This is one of my favorite historic epic/romantic films. It stars Lawrence Olivier as Lord Nelson and Vivien Leigh as Emma Hart Hamilton, with Vivien Leigh fresh from her triumph in "Gone with the Wind" and at a time when the real-life romance and marriage between the two stars (Leigh and Olivier) was new.

The film is largely accurate, which is unusual for an historical drama of its time since these usually took great license with the truth. The departures from the truth that the film took were largely to satisfy the censors of the time. The truth is that William Hamilton, Emma's older husband, accepted and even encouraged the affair between his wife and Lord Nelson. When Emma set up housekeeping with Lord Nelson in England, William Hamilton lived there with them in a menage a trois relationship that fascinated the public of the time. In 1941 this would have been unacceptable on the screen.

The implication of the film is that Emma's daughter by Lord Nelson died. In fact their daughter married a man of the cloth, had ten children, and died at the age of 80. Emma's end as it is portrayed in the film is sadly accurate. Women of Emma's time were largely dependent upon their station in life and upon the whims of the men in their lives. If those men died, even if the man was great, women often found themselves in desperate poverty.

Nations need their heroes, sometimes with great desperation. Such was the case in the series of wars from 1792 to 1815 which were fought between Great Britain and first Revolutionary France and then the First French Empire. Britain had to finance this series of wars, because the various major continental powers it tried to ally itself with again and again against the French (and later against Napoleon I) were financially unable to support the war efforts (especially after the French would defeat the armies of these countries, march in, and change their government).

The British also fought the French army and navy face to face. But here was the problem: Up until the second period of the wars (1802 - 1815) Britain produced no field commander of real stature. The General-in-Chief of the Army was George III's favorite son, Frederick, Duke of York, who was (apparently) able but little else. He is the one in the old nursery rhyme song, "The good old Duke of York, he had 10,000 men...." Frederick never showed more than moderate abilities as a field commander, but it was smashed when his mistress, Mary Ann Clarke, was caught selling commissions in the army for a "commissions fee". Fred resigned. Mary did not go to prison (her grandson was the author of PETER IBBETSON and TRILBY, George du Maurier; her great grandson was the stage star Gerald du Maurier; her great granddaughter and biographer the author of REBECCA and JAMAICA INN and FRENCHMAN'S CREEK Daphne du Maurier - not bad for a so-called "fallen woman".).

It would not be until the appearance of those two stunningly good generals, Sir John Moore (who built up British field performance before his death at Corunna in 1809) and Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) {who learned military technique in India, took it to Europe, drove the French out of Spain, and defeated Napoleon at Waterloo) that the army finally got good commanders. Notably after their arrival Napoleon and the French were defeated. But for the first part of the wars 1792 - 1802 it was the Navy that really gave England her heroes. And the hero it gave was Horatio Nelson, who even today is considered England's greatest naval tactician.

When he came on the scene there were others: Richard, Lord Howe, who won the "Glorious First of June" in 1794, and Adam Duncan, who won the battle Camperdown in 1798 (following the Great Fleet Mutiny of that year - see DAMN THE DEFIANT). But Nelson had a string of them, from Cape St. Vincent (in 1797),to the stunning battle of the Nile (1798) to Copenhagen (1800) to his greatest victory Trafalgar (1805) where he was shot down in battle. In these battles he repeatedly bent or threw away the textbook regulations that had fossilized most naval officers. He also built up a group of fellow officers who continued his innovations (Cuthbert Collingwood, Thomas Hardy, Troubridge, Lord Cochrane) and pursued the French until the end of the war. These men stiffened that impregnable wooden wall that kept the French from taking Britain and ruling the world.

THAT HAMILTON WOMAN deals with the one flaw in his record as a man - an understandable one. In command of the Meditteranean Fleet in 1797 - 98, Nelson frequently docked in the allied Kingdom of Naples. The royal family was advised closely by Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador there. Sir William and his wife Emma held a miniature court, advising the locals and meeting celebrities. Emma Hamilton was a very beautiful woman, and Sir William married her because of that - her background was not great (one of her best jobs was working for a quack doctor in London). Emma met Nelson, and the two fell in love. Hamilton was aware of this, but as it was England's greatest hero he winked at his wife's new lover.

Eventually it became known. As Nelson was married (to a clergyman's daughter) and had a child it did not sit very well...as far as Emma went. Horatio was allowed to do whatever he wanted - he was saving the country. In fact, in 1803 he actually gave testimony for the defense of Colonel Marcus Despard, a friend who went mad and tried to overthrow the government and assassinate King George III (Despard was still found guilty and executed). Up to his heroic death, Nelson could do no wrong. But Emma was left after 1805 to go into poverty and exile in Calais, France, where she died in 1818.

This film is a rare one. It is one of the few made by Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh, and only FIRE OVER ENGLAND merits comparison. Both give good account of themselves as the lovers, although their relationship was a bit more boisterous and noisy than this account makes it. Gladys Cooper is splendid in her one scene as Nelson's wronged wife confronting Leigh. Alan Mowbray has a rarity - a moving dying scene. Sir William was one of England's great art collectors, but the ship with his wonderful collection was wrecked when he returned home. He suffered a stroke that killed him, and that also affected his mind. Watch him request his servant shift a now non-existent painting on the wall because it's crooked. Quite unforgettable.

Sir Laurence Olivier in his autobiography said that if he was to portray Horatio Nelson as his researches later showed, his Nelson would have been a far more complex and neurotic man who was going through what now would be described as a midlife crisis. That's not what the British public wanted in 1941 and Alexander Korda who shot the film in exile in America wasn't going to give them that.

Whatever the scandals of his private life as a seaman and a naval leader, Horatio Nelson was the real deal. One of the reasons I think he's come down that way in British history is for a most American of all reasons. He was a Horatio Alger success story. He was the son of an obscure country vicar who had way too many mouths to feed. Nelson's mom died while he was still a kid and he made the decision to go off to sea as a cabin boy. He rose in the ranks strictly on merit and talent and turned out to be the right man to save his country from certain invasion. Over 60 years later, Olivier's portrayal still rings true.

The real Emma Hamilton was shall we say, a bit more of a full figured gal than Vivien Leigh was and quite a bit more bawdy. The scenes where Nelson and the Hamiltons finally meet is one of the key ones. Emma's mother is delightfully played by Sara Allgood and as you see here at dinner with the Hamiltons and the Nelsons you appreciate where Emma's roots were, lower on the class scale than Nelson's.

Olivier and Leigh around the time of this film, got shed of their respective spouses and tied the knot. There's was a tempestuous marriage indeed, probably the kind that Nelson and Emma might have had if the opportunity came there way.

Of course Nelson living with the Hamiltons and openly flaunting their relationship scandalized Georgian society. The religious right would have a field day with him today, just as they did with Bill Clinton. Yet when Napoleon Bonaparte got his fleet put together and was sailing with the eventual invasion of Great Britain in mind, wasn't it funny that somehow no one really cared about Nelson's private life and just wanted the best man they had in the navy to save them. Nelson's life made a mockery of those no fraternization laws that the military hold so dear.

The other great British hero of the Napoleonic Wars was the Duke of Wellington. He did a stint as Prime Minister and became a controversial figure in his political career. One of the great speculations is if Nelson had not been killed at Trafalgar, repelling the French invasion, what kind of life he would have had. The Nelson here and in real life was not a political man, but like Dwight Eisenhower here, might have considered that career and who knows where he would have wound up on the issues that concerned Great Britain for the next couple of generations.

Larry and Viv head a remarkable group of players that bring to life the story of a most remarkable British hero.