Conference bookie::movies

263.0. "The Private Life of Henry VIII" by DSSDEV::RUST () Mon Jul 19 1993 18:29

    This is a long-time favorite of mine. Charles Laughton puts in a
    wonderful performance as Henry, from his robust, hearty (and
    occasionally cruel) youth to his feeble old age, and an assortment of
    actresses, from Merle Oberon to Elsa Lanchester, get to portray his
    various wives.
    
    The movie, as per its title, focuses almost entirely on Henry's
    domestic affairs; any intrusion by politics or the church is purely
    incidental, and is borne with only so far as is needed to explain the
    next change of wife. (The movie doesn't shy away from the callousness
    and hypocrisy of the time, but it doesn't wallow in it either; and if
    it reserves, perhaps, a little more sympathy for Henry than he may have
    deserved, it does the same for most of the rest of the characters as
    well.)
    
    Some of the best bits include: the stage business of the ladies in
    waiting picking out the embroidered initial of Henry's previous wife to
    replace it with that of the current one; the jovial comments from the
    servants in the kitchen as they speculate on Henry's latest marriage
    [nearly all the people in the kitchen seem to have much better
    interpersonal-relationship skills than any of the nobility do; there's
    probably a lesson in this ;-)]; and Elsa Lanchester's bravura
    performance as Anne of Cleves, to whom she gives a rather unexpected
    spin. [For those of you who aren't history buffs, Anne of Cleves was
    Henry's fourth wife, whom he took at the behest of his advisors in
    order to have another heir - his only son being frail - and ensure the
    succession. He chose her on the basis of a Holbein portrait of her, but
    when he met her face to face it seemed that the artist had taken some
    liberties with her appearance. In any case, Henry immediately got a
    divorce, leaving Anne the first of his wives to leave the royal embrace
    alive. The movie put a jolly spin on all this, speculating that it was
    Anne who didn't want to marry Henry, but who realized that she couldn't
    turn down the English king - so she made faces and bumped into things
    and scared the heck out of him. And then there was the card game... Not
    historical behavior on Anne's part, as far as I know, but very funny.]
    
    Unfortunately, the print that's been aired on TV of late is badly
    chopped in places, leading to the occasional abrupt cut or lost dialog.
    Still, this is a movie I always enjoy watching.
    
    -b

    >In any case, Henry immediately got a divorce, leaving Anne the first of
    >his wives to leave the royal embrace alive. 
    
    Hmmmn, I thought it was:
    
    	Divorced, beheaded, died
	Divorced, beheaded, survived
    	

    Well, yes, he didn't kill Catherine of Aragon, but she died a few
    years later <I make a mental note to go look it up when I get home>,
    still considering herself Henry's legal wife (as she was, in the eyes
    of her church). 
    
    "For three called Kate they cried the banns,
    for one called Jane, and a couple of Annes."
    
    -b

    Henry married Catherine of Aragon soon after his coronation in 1509,
    she died in 1536.
    
    Henry married Anne Boleyn in 1532, Elizabeth was born in 1533, Anne
    lost her head in 1536.
    
    Henry married Jane Seymour soon after, she died giving birth to 
    Edward in 1537.
    
    Henry married and divorced Anne of Cleves in 1540.
    
    Henry married Catherine Howard in 1540, beheaded her in 1542.

    Henry married Catherine Parr soon after, he died in 1548.