Movie Review: The Private Life Of Henry VIII (1933)

A costume drama-comedy, The Private Life Of Henry VIII is dominated by an over-the-top Charles Laughton performance, and otherwise enjoys a few laughs in amongst the flying chicken bones.

It's the 1500s in England, and King Henry VIII (Laughton) impatiently awaits the beheading of his second wife Anne Boleyn (Merle Oberon) then immediately marries Jane Seymour (Wendy Barrie). She conceives a son but dies at childbirth. Henry is crestfallen, but under pressure to increase the number of of male heirs he agrees to another marriage.

Although he is attracted to Catherine Howard (Binnie Barnes), a member of his court, the King reluctantly accepts an arranged union with Anne of Cleaves (Elsa Lanchester) from the German royal family. However once Henry sets eyes on Anne he finds her unattractive, triggering more marital troubles.

A British production directed by Alexander Korda, The Private Life Of Henry VIII features the husband-and-wife team of Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester having some on-screen fun. With the historical context and seismic changes triggered by Henry's actions either completely ignored or reduced to monologue fragments, the film is less concerned with history and more focused on caricaturish portrayals.

And so Laughton creates the enduring cinematic image of Henry VIII as a boorish, unsophisticated, uncouth, lusty man driven by impulses, lording over his court with frequent bellowing and disgusting table manners. Almost defining what it means to chew the scenery, literally in some cases, Laughton casts a huge shadow over everything and everyone else, most of his various wives reduced to snippets of screen time.

First wife Catherine of Aragon never makes it to the screen, while Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour come and go in a flash. Elsa Lanchester enjoys chemistry with her husband and plays Anne of Cleaves purely for laughs, matching Laughton for pantomime buffoonery. Catherine Howard is portrayed as ambitious but always in love with courtier Thomas Culpeper (a wasted Robert Donat) in an example of two people reduced to elementary descriptions.

Korda directs with flair and brisk pacing, moving the action quickly between the many royal chambers. The set designs are reasonably impressive, and enjoyment is found in the gaggle of animated court servants, attendants and staff gossiping behind the King's back as they go about their daily business. 

As a child-like introduction to a complex monarch, The Private Life Of Henry VIII is good for a few clucks.



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Movie Review: Wuthering Heights (1939)

A drama and romance, Wuthering Heights is an engrossing story of personal trauma wrapped in a visual feast, but cannot escape the source material's overclocked emotions.

On the storm-swept Yorkshire moors, traveler Mr. Lockwood (Miles Mander) takes shelter at the secluded estate known as Wuthering Heights. He finds the owner Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) dour and barely welcoming. After Lockwood encounters a woman's ghost, the long-serving housekeeper Ellen (Flora Robson) recounts the history of the family.

Heathcliff was an orphaned young boy living on the streets of Liverpool when he was brought to the estate by the owner Mr. Earnshaw (Cecil Kellaway). Heathcliff bonded with Earnshaw's young daughter Cathy, but had a strained relationship with her brother Hindley. They grow up together, and when Hindley (Hugh Williams) becomes master of the house he badly mistreats Heathcliff, whose relationship with Cathy (Merle Oberon) blossoms into a full-fledged romance.

But she is caught between her genuine affection towards the untamed Heathcliff and her desire to join upper-class society, with wealthy neighbour Edgar Linton (David Niven) offering his love and the opportunity for a lush life. Cathy wishes for Heathcliff to make something of himself, and then she makes a life-altering decision with far reaching consequences.

Lavishly produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by William Wyler, Wuthering Heights adapts the front end of Emily Brontë's classic novel. This is a story of a love so intense it starts rubbing shoulders with enmity. Jealous possessiveness, revenge and careless disregard for others are among the weapons deployed in a scorched earth struggle. The overheated fervor is a large part of the romantic sizzle, but the behaviour of both Heathcliff and Cathy often suggests bipolar disorders.

With sterling black and white cinematography courtesy of Gregg Toland and dazzling sets recreating a harsh corner of the English countryside, the film looks magnificent. Both the exterior landscapes and household interiors create immediate and transformative moods. The contrast between Wuthering Heights' increasingly ramshackle condition and the sparking Linton mansion, hosting eloquent balls with fashionable gowns and swish music, brings Cathy's existential dilemma into sharp relief.

Alfred Newman's music score is grand with Cathy's theme particularly evocative, although towards the end it is overused to distraction.

Wuthering Heights was Laurence Olivier's debut in Hollywood. He delivers a performance full of menace, whether as a lumbering stable hand brooding through the household or in his later incarnation as a man determined to claim what he believes is his. Olivier's Heathcliff only projects happiness when Cathy expresses her love to him, which she does frequently only to also push him to be something he is not.

Merle Oberon is less impressive, and in her more dramatically emotive scenes retreats into wide-eyed expressions more suited to the silent area. The cast also includes Geraldine Fitzgerald as Edgar's sister Isabella who gets caught up in the impulsive crossfire, Donald Crisp as the local doctor and Leo G. Carroll as a loyal family servant.

Wuthering Heights explores the tension between genuine organic affection and tempting societal status, and the price of pursuing personal change and forcing change in others. The outcomes are as jagged as a countryside exposed to blustery winters.

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