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.
