Lady Hamilton - Zwischen Schmach und Liebe

Rapid-Film's flagship project: A German-French-Italian costume ham by Christian-Jaque

At the time, this lavishly produced costume film was one of the most expensive West German films ever, costing 5.3 million DM. The director was the veteran Christian-Jaque (1904-1994), who has already produced such classics as "Fanfan la Tulipe" with Gerard Philippe and Gina Lollobrigida, "Madame sans Gene" with Sophia Loren and Robert Hossein, and "The Black Tulip" with Alain Delon and Virna Lisi and of course "LE GENTLEMAN DE COCODY / Powder Keg and Diamonds" with Liselotte Pulver and Jean Marais. In the 1980s, the busy Christian-Jaque contributed two of the then very popular ZDF Advent four-part series: "Race to Bombay" (1981) with Christian Kohlund and Manfred Seipold and "The Man from Suez" (1983) with Horst Frank and Constanze Engelbrecht. The life story of Lady Hamilton was produced by Wolf C. Hartwig (1919-2017), who worked his way into the top ranks of German film producers over the course of the 1960s with his exotic adventure films, which often starred Brad Harris. His greatest successes with the unspeakable films in the Schoolgirl Report film series were still to come.

In England in the early 19th century, we as viewers see how the young farm maid Emily Lyon (Michele Mercier, known from the "Angelique" films) confronts the strapping neighbor boy Dick Strong (Howard Ross, who turned 80 on January 10, 2021). !) and has to fend off his demanding advances again. By chance, a passing painter (Boy Gobert) sees the buxom provincial beauty and makes her his favorite nude model. With him in London she meets a lot of people like the prosperous Dr. Graham (Dieter Borsche, who formed dream couples in the West German film industry with both Maria Schell and Ruth Leuwerik in the 1950s) and the lovely brothel mother Mrs Love (Gisela Uhlen, 1919-2007). The career path of the easy-going Emily seems predetermined. But one should not underestimate the ambition of this voluptuous beauty! Instead of just becoming the lover of the young and irresponsible Harry Featherstone (Harald Leipnitz, native of Wuppertal!), she even marries his uncle Lord William Hamilton (John Mills, 1908-2005, known from "War and Peace" and "Operation Crossbow" ) and becomes Lady Emma Hamilton. Together with her much older husband, she moves to Naples, where her husband becomes the English ambassador to the court of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples (Nadja Tiller). Even though Emma is genuinely devoted to her old husband, he cannot even come close to satisfying her excessive physical needs. The good guy also sees this, so the two lovebirds can have an open marriage. It's a good thing that the Queen of Naples, a daughter of Maria Theresia and sister of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, also cast a benevolent eye on the lavishly endowed Emma. Unfortunately, the two ladies' happiness in love is soon affected when Emma meets the love of her life in Lord Horatio Nelson (Richard Johnson). The overthrow plans of the evil Prince Caracciolo (Venantino Venantini, whose facial features are also known from "A Zombie Hung on a Bell Rope" and "Fair Game" with Cindy Crawford and William Baldwin) cause additional confusion.

This film has a large star cast and actually offers everything that makes a great epic. You can really see how they want to compete with "War and Peace" and "Doctor Zhivago". But despite all the slipperiness that was now possible in 1968 and that goes beyond that of "Tom Jones", the spark doesn't quite ignite. This is mainly due to the two main actors Michele Mercier and Richard Johnson (1927-2015, who was also seen in "Deadlier than the Male" and "Woodoo Island of the Zombies"), who do not do justice to their roles Lovers cannot convince. That's why you can't really be excited about the fate of the country bittern, who achieves great advancement and falls in love with the greatest war hero. The film is certainly an interesting museum piece from the good old days of cinema.

Definitely not a masterpiece, this film is a poor man's Angelique and not the best out of the vast output of Christian-Jaque. Still, it is quite enjoyable and fun to watch. Anyway, I would rate it higher than most of costume dramas of contemporary Hollywood.

Visually film is really nice to watch, story evolves in that light 60s manner, though the last , slightly "more serious" part drags a bit. Several nice actors are present, especially worth to mention Michelle Mercier and Nadjia Tiller.

I find Nadjia especially effective in this movie. She was a beautiful and talented actress and was definitely underused by the film industry. Same goes for the main star of the film - It's a pity that fame of Michelle Mercier faded so quickly.

A strange film in some respects. It's the kind of film that managed to appear dated before it hit the cinema screen.

For most of its running time it's a straight old-fashioned costume period drama in the style of the 1950s or early 1960s. Because it was made in 1969 the makers of the film felt the need to sex it up a little. So we get to see the odd semi-nude scene, and even a touch of lesbianism is thrown in. These additions are blatantly gratuitous and exploitative in the way they are presented, and thus they cross the line of the genre; but they are also so mild and half-hearted (by 1970s standards) that this effort could not be described as an exploitation film.

Let's avoid any comparison with Sir Alexander Korda's "lady Hamilton" starring Dame Vivien Leigh and Sir Laurence Olivier; Christian-Jaque's effort ,by no means , can 't hold its own against it.

Christian-Jaque ,who is dear to the French cine buff ,was a spent force in the sixties /seventies.It was not the first time he had directed Michèle Mercier (see also :"la seconde vérité" (1966)) ,and like him ,she already was a star on the decline :she would never get over her Angelique character and it ruined her career ever since the late sixties.

A has -been (who used to be a great director in the past) directing another has-been and what do you get? A comic strip ,where lovers appear and disappear at the speed of sound , plenty of bawdiness , a touch of lesbianism (Nadja Tiller is downright ridiculous as Marie-Caroline De Naples ); love scenes , rebellion riots , naval action,all edited in a way that flies in the face of common sense.The opening scene sets the tone: the heroine harassed by a farm hand,soon to be followed by the farmer himself soon to be followed by a painter who considers her a model ,soon to be followed by ..........

The scene when the heroine is having a speech lesson is a Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion" "My fair lady" ) rip off .

Christian-Jaque should have remembered that Trafalgar , for his compatriots, was a scathing defeat.