Simply Perfect

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Bette Davis stars in four major motion pictures released during the year 1939. However, this is the only one with Errol Flynn, which depending on one's point of view makes it either worth seeing or worth staying away from.Mostly, Miss Davis' costar is a capable actor, and anyone who may have doubts about that should look no further than his death scene as the Earl of Essex. Yet despite the solid production values, a rather entertaining script and the overall atmosphere of the picture, something seems slightly amiss. Perhaps it is because the two lead actors do not exactly register the sort of romantic chemistry this story requires.Olivia De Havilland, usually cast as Mr. Flynn's love interest in the studio's other costume dramas, is given the supporting part of Lady Penelope Gray. She has been underused in this spectacle, and her part could easily have gone to a lesser actress. Similarly underutilized is Vincent Price who does well with a small but significant role as Sir Walter Raleigh. As for Miss Davis and her brand of acting, she's intense, and she's certainly dramatic, but it is obvious she is playing the Queen of the Warners Lot more than she is playing Queen Elizabeth I. It would have been a vast improvement if her performance did not lack subtlety and if it contained real luminosity. Nevertheless, this film is often extraordinary in spite of Miss Davis and its other shortcomings, mostly because of Erich Korngold's wonderful score; the costumes; the set design; and the cinematography.

Still another great performance was etched by Bette Davis in this film. There are mirror-like scenes where Davis looked as if she were Regina Giddons of "The Little Foxes," which would come 2 years later.The person who made Davis up and made those gowns deserved much credit. Those were certainly a noble task done extremely well.The story conveyed the idea that even great love must be sacrificed in a time of political ill-will. Our lovers allowed for politics to ultimately destroy their lives.Davis conveys an extremely nervous personality throughout the film. That constant twitching of one hand would make anyone quite nervous.Never realized that Nanette Fabray (Fabares) was around in 1939. This was probably the only dramatic film that this comedienne ever made.As usual, Olivia de Havilland, as Penelope, is totally subservient. She is almost like a Melanie Hamilton of "Gone With the Wind" fame. The latter was made the same year as this film.Whatever happened to the Vincent Price part in the film? It was as if he were swallowed up.The movie is almost like a Romeo and Juliet of politics.

A talky and rather dramatically inert period drama starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn.The sparks are apparently supposed to fly between these two big-time stars, but they instead only intermittently flicker. Davis gives a one-note performance as the woman who struggles between her duties as a queen and her love for her man -- she was such a contemporary actress that it's a shame to see her stifled behind period garb and mannerisms. Flynn is appropriately dashing as the man who loses his head over his queen, but there's not much to his role. The film was based on a stage play and it shows; the usually reliable director Michael Curtiz couldn't seem to find a way to rid the story of its staginess.The Technicolor looks great though, and fans of production and costume design may want to check the film out for those aspects alone.Grade: B-

Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The (1939) *** 1/2 (out of 4) An elderly Queen Elizabeth (Bette Davis) and the younger Essex (Errol Flynn) battle their hatred through their wild passion for one another in this historical drama, while not accurate, still manages to hit all the right marks. Once again it's director Michael Curtiz pulling all the strings and getting every right. Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Vincent Price, Alan Hale and Henry Daniell all deliver wonderful performances but even they look poor next to Davis who is absolutely remarkable. I just love the way Davis is constantly fidgeting around during every scene. You can just look at her and see a tormented woman burned by her love for this younger man. The scene that starts off with her playing chess to having all the mirrors removed is among the greatest work I've seen from any actress in any film. The love story is beautifully told and is quite touching especially the ending, which is pulled together very nicely. Also, is it just me or at the start of the film when Davis slaps Flynn, did it strike anyone else that Flynn really wanted to knock the hell out of her?