The Lunts were a famous husband and wife theatre team - Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne - who were acclaimed on Broadway for many years. Maybe they had a magic on stage which defies recreation, because they're both awful in this adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's play (which was filmed as The Private Lives of Elisabeth and Essex).
Both ham it up and go over the top, especially during anything emotional - neither are as good as Bette Davis or Errol Flynn. It's still a decent enough story; yes, it elaborates the relationship between Elizabeth and Essex, but why not? And it gets the basics of their character right: Essex is a sulky, spoilt idiot, constantly under-estimating Elizabeth, who is imperious, smart and love-starved. There's a scene where it seems Essex is going to torture someone, but no Irish sequence, like there was in the film. Solid structure, strong ending, bad acting.
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