Watch The Private Life of Henry VIII For Free

Overrated and overhyped

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This film concentrates its attention on Henry VIII's solution to the serious problem the Tudors had - their tenuous hold on the monarchy. Henry VII, father of Henry VIII, had no legal claim to the crown, being descended from the Plantagenets, absolute holders of the monarchy, only via an illegitimacy. Henry VIII's mother, Elizabeth Grey, was in fact the primary heir to the throne after the supposed deaths of her brothers, Edward V and the Duke of York, but the female succession was not favored and there were plenty of residents of England who had better claims to the crown than Henry VII. Much earlier, Henry II pledged the barons to honor his daughter as Queen upon his death (in 1135), but they reneged and gave it to her cousin Stephen, grandson of William the Conqueror, instead. Henry VIII had to have a male heir to make his family's title to the throne secure, and that is where all the trouble started. No one knew at that time that the male partner determined the sex of the child, so Henry blamed his wife (wives) for all the difficulty. After several failures, Katherine of Aragon was too old for future childbearing, leaving Henry with only a daughter, Mary. Up through Jane Seymour, who died producing Henry's only surviving legitimate son, Henry caused many pregnancies among his wives and others, and had three more or less legitimate children, all of whom make an appearance in this film, plus an unknown number of illegitimate children, including an acknowledged surviving son. His marriage to Anne of Cleves he refused to consummate, and he probably was unable to do so with Katherine Howard or Catherine Parr. As it turned out, of course, Henry VIII produced a dead branch on the tree, in spite of the success of his daughter Elizabeth, and his sister Margaret carried the Tudor genes to the present via her son James V of Scotland, his daughter Mary Queen of Scots, and her son James, who became King James I of England in 1603.

Copyright 3 November 1933 by United Artists Corp. Made by London Film Productions, England. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall, 12 October 1933 (ran one week). London opening: 17 August 1933. U.K. release: 24 October 1933. 96 minutes.SYNOPSIS: King Henry VIII and five of his six wives.NOTES: Academy Award, Best Actor, Charles Laughton (defeating Leslie Howard in Berkeley Square and Paul Muni in I Am A Fugitive from a Chain Gang). Also nominated for Best Picture (Cavalcade). Number 3 on The Film Daily's annual poll of U.S. film critics (Cavalcade was first, 42nd Street second).Photographed at British and Dominion Studios. Shooting commenced late Spring 1933 and was completed in five weeks for a negative cost of Sixty Thousand Pounds. The film was a huge success world-wide, earning gross rentals in excess of Five Hundred Thousand Pounds on its first release. It was never withdrawn from circulation until the advent of television.COMMENT: Considering the enormous — indeed the super-star — popularity of Charles Laughton, it's peculiar that so few of his movies are aired on TV. Most viewers have seen The Sign of the Cross (1932), Jamaica Inn (1939), The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942), The Paradine Case (1948), The Big Clock (1948), Hobson's Choice (1954) and Witness for the Prosecution (1957) — seven pictures from a total of fifty-two. Many of Laughton's most famous movies have never been broadcast at all (Payment Deferred, Island of Lost Souls, White Woman, The Man on the Eiffel Tower) and even Henry VIII has not been seen for many years. This neglect by TV programmers is the more astonishing in view of a survey conducted a few years ago in which readers of a weekly magazine were asked to nominate which movie performance of the past they regarded as unforgettable. Vivien Leigh in GWTW topped the list, followed by Garbo's Camille, Donat's Mr. Chips, Laughton's Henry VIII, Laughton's Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, Bogart in Casablanca, Gary Cooper in High Noon, Bergman in Casablanca, Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. Only Laughton figured on the list twice. In fact, the judge commented that if the performances had been tabulated simply by players and not by films, Laughton was the over-all favorite by a wide margin. His other roles frequently mentioned were in If I Had a Million, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Ruggles of Red Gap, Les Miserables, Rembrandt and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.Of all these brilliant portrayals, there is no doubt that Henry VIII was the greatest achievement of Laughton's career. He literally sweeps the rest of the characters right off the screen. Only his real-life wife, Elsa Lanchester, can hold up against him. Even Donat (who was later to make such an impression in The Citadel and Goodbye Mr Chips) and Merle Oberon seem pallid and colorless alongside him. True, he is marvelously costumed and made up and better served by the witty script. The director deliberately throws all the attention his way, virtually forcing him to carry the whole film — which he does magnificently. It's an acting tour de force — one of the most memorable impersonations in the entire history of the cinema.

