Bequest to the Nation

US: The Nelson Affair (UK)

By VARIETY STAFF

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Universal. Director James Cellan Jones; Producer Hal B. Wallis; Screenplay Terence Rattigan; Camera Gerry Fisher; Editor Anne V. Coates; Music Michel Legrand; Art Director Carmen Dillon
 
Glenda Jackson
Peter Finch
Michael Jayston
Anthony Quayle
Margaret Leighton
Dominic Guard
 

This is a deliberate, though stylish and genteel, de-glamorizing of the affair between Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton which scandalized England. Production is based on Terence Rattigan's adaptation of his own play, and never completely escapes its legit origins.

The plot introduces Peter Finch's Nelson just returned from a successful thwarting of Napoleon's maritime maneuvers, as executed by Andre Maranne as French Admiral Villeneuve. Begging several months' leave, Nelson repairs to his adored mistress (Glenda Jackson), who like him, is showing signs of less-than-graceful aging. Increasingly embittered by their status as social pariahs and pressed by his superiors to return to sea, Nelson engages in a series of harangues with his love, who finally urges his return to sea.

The story-as-is permits Jackson to display a variety of her dramatic abilities. Finch is slightly less effective as Nelson, though he manages to project the complex facets of character.

(Color) Widescreen. Extract of a review from 1973. Running time: 115 MIN.