LADY HAMILTON / THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (1941)

"This is a love story." - Alexander Korda

Original Title: The Enchantress
Running Time: 128 minutes (black and white)
Producer and Director: Alexander Korda
Art Director: Vincent Korda
Original Screenplay: Walter Reisch, R.C. Sherriff
Music: Miklos Rozsa
Costumes: Rene Hubert
Photography: Rudolph Mate
Special Effects: Lawrence Butler
It was a secret mission for Winston Churchill - to make a propaganda film.

Starring: Vivien Leigh (Emma Hamilton), Laurence Olivier (Lord Nelson), Henry Wilcoxon (Captain Hardy), Alan Mowbray (Sir William Hamilton), Sara Allgood (Mrs. Cadogan-Lyon), Gladys Cooper (Lady Nelson), Heather Angel (Street Girl), Halliwell Hobbes (Reverend Nelson), Gilbert Emery (Lord Spencer), Miles Mander (Lord Keith), Ronald Sinclair (Josiah), Luis Alberni (King of Naples), Norma Drury (Queen of Naples), Georges Renavent (Hotel Manager), Leonard Carey (Orderly), Alex Craig (Gendarme), Juliette Copton (Lady Spencer), Olaf Hytten (Gavin), Guy Kingsford (Capt. Troubridge), George Davis

Academy Award Nominations: 4. Won for Best Sound Recording

Michael Korda: It is possible that this movie was the best thing he (A. Korda) ever did as a director. It contained all the elements he liked best - a love story, lavish backgrounds, and an opportunity to explore the "private lives" of historical personages... Alex indulged his taste for cynical humor in the portraits of the king and queen of Naples and Sir William Hamilton, Emma's long-suffering husband, but the two lovers themselves are meant to be taken seriously, both in the depth of their feelings for each other and in the tragedy of Nelson's death...

During the filming of Horatio Nelson's death scene in That Hamilton Woman, Laurence Olivier's wig caught on fire without him realizing. Henry Wilcoxon saw it and started hitting Laurence over the head to put out the flame. It wasn't until Henry ripped the wig off Laurence's head that Laurence realized what was actually happening.

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