Alexander Korda's

Lady Hamilton

1941

Lady Hamilton was Vivian Leigh's second film after Gone with the Wind. In some ways it is an even more florid historical melodrama. (That Hamilton Woman was the film's American release title, emphasizing the scandalous aspects of the story.) It reunited her with her husband Laurence Olivier, who had starred with her in Fire over England (1937), an historical drama about the Spanish Armada which brought her to the attention of David O. Selznick and enabled her to get the part of Scarlett O'Hara.

Lady Hamilton was one of Winston Churchill's personal favorites, and he had it screened privately many times throughout World War II. Unabashed war propaganda, the film unceasingly draws parallels between Napoleon and Hitler.

The story is presented in flashback. Lady Emma Hamilton (Vivian Leigh) lives in abject squalor. Very much down on her luck, and bereft of her legendary beauty, she is arrested in Calais for stealing wine. She tells her story to a young English girl who shares her jail cell. In the beginning, she arrives in Naples, then an independent kingdom, with her mother (Sara Allgood). Emma's fiancé has sent the two to visit his uncle, Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray), the British ambassador. Sir William gently informs the naive and trusting Emma that his nephew has only sent her to Naples because he does not want to marry her. Because Sir William loves beauty, he loves Emma, and eventually they marry, though he is much older than she. Emma is educated by Sir William and becomes witty, wise, and accomplished, and a favorite confidant of the queen of Naples (Norma Drury).

HMS Agamemnon, under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson (Laurence Oliver) anchors at Naples. He brings Sir William dispatches informing him of the outbreak of war between England and France. Emma secures an audience with the queen and obtains supplies for Nelson. Nelson is victorious over the French fleet in the battle of the Nile. He returns to Naples to be publicly feted, but exhausted, he collapses after giving an impassioned speech to the king exhorting him to defend his country. The relationship between Horatio and Emma deepens as she cares for him in the ambassador's home.

Years pass. Nelson is cruelly wounded and promoted to admiral of a squadron. His flagship is HMS Vanguard, commanded by Captain Hardy (Henry Wilcoxon). During a storm, he receives word of a revolution in Naples. He disobeys orders when he returns to rescue Emma, Sir William, and the king and queen. In England, gossip has already turned ugly: "What was the point of saving the husband?" asks one wag. Emma and Horatio enter into a full-blown affair, and Horatio's stepson Josiah, a midshipman on the Vanguard, writes full details to his mother.

The admiralty, eager to avoid scandal, orders Nelson home, but he deserts his command, and returns by commercial packet with the Hamiltons. Horatio's reunion with Lady Nelson (Gladys Cooper) and his father (Halliwell Hobbes) seems to end the affair as Nelson makes his maiden speech in the House of Lords, an impassioned plea for peace and defense preparedness, but Horatio's jealousy draws him back to Emma. At just the same time Sir William loses his mind when all his art objects are lost at sea in shipment to England, leaving Emma conveniently available, though she cannot divorce Sir William and Lady Nelson will not divorce Horatio. When Horatio finds out how deeply in debt Emma is, he leaves his wife, and buys a country home for Emma. Napoleon violates the peace treaty with England, and Horatio takes command of the English fleet, as Emma bears a girl whom she names Horatia. Nelson's flagship is HMS Victory. He meets the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafaglar. Early in the battle he is fatally wounded by a sharpshooter high in the rigging of the French flagship Le Redoubtable. Captain Hardy keeps bringing Nelson word of more enemy ships destroyed, and then rides to Emma to give her the bad news.

After the flashback, Emma's cellmate asks, "Well, what happened then, what happened after?" Judging from the world-weary Emma's horrid appearance, a great deal has happened since Horatio's death, none of it good for Emma, but she simply answers, "There is no then, there is no after."