The Private Life of Henry VIII

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ChrisCSH H The private life of Henry VIII is superbly acted along with a fascinating tail Even though other contenders for the Academy award for 1933 may have been more entertaining they were not acted as well as this film. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/23/25 Full Review Russ G I'm a fan of Sir Charles, with all his faults, but I bailed on this as I simply couldn't see the humor in it. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/13/25 Full Review Gregory L Charles Laughton at his best! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/30/23 Full Review Christopher B A stunning portrayal of Henry VIII is given by Charles Laughton who won an Oscar for his role, is the center of The Private Life of Henry VIII. The film is a tongue in cheek display of the private life of the British King and being so, is often very humorous and yet still quite serious as people lose their lives fairly often. Once we are introduced to King Henry VIII we are told of his first wife who isn't seen because she was "too respectable to be included", and then we dive into his second marriage or I should say the end of his second marriage. We then proceed through the other of his six wives and the resulting impact each has, not just on the King himself but the whole of the court and the country. This is a very captivating film that is simple yet effective and really established Charles Laughton's international stardom and jump started his prolific career. A wonderful British piece! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/20/22 Full Review Audience Member Charles Laughton is one hell of an actor. He breathes life into the part of King Henry VIII of England. Henry is one of the most interesting and controversial figures in British history. The six marriages he had is something you couldn't make up. Laughton on a Best Actor Oscar for his role and he deserves it. However, he is better than the overall film. I found it duller than it should be. Only Laughton's real life wife, Elsa Lanchester makes much of an impact. Noted for it's great performance, but stale on its history. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review William L The Private Life of Henry VIII, at the time of release a smashing success for director Alexander Korda and two of its major stars, Charles Laughton and Robert Donat, is not a particularly subtle or nuanced portrait of one of the most dynamic and notorious monarchs in history. It's highly dramatized in the character details of Henry and his matrimonial affairs, but Laughton dives into the popular facets of the legend and eats up the screen with every moment. It doesn't take much experience with early sound films to see an emerging pattern of wooden performances, with lines practically being read directly off of scripts and hardly any attention being paid to a character's mannerisms. Here, Laughton is boisterous and brash, vivid and emotional; in 1933, it was probably as if moviegoers suddenly discovered a sixth sense seeing energy like that on the screen. The Private Life is also surprisingly playful when it comes to tone, intermittently giving flashes of dramatic flair (mostly for Laughton to flex his chops) before ultimately returning to a more jovial baseline, such as the executions when Anne Boleyn worries over the appearance of her hair, or the legitimately funny wedding night card games of Henry and Anne of Cleves (featuring Laughton's wife, Elsa Lanchester) and their subsequent platonic friendship. That said, there isn't much to speak of when it comes to the more serious aspects of a notorious character in a film that is really not objectively a comedy, particularly the rather poorly aged, fourth-wall-breaking final line where the script reduces the highs and lows of the film's plot to a "women, amiright?" moment. Laughton's always great, though. It's totally worth a watch even today just for him. A Best Actor Oscar well deserved for the period. (3.5/5) Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/02/22 Full Review Read all reviews

The Private Life of Henry VIII

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