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Title:
The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex
Region:
One
Genre:
Drama
Stars:
Betty Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, Vincent
Price, and Henry Stephenson
Writer:
Norman Reilly Raine and Aeneas McKenzie
Based
On The Stage Play By: Maxwell Anderson
Director:
Michael Curtiz
Feature
length: 106 minutes
Extras:
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night At The Movies 1939, Newsreel, Musical Short
– The Royal Rodeo, Cartoon – Old Glory, Theatrical Trailers, New Featurette
– Elizabeth And Essex: Battle Royale
Languages:
English and French Language Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 27
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1939/DVD Release: 2005
Theatrical
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc.
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Of
the films I have reviewed so far within Warner Home Video’s “Errol Flynn:
The Signature Collection” DVD box set, “The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And
Essex” is arguably the most intriguing. Adapted from a stage play written by
Maxwell Anderson, “The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex” presents the
royal court of England filled with backstabbing courtiers and political and
social trickery with Betty Davis as the Monarch of Great Britain and Errol Flynn
as her decades younger object of affection as well as object of rivalry for
Essex could usurp the thrown from Elizabeth through his sheer charisma alone.
Off screen the drama was equally heated since neither Davis nor Flynn had any
compassion about working with each other for a second time and one can see this
tension between them onscreen too. In fact the onscreen tension between the two
Hollywood icons is what makes the film work so well at times and yet the scenes
where Essex is supposed to profess his affections for Elizabeth just never quite
work because there simply is no onscreen chemistry between the two stars in a
romantic way. The film proved to be a breakthrough role for Vincent Price and it
also features Alan Hale in a rare antagonistic role toward Flynn’s character.
Donald Crisp delivers a standout character performance as Sir Francis Bacon.
The
Technicolor (1.33:1) image quality is positively outstanding on this DVD despite
whatever slight artifacts or defects may exist from the source materials used to
make this DVD. Shortly after watching the DVD I happened to switch on Turner
Classic Movies, which is having a festival of Errol Flynn films this month and
it just so happened they were broadcasting “The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And
Essex” at the same time while I was watching the DVD. Direct comparison
between the digital cable transmission and the DVD yielded without a shadow of a
doubt that Warner Home Video’s DVD edition looked superior. A clear English
Monaural Soundtrack is provided along with a French Language Dubbed Monaural
Soundtrack and English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as
English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded onto the DVD as options.
As
with the previous DVD releases, Leonard Maltin hosts another “Warner Night At
The Movies” for 1939 (4:21) with a newsreel (2:06), a musical short shot on
the left over sets from “The Adventures Of Robin Hood” entitled “The Royal
Rodeo” (14:28), a theatrical trailer for “Dark Victory” (3:14), and a
wonderful rotoscoped cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, which stars Porky Pig and
Uncle Sam in “Old Glory” (9:01). The cartoon has Porky accompany Uncle Sam
throughout various points of American history to learn the value of freedom. I
must admit that while these segments are way before my time, there is a part of
me that admires the innocence that existed in American culture back then.
A
new featurette chronicling the turbulence between Betty Davis and Errol Flynn
during the film’s production (10:35) and the film’s theatrical trailer
(3:28), which is presented in black and white, wraps up the extra value
materials included on this DVD. The interactive menus are very well rendered and
easy to navigate. “The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex” is available on
DVD-Video now either separately or as a part of Warner Home Video’s “Errol
Flynn: The Signature Collection” DVD box set.
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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