That Hamilton Woman

That Hamilton Woman (1941)

The year's most exciting team of screen lovers!

The story of courtesan and dance-hall girl Emma Hamilton, including her relationships with Sir William Hamilton and Admiral Horatio Nelson and her rise and fall, set during the Napoleonic Wars.

Date of release
1941-04-03
TMDB
7.1 / 10 (96)
Runtime
2h 5m
Genres
Drama, History, Romance
Director
Alexander Korda

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $1.3M
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 4. Including: Academy Award for Best Sound

That Hamilton Woman, also known as Lady Hamilton, is a 1941 black-and-white historical film drama produced and directed by Alexander Korda for his British company during his exile in the United States. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the film tells the story of the rise and fall of Emma Hamilton, dance-hall girl and courtesan, who married Sir William Hamilton, British ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples, and later became Admiral Horatio Nelson's mistress.

Production

Shot in the United States during September and October 1940, That Hamilton Woman defines Britain's struggle against Napoleon in terms of resistance to a dictator who seeks to dominate the world. The film was intended to parallel the current situation in Europe and to serve as propaganda at a time, before the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the U.S. was still formally neutral.

Stars Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were newlyweds at the time of filming and were considered a "dream couple". The film's tagline was The Year's Most Exciting Team of Screen Lovers! That Hamilton Woman is the last of three films they made together and their only film as a married couple. Korda also produced their first film, Fire Over England.

Because of the strict Motion Picture Production Code, the two lovers never appear in bed together or ever even partially undressed together. Before the affair begins Emma sits on her bed, wherein Nelson is recovering from exhaustion, to feed him some soup. According to K.R.M.

The supporting cast of That Hamilton Woman includes Sara Allgood as Emma's mother, Henry Wilcoxon as Captain Hardy, Gladys Cooper as Lady Nelson, and Alan Mowbray as William Hamilton, Emma's husband, the British ambassador to Naples and a collector of objets d'art.

During the filming a wad of flame fell from a torch directly on Olivier's head, setting his wig afire. Wilcoxon, standing right beside him, tried and failed to extinguish the blaze. Finally he wrested the wig from Olivier's head, but both his hands were badly burned, while Olivier's eyebrows were scorched.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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