That Hamilton Woman
My original rating was 72. Re-watch boosted this to 77. Full review written after re-watch, and original short comment slightly edited.
I have probably said this before, somewhere, but the People’s Britain created during the course of the Second World War was unlike the Britain that existed before, and it came to an end somewhere within the decade the midpoint of which lies around the turn of the century. Films like THAT HAMILTON WOMAN were part of the foundation of that People’s Britain, in depicting a society in which the emotionally stunted elite are giving way to People of Action drawn from the lower classes and the landed gentry. Shot in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Britain and released in the spring of 1941, when Britain ‘stood alone’ (along with the Free French, Free Poles, Free Czechoslovaks, Free Dutch, Free Belgians, Free Danes, Free Norwegians and the resources of the British Empire), the film is laced through with propaganda either calling on Britons to draw on their inner strength or hinting that the United States might go the way of the Neapolitans in this film if its leaders weren’t careful. (Although I have little doubt that many of the allusions to the present-day flew past the heads of some of the American audience.) This is very much an Anglo-American Culture film, but a rare example of one without Americans.
The film is dominated by the performance of Vivien Leigh in the title role of Emma Hamilton (née Hart in the film, which was an assumed identity, technically Lyon in real life), a child of the lower classes who, by virtue of her sexual charms, rose to great heights before falling into poverty again. So ‘based on a true story’ is the order of the day. Leigh was a superb actor, and for us cinephiles it’s a shame she preferred stage to screen – except that probably explains why she was such a superb actor. Between them, Olivier and Leigh are able to achieve great tenderness in their scenes together, perhaps in part because their own extramarital love affair had some parallels with that of Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson.
Structurally, THAT HAMILTON WOMAN is of an episodic nature, an extended flashback bookended by a brief portrait of the life of the decaying Lady Hamilton in the months before her death in early 1815. (In terms of years alive, Leigh herself did not outlast Lady Hamilton by all that much.) From the beginning of the film one might think we are embarking on a philosophical reverie of the transience of beauty, and perhaps there is something of that in the rest of the film. The relationship is without doubt intended to be as beautiful as it is illicit, and it was relatively short. It probably began sometime between September 1798 and February 1800, and ended with his death in 1805.
The relationship was also a very troubling one for British society. Not so much because of one spouse cheating with another, but owing to the abandonment of his own wife by Nelson. Emma’s husband Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray) was more relaxed about it all, possibly because he was 56 when they met and she was only 21. They eventually came to cohabit as a ménage á trois, and Sir William even gave Nelson a copy of a portrait of Emma in his will. A more modern film would probably explore all these psychologies a lot more. (Even one made ten or fifteen years later would have done so.) The film creates a sharp contrast between the vivacious Lady Hamilton and the rather stiff Lady Nelson (Gladys Cooper), who had some justification in her coldness at the point we meet her, given her husband clearly was smitten by someone with a déclassé background from theatre and a past as other men’s mistress. On the other hand, Nelson was enticed to marry her on the basis of the promise of a fictitious dowry and she concealed the fact that a womb infection had rendered her infertile. Nelson was not wholly without cause.
The film, released in the era of the iron hand of the Production Code, elides over a lot of this. Sir William does have a confrontation with Lady Emma, and it is implied that he is not especially affectionate towards her in any case. He is clearly unhappy at her fascination for a one-eyed, one-armed hero, but the film also doesn’t quite disagree with Lady Emma’s assessment of his shortcomings as a husband. Throughout he has taken an avuncular tone with her, which is rather less than a wife wants, is it not? The film also takes some liberties with the facts, for one thing neglecting the growing tubbiness of the real Lady Hamilton. Leigh remains svelte throughout. Another is that Hamilton and Nelson parted for the last time in 1805, just six weeks before his death. I got the sense from the film that they never saw one another after the outbreak of the war in 1803. Finally, it is implied that Lady Hamilton’s descent into penury is the consequence of some kind of stingy vengeance on the part of Lady Nelson or ingratitude on the part of Sir William or others. In fact she had been left an income of £800 per annum by Sir William. (Possibly worth as much as £1 million in income today, although its relative purchasing power might be a tenth of that.) It was her spendthrift ways that condemned her to her late-life situation.
The sound design for this film is marvellous. The score is typical of this period of film-making, with a lot of orchestral mood-music, but the film to its credit doesn’t stop there. Crowd scenes are basically depicted through sound, with the hubbub of cheers or shouts replacing much footage of actual people. There is also gunfire and the ringing of bells to convey emotion and events. The first arrival of Nelson is announced by the firing of a salute by HMS Agamemnon presumably in honour of the King of the Two Sicilies, Fernando (Luis Alberni). A choral rendition of ‘Hearts of Oak’ opens the depiction of the battle of Trafalgar, which in terms of special effects is also surprisingly entertaining. (More historical quibbles – the British approached from the French port side; the flagship was the Bucentaure not the Redoubtable although it was the Redoubtable’s sharpshooters who mortally wounded Nelson.)
Despite that consummate man of action Nelson being one of the centrepieces of this film, it is not about action but about emotions, specifically love. The moving scenes of our jack tars reading the famous signal hoisted by HMS Victory before the battle is about love of country. The affair between Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson is about finding true love in a life where social pressure has led one to settle. Their rejection by society is about love of order. THAT HAMILTON WOMAN is to be watched as a love story and it remains after all these years still a moving one.
