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THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH & ESSEX (1939) New 2021 1080p HD Master sourced from 4k scan of Original Technicolor Negatives!
Run Time 106:00
Subtitles English SDH
Audio Specs DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 – English, MONO – English
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1, 4×3 FULL FRAME
Disc Configuration BD 50
SPECIAL FEATURES: Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1939 with Newsreel, Musical Short “The Royal Rodeo”, Cartoon “Old Glory” and Theatrical Trailer; Featurette “Elizabeth and Essex: Battle Royale”
Bette Davis and Errol Flynn made The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex fascinatingly public, striking sparks in this lavish Technicolor® tale of the ill-fated love between the aging Elizabeth I and the dashing Earl of Essex. Thoroughly unglamorous here – eyes and hairline shaved, face painted chalky white – double Academy Award® winner* Davis exudes such intelligence, energy and ardor that her romance with the decades-younger Essex (Flynn at the peak of his remarkable good looks and athletic verve) is completely believable. Based on Maxwell Anderson’s play Elizabeth the Queen and directed by Michael Curtiz, this nominee for five Oscars® takes liberties with historical accuracy, but none with dramatic impact. Long may these tempestuous, titled lovers reign!
THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH & ESSEX (1939) New 2021 1080p HD Master sourced from 4k scan of Original Technicolor Negatives!
Run Time 106:00
Subtitles English SDH
Audio Specs DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 – English, MONO – English
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1, 4×3 FULL FRAME
Disc Configuration BD 50
SPECIAL FEATURES: Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1939 with Newsreel, Musical Short “The Royal Rodeo”, Cartoon “Old Glory” and Theatrical Trailer; Featurette “Elizabeth and Essex: Battle Royale”
Bette Davis and Errol Flynn made The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex fascinatingly public, striking sparks in this lavish Technicolor® tale of the ill-fated love between the aging Elizabeth I and the dashing Earl of Essex. Thoroughly unglamorous here – eyes and hairline shaved, face painted chalky white – double Academy Award® winner* Davis exudes such intelligence, energy and ardor that her romance with the decades-younger Essex (Flynn at the peak of his remarkable good looks and athletic verve) is completely believable. Based on Maxwell Anderson’s play Elizabeth the Queen and directed by Michael Curtiz, this nominee for five Oscars® takes liberties with historical accuracy, but none with dramatic impact. Long may these tempestuous, titled lovers reign!
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- Ronald Epstein
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Alan Tully
Senior HTF Member
It looks like it's a varied & generous batch for next month, but this film is the only one I'll be buying. What a great release.
This one ought to look pretty scrumptious.
David Weicker
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Strangely, this is one of the few Errol Flynn titles I don't like.
Oh, I'm sure it will look tremendous (obviously better than the DVD, which I acquired as part of a set and gave away), but it just left me cold. Something that none of the the other Flynn titles do.
Now Captain Blood is my #1 wish (among all titles).
Oh, I'm sure it will look tremendous (obviously better than the DVD, which I acquired as part of a set and gave away), but it just left me cold. Something that none of the the other Flynn titles do.
Now Captain Blood is my #1 wish (among all titles).
Alan Tully
Senior HTF Member
Yes, that's what I'm thinking. The film is no masterpiece (far from it), but the Warner production is top notch, & it's my favourite Korngold score, & looking at that YouTube clip...wow! It looks amazing.
...&, er...more swashbucklers please Warner.
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It's not among my Flynn favorites, but it has Olivia and Bette too so I'll definitely be buying it. The movie always reminds me about that conversation Olivia and Bette had about Flynn, when they watched this movie together after Flynn's death.
I've always thought the film score to E & E has never gotten the attention it deserves. When Charles Gerhardt recorded those great Classic Film Scores albums in the 70's, he only did a small part of this score, and he truncated that noble and beautiful main title theme. Fortunately Carl Davis recorded the entire score and Andre Previn did a longer suite of the score.
Andrew Budgell
Senior HTF Member
I'm always pleased to have more Olivia and Bette on Blu. After Olivia's death last July, I was hoping Warners might release more of her work on Blu-ray, and Elizabeth and Essex was at the top of my wish list. I'm really looking forward to this.
Mark McSherry
Second Unit
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And that slap! Don't forget that slap!
"The most beautiful person we've ever had on the screen... He openly said he knew nothing about acting, and I admired his honesty because he was absolutely right."
-- Bette Davis on Errol Flynn
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- Joined
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- Robert M. Grippo
C'mon WB give us BLU of Northwest Passage!!!!!! Off the OCN's
Thomas T
Senior HTF Member
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The DVD had some problems so I'm looking forward to this one big time. I'm not surprised the Flynn lovers aren't fans of the movie. It's not his movie, it's Bette's all the way. I must confess however that I prefer Bette's Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen (1955) to her Elizabeth I here.
Yet, she told Olivia that Flynn was a much better actor than she gave him credit for being.
Mark McSherry
Second Unit
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Yes, but that conversation was many years after Errol died---
When watching The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex many years later with her great friend Olivia de Havilland, Bette admitted she was wrong about Errol: "Damn it! The man could act!"
I'm not disputing the timing of her comments, but that she finally admitted that he could act. I'm sure Olivia always suggested such to her BF, but that Bette was stubborn not to admit it.
I'm glad Flynn "knew nothing about acting". He is one of the great movie stars who only had to be "Errol Flynn". He is at his best when he plays "Errol Flynn" type roles (dashing, impudent, physically adept, witty, comfortable in romantic scenes, etc). If other actors played similar roles they wanted to be like him. When he tried more serious acting roles he was not as successful.
When I was younger and a theater major, I was more interested in "great acting", like Olivier and other great British stage actors. Now I am more interested in the iconic stars like Flynn, Duke, Mitchum, et al who naturally inhabited their roles because the roles were tailored to them.
Arthur Powell
Supporting Actor
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I'll be pre-ordering this title, but, as much as I have been advocating for WAC to release more Errol Flynn, this title would have been very low on my priority list. Captain Blood, Gentleman Jim, Desperate Journey, The Charge of the Light Brigade, etc. would have been my choices, but I'll take what I can get. I'm sure the Technicolor restoration will be superb so I'm still looking forward to this release.
Thomas T
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Peter O'Toole's character in My Favorite Year is based on Errol Flynn. In the film, O'Toole's character quips, "I'm not an actor. I'm a movie star!". That about sums it up. Still, toward the end of his career Flynn showed some surprising acting chops in Too Much Too Soon and The Sun Also Rises.
RICK BOND
Screenwriter
This will be just the 4th Errol Flynn Bluray title released by WB ! 
That's a Slap in the Face !
That's a Slap in the Face !
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