The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933)

Director:

Alexander Korda

Writers:

Lajos Biró (story) and
Lajos Biró (dialogue)
(more)

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 | Beautiful Woman | 1540s | 16th Century

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
Lady Tree	...	The King's nurse
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Frederick Culley	...	Duke of Norfolk (uncredited)
Mark Daly	...	Bit part (uncredited)
Annie Esmond	...	The cook's wife (uncredited)
William Heughan	...	Kingston (uncredited)
Arthur Howard	...	Kitchen helper (uncredited)
Judy Kelly	...	Lady Rochford (uncredited)
Wally Patch	...	Butcher in kitchen (uncredited)
Hay Petrie	...	The king's barber (uncredited)
Terry-Thomas	...	Extra (uncredited)
John Turnbull	...	Hans Holbein (uncredited)

Directed by
Alexander Korda

Writing credits
Lajos Biró		(story)
Lajos Biró		dialogue
Arthur Wimperis		dialogue

Produced by
Alexander Korda	....	producer
Ludovico Toeplitz	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Kurt Schröder		(as Kurt Schroeder)

Cinematography by
Georges Périnal

Film Editing by
Stephen Harrison

Costume Design by
John Armstrong

Production Management
David B. Cunynghame	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Geoffrey Boothby	....	assistant director

Art Department
Vincent Korda	....	set designer
C.P. Norman	....	assistant art director (uncredited)

Sound Department
A.W. Watkins	....	sound

Visual Effects by
W. Percy Day	....	matte painter

Stunts
Man Mountain Dean	....	stunt double: Charles Laughton (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Osmond Borradaile	....	camera operator (as Osmond Borrodaile)

Editorial Department
Stephen Bearman	....	colorist
Harold Young	....	editorial supervisor

Music Department
Muir Mathieson	....	assistant musical director (uncredited)
Kurt Schröder	....	musical director (uncredited)

Other crew
Philip Lindsay	....	technical advisor
Espinosa	....	choreographer (uncredited)
Captain C.W.R. Knight	....	falconry expert (uncredited)

Production Companies

• London Film Productions

Distributors

• United Artists Corporation (1933) (UK) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1933) (USA) (theatrical)
• British Lion Film Corporation (1946) (UK) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Film Classics (1947) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Deutsche London-Film Verleih (1949) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Státní Pujcovna Filmu (19??) (Czechoslovakia) (theatrical)
• Central Television (1987) (UK) (VHS)
• Eclipse from the Criterion Collection (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Embassy Home Entertainment (VHS)
• Home Box Office Home Video (HBO) (laserdisc)
• Video Collection International (1992) (UK) (VHS)

Other Companies

• B.J. Simmons & Co  costumes by

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:

First non-US film to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination

Quotes:

King Henry VIII: Diplomacy? Diplomacy, my foot! I'm an Englishman - I can't say one thing and mean another. What I can do is to build ships, ships, and then more ships!
Thomas Cromwell: You mean, double the fleet?
King Henry VIII: Treble it! Fortify Dover! Rule the sea!
Thomas Cromwell: To do this will cost us money, sire.
King Henry VIII: To leave it undone will cost us England!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Ultimate Film (2004) (TV)

Henry Was Hard On His Ladies

Love and absolute power are two things that bring out the worst in people. For most of history, men enjoyed the better of the bargain, and King Henry VIII of England was perhaps the most representative example of that. Between his many dalliances he had six wives, a cast of very different women who spoke to his love of variety if not constancy.

"The Private Life Of Henry VIII" is a merry recounting of five of those marriages, with a passing nod in the opening titles to first wife Catherine of Aragon: "Her story is of no particular interest. She was a respectable woman." It's a funny line that sets up what will be the film's cheerfully cynical tone.

Director Alexander Korda and his writers Lajos Biro and Arthur Wimperis made several brave choices, like the episodic structure of the story as it focuses on each wife in turn, and how it concentrates most on the last four rather than the second and most famous of Henry's wives, Anne Boleyn, played by Merle Oberon for what only amounts to a cameo as she awaits her execution. By doing this they acknowledge Henry VIII's cruelty without giving us the kind of details that would make us not like him, even as he is played by Charles Laughton.

Laughton is the best thing in the movie, winning an Oscar for a performance undimmed by time. He struts wide-legged from scene to scene, playing up his character's vanity and vulgarity and finding an emotional core that draws us to like him despite his legendary faults. When we first see him, after a few minutes of exposition around his court, he has caught one of his ladies-in-waiting, Katherine Howard, making comment about how unfair this whole Boleyn business is. Why if he were not a king, she would call him...

"What would you call me?" Henry demands as he appears from the shadows of the doorway.

Katherine trembles, and manages to blurt: "Why, I would call you...a man!"

A big laugh from the big man. "So I am, and glad of it. And you may be glad of it too, one day."

As played by the lovely Binnie Barnes, Katherine Howard gets the lion's share of attention among the wives, as we first see her as a court lady who soon becomes ambitious for Henry's attentions even as one of Henry's knights, Thomas Culpeper, pleads for her love. She gets Henry eventually, lives to regret it, then doesn't, in a nice story arc Barnes carries off well with her beauty and charm, well enough to not make us wonder about her sudden turnabout in character from the sensible, decent woman we see in the beginning. About the only negative of her performance, and of the film, is her scenes with Culpeper slow down the story and take too much time away from Henry.

Elsa Lanchester, Laughton's real-life wife, makes a strong impression as the least romantic of Henry's partners, a German duchess he marries for politics but comes to grief when he gets a load of her face. Lanchester actually is lovely, but Anne figures her only way to avoid Henry's attentions is to push out her jaw and act dense when he talks about what her wifely duties entail. She and Laughton have a wonderful comic chemistry as they spend their wedding night playing cards; and its especially fun to watch Laughton as his character gets some of his own back for all his serial marrying.

"If you want to be happy...marry a stupid woman!" Henry tells Culpeper at one point. That's not exactly true; stupid women can break your heart, too. True marital happiness may in fact be a fallacy, but at least "The Private Life Of Henry VIII" makes such failure fun.