Henry V (1944) on Netflix
In 1415, King Henry V of England presses his claim to the French throne. A mocking gift of tennis balls from the French Dauphin sends him and his army to France.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.0/107,770 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
At the Globe Theatre in London, a Chorus asks the audience to picture the scenes the players cannot show, and the play begins. Two clergymen, the Bishop of Ely and the Archbishop of Canterbury, weigh the affairs of the realm, and King Henry V tells his nobles of his claim to the French crown. The Dauphin of France answers with a gift of tennis balls, a joke at the king's youth, and the offended Henry dismisses the French ambassador and resolves to press his claim. Pistol, Nym and Bardolph decide to follow the army. The fleet sails from Southampton and lands in France, and the campaign carries the king's forces to Harfleur, where he calls on his men to charge the breach in the town's walls.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Henry V (1944)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Winston Churchill instructed Laurence Olivier to make Henry V as morale-boosting propaganda for British troops in World War II, and its making and release coincided with the Allied invasion of Normandy and the push into France.
- Laurence Olivier agreed not to appear in another film for 18 months so nothing would detract from promoting Henry V, and was paid £15,000 tax-free for it, about £460,000 in today's money.
- The Agincourt battle scenes were shot in neutral Ireland in 1943, where hundreds of locals were hired as extras and the production company paid an extra pound to anyone who brought his own horse.
- Esmond Knight, who played the Welsh soldier Fluellen, was a wounded veteran of the war; badly injured on active service in 1941, he was totally blind for two years and had only just regained some sight in his right eye.
- Leo Genn, who played the Constable of France, was granted official leave from his war service in the Royal Artillery to appear in the film; after the war he served as an assistant prosecutor in the Belsen war crimes trials.
- Olivier cut some of Henry's harsher actions from Shakespeare's play, including the remorseless beheading of the three Southampton Plot traitors, the threat to unleash his troops to rape and pillage Harfleur, the cutting of French prisoners' throats at Agincourt and the hanging of his old friend Bardolph.
- After British critics gave it a lukewarm welcome, word of mouth took over, and Henry V broke all records by running for 11 months in London.
