Movie review - Errol #16 - "The Private Lives of Elisabeth and Essex" (1939) ***1/2

Bette Davis famously wanted Laurence Olivier instead of Errol Flynn for this film (and it showed she had an eye for talent since this was before Wuthering Heights had come out) - and Olivier would have probably given an excellent performance as Essex, but one can't blame Warners for casting Errol Flynn, especially as Essex was highly ideal for him: spoilt, handsome, impetuous. Indeed, it's frustrating Errol didn't take the role a little more seriously and try a little harder, because this really could have established him in dramatic parts.

The script is partly to blame - I think it would have been better off if Essex had been more of a rogue, an opportunist; certainly elements of those things are present in the character here, but they try to have it both ways by showing Essex genuinely loved Elizabeth, and also that there were other villains at work (the "villains" being Raleigh, Cecil and Burghley who suppress Essex and Elizabeth's correspondence while the former is in Ireland, thus being the ones responsible for Essex's failure to defeat Tyrone, not Essex). It's a shame the film didn't have the guts to be a good old fashioned woman-in-love-with-a-loser story, I think the emotional kick would have been stronger - it sort of half is, but doesn't go the whole way, still puts a bit of shine on Essex.

I am a Flynn fan but will admit the actor is wooden in several scenes, especially when he has to be serious (you never believe he really loves Queen Bess - which is why I think it would have been a better movie had he been playing "pretend", the woodeness would have been appropriate). He has his moments, though, especially arguing with Davis, and flirting with her; he's also strong with his on-screen antagonists, Alan Hale, Vincent Price and company. Davis is in fine showy form and there is plenty of meaty drama - history is telescoped as it must, but its not without some historical interest. The strongest scenes are when Essex and Elizabeth have their flirty scene punctuated by quarrels, when Essex comes back to Ireland, and the (entirely fictional but dramatically excellent) meeting of the two lovers just before his head gets chopped off.

Support performers are fine: it's a bit rough Raleigh and Cecil are villains, although at least with Vincent Price and Henry Daniell they have excellent suave interpreters. Henry Stephenson is also anti-Essex which seems weird: he's too decent. Donald Crisp's Sir Francis Bacon is intriguing: Crisp plays him as a decent stick but pay attention: the character swims with the tide and isn't a particularly good friend to Essex.

David Shipman once wrote that the Irish sequence was absurd but I don't think it is - sure the studio sets are obvious but that was common then; also it's good to see a film where the Irish get the drop on the British (Mountjoy, who is a character under Essex's command here, would finish the job after Essex). There is gorgeous Sol Polito colour photography and plenty of production values and Michael Curtiz shadows.