The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and A Man For All Seasons (1966)

Toronto Film Society presented The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) on Monday, August 13, 1984 in a double bill with A Man For All Seasons (1966) as part of the Season 37 Summer Series, Programme 5.

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (1933)

Production Company: London Film Productions.  Producer: Alexander Korda.  Director: Alexander Korda.  Screenplay: Arthur Wimperis, story and dialogue by Lajos Biro and Arthur Wimperis.  Photography: Georges Perinal.  Editor: Harold Young, Stephen Marrison.  Design: Vincent Korda.  Costumes: John Armstrong.  Music: Kurt Schroeder.  Song: “What Shall I Do For Love,” by Henry VIII, sung by Binnie Barnes.

Cast:  Charles Laughton (Henry VIII), Robert Donat (Culpeper), Lady Tree (Henry’s Old Nurse), Binnie Barnes (Catherine Howard), Elsa Lanchester (Anne of Cleves), Merle Oberon (Anne Boleyn), Wendy Barrie (Jane Seymour), Everley Gregg (Catherine Parr), Franklyn Dyall (Cromwell), Miles Mander (Wriotheely), Claude Allister (Cornell), John Loder (Thomas  Peynell), Lawrence Hanray (Crammer), William Austin (Duke of Cleves), John Turnbull (Holbein), Frederick Culley (Duke of Norfold), Giff McLaughlin (French executioner), Sam Livesey (English executioner), Judy Kelly (Lady Rochford).

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (1966)

Production Company: Highland.  Producer: Fred Zinnemann.  Director: Fred Zinnemann.  Second-unit Director: Patrick Carey.  Screenplay: Robert Bolt, based on his own play.  Photography: Ted Moore.  Editor: Ralph Kemmplen.  Production Design: John Box.  Art Direction: Terence Marsh.  Set Decoration: Josie MacAvin.  Music: Georges Delerue.  Costumes: Elizabeth Haffenden, Joan Bridge.  Colour by Technicolor.

Cast:  Paul Scofield (Sir Thomas More), Robert Shaw (Henry VIII), Wendy Hiller (Alice More), Leo McKern (Cromwell), Orson Welles (Cardinal Wolsey), Susannah York (Margaret), Nigel Davenport (Duke of Norfolk), John Hurt (Richard Rich), Corin Redgrave (William Roper), Colin Blakely (Matthew), Cyril Luckham (Archbishop Crammer), Jack Gwillim (Chief Justsice), Thomas Heathcote (Boatman), Yootha Joyce (Averil Machin), Anthony Nicholls (King’s Representative), John Nettleton (Jailer), Eira Heath (Matthew’s Wife), Molly Urquhart (Maid), Paul Hardwick (Courtier), Michael Laatimer (Norfolk’s Aide), Philip Brack (Captain of Guard), Martin Boddey (Governor of Tower), Eric Mason (Executioner), Matt Zimmerman (Messenger), Vanessa Redgrave (Anne Boleyn).

Our first film, a famous landmark in British cinema (directed and produced by a Hungarian, half-scripted by another Hungarian, art directed by a third Hungarian, with music by a German), has probably had more written about it than any other film, at least up to the postwar period.  It was the first British production to achieve financial success outside its own country, not only in America, but elsewhere.  It loosened the strings of big-business purses, enabling Korda to enlarge the Denham studios until they were as good as any in the world.

Alexander Korda had a favourite story about how he got the idea for The Private Life of Henry VIII.  Shortly after his arrival in England, he was travelling in a London tax when he overheard the driver singing “I’m Henry the Eighth, I am.”  Misunderstanding the old song about a widow’s eight marriages–all to men called Henry (“And every one was an Henery/She wouldn’t have a Willie or a Sam”), Korda reflected that Henry VIII must be a figure of wide popular appeal.  The story seems improbable; in 1920 Korda had made The Prince and the Pauper, which is set in Henry’s reign, and in which he obtained a highly praised performance from Alfred Schreiber in the role of the King.  In fact, the film was probably made as a vehicle for Charles Laughton.

Unexpectedly, this slice of British history is told with a lusty, tongue-in-cheek humour that centres, true to the film’s title, on King Henry’s repeated obsession with marriage, and the idea of providing himself with a legitimate heir.  Treating the notorious ruler’s life with more charity than have many of his biographers, screenwriters Arthur Wimperis and Lajos Biro begin by completely eliminating the first of Henry’s six wives, with a prefatory explanation that Catherin of Aragon was too respectable to waste time with.  With that done, the telescoped story skims quickly past Anne Boleyn and her beheading, affords a bit more footage to Jane Seymour, who succumbs in childbirth, and even more to the amusing battle of wits between Henry and the business-like Anne of Cleves (Laughton’s wife, Elsa Lanchester, in an odd flaxen wig, Teutonic accent and clever characterization that matches his for scene stealing).  After divorcing this worthy opponent, Henry weds and beheads Catherine Howard for adultery with his court favourite Thomas Culpeper, and, at the film’s close, has become the amazingly docile spouse of a hatchet-faced, dominating Catherine Parr.

The script in its first draft dealt only with Henry and his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, but the script conferences progressed (seven complete script being written and thrown away in the meantime), one wife after another was added, until five out of Henry’s six wives were included.  Perhaps the Henry-Anne of Cleves story could not be padded out to feature-film length.  Or maybe the writers simply got carried away with what was a good idea.  Or Korda felt that he had to use all his female contract players.  For whatever reason, the broadening of the film’s scope was the key to its commercial success.

Korda cannily served a slice of romanticized English history that had a wonderfully revitalizing effect on Laughton’s screen career, which had been floundering with a series of poor American “B” films.  This film, the first English production to win an Academy Award (for Laughton as Best Actor), played a singular role in spreading across the world the fame and popularity of British films.  In addition to being a great actor, Laughton shows himself to be a master in the art of make-up.  In the film he sometimes looks as if he had stepped from the frame of Holbein’s portrait of Henry VIII.  He has all the massive shoulder and truly bearded physiognomy of the British ruler.  Laughton may be guilty of caricaturing the role, but occasionally truths shine in the midst of hilarity.  He gives an admirable idea of Henry’s vanity, and also of his impetuousness, his sense of humour, courage, and fear.  There is the amusing twist of his mouth and nose when he outwits other persons in his entourage.  This Henry is seldom able to conceal his actual thoughts.  If he admires a woman, not only does she know it, but everybody else also knows of it.  If he dislikes anything, as he does the appearance of Anne of Cleves, he almost groans at it.

In 1933, Alexander Korda, with the help of his two brothers, Vincent (who was this film’s art director) and Zoltan, formed London Films.  Between 1933 and 1948 Korda’s London Films produced some of the best British entertainment films ever made; between them they worked on such fine films as Rembrandt (1936), The Thief of Bagdad (1940), The Jungle Book (1942), and films by others, such as Catherine the Great (1934, directed by Paul Czinner), The Ghost Goes West (1935, directed by Rene Clair), Things to Come (1936, directed by William Menzies).  In 1933, a costume picture was considered a poor risk at the box office.  Korda had great trouble raising money for his project, and the film actually started without full financing.  Studio after studio failed to share his enthusiasm and rejected his idea.  Finally United Artists put up some of the money.  So many believed in the project, that many of the crew and cast agreed to wait until the film’s completion before being fully paid.  The film was an instant success, and it made the Kordas famous.  After that, costume films were no longer considered box-office poison.

The Private Life of Henry VIII managed to touch upon five of Henry’s wives, whereas A Man For All Seasons deals with a more limited period in Henry’s life.  A period in which Henry demanded a divorce in order to marry Anne Boleyn, and Sir Thomas More took a stand of silence against a boisterous King Henry.  But the film is deeper than Henry’s plans to marry Anne Boleyn.  A Man For All Seasons is in fact a massive film that shows a feeling for the history and pageantry of England.

The film was based on Robert Bolt’s memorable play of the same name, and he was allowed the honour of repeating his interpretation.  There were changes made in the dramatic material during the transfer from the stage to the screen.  A Man For All Seasons is a work of great integrity, dignity, humanity and dramatic power, beautiful to look at and almost flawlessly performed, with Paul Scofield’s portrayal in a medium that is able to capture every subtle nuance of voice and expression.  In fact, Paul Scofield was named Best Actor of that year.

In re-interpreting his own play for the screen, Bolt totally eliminated what for many theatregoers had been the source of its considerable power, the framing device of a symbolic character called “The Common Man.”  The Common Man opened the play, and provided a running commentary on the trials and tribulations of Thomas More.  On the stage, the entire production had been acted amidst symbolic lights and shadow, on a set design which gave only the barest suggestion of a not-so-merry old England.  The theatregoers were not so much in the presence of a story about the historical Sir Thomas More as an abstract analysis of the fate of an idealist.  A technique like this will work fine in the theatre, where the power of suggestion and the spoken word are foremost.  But in the film this style will rarelyl work.  Bolt eliminated the emphasis on the symbolic nature of his story, and let the tale unfold in a more natural manner.  Besides being a playwright, Robert Bolt has written screenplays for many epic films, including Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter, and more recently The Bounty.

A lot of credit for the film has also go to go to Fred Zinnemann, who co-produced and directed the film.  When the film first opened in 1966, many reviewers could not believe that an America (who had directed such films as High Noon and From Here to Eternity) could recreate and capture a British production.  Even a film like High Noon, however, shares with A Man For All Seasons an interest in the conflicts in society.  Zinnemann must rank as one of the most honoured American directors of his time.  Throughout the film, Zinnemann gives a sensitive and imaginative treatment of the script.  He works well with all aspects of the film, and brings to the screen a good sense of tempo that so few directors can recreate from the theatre to the screen.

Notes by Fred Cohen