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The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

Director: Michael Curtiz

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From Time Out Film Guide

Not so much a swashbuckler as a costume romance, kept high-toned (not to say strangled) by its source in a Maxwell Anderson play. Dominated by historical inaccuracies and a tightly controlled performance from Davis as the waspish queen, all too conscious of her fading charms and her favourite Flynn's roguishly roving eye. Some spectacular pageantry too in what was, oddly enough, the only colour film in which Davis appeared until the '50s.

Author: TM

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Michael Curtiz

Cast: Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Vincent Price, Henry Daniell, Nanette Fabray, Alan Hale, Robert Warwick, Leo G Carroll full cast

Genre(s): Period/Swashbucklers

Duration: 106 mins


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