A Man for All Seasons (1966) on Netflix
King Henry VIII wants his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled so he can marry Anne Boleyn. Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor and a devout Catholic, will not support him.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.7/1040,802 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1529 Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England, presses Sir Thomas More to join the council's effort to win an annulment of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who has given King Henry VIII no male heir. Henry intends to marry Anne Boleyn. More, a devout Catholic, will not agree to the pressure Wolsey proposes against the property and revenue of the English church, and Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey's aide, listens in. At his home in Chelsea, More turns down Richard Rich's plea for a post at court and offers him a teaching position instead, and he withholds his blessing from the marriage of his daughter Meg to William Roper while Roper remains a Lutheran. Wolsey falls from office and dies, More takes his place as Lord Chancellor, and the king visits his estate to ask again for support.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producers of A Man for All Seasons feared Paul Scofield was not a big enough name to draw audiences and approached Richard Burton, who turned down the part; Laurence Olivier was considered too, but director Fred Zinnemann demanded Scofield be cast.
- To keep the budget under $2 million, the whole cast of A Man for All Seasons took salary cuts: only Paul Scofield, Susannah York and Orson Welles were paid more than £10,000, John Hurt earned £3,000 as Richard Rich, and Vanessa Redgrave refused payment.
- Vanessa Redgrave was originally to play Margaret More in A Man for All Seasons but had a theater commitment; she agreed to a cameo as Anne Boleyn only on the condition that she not be billed in the part or mentioned in the previews.
- Alec Guinness was the studio's first choice for Cardinal Wolsey in A Man for All Seasons and Peter O'Toole its first choice for Henry VIII, with Richard Harris also considered; playwright Robert Bolt wanted director John Huston for the Duke of Norfolk, but he refused.
- Fred Zinnemann cast John Hurt as Richard Rich in Hurt's first major film role, on the basis of his strong performance in David Halliwell's stage play Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs.
