There's a relatively minor sub-plot with Robert Donat's Thomas Culpepper's relationship with the over-ambitious Kathaerine Parr which is later exposed by an army of witnesses leading to their immediate demise, but you sense the director's sympathies are with Henry in any case.There's much ribald humour, quite racy for the time, in the utterings of the hoi-polloi at the queens' executions and amongst the King's serving staff, while the encounter with the exceeding ugly Anne Of Cleves is played for laughs pretty much from the start. The direction is fast moving and while telescoping a lot of history into its short running time, does so with wit and flair - like when the second and third queens say to camera "What a lovely day", for one, her last and the other, first words as a monarch, or the elevated shot of a solitary Hanry when his beloved Kate (Parr) gets the chop for her adultery with Donat.Bowdlerised history it may well be but this is great fun and can teach all manner of succeeding stodgy and static historical recreations, both big and small-screen, a thing or six about delivering fine entertainment.