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    The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

    Poster of the movie The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
    1939     Romantic drama    
    USA
    1h 46min

    Favoring dramatic flourish over historical fact, Michael Curtiz's costume picture chronicles the tempestuous May-December romance between Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex in one of Warner Bros.' most sumptuously designed Technicolor films. Working with the brilliant Polish art director Anton Grot and cinematographers W. Howard Greene and Sol Polito, Curtiz exploits Technicolor's power to convey emotion through patterns of colored light and abstract design. Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, battling constantly on the set and stealing each other's scenes, are nonetheless cast to perfection as the aging, imperious Virgin Queen and the cunning paramour for whom she almost abdicates her throne.

    Directed byMichael Curtiz
    Written byNorman Reilly Raine, Aeneas MacKenzie
    CompanyWarner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros.

    Awards

    Starring

    Bette Davis
    Errol Flynn
    Olivia de Havilland
    Donald Crisp
    Alan Hale
    Vincent Price
    James Stephenson
    + MORE

    © Warner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros.