Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Really Surprised!

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This is without a doubt, one of the worst movies I've seen so far. Don't let the publicity fool you, my fine friends. The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is an appalling, melodramatic contest between two of the greatest actors who ever lived. People will say to me, "But it has Bette Davis and Errol Flynn! How could it be bad?" Well, my reply to this is, "Everyone makes a sucker." This is simply the sappiest, most unscrupulously ignorant films of the twentieth century. It is just terrible. I know, I should go easy on it. Lot's of people liked it. But enough of mincing words!Here is the gist of the rather sensible plot. Bette Davis plays Queen Elizabeth I. Errol Flynn plays her lover and enemy, Robert the Earl of Essex. Now through an unfortunate series of events, Essex gets shipped off to Ireland to fight a rebel called Tyrone (Alan Hale). Over the course of the several months in Ireland, Essex and Elizabeth slowly learn to hate each other. Now if they just decided to leave each other because they can't stand each other, that would make sense. But oh no! Back Mr. Flynn comes to tell Elizabeth how much he loves her, but hates her all the same. She loves him, and then hates him just the same. These two showmen go back and forth with each other for the entire one hundred six minutes of the movie. At the beginning, they both love each other. Then they hate each other. Finally one decides they don't hate the other, and the other decides they really do hate the other one. Confusing, isn't it? The minute one decides to put aside their differences, the other decides that they shouldn't be together. So these two Schizophrenics go around pulling this same sappy junk over and over again. And the dialog they say it in is just cringe-worthy. Why Jack Warner aloud this to be released under the prestigious name of Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated is beyond me.So, on we go, down one of the most boring and indulgent paths in film history. And the story leads nowhere. I won't give away the end for those of you who wish to see this garbage. This film had everything going for it. Great actors, an excellent supporting cast, a great director (Michael Curtiz of Casablanca), and a descent story concept. But this is a film like the following scenario: You have gone to church your entire life. Every year there is a sermon about Easter Sunday. Every time you hear it, you think, "Oh what a lovely story. It's so nice that nobody can tell it wrong." Well, no matter how great a story is, there's always someone who can botch it up. And it really must have been difficult! How could they go wrong with the material? But somehow they did! This film is so surprisingly terrible that one wonders if it wasn't the mix of all these great qualities found together that was its downfall. By the end of this film, you start to wish that one of these frenemies would shove a sword down the other's throat. They are so melancholy and over done.Bette Davis, looking ever so lovely as the Queen, never even starts to perform like she did in so many other films. She just starts downhill and keeps on rolling. Flynn is not quite so pathetic. He starts off as his usual charming character, but eventually gets wound up in the sap entrapping the rest of the characters. I love the way these two play off each other. In one scene, they are kissing on the steps of the Queen's study. They pledge their indissoluble love for one another, then about thirty seconds later, she pushes him away and tells him get out of her sight. I think this couple's problem is that they are much too prideful and stubborn. Bette is as hard-headed as a mule and won't budge an inch for anyone, even Essex (up till the very end). And Flynn is a prideful snob who wouldn't dishonor himself even to save his mother. So on and on and on, and back and forth and back and forth bounce these two fools in love. It's rather like a Pong game, until the film seems almost interminable. There is some debate over whether old films were actually better than new films, or if the nostalgia just makes them seem better. That may be the case, because this film does not represent the Golden Age well at all. In fact it ridicules it.It's interesting how well melodrama works in some cases (i.e.: Gone With the Wind, Moby Dick), but here it is just a flop. No dramatic value comes out of the laughably over exaggerated voice inflexions and body movements. It's almost like a silent film with dialog. Sort of like in Singin' in the Rain when they release their first talkie. This is even more drawn out than stage acting. But now one may ask, "Do you recommend this movie." Now for those of you who have read my other reviews, you know I have a tendency to recommend bad films because they are so bad they are funny. In the words of Joe Gillis "It's fun to see how bad bad writing can be." This is not such a case. This is bad and boring. This is just a boring cookie covered with sap.So my advice is to skip it. Don't even glance at it in the video store. It's not worth your money or my money, or Warner Bros.' money to distribute it. So avoid this picture at all costs. Make no attempt to see it. Now I'm being melodramatic. No matter. I just hope I can wash the sap off after viewing this.www.colewebbharter.com

I think there is a lot to like about Essex and Elizabeth. Even with moments of pedestrian pacing, parts where the dialogue seemed a little too ripe and the fact that to historians perhaps it is a travesty of history, there is still a lot to like. The film is shot in beautiful Technicolour and has lavish sets and costumes, and Korngold's score is very stirring indeed. The story is compelling enough, and the acting was actually not too bad. Errol Flynn I think did a really good job here, it didn't matter for me that the performance wasn't another Captain Blood or Robin Hood, it was still a good performance. And Bette Davis is very good as Elizabeth, while Davis reportedly hated working on the picture the chemistry was believable enough. It was a delight to see Vincent Price here as Walter Raleigh, I have always liked Vincent Price, and he looks very handsome and quite nuanced in his role here, and Donald Crisp gives another great performance. The direction from Michael Curtiz is pretty much solid too. So overall, it was a good film, without being a great one. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Greatly enjoyed this great film classic with Betty Davis, ( Queen Elizabeth 1) and Robert Devereux of Essex, (Errol Flynn) who both loved each other in many ways and at times they both hated each other and their relationship was constant fighting. Queen Elizabeth was much older and not a very pretty Queen and she hated mirrors in her palace and broke every one of them mainly because her love Robert was so handsome and she in some ways hated him for his youth and desired him for her husband and lover forever. Robert wanted to go off to war and fight for England and he had enemies like, Sir Walter Raleigh, (Vincent Price) and Sir Robert Cecil, (Henry Daniell) who both wanted Robert dead so they could gain control of the Queen's attention. However, there was another woman who really loved Robert Devereux and she was Lady Penelope Gray, (Oliva DeHavilland) and she had a great influence in his life's decisions. Great acting by Flynn & Davis in this outstanding Classic 1939 film.

Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The (1939) *** 1/2 (out of 4) An elderly Queen Elizabeth (Bette Davis) and the younger Essex (Errol Flynn) battle their hatred through their wild passion for one another in this historical drama, while not accurate, still manages to hit all the right marks. Once again it's director Michael Curtiz pulling all the strings and getting every right. Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Vincent Price, Alan Hale and Henry Daniell all deliver wonderful performances but even they look poor next to Davis who is absolutely remarkable. I just love the way Davis is constantly fidgeting around during every scene. You can just look at her and see a tormented woman burned by her love for this younger man. The scene that starts off with her playing chess to having all the mirrors removed is among the greatest work I've seen from any actress in any film. The love story is beautifully told and is quite touching especially the ending, which is pulled together very nicely. Also, is it just me or at the start of the film when Davis slaps Flynn, did it strike anyone else that Flynn really wanted to knock the hell out of her?