Though promoted as a historical romance, there was little love between Bette Davis and Errol Flynn on the set of the film. Reportedly, Davis was jealous of Flynn because he was the highest paid star at Warners at the time yet she was the one who gave the studio prestige through her Oscar nominated performances. She also had requested and been denied Laurence Olivier for the role of Essex yet she would later state that during her scenes with Flynn, she would pretend she was acting with Olivier. Flynn had his own issues with Davis. He disliked her domineering personality and felt his own acting suffered in comparison to hers. To combat this unpleasant situation he demanded, as the top-paid star, to have the title changed to The Knight and the Lady to reflect the importance of his role. When Davis heard about this, she threatened to walk off the set but the studio remained committed to the original title.

The conflict between Davis and Flynn reached a climax during the filming of the scene where Essex defies the Queen and is slapped by her. According to Flynn in his autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, the actor recalled that when Davis hit him during the first take, "My jaw went out. I felt a click behind my ear and I saw all these comets and shooting stars, all in one flash. It didn't knock me to the ground. She had given me that little dainty hand, laden with a pound of costume jewelry, right across the ear. I felt as if I were deaf." Flynn would later get his revenge in a scene where he positioned his hand so Davis would run into it: "It went sailing right through her Elizabethan dresses, slappo, smack on her Academy Award behind. She went about two feet off the ground." Despite all the animosity between the two actors, however, Flynn would later admit that Davis was "the greatest thing in the movies." As for Davis, she liked this role so well that she repeated her impersonation of Queen Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen (1955) which detailed her relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh (Richard Todd).

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is undoubtedly one of the most stunningly designed Technicolor films produced by Warner Brothers. Its Academy Award nominations included Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Score, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. Anton Grot's continuity sketches often provided direct models for director Michael Curtiz's shot placement and the cinematographers? lighting schemes in the finished film.

Clive Owen in the hot seat at cinema

9:00am Saturday 7th April 2012 in Countywide news By Helen Barnett

Hollywood star Clive Owen was put in the hot seat at a showing of his latest film.

The patron of the Electric Palace answered questions from the audience after the screening of Intruders on Sunday April 1.

About 120 people attended the showing and questions probed into his other films and his connection with the Electric Palace.

The star of Children of Men, the Bourne Identity and Sin City lives in Wrabness.

Chris Strachen, chairman of the Electric Palace, said: “The evening went really well and questions included whether Clive did his own stunts and what it was like working with Carice van Houten, the leading lady in the film.

“It was a good house full and Clive encourages them to come back.”

Intruders tells the story of two families whose lives are disrupted by menacing apparitions. The showing at the Electric Palace this weekend is the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.