King Henry VIII marries five more times after his divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon.King Henry VIII marries five more times after his divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon.King Henry VIII marries five more times after his divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 2 wins & 1 nomination total
- Cornell
- (as Claude Allister)
- The French Executioner
- (as Gibb Mc.Laughlin)
- Duke of Norfolk
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to Binnie Barnes, Charles Laughton was a method actor, and when Wendy Barrie giggled during a scene to the actor's aggravation, he bit her on the arm, breaking her skin, exactly as the real Henry often did when angry with his wives.
- GoofsAnne of Cleves compares Henry to the legend of Bluebeard, a literary work not known to exist before 1697.
- Quotes
[Henry's fourth wedding night]
King Henry VIII: My wife? Huh... not yet.
Anne of Cleves: Poor mother told me... first he says the marriage is no good, and then he cuts off the head with an ax chopper!
King Henry VIII: That is an exaggeration, madam.
Anne of Cleves: Then why do you say I am not yet your wife?
King Henry VIII: Well, madam, uh, a marriage ceremony doesn't make us one.
Anne of Cleves: Mmm?
[shows her ring]
King Henry VIII: Oh, yes, yes, yes, 's all right, but you, uh, have to, umm, I have to...
Anne of Cleves: What?
King Henry VIII: Did your mother not talk to you about...
Anne of Cleves: What?
King Henry VIII: Oh Lord. Ohhhh, well, uh, madam, all that stuff about children being found under gooseberry bushes... that's not true...
- Crazy creditsOpening credits prologue: Henry VIII had six wives. Catherine of Aragon was the first; but her story is of no particular interest - she was a respectable woman-so Henry divorced her. He then married Anne Boleyn. This marriage also was a failure-but not for the same reason.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 40th Annual Academy Awards (1968)
"The Private Life Of Henry VIII" is a merry recounting of five of those marriages, with a passing nod in the opening titles to first wife Catherine of Aragon: "Her story is of no particular interest. She was a respectable woman." It's a funny line that sets up what will be the film's cheerfully cynical tone.
Director Alexander Korda and his writers Lajos Biro and Arthur Wimperis made several brave choices, like the episodic structure of the story as it focuses on each wife in turn, and how it concentrates most on the last four rather than the second and most famous of Henry's wives, Anne Boleyn, played by Merle Oberon for what only amounts to a cameo as she awaits her execution. By doing this they acknowledge Henry VIII's cruelty without giving us the kind of details that would make us not like him, even as he is played by Charles Laughton.
Laughton is the best thing in the movie, winning an Oscar for a performance undimmed by time. He struts wide-legged from scene to scene, playing up his character's vanity and vulgarity and finding an emotional core that draws us to like him despite his legendary faults. When we first see him, after a few minutes of exposition around his court, he has caught one of his ladies-in-waiting, Katherine Howard, making comment about how unfair this whole Boleyn business is. Why if he were not a king, she would call him...
"What would you call me?" Henry demands as he appears from the shadows of the doorway.
Katherine trembles, and manages to blurt: "Why, I would call you...a man!"
A big laugh from the big man. "So I am, and glad of it. And you may be glad of it too, one day."
As played by the lovely Binnie Barnes, Katherine Howard gets the lion's share of attention among the wives, as we first see her as a court lady who soon becomes ambitious for Henry's attentions even as one of Henry's knights, Thomas Culpeper, pleads for her love. She gets Henry eventually, lives to regret it, then doesn't, in a nice story arc Barnes carries off well with her beauty and charm, well enough to not make us wonder about her sudden turnabout in character from the sensible, decent woman we see in the beginning. About the only negative of her performance, and of the film, is her scenes with Culpeper slow down the story and take too much time away from Henry.
Elsa Lanchester, Laughton's real-life wife, makes a strong impression as the least romantic of Henry's partners, a German duchess he marries for politics but comes to grief when he gets a load of her face. Lanchester actually is lovely, but Anne figures her only way to avoid Henry's attentions is to push out her jaw and act dense when he talks about what her wifely duties entail. She and Laughton have a wonderful comic chemistry as they spend their wedding night playing cards; and its especially fun to watch Laughton as his character gets some of his own back for all his serial marrying.
"If you want to be happy...marry a stupid woman!" Henry tells Culpeper at one point. That's not exactly true; stupid women can break your heart, too. True marital happiness may in fact be a fallacy, but at least "The Private Life Of Henry VIII" makes such failure fun.
- slokes
- May 7, 2005
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Privatni zivot Henrika VIII.
- Filming locations
- Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey, England, UK(Exterior shots)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £60,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 37 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1