The Private Life of Henry VIII

{{Infobox film

| name = The Private Life of Henry VIII

| image = The-Private-Life-of-Henry-VIII -1933.jpg

| director = Alexander Korda

| producer = Alexander Korda
Ludovico Toeplitz

| writer = Lajos Bíró
Arthur Wimperis

| starring = Charles Laughton
Binnie Barnes
Robert Donat

| music = Kurt Schröder

| cinematography = Georges Périnal

| editing = Stephen Harrison

| studio = London Film Productions

| distributor = United Artists

| released = {{Film date|1933|08|17|df=y}}

| runtime = 97 minutes

| language = English

| country = United Kingdom

| budget = £93,710Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 17. Variety gave the figure as US $550,000 see {{cite magazine|title=Good Pix Can't Be Made Cheaply|url=https://archive.org/details/variety114-1934-06/page/n84/mode/1up?q=%22cost+around%22|magazine=Variety|date=12 June 1934|page=21}}

| gross = £750,000{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47923522|title=British Film Losses |newspaper=The Barrier Miner|location=Broken Hill, New South Wales|date=8 February 1936|access-date=4 August 2012|page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} - Chapman gives this figure as "over £500,000"Chapman p 17

}}

The Private Life of Henry VIII is a 1933 British biographical drama film directed and co-produced by Alexander Korda and starring Charles Laughton, Robert Donat, Merle Oberon and Elsa Lanchester. It was written by Lajos Bíró and Arthur Wimperis for London Film Productions, Korda's production company. The film, which focuses on the marriages of King Henry VIII of England, was a major international success, establishing Korda as a leading filmmaker and Laughton as a box-office star.

Plot summary

Image:Private-Life-Henry-VIII.jpg (Charles Laughton) and Anne of Cleves (Elsa Lanchester) on their wedding night in The Private Life of Henry VIII]]

The film begins 20 years into King Henry VIII's reign and covers the last 11 years of his marital life in a series of comedic vignettes. In May 1536, in the immediate aftermath of the execution of his second wife Anne Boleyn, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died in childbirth 18 months later. He then weds a German princess, Anne of Cleves. This marriage ends in divorce after Anne deliberately makes herself unattractive so that she may be free to marry her sweetheart. Henry next marries the beautiful and ambitious Lady Katherine Howard. She has rejected love all of her life in favour of ambition, but after her marriage, she falls in love with Henry's handsome courtier Thomas Culpeper, who had attempted to woo her in the past. Their liaison is discovered by Henry's court and the two are executed. The weak and aging Henry consoles himself with a final marriage to Catherine Parr, who proves domineering. In the final scene, while Parr is no longer in the room, the king breaks the fourth wall, saying "Six wives, and the best of them's the worst."

Cast

{{castlist|

Charles Laughton as Henry VIII
Merle Oberon as Anne Boleyn
Wendy Barrie as Jane Seymour
Elsa Lanchester as Anne of Cleves
Binnie Barnes as Katherine Howard
Everley Gregg as Catherine Parr
Robert Donat as Thomas Culpeper
Franklin Dyall as Thomas Cromwell
Miles Mander as Wriothesley
Laurence Hanray as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
William Austin as The Duke of Cleves
John Loder as Thomas Peynell
Lady Tree as The King's Nurse
John Turnbull as Hans Holbein
Frederick Culley as Duke of Norfolk
William Heughan as Kingston
Judy Kelly as Lady Rochford
Hay Petrie as The King's Barber
Wally Patch as Butcher
Arthur Howard as Kitchen Helper
Annie Esmond as Cook's Wife
Claud Allister as Cornell
Gibb McLaughlin as The French Executioner
Sam Livesey as The English Executioner

}}

Production

Alexander Korda was seeking a film project suitable for Charles Laughton and his wife Elsa Lanchester. Originally, the story was to focus solely on the marriage of King Henry VIII and his fourth wife Anne of Cleves, but as the project grew, the story was modified to focus on five of Henry's six wives. Only the first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was omitted because those involved had no particular interest in her, describing her as a "respectable woman" in the film's first intertitles. Korda chose to ignore the religious and political aspects of Henry's reign, as the film makes no mention of the break with Rome and instead focuses on Henry's relations with his wives.{{cite web |last1=Lipscomb |first1=Suzannah |title=Henry VIII: a King Caught on Camera |url=https://www.historytoday.com/making-history/henry-viii-king-caught-camera |website=History Today |access-date=10 April 2021}}

The film cost £93,710 which was five times the average cost of a British feature in the early 1930s.Chapman p 17

Reception

=Box office=

The Private Life of Henry VIII was a commercial success. It made Alexander Korda a premier figure in the film industry, and United Artists signed him for 16 films. It also advanced the careers of Charles Laughton, Robert Donat and Merle Oberon (in her first major film role). Laughton would later reprise the same role in the 1953 film Young Bess opposite Jean Simmons as his daughter Elizabeth.

