Cinemas Greatest Scenes: When Bette Davis slaps Errol Flynn in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939).

The climatic scene in question from Michael Curtiz’s The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex comes very early in the film after a heated argument between Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth I and Errol Flynn as Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex.

Set in Elizabethan London, we first meet Flynn as Essex as he arrives back triumphantly on horseback from a campaign which routed the Spanish fleet. Although Essex is lauded a hero on his return, especially with the people, not everyone is happy to see him. A handful of Elizabethan court conspirators are hell bent on ruining his reputation. Their greatest fear is that the popular Earl might want the English throne for himself.

Behind the scenes Davis as Elizabeth is also weary of Essex’s jubilant return to England. She hastily hatches a plan to scold Essex in court for his failure to bring back the Spanish treasure he promised her, which sank to the bottom of the sea with the Spanish Armada. But her motives are twofold. Besides scolding him she also wants to distance herself from the tumultuous affair she’s been having with Essex which had got out of hand and was beginning to affect her rule.

It isn’t long before Essex is totally blindsided in court with his very public humiliation. It’s fair to say he doesn’t take it too well. Completely surprise by the ambush he quips, “I feel you have no right” to which Elizabeth angrily retorts, “I have no right!” Essex seeing the error of his ways immediately back-pedals on his assertion: “As a Queen yes. As a woman do I mean nothing to you?” Elizabeth sensing she cannot back down now firmly states “Nothing.” Essex glares back at Elizabeth seemingly wounded and begins to walk away. Before he is able to reach the end of the court Elizabeth stops him in his track and says, “You dare turn your back on Elizabeth of England.” It is here she repeats her words and forcefully slaps Essex asserting her authority over him.

There is an interestingly behind the scenes story in which Bette Davis one day famously slapped Errol Flynn pretty hard in rehearsals for the all important scene in the film. It came in the middle of a real life tussle of titanic egos. According to Flynn, the ill-timed slap didn’t go down well: “With that dainty little hand, laden with a pound of costume jewellery, right across the ear. I felt as if I was deaf.” Later on in the famous scene from the film where Davis as Queen Elizabeth first scolds Essex and then slaps him for turning his back on her, Flynn looks like he has just relived the same indignity from rehearsals. He holds it together quite well (of course he does, he is in character!) even though he looks like he’d like to return the favour. The best line comes straight after the slap in which Flynn as Essex retorts, “I would not have taken that from the king, your father. Much less will I accept it from a king in petticoats.”

It’s worth noting this great opening sets the stage for an intriguing tussle between Davis and Flynn in their respective roles throughout the film. To his credit Flynn holds his own against the most celebrated actress of the day. But it is Davis in particular who is brilliant as the ageing monarch. Interestingly, Davis actually went to extraordinary lengths preparing for the role of Elizabeth, even to the point of shaving her hairline back six inches, to recreate Elizabeth’s balding pate. Moreover costume designer, Orry-Kelly made sure Davis looked every inch the Queen of England in her extravagant Elizabethan gowns. 

For the record, soon after the pivotal moment Elizabeth publicly humiliated Essex by slapping him, in private she admits she went too far. Later secretly pining for him, she looks for any excuse to get her beloved to return to court. She eventually finds a way offering him a new campaign in Ireland where the English have been routed in battle. However their reunion is brief and Elizabeth soon learns the hard way that she can never fully trust him. Her fears grow once again as he openly rebels against her. She’s forced to enact a mischievous plan to arrest him. In a last ditch effort to help save his head from the chopping block, Elizabeth hopes he will give up his lofty ambitions but sadly her efforts are to no avail.