The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

5/17/06

Queen Elizabeth loves the Earl of Essex. The Earl loves the Queen. Lady Penelope Gray loves the Earl. Sir Robert Cecil hates the Earl. Francis Bacon wants the Essex to succeed. Sir Walter Raleigh hopes that Essex gets his head chopped off. This pretty much captures the intrigue that abounds in director Michael Curtiz's melodramatic, technocolor, costume spectacle The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. Bette Davis is quite theatrical and regal in her portrait of the aging Queen, while Errol Flynn (be prepared for blazing soundtrack from The Adventures of Robin Hood when clicking his link) portays the Earl Robert Devereux as one of his standard action-hero characters. A not particularly engaging film that would have been helped had Davis's original choice for the part of Essex, Sir. Laurence Olivier, been cast instead of the largely static Flynn. Best Line in Movie- Essex: "And now, may I go? This dying sticks in my mind and makes me poor company."