Anna Boleyn (1920)

Anna Boleyn: Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. With Henny Porten, Emil Jannings, Paul Hartmann, Ludwig Hartau. The story of the ill-fated second wife of the English king Henry VIII, whose marriage to the Henry led to momentous political and religious turmoil in England.

“The Tudors come across as an unattractive bunch of schemers in this lavishly costumed but otherwise empty pageant played out in Germanic-looking settings in which the Lubitsch touch is little in evidence. Top-billed Henny Porten is too old and plain for the title role, while Emil Jannings makes King Henry a cold-eyed sexual predator.”