That Hamilton Woman

One of cinema’s most dashing duos, real-life spouses Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier live their greatest on-screen romance in this visually dazzling tragic love story from legendary producer-director Alexander Korda. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars of the late eighteenth century, That Hamilton Woman is a gripping account of the scandalous adulterous affair between the British Royal Navy officer Lord Horatio Nelson and the renowned beauty Emma, Lady Hamilton, the wife of a British ambassador. With its grandly designed sea battles and formidable star performances, That Hamilton Woman (Winston Churchill’s favorite movie, which he claimed to have seen over eighty times) brings history to vivid, glamorous life.

United Kingdom
1941
125 minutes
Black & White
1.33:1
English
Spine #487

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary featuring noted film historian Ian Christie
New video interview with author and editor Michael Korda, Alexander’s nephew, who discusses growing up in the Korda family and the making of That Hamilton Woman
Theatrical trailer
Alexander Korda Presents, a 1941 promotional radio piece for the film
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by film critic Molly Haskell

New cover by Michael Boland

DVD 1 Disc $31.96 SRP: $39.95

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary featuring noted film historian Ian Christie
New video interview with author and editor Michael Korda, Alexander’s nephew, who discusses growing up in the Korda family and the making of That Hamilton Woman
Theatrical trailer
Alexander Korda Presents, a 1941 promotional radio piece for the film
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by film critic Molly Haskell

New cover by Michael Boland

Cast & Credits

Cast

Vivien Leigh: Emma Lady Hamilton
Laurence Olivier: Lord Horatio Nelson
Alan Mowbray: Sir William Hamilton
Sara Allgood: Mrs. Cadogan-Lyon
Gladys Cooper: Lady Frances Nelson
Henry Wilcoxon: Captain Hardy
Halliwell Hobbes: Rev. Nelson

Credits

Director: Alexander Korda
Producer: Alexander Korda
Original screenplay: Walter Reisch
Original screenplay: R. C. Sherriff
Production design: Vincent Korda
Cinematography: Rudolph Maté
Music: Miklós Rózsa
Sound: William H. Wilmarth
Special effects: Lawrence Butler
Production manager: Raymond A. Klune
Art director: Lyle Reynolds Wheeler
Special sequences photographed by: Edward Linden, A.S.C.
Costume designer: René Hubert
Interior decorator: Julia Heron
Assistant director: Walter Mayo
Supervising film editor: William Hornbeck
Makeup artist: Blagoe Stephanoff

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The Kordas

Director, Producer, Production Designer

During sound cinema’s first full decade, the Hungarian-born Korda brothers—Alexander, Zoltán, and Vincent—built a British empire. The mastermind behind their legendary company, London Films Productions, was producer, director, writer, and eventual mega-mogul Alex; born Sándor Kellner, he became interested in the art of silent cinema as a teenager in his home country, writing criticism and even founding a movie magazine before finding success making his own films all over Europe. In the late twenties, following a short stint in Hollywood, Alex was sent to England to head up Paramount’s British Production Unit; in 1932, he established London Films and brought aboard his younger siblings, Zoltán as a writer/director and Vincent as a production designer. Their first big hit was The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), which earned Charles Laughton an Oscar and the Kordas international attention. The rest of the thirties held highs (The Rise of Catherine the Great, Elephant Boy) and lows (The Private Life of Don Juan) for the company. But its films—often about historical personalities (Rembrandt) or the exploits of the British Empire abroad (Sanders of the River, The Four Feathers)—remain exemplars of a grand period of British cinema. In the forties, the Kordas only grew in stature—due not only to such immensely popular titles as The Thief of Bagdad and That Hamilton Woman but also to the selection of Alexander, the first film director to be so honored, for knighthood.