Romance blossomed on and off set for Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in this Elizabethan-era adventure.
Olivier plays a naval officer charged with uncovering the plans of the Spanish crown in advance of their launching an armada against the British navy. It helped make the actor a star in the US and boosted Leigh’s career, playing the officer’s fiancée and the ageing monarch’s striking lady-in-waiting. More opulent than the average British release of the time, it is a key film in both stars’ journey to Hollywood.