© 2026 Paul Brewer
I have probably said this before, somewhere, but the People’s Britain created during the course of the Second World War was unlike the Britain that existed before, and it came to an end somewhere within the decade the midpoint of which lies around the turn of the century. Films like THAT HAMILTON WOMAN were part of the foundation of that People’s Britain, in depicting a society in which the emotionally stunted elite are giving way to People of Action drawn from the lower classes and the landed gentry. Shot in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Britain and released in the spring of 1941, when Britain ‘stood alone’ (along with the Free French, Free Poles, Free Czechoslovaks, Free Dutch, Free Belgians, Free Danes, Free Norwegians and the resources of the British Empire), the film is laced through with propaganda either calling on Britons to draw on their inner strength or hinting that the United States might go the way of the Neapolitans in this film if its leaders weren’t careful. (Although I have little doubt that many of the allusions to the present-day flew past the heads of some of the American audience.) This is very much an Anglo-American Culture film, but a rare example of one without Americans.
The film is dominated by the performance of Vivien Leigh in the title role of Emma Hamilton (née Hart in the film, which was an assumed identity, technically Lyon in real life), a child of the lower classes who, by virtue of her sexual charms, rose to great heights before falling into poverty again. So ‘based on a true story’ is the order of the day. Leigh was a superb actor, and for us cinephiles it’s a shame she preferred stage to screen – except that probably explains why she was such a superb actor. Between them, Olivier and Leigh are able to achieve great tenderness in their scenes together, perhaps in part because their own extramarital love affair had some parallels with that of Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson.
Structurally, THAT HAMILTON WOMAN is of an episodic nature, an extended flashback bookended by a brief portrait of the life of the decaying Lady Hamilton in the months before her death in early 1815. (In terms of years alive, Leigh herself did not outlast Lady Hamilton by all that much.) From the beginning of the film one might think we are embarking on a philosophical reverie of the transience of beauty, and perhaps there is something of that in the rest of the film. The relationship is without doubt intended to be as beautiful as it is illicit, and it was relatively short. It probably began sometime between September 1798 and February 1800, and ended with his death in 1805.
The relationship was also a very troubling one for British society. Not so much because of one spouse cheating with another, but owing to the abandonment of his own wife by Nelson. Emma’s husband Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray) was more relaxed about it all, possibly because he was 56 when they met and she was only 21. They eventually came to cohabit as a ménage á trois, and Sir William even gave Nelson a copy of a portrait of Emma in his will. A more modern film would probably explore all these psychologies a lot more. (Even one made ten or fifteen years later would have done so.) The film creates a sharp contrast between the vivacious Lady Hamilton and the rather stiff Lady Nelson (Gladys Cooper), who had some justification in her coldness at the point we meet her, given her husband clearly was smitten by someone with a déclassé background from theatre and a past as other men’s mistress. On the other hand, Nelson was enticed to marry her on the basis of the promise of a fictitious dowry and she concealed the fact that a womb infection had rendered her infertile. Nelson was not wholly without cause.
The film, released in the era of the iron hand of the Production Code, elides over a lot of this. Sir William does have a confrontation with Lady Emma, and it is implied that he is not especially affectionate towards her in any case. He is clearly unhappy at her fascination for a one-eyed, one-armed hero, but the film also doesn’t quite disagree with Lady Emma’s assessment of his shortcomings as a husband. Throughout he has taken an avuncular tone with her, which is rather less than a wife wants, is it not? The film also takes some liberties with the facts, for one thing neglecting the growing tubbiness of the real Lady Hamilton. Leigh remains svelte throughout. Another is that Hamilton and Nelson parted for the last time in 1805, just six weeks before his death. I got the sense from the film that they never saw one another after the outbreak of the war in 1803. Finally, it is implied that Lady Hamilton’s descent into penury is the consequence of some kind of stingy vengeance on the part of Lady Nelson or ingratitude on the part of Sir William or others. In fact she had been left an income of £800 per annum by Sir William. (Possibly worth as much as £1 million in income today, although its relative purchasing power might be a tenth of that.) It was her spendthrift ways that condemned her to her late-life situation.
The sound design for this film is marvellous. The score is typical of this period of film-making, with a lot of orchestral mood-music, but the film to its credit doesn’t stop there. Crowd scenes are basically depicted through sound, with the hubbub of cheers or shouts replacing much footage of actual people. There is also gunfire and the ringing of bells to convey emotion and events. The first arrival of Nelson is announced by the firing of a salute by HMS Agamemnon presumably in honour of the King of the Two Sicilies, Fernando (Luis Alberni). A choral rendition of ‘Hearts of Oak’ opens the depiction of the battle of Trafalgar, which in terms of special effects is also surprisingly entertaining. (More historical quibbles – the British approached from the French port side; the flagship was the Bucentaure not the Redoubtable although it was the Redoubtable’s sharpshooters who mortally wounded Nelson.)
Despite that consummate man of action Nelson being one of the centrepieces of this film, it is not about action but about emotions, specifically love. The moving scenes of our jack tars reading the famous signal hoisted by HMS Victory before the battle is about love of country. The affair between Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson is about finding true love in a life where social pressure has led one to settle. Their rejection by society is about love of order. THAT HAMILTON WOMAN is to be watched as a love story and it remains after all these years still a moving one.
© 2026 Paul Brewer
Mini Review: A cinematic monument to the People's Britain of the 20th century. The rousing rendition of 'Hearts of Oak' as the fleet goes into the Battle of Trafalgar, as well as the reception of the 'England expects' message by the crews ought to inspire all of us Britons to re-imagine the world of the postwar consensus, when we all pulled together and brought about Ealing comedies. Bravo!
Watch the Trailer