csteidler In a way, this is a picture about generations. May Robson is Queen Elizabeth; Leslie Banks is her lifelong adviser and admirer, the Earl of Leicester; and Morton Selten is Lord Burleigh, loyal and aged adviser. Together they are the elder generation: as Burleigh puts it, they have spent their lives as caretakers of the monarchy during mostly quiet times. Now it's 1587.Among the younger generation is Vivien Leigh as Burleigh's granddaughter Cynthia, a lady in waiting to the queen. Cynthia is passionate, flighty, forgetful—and beautiful. She loves "the boy" Michael Ingolby, son of another of Elizabeth's loyal followers. Michael is portrayed with great energy by, of course, a very youthful Laurence Olivier.The plot focuses on the court in London, where it is feared that spies may be afoot…and then on the Spanish court, where Olivier plays a dangerous role as forces gather toward an invasion of England by the imposing new armada. Among those involved on the Spanish side are Robert Newton, very good as a young nobleman; and an actress named Tamara Desni, excellent in a key role as a young woman who encounters Olivier.Raymond Massey is superb as King Philip of Spain. His best speech is one in which he simply repeats a single word several times: "And?"—Not much to it, but as played between Olivier and Massey it's a classic scene. Flora Robson is perfect as the queen. She's given such wonderful speeches, and she speaks them so well….In one scene, she asks Leigh's character how old she is; eighteen, the answer comes. "When I was eighteen, I was a prisoner in the Tower," Robson replies—neither bitterly nor scornfully, but with just a trace of wistfulness and the calm of a monarch who has ruled long but can indeed remember her own youth. This is also a deeply patriotic English film; viewers were certainly aware that the foreign threat looming over England in 1937 was every bit as daunting as that posed by the Armada 350 years earlier. It's a call to courage that both celebrates tradition and promotes the idea that a new generation must grasp its own opportunities—meet its own needs—for heroism.

ifasmilecanhelp The movie is a bit slow, but I wonder if it does not correspond better to times the story happens, at the end of 16th century... This is not as much an adventurer movie as is the Sea Hawk, not at all, but again, the rather lingering rhythm, if you enjoy Middle Ages history and costumes, may be the best to conduct the play. Personally I prefer quiet a lot 1940's Sea Hawk Curtiz version, perhaps, even though I wrote this one (1937 version) may have the proper rhythm, because I like more powerful adventures and Erroll Flynn's charisma and energy certainly fits me better. But I also think Laurence Olivier, who's not one of my favorite actors, did a good job, not overplaying. Flora Robson is the right person at the right place, but I admit too that she does not play an extraordinary performance. She is not Bette Davis :-) Howard, the director, all in all, offers a solid film, pleasant to watch at, even though not memorable. To summarize, I enjoyed this Fire Over England, but would rather suggest to see the Sea Hawk, with lot of actions, excellent actors performances and with a pleasant end (a family movie)... or at best one of my favorite movies about this era (but not centered on the same historic events) and a stunning drama with fantastic and mesmerizing performances : The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex...a film is never really good unless the camera is an eyes in the head of a poet Orson Welles

rsternesq This is a great movie with excellent production values, performances and exposition. These were very complicated times and neither Elizabeth nor Philip was a simple ruler. Neither was good nor bad and both were permitted by the mores of their times to be outrageous. Given that Flora Robson did not resemble Elizabeth in the slightest and was far, far younger at the time of her portrayal, she presents the great Queen as she should be portrayed except that Elizabeth was a beauty in her youth and permitted the illusion of beauty to continue long after it was lost. See it, hear it and enjoy it. It is a mountain beside the current portrayals of these people and their times as a bland pageant of farthingales.

theowinthrop There is not real film about the events leading to Philip II's great enterprise of 1588, the sailing (and destruction, as it turned out) of the great Spanish Armanda. To understand the story would take too many twists and turns. I recommend Garrett Mattingley's classic account of the Armada from the 1950s for those interested. Philip, tired of the aid that Elizabeth I of England gave to the Dutch and French Protestants, made a plan to transport an army under his nephew, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Palma, from Belgium to England using the Armada. He put the fleet under command of the Spanish nobleman, the Duke of Medina Sidonia. But Medina Sidonia was not a sailor (although a conscientious nobleman and servant of Philip). The Armada would first suffer a raid (by Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake). After it was repaired it did sail, only to find the faster English ships of Drake, Howard, and Frobisher more deadly, and the heavy winds, seas, and storms even deadlier. Many ships were wrecked off Scotland and Ireland. It was one of the worst naval catastrophes of history.However it was also Philip's finest moment. Always a firmly religious man, he did not despair at the disaster to his fleet and plans, but he saw it was God's will. He actually put together Armadas again twice in the 1590s, but neither got as far as the first one did.The complications of the story make it too confusing for anything but a full television seris: Philip was spurred on when Mary, Queen of Scots was executed in 1587 - he had been named her appointed heir to the English throne in her will; the French religious wars were approaching a critical moment, and Mary's uncle (the Duc de Guise) was leader of the Catholic forces at war with King Henri III of France and King Henri of Navarre (the leader of the Huguenots). There have been films dealing with Elizabeth's sea rovers, such as Drake ("Seven Seas To Calais", "The Sea Hawke"), but only this film tries to tackle the actual story of the Armada. As an adventure story it is excellent. As history, not exact but pretty good in parts.First it does touch briefly on Mary's execution, in an early scene where one of Mary's servants tries to assassinate Elizabeth (Flora Robson). It really concentrates on the complex world of Elizabethan spying and the Elizabethan Catholic "underworld". The latter is an unfair description, for the Catholics were being persecuted in England. They had been supporters of Mary, and now that she was killed they gave support (mostly begrudgingly) to Philip. England's master of spies was Sir Francis Walsingham (who does not appear in this film). Instead the espionage against Spain is handled by Robert, Earl of Leicester (Leslie Banks) in the film - but in fact, Leicester died in 1587 in Holland, so he was not around for the Armada.Lawrence Olivier is splendid in this early role as the young agent sent to spy on Philip and his plan (going in place of James Mason, who committed suicide in trying to avoid arrest). Olivier manages to get close to Philip (Raymond Massey) but that is not fully possible. Philip does not even like Englishmen, but he is willing to go along with the Catholics to get rid of Elizabeth and her regime. Philip is not easy to fool, and in a marvelous (almost comic moment) he stops Olivier from disclosing anything by finding that there was one name Olivier does not know that he should.I won't go into the rest of the film's story. Watch it to see how Olivier still manages to escape and save England, and end up with his love (Vivian Leigh). For a 1937 historic film it is quite good, even if it could not tell the completely true story of the invasion of 1588.