The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Alexander Korda

Writers:

Lajos Biró (story) and
Lajos Biró (dialogue)

Release Date:

21 September 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

HE GAVE HIS WIVES A PAIN IN THE NECK And did his necking with an axe. Henry, the Eighth Wonder of the World! And this picture...the wonder of all time!

Plot:

Tells how King Henry VIII came to marry five more times after his divorce from his first wife.

Plot Keywords:

King Henry VIII | Anne Boleyn | 1530s | Royalty | 1540s

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Charles Laughton	...	King Henry VIII
Robert Donat	...	Thomas Culpeper
Franklin Dyall	...	Thomas Cromwell
Miles Mander	...	Wriothesley
Laurence Hanray	...	Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (as Lawrence Hanray)
William Austin	...	Duke of Cleves
John Loder	...	Thomas Peynell
Claud Allister	...	Cornell (as Claude Allister)
Gibb McLaughlin	...	The French executioner
Sam Livesey	...	The English executioner
Merle Oberon	...	Anne Boleyn
Wendy Barrie	...	Jane Seymour
Elsa Lanchester	...	Anne of Cleves
Binnie Barnes	...	Katherine Howard
Everley Gregg	...	Katherine Parr

Runtime:

USA:97 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG | West Germany:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:A

Filming Locations:

British and Dominions Studios, Elstree, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

London Film Productions

Trivia:

While he was on a tour of Europe, huge American professional wrestler Man Mountain Dean was hired to be Charles Laughton's uncredited stunt double. This would be the first of Dean's appearances in motion pictures.

Quotes:

French executioner: There is a blade for you fit for a king! Or in this case, a queen, n'est-ce pas?
English executioner: Not fit for our Queen!
French executioner: No? Why not?
English executioner: She is an English Queen, ain't she? Well, what's wrong with English steel? And come to that, what's wrong with an English headsman?
French executioner: Ah, meaning yourself?
English executioner: Why not? I was good enough to knock off the Queen's five lovers, wasn't I? Why'd they want you, a Frenchman from Calais?
[spits]
French executioner: I will tell you...
English executioner: No, I'm telling you. It's a crying shame. 'N half the English executioners out of work as it is!
French executioner: And why are they out of work? Because they are only fit to sever the bull necks of their countrymen with a butcher's cleaver. But a woman's neck, a Queen's neck: that calls for finesse, for delicacy, for chivalry... in one word, a Frenchman!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Ultimate Film (2004) (TV)

Setting A High Standard

In watching The Private Life of Henry VIII it's good to remember that we are talking about his private life. The reasons of state and the impact all the marriages had on Tudor foreign and domestic politics is not dealt with her at all. For a balanced treatment of that I would highly recommend watching the BBC mini-series with Keith Michell.

In fact it was all politics and religion and the mix of the two that was involved in Henry VIII's first marriage and the divorce. That was what led to the English break away from the Roman Catholic Church and the founding of the Anglican church. In this film Catherine of Aragon, wife number one, is dismissed as "a good woman."

The film begins with the execution of Number 2, Anne Boleyn, who failed in her duty to provide a male royal heir. Number 3, Jane Seymour did so at the cost of her own life when she died in childbirth. Both Merle Oberon and Wendy Barrie who played both of these women respectively make brief, but lasting impressions.

Wife Number 4 is Anne of Cleves and were not sure exactly why Henry VIII found her so unappealing. Reportedly the portrait sent to the English court of her before the marriage was brokered was shall we say, exaggerated advertisement. This vacuum of knowledge gives Elsa Lanchester a great opportunity for some scatterbrained comedy that she so excelled at. It comes as a comic interlude in an otherwise grim film. The things Henry does for England.

Wife Number 5 is Catherine Howard, reputedly a young girl with some nymphomaniac tendencies. Binnie Barnes as Catherine Howard is a good deal more virtuous, but just as ambitious as the real Catherine. In truth Thomas Culpepper played by Robert Donat was only one of a series of lovers with whom she cheated with. And doing that to the King had only one remedy.

Charles Laughton one an Oscar for this performance and set a standard for playing Henry VIII. Some of the others that followed and all of them doing it well are Montagu Love, Richard Burton, Robert Shaw, James Robertson Justice and Keith Michell. Yet Laughton's is the performance all others are measured by.

Robert Donat got his first real notice playing Thomas Culpepper and of course went on to a great, but limited career because of his chronic asthma. Some of the cerebral qualities that went into all of his lead roles are definitely found in Culpepper.

But despite Donat and the wives the film is Laughton's. Laughton was only 34 when this film was made about a decade at least younger than the real Henry VIII. And folks did age faster in Henry's time than in Laughton's. I've always thought that the key to Henry VIII was the fact he wanted to stay young forever. He wouldn't accept growing old as a fact of life that even monarchs aren't immune from.

We should remember the film is about his private life and it is Laughton's portrayal of the private Henry that has made this film a classic.