The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Norman Reilly Raine and Aeneas MacKenzie based on the play by Maxwell Anderson
1939/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Queen Elizabeth I: To be a Queen is to be less than human, to put pride before desire, to search Men’s hearts for tenderness, and find only ambition. To cry out in the dark for one unselfish voice, to hear only the dry rustle of papers of state. To turn to one’s beloved with stars for eyes and have him see behind me only the shadow of the executioner’s block. A queen has no hour for love, time presses, and events crowd upon her, and her shell, an empty glittering husk, she must give up all the a woman holds most dear.[/box]

The quote, picture, and clip probably say more about the quality of this fictionalized costume drama than my feeble words can do.

Queen Elizabeth I (Bette Davis) is many years older than her favorite Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex (Errol Flynn).  Theirs is a schizophrenic relationship.  They love each other dearly but he wants to wear the pants in the family, something a monarch cannot allow.  Essex also presents a threat due to his popularity with the mob.  After Essex, who commands an army, disobeys orders one time too many, Elizabeth must make a painful decision.  With Olivia de Havilland and Nanette Fabray (in her screen debut) as ladies-in-waiting, Vincent Price as Sir Walter Raleigh, Donald Crisp as Sir Francis Drake, and Alan Hale as an Irish rebel leader.

This currently ranks as my least favorite Bette Davis performance of all time.  She was at least 30 years younger than the royal character she was portraying and must have felt that hamming it up would make her more believable.  This also has many, many of the kind of “I love you – I hate you”  lines that make me cringe. I found the whole thing to verge on camp.  The film has a relatively high IMDb user rating so your mileage may vary.

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex was nominated for Academy Awards in the following categories:  Best Color Cinematography; Best Art Direction; Best Sound Recording; Best Special Effects; and Best Music, Scoring (Erich Wolfgang Korngold).

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