The Divine Lady (1928)

(On Cable TV, November 2022) Despite a demonstrable love of older cinema, my patience runs thin on silent drama films, and The Divine Lady (despite synchronized sound and music) is clearly from the silent era. Deathly dull pacing doesn’t help this historical costume drama about Lady Hamilton’s scandalous relationship with Horatio Nelson—a topic better covered in the later 1941 film That Hamilton Woman. It’s not all dull—the marine battles are executed with some spectacle, although I can’t quite be sure if they were shot for this film or taken from another one. The film remains notable for being an early favourite of the Academy Awards—winning an award for director Frank Lloyd and earning two more nominations, for lead Corinne Griffith and cinematography. But even then, The Divine Lady is not a must-see for anyone but fans of the filmmakers involved or Oscars completists.