The film earned receipts of £81,825 in the UK, which was not enough to recover its production costs.Chapman, p 17. However it was hugely successful overseas, being the 12th-most-successful of 1933 at the American box office{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33001319|title=Box Office Successes of 1933|newspaper=The West Australian|location=Perth|date=13 April 1934|access-date=9 July 2012|page=3|via=National Library of Australia}} and ultimately earned rentals of £500,000 on its first release.{{cite news|title=TAKING A LOOK AT THE RECORD|author=D. W.|date=25 November 1934|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|101193306}}}}

It premiered to record-breaking crowds at New York's Radio City Music Hall and London's Leicester Square Theatre (now the Odeon West End), where it ran for nine weeks from 27 October 1933.[https://books.google.com/books?id=YsUfc8Ijb-wC&pg=PA78 Popular Filmgoing in 1930s Britain: A Choice of Pleasures], Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000, pp. 77–78

= Awards =

At the Academy Awards, the film was the first foreign picture to win an Oscar (Charles Laughton for Best Actor), and the first foreign Best Picture nominee.

Laughton was voted best actor in a British film by readers of Film Weekly.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52148556| title= Best Film Performance Last Year|newspaper=The Examiner|location=Launceston, Tasmania|date=9 July 1937|access-date=4 March 2013| page= 8 |via= National Library of Australia}}

Historicity

=Accuracy=

File:Godfrey phillips laughton card.jpg

The Private Life of Henry VIII is credited with creating the popular image of Henry VIII as a fat, lecherous glutton who eats turkey legs and tosses bones over his shoulder (although in the film, what Henry eats is actually an entire capon).{{cite web|url=http://www.debunkingmandelaeffects.com/painting-of-henry-viii-holding-a-turkey-leg/|title=Painting of Henry VIII Holding a Turkey Leg – Debunking Mandela Effects|website=debunkingmandelaeffects.com}}{{cite web|url=https://thebestpictureproject.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/the-private-life-of-henry-viii/|title=The Private Life of Henry VIII|date=30 August 2010}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aoUxL33ijmwC&q=%22Private+Life+of+Henry+VIII%22+chicken&pg=PA30|title=Body in Medical Culture, The|date=16 April 2009 |publisher=SUNY Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9781438425962}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6E-caLC4HZEC&q=%22Private+Life+of+Henry+VIII%22+chicken&pg=PA259|title=The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in 1930s Britain|first=Jeffrey|last=Richards|date=10 February 1984|publisher=I.B. Tauris|via=Google Books|isbn=9781848851221}}{{cite web|url=http://www.historytoday.com/greg-walker/private-life-henry-viii|title=The Private Life of Henry VIII|work=History Today}} Historian Alison Weir has pointed out that this image is contradicted by primary sources, noting: "As a rule, Henry did not dine in the great halls of his palaces, and his table manners were highly refined, as was the code of etiquette followed at his court. He was in fact a most fastidious man, and—for his time—unusually obsessed with hygiene. As for his pursuit of the ladies, there is plenty of evidence, but most of it fragmentary, for Henry was also far more discreet and prudish than we have been led to believe. These are just superficial examples of how the truth about historical figures can become distorted."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SA7A89d0W2YC&q=%22Private+Life+of+Henry+VIII%22+chicken&pg=PP13|title=Henry VIII: King and Court|first=Alison|last=Weir|date=18 April 2011|publisher=Random House|via=Google Books|isbn=9781446449233}}

Catherine of Aragon is excluded from the script because she was a "respectable woman," in the words of the introductory titles,{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=89}} but the exclusion may have occurred because the real-life Catherine stubbornly refused to allow Henry to marry Anne Boleyn, a fact that might have weakened the audience's identification with the king. The film also does not mention that Boleyn was convicted of false charges of incest with her brother, who was also executed, a fact that might have pitted the audience against Henry.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=90}} The film inaccurately depicts Henry marrying Jane Seymour on the same day as Boleyn was beheaded (19 May 1536); in fact, Henry only obtained permission to remarry that day, marrying Seymour on 30 May 1536.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=91}} The film's portrayal of Seymour as a vain, stupid, childlike woman contradicts some accounts that the real Seymour was an intelligent woman.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=91}}

Anne of Cleves is inaccurately shown in love with another man before she marries Henry, and this is presented as her reason for wanting to end the marriage. The relationship is played for comic effect, but the real process of ending the marriage lasted several weeks rather than over the course of a single night as portrayed in the film. Anne's desire to remain in England is attributed to her love for Peynell in the film, but in reality, her motivation may have been to escape the tyrannical supervision of her stern brother, William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=93}}

According to historical accounts, Catherine Howard was an immature teenager of limited intelligence who did not realize the grave risk involved with her adultery.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=94}} However, the film portrays Howard as a mature, intelligent woman who knew the risks of adultery, an inaccuracy that may have been intended to elicit audience sympathy for Henry's decision to have her executed.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=94}}

Catherine Parr may also have been inaccurately portrayed; rather than a nagging tyrant, the real Parr was an intellectual with a strong interest in theology and a gentle demeanour who engaged Henry in intellectual discussions about religion in his final years.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=95}}

=Contemporary echos=

Historian Greg Walker has noted that Korda integrated references to contemporary political issues, as the film anachronistically refers to the Holy Roman Empire as Germany and portrays the empire as more united than it really was at the time.{{cite news |last1=Walker |first1=Greg |title=The Private Life of Henry VII |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/private-life-henry-viii |access-date=10 April 2021 |publisher=History Today |date=9 September 2001}} The frequent wars between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V against King Francis I of France are depicted as examples of French–German enmity, with Henry attempting to act as peacemaker.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=54-55}} The film inaccurately portrays the French fighting Germans in the Habsburg-Valois wars rather than the Spanish.

