“That Hamilton Woman” (1941, Janus Films and Criterion
Collection) is an epic historical film by Alexander Korda, set in the early 19th
century about the time of Napoleon.
The “heroine”, Emma (Vivian Leigh) is sent from England to
Naples by her lover Charles Greville to learn court life. But she falls in love with Lord Hamilton
(William Mobray) and marries him.
Soon war returns, and Emma falls in love Lord Horatio Nelson
(Laurence Olivier). The sequences of
deployments and battles, laced with the international politics of the time,
become complicated, and one needs to know some European history to be able to
follow the movie – and the historical detail is common for period films made in
the 40’s and 50’s. In the final battles,
Nelson is mortally wounded, and actually paralyzed first. Emma is left alone, rather like a “Miss
Scarlet” to contemplate her upper class frivolity.
There is a boardroom scene where politicians (led by Nelson)
discuss the idea of a “peace” with Napoleon Bonaparte. There is a line that one should not negotiate
with dictators. Does that sound
familiar?
There are a lot of English and Irish hymns in the
soundtrack, and a mention of the Dance of Seven Veils, but no musical quote of
Richard Strauss’s “Salome”.
The film might be compared to “Master and Commander: The Far
Side of the World” (2004).
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