Whatever you say about Alexander Korda's "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933), is that it is Charles Laughton's movie all the way. Right from the opening scene where you first see Henry VIII (Charles Laughton) he seems to push all the other actors (and their are some fine ones too; such as: Robert Donat, Elsa Lanchester and Merle Oberon) off the screen. You are always looking at Charles Laughton rather than anybody else. True, some of it is dated, but the sets hold up well, and there isn't that many painted backgrounds. Despite its entertainment value, which is huge, it is also a important film in British cinema history. It was the first time a English actor won an Academy Award for Best Actor (Charles Laughton), and the first British movie too be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. A very enjoyable film.

087: The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933) - released 8/17/1933; viewed 3/12/07.Gandhi is sentenced to prison. Wiley Post flies solo around the world in his Lockheed Vega.BIRTHS: Marty Feldman, Dom Deluise, Jerry Fallwell, Julie Newmar. DOUG: Following his first foray into Hollywood with 'Island of Lost Souls,' Charles Laughton heads back to his native soil to play one of England's most famous historical figures, Henry VIII, the man who ruled all of Britain for 37 years and, according to this film, would have traded it all for one good wife. This film is a documentary compared to the last historical epic we saw Laughton in ('Sign of the Cross'). Laughton IS Henry VIII. He absolutely vanishes into the character, and helps the film rise above being rather dated and historically inaccurate. Impressive work for the make-up department on making Henry age. The whole film is basically about Henry's search for the perfect wife; it starts with the eve of the execution of Anne Boleyn (Merle Oberon) followed quickly by Henry's marriage to Jane Seymour (Wendy Barrie). Once she dies giving birth to Edward (Henry's only surviving son), Henry soon moves on to the delightfully odd German princess Anne of Cleves (Laughton's real-life wife Elsa Lanchester). There is a wonderful scene where Henry, deciding that this whole marriage isn't going to work, asks Anne for a divorce, which she happily accepts with a long list of demands. When he meets Catherine Howard (Binnie Barnes), it appears as if Henry has found his match, but it all falls apart after an adulterous affair. The movie finishes with Henry a withering old man, married to the stern Catherine Parr (Evelyn Gregg), and munching on quail behind her back. The restoration on the DVD is horrific. Much of the footage looks fuzzy, and there's a faint buzz on the audio throughout. It was hard to understand everyone's accents sometimes, and there's no closed captioning at all, so it was sometimes hard to follow what's going on. According to what I've read, Henry was historically far more of a brutal ruler than a jovial womanizer. Still, it's well-made and well-acted, the costumes look great, and Laughton's performance really makes it all work.KEVIN: 'The Private Life of Henry VIII' is a meandering, semi-enjoyable historical drama carried entirely on the back of the performance of its Oscar-winning star. Charles Laughton is absolutely pitch-perfect. Every minute he was on screen, I felt I was watching the real Henry VIII. There's a memorably chilling moment when Henry learns that Jane Seymour has perished in childbirth. Henry pauses, "Poor, poor Jane." He is genuinely emotional for a few heartfelt moments, until he snaps back up and asks about his newborn son, like nothing is wrong. Laughton's old-age make-up is most impressive. It took me more that half the film to realize he was aging before my eyes. Other than that, there's not much else to write home about. Numerous scenes run way too long while other dramatic story points are cut short (like the executions of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, which take place off-screen.) None of the supporting players are able to keep things going when Laughton is absent, though some of them give an admirable effort. I liked how the Anne of Cleaves storyline was handled. When I hear about it in History class, how Henry liked the painting of Anne but changed his mind when he met her, he just sounded picky. But in the film, Elsa Lanchester's Anne is likable but far from marriage material. The scene where Henry asks for a divorce is highbrow hilarity. As far as storytelling, it's crazy difficult to squeeze Henry's marital tribulations into 97 minutes of film. I also wonder if there aren't other topics that could be covered which fall under the banner of Henry's private life.Last film: Baby Face (1933). Next film: Dinner At Eight (1933).