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The Divine Lady

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Director
  
Frank Lloyd

Music director
  
Cecil Copping

Language
  
English

6.4/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Drama, History, Romance

Duration
  

Country
  
United States

The Divine Lady movie poster

Writer
  
Forrest Halsey
,
Harry Carr

Release date
  
March 31, 1929 (1929-03-31)

Based on
  
The Divine Lady: a Romance of Nelson and Emma Hamilton  by E. Barrington

Awards
  
Academy Award for Best Director

Cast
  
Corinne Griffith
(Lady Emma Hart Hamilton),
Victor Varconi
(Horatio Nelson),
H.B. Warner
(Sir William Hamilton),
Ian Keith
(Honorable Charles Greville),
Marie Dressler
(Mrs. Hart),
Montagu Love
(Capt. Hardy)

Similar movies
  
That Hamilton Woman (1941)

The Divine Lady is a 1929 American Vitaphone sound film with a synchronized musical score, sound effects, and some synchronized singing, but no spoken dialogue. It stars Corinne Griffith and tells the story of the love affair between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton. It featured the theme song "Lady Divine", with lyrics by Richard Kountz and music by Nathaniel Shilkret, which became a popular hit in 1929 and was recorded by numerous artists, such as Shilkret, Frank Munn, Ben Selvin (as the Cavaliers), Smith Ballew, Adrian Schubert, Sam Lanin, and Bob Haring.

Contents

The Divine Lady wwwgstaticcomtvthumbmovieposters57780p57780

The film was adapted by Harry Carr, Forrest Halsey, Agnes Christine Johnston, and Edwin Justus Mayer from the novel The Divine Lady: A Romance of Nelson and Emma Hamilton by E. Barrington. It was directed by Frank Lloyd.

The Divine Lady The Divine Lady 1929 Pretty Clever Films

The film won the Academy Award for Directing and was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Corinne Griffith) and Best Cinematography. It is the only film to be awarded Best Director without a Best Picture nomination (one year earlier, Two Arabian Knights was awarded for Best Director of a Comedy Picture without being nominated for Best Picture).

The Divine Lady The Divine Lady 1929 IMDb

Plot

The Divine Lady The Divine Lady Movie Poster 1 of 2 IMP Awards

In the late eighteenth century, Lady Hamilton has had a somewhat turbulent relationship with the British people, especially the aristocracy. Born Emma Hart from a very humble background (she being the daughter of a cook), she was seen as being vulgar by the rich, but equally captivating for her beauty. In a move to protect his inheritance, Honorable Charles Greville, Emma's then lover and her mother's employer, sent Emma to Naples under false pretenses to live with his uncle, Sir William Hamilton, where she would study to become a lady. Surprisingly to Greville whose deception Emma would eventually discover, Emma ended up becoming Hamilton's wife in a marriage of convenience. But it is Emma's eventual relationship with Horatio Nelson of the British navy that would cause the largest issue. A move by Lady Hamilton helped Nelson's armada defeat Napoleon's fleet in naval battles, which Nelson would have ultimately lost without Lady Hamilton's help. Beyond the dangers of war, Lady Hamilton and Nelson's relationship is ultimately threatened by the court of public opinion as both are married to other people.

Cast

The Divine Lady The Divine Lady 1929

  • Corinne Griffith as Emma Hart
  • Victor Varconi as Horatio Nelson
  • H. B. Warner as Sir William Hamilton
  • Ian Keith as Honorable Charles Greville
  • Marie Dressler as Mrs. Hart
  • Montagu Love as Captain Hardy
  • William Conklin as Romney
  • Dorothy Cumming as Queen Maria Carolina
  • Preservation status

    The Divine Lady The Divine Lady 1929

    The film still survives intact along with its Vitaphone soundtrack. This film was a joint preservation project of the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Film Archive. It was restored in conjunction with the project American Moviemakers: The Dawn of Sound.

    Home media

    In 2009, the film was released on manufactured-on-demand DVD by the Warner Archive Collection.

    References

    The Divine Lady Wikipedia
    The Divine Lady IMDb The Divine Lady themoviedb.org