The Private Life of Henry VIII
The Private Life of Henry VIII is a
1933 film nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture. It was written by
Lajos Biró and
Arthur Wimperis, and directed by Sir
Alexander Korda.
It was the first
British film to be nominated for the Academy Award for best picture.
The film began in May
1536, contrasting the impending execution of Henry's second wife,
Anne Boleyn (
Merle Oberon), with his instant remarriage to her maid, the kind-hearted
Jane Seymour (
Wendy Barrie). The inspiration for this scene clearly came from the
English historian,
Agnes Strickland, who had vigorously criticised Henry and Jane for their treatment of the historical Anne.
After Anne's execution, Henry (played by
Charles Laughton), is married briefly to
Queen Jane before her death in childbed eighteen months later. He is then remarried to a German princess,
Anne of Cleves, played on-screen by Laughton's real-life wife
Elsa Lanchester. This marriage ends in divorce when
Anne deliberately makes herself unattractive so that she can be free to re-marry her sweetheart. After this divorce, Henry marries the beautiful and ambitious Lady
Catherine Howard (Binnie Barnes). She has rejected love all her life in favour of ambition, but after her marriage she falls in love with Henry's handsome servant
Thomas Culpepper (
Robert Donat). Their adultery is never mentioned by name in the film, since American censors objected to it. In any case, their liaison is discovered by Henry's advisers and the couple are executed. Henry's final marriage to
Catherine Parr receives less than five minutes of screentime.
Historically, the film is wildly inaccurate - with the possible exception of the
Anne Boleyn storyline at the beginning. Its presentation of the characters of
Jane Seymour and
Catherine Howard in particular are not true to fact. Nor does it portray Henry's first (and longest) marriage to the Spanish princess,
Catherine of Aragon. It is famous for creating the public image of a jolly
Henry VIII who gorged himself at public banquets and chased pretty women all day, which has tended to obscure the king's real-life brutality.
It was hugely successful as a commercial film and it advanced
Alexander Korda and
Charles Laughton's careers. It was
Merle Oberon's first major film role and it began her rise to
Hollywood stardom. Laughton would later reprise his role as
Henry VIII in
1953 in the film
Young Bess opposite
Jean Simmons as a young
Elizabeth I.
The Private Life of Henry VIII was the only feature-length film to deal with all of Henry's wives until
Henry VIII and his Six Wives in
1973. This film was more accurate, since it spent time on all of Henry's queens (including
Catherine of Aragon.) This later movie starred
Keith Michell,
Charlotte Rampling,
Jane Asher,
Lynne Frederick and
Brian Blessed.