In the interwar period, the Treaty of Versailles was widely considered in Britain to be excessively harsh toward Germany, and successive British governments attempted to promote revision of the Versailles treaty in Germany's favour while also guarding against a resurgence of German militarism.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=54-55}} The Locarno Treaties of 1925 were an attempt to improve Franco-German relations, and evidence suggests that this policy was very popular with the British people.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=55}} Henry's monologue warning that the French and Germans will destroy Europe because of their mutual hatred and declaring that it is his duty to save the peace may have been understood by a 1933 British audience as an allegory for the current British policy of leniency toward Germany.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=54-55}}

The film possibly refers to the 1932 World Disarmament Conference and the current debate about rearmament when Henry is warned by Thomas Cromwell that spending on the navy will "cost us much money," to which he retorts that not to spend money on the navy will "cost us England."{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=57}} Korda disliked the Labour Party's call for disarmament, and Henry's message in the film may have been a rebuke to those who called for Britain to continue with disarmament{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=55-56}} and to those in the government who were cutting military spending in light of the Great Depression.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=56-57}}

In the 1920s and '30s, many in Britain bristled at Hollywood's domination of the film industry;{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=29-30}} by 1925, only 5% of the films shown in Britain were British.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=31}} In 1932, Sir Stephen Tallents called for "The Projection of England", warning that if the British film industry failed to tell its own stories that would define Britain, then Hollywood would do so.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=30}} This sparked interest in the Tudor era{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=30}} and an image of the period as a prosperous, happy time untroubled by class divisions and economic depressions.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=30}} The character of John Bull was portrayed as uncultured but kind, boisterous and exuberant, all qualities perceived as typically British.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=31}} His lack of sophistication hid a mind that was shrewd and cunning, also a reflection of British self-image at the time.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=31}} Korda, a Hungarian immigrant who craved acceptance in Britain, may have ascribed much of John Bull's imagery and traits to Henry VIII in the film.{{sfn|Walker|2003|p=31}}

Copyright status

As a result of overlapping changes in British copyright law, the film never fell into the public domain in the UK and its copyright is now due to expire at the end of 2026, 70 years after Alexander Korda's death. In countries that observe a 50-year term, such as Canada and Australia, the copyright expired at the end of 2006.

In the United States, the film's original 1933 copyright registrationUS Copyright Catalogue of Copyright Entries, 1933, Volume 6, No. 8, page 361 – 3 November 1933, #7757. was not renewed after the initial 28-year term, and the film thus fell into the public domain there. As a foreign film still in copyright in its country of origin, its American copyright was automatically restored in 1996 with a term of 95 years from release, meaning that the copyright will expire at the end of 2028.

Bibliography

{{cite book

| last = Law

| first = Jonathan

| year = 1997

| title = Cassell Companion to Cinema

| publisher = Market House Books Limited

| location = London

| isbn = 0-304-34938-0

| url-access = registration

| url = https://archive.org/details/cassellcompanion0000unse_d7i7

}}

{{cite book

| last = Magill

| first = Frank

| year = 1980

| title = Magill's Survey of Cinema

| publisher = Salem Press, Inc.

| location = Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

| isbn = 0-89356-225-4

| url = https://archive.org/details/magillssurveyofc03magi

}}

{{cite book

| last = Korda

| first = Michael

| year = 1980

| title = Charmed Lives: The Fabulous World of the Korda Brothers

| publisher = Allen Lane

| location = London

| isbn = 0-7139-1318-5

| url = https://archive.org/details/charmedlivesfami00mich

}}

{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Greg |title=The Private Life of Henry VIII: A British Film Guide |date=2003 |publisher=I. B. Tauris |location=London |isbn=1860649092}}

References

External links

{{IMDb title|id=0024473|title=The Private Life of Henry VIII}}
[https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-private-life-of-henry-viii-am46950 The Private Life of Henry VIII at AllMovie]
{{screenonline title|id=438828|title=The Private Life of Henry VIII}}
{{TCMDb title|id=87210|title=The Private Life of Henry VIII}}
{{AFI film|5869}}
{{Rotten Tomatoes|private_life_of_henry_viii|The Private Life of Henry VIII}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070901053701/http://www.oldmovies.net.au/the-private-life-of-henry-viii/ The Private Life of Henry VIII review] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20061212171627/http://www.oldmovies.net.au/ Old Movies]