Running Time
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2 hrs 00
Certificate
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Parental Guidance
Number of Discs
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1
Subtitles
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Yes
Region
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2
Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier
Alexander Korda
Two of Hollywood's biggest legends and off-screen lovers VIVIEN LEIGH (Emma Hamilton) and LAURENCE OLIVIER (Nelson) star in this Academy award®-winning story based on one of history's most ill-fated love affairs. However, the film left no-one in any doubt that Nelson's warning of the dangers of appeasing Napoleon was an obvious parallel to the threat Hitler posed to Europe at the time.
Shot in just six weeks in Los Angeles, Korda's first directorial effort since 'Rembrandt' is an appealing mix of high drama and romance which succeeded with the critics and audiences alike. Politically the film also made an impact on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK Churchill decided it was his favourite film while the American Senate decided it was mere propaganda and subpoenaed Korda to appear before them, along with Chaplin and Hitchcock, on the suspicion of being British agents.
Also, the film created a stir with the American film censor whose concern with the morals of the picture forced new dialogue to be included to reflect the couples suffering by committing adultery. The New York Times critic dwelt on neither the politics nor the drama, but complained that such is Leigh's beauty in the film that when she is on screen it is impossible to concentrate on anything else beyond her stunning looks.
"By all traditions of film making, the death at Trafalgar should have been triumphantly vulgar; but (thanks to Olivier) it was simple, dignified and moving" - THE NEW STATESMAN