So much to love and unfortunately a few things that keep it from getting higher for me. In terms of what’s to love I don’t think there’s a more obvious starting point than Vivien Leigh, she was absolutely amazing in her every second of screen-time and my biggest problem with the movie is she didn’t have enough of it. I was having a great time with the story, I’m a huge fan of these old Hollywood historical romance dramas and with everything here being so well done it all made for a great time, it just had the struggle of any scene without Leigh being slightly disappointing or unentertaining because of how magnetic her performance was. For example I wasn’t loving the final 30 ish minutes with most of it being spent on Horatio’s naval battle, I get why they made the choice when you have an actor as big as Olivier in the role but it simply wasn’t as interesting to me as anything else in the movie. I did really like the ending though I can say that, I know it’s a bit overused now but I’m a fan of the “main character tells their story in a flashback” beginning and ending. Laurence Olivier was also quite good as Horatio, this was my first time seeing him act so I had fun with that, I’ll be on the lookout for more with him in the future. I have to talk about how good this looked too because I’m kind of shocked, I may not have enjoyed that naval battle narratively but it looked fantastic for this time, and of course the costumes, sets, and makeup in the Royal Palace scenes or just any scene with Vivien Leigh was wonderful. This is my second Alexander Korda movie now, the first being The Private Life of Henry VIII, and though I’d rate them both similarly this is easily my favorite of the two. Great acting and writing, beautiful sets, and a nice historical romance story that I’m okay with being glammed up for the sake of entertainment, I may have wanted a bit more but I’m really happy with this result.
So much to love and unfortunately a few things that keep it from getting higher for me. In terms of what’s to love I don’t think there’s a more obvious starting point than Vivien Leigh, she was absolutely amazing in her every second of screen-time and my biggest problem with the movie is she didn’t have enough of it. I was having a great time with the story, I’m a huge fan of these old Hollywood historical romance dramas and with everything here being so well done it all made for a great time, it just had the struggle of any scene without Leigh being slightly disappointing or unentertaining because of how magnetic her performance was. For example I wasn’t loving the final 30 ish minutes with most of it being spent on Horatio’s naval battle, I get why they made the choice when you have an actor as big as Olivier in the role but it simply wasn’t as interesting to me as anything else in the movie. I did really like the ending though I can say that, I know it’s a bit overused now but I’m a fan of the “main character tells their story in a flashback” beginning and ending. Laurence Olivier was also quite good as Horatio, this was my first time seeing him act so I had fun with that, I’ll be on the lookout for more with him in the future. I have to talk about how good this looked too because I’m kind of shocked, I may not have enjoyed that naval battle narratively but it looked fantastic for this time, and of course the costumes, sets, and makeup in the Royal Palace scenes or just any scene with Vivien Leigh was wonderful. This is my second Alexander Korda movie now, the first being The Private Life of Henry VIII, and though I’d rate them both similarly this is easily my favorite of the two. Great acting and writing, beautiful sets, and a nice historical romance story that I’m okay with being glammed up for the sake of entertainment, I may have wanted a bit more but I’m really happy with this result.
