November 22, 1944: Laurence Olivier's Version of William Shakespeare's "Henry V"

November 22, 1944: The film Henry V premieres. One of the earliest films depicting a play of William Shakespeare in color, Laurence Olivier directs, and stars as the King of England who has been called "Shakespeare's only true hero." It was produced during World War II, and meant as a morale booster to British troops.

The film begins with a panorama of London in 1600. The viewpoint travels to the Globe Theatre, home of Shakespeare and his theater company, where the audience is being seated. The Chorus enters and implores the audience to use their imagination to visualize the setting of the play.

The play is set around the Battle of Agincourt, which was fought on October 25, 1415, in what is now Azincourt, Pas-de-Calais, France, about 140 miles north of Paris. The night before the impending battle, Henry wanders around the camp in disguise, to find out what the men think of him. The next day, before the battle, Henry delivers his famous Saint Crispin's Day speech -- in the play, in Act IV, Scene III:

This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian:"
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin’s day."
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne''er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

In reality, Henry is said to have spoken much more briefly, and without an appeal to glory. Nevertheless: Outnumbered 2-1, Henry, personally leading his troops, led English and Welsh longbowmen to a stunning victory over the French army on French soil.

The most familiar portrait of King Henry V

The English lost 112 men, including the sitting Duke of York and Earl of Suffolk; the French, possibly 10,000, including the Dukes of Alençon, Brabant and Lorraine, and the Counts of Dreux and Nevers. Say what you want about those noblemen, but they were noble enough to fight and risk death alongside the men they commanded.

This battle turned the tide for England, as King Charles VI of France, in order to mollify the Lancastrian invader, allowed him to marry his daughter, Catherine of Valois. Together, they had a son. But when Henry V died of illness in 1422, his son was just 9 months old, and King Henry VI -- first under his greedy, incompetent regents, then by his mentally ill self -- ended up losing all the gains of his father and ancestors during the Hundred Years War.

The battle made an archer the greatest thing to which most Englishmen and Welshmen could aspire in that era. Legend has it that King Henry VIII, 100 or so years later, banned tennis from English and Welsh soil because it was distracting men from practicing archery.

It also led to a ridiculous urban legend. Supposedly, the French would cut the index fingers off English prisoners before releasing them, but when they got back to their own side, they could still use their middle fingers to pull back their bowstrings. And the bows were made from yew trees, so, when they captured French prisoners, they would show them their middle fingers, and say, "See? We can still pluck yew! Pluck yew!" Thus was born both the middle-finger gesture and the profane expression, "Fuck you."

Well, none of it is true: The middle-finger gesture has been traced as far back as ancient Greece, about 2,000 years before Agincourt, and it was rather popular in Roman times, where it was known as "El Dedo Medio": The Middle Digit. As for the other expression, that's probably as old as language itself.

In America, the film was not released until after World War II, on June 17, 1946. It was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Best Actor for Olivier. But it won none, losing Best Picture to The Best Years of Our Lives, and Olivier lost Best Actor to Frederic March, in the preceding film. Olivier was, however, given an Honorary