The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
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The Private Life of Henry VIII Movie Review
The Private Life of Henry VIII is a 1933 British period film directed by Alexander Korda and starring Charles Laughton. It’s such a strong, very well written movie.
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“Six wives, and the best of them’s the worst“
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As the title so obviously suggests, this film focuses entirely on Henry VIII’s personal life meaning that there almost isn’t any mention of wars or politics in it. And I personally loved that as this man is best remembered for his hedonistic lifestyle and the movies that portray him should be focused solely on that.
The movie actually does get deeper and rather serious towards the end which surprised me as the rest of the film is rather humorous and too unserious. But I still loved it for being such a fun cinematic experience that is overly theatrical in its execution, but I like that so I personally didn’t mind it too much.
Henry is excellent here and so well developed. He is superbly portrayed thanks in very large part to Charles Laughton’s larger-than-life performance. He entirely embodies this man both physically and in mannerisms. I liked his hairstyle and his wardrobe, but his redneck behavior and even childlike at times is what makes this movie click and what makes it so incredibly amusing and funny. He killed it in this role as he was such a terrific actor. Of course, his Academy Award win here was indisputably earned.
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Laughton isn’t the only one who brought a lot of care and professionalism into his role as all the other cast members did it too, just not as greatly as himself. Merle Oberon as Anne Boleyn is absolutely terrific and she made a strong impression for the little screen time that she received. Wendy is also a very memorable, strong character and of course Elsa Lanchaster, whose real-life husband was Laughton, is excellent herself and the dynamic between the two is so great.
I also really liked the older actors and characters here and literally every single one of the characters in this big cast worked and made an impression which wasn’t an easy task, but they pulled it off nonetheless. The film needed a longer runtime, but it’s nonetheless very entertaining as it’s so short and brisk.
The Private Life of Henry VIII also features amazing dialogue. Some of the physical gags in here are absolutely terrific and so realistic, but also some lines of dialogue accompanying those scenes are scene-stealers. This is a very well written endeavor which is obvious from the very first scene and it remains sophisticated throughout. It also remains amusing and modern even today which truly is impressive.
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The film has almost no score which worked for this heavy-dialogue production and the direction from Alexander Korda is excellent and I don’t think he ever made a better movie in his career. The pacing is excellent as well and the costumes are terrific as are the interiors. The movie was the first British production nominated for Best Picture and it entirely deserved it as it’s one of the better films of its respective year.
The Private Life of Henry VIII is lightweight, but very amusing and entertaining throughout its runtime. It’s a very humorous, fun film which is exceptionally written in dialogue and particularly well developed in all of its characters. Charles Laughton is the star here and he entirely deserved his Academy Award with his larger-than-life, wonderful performance.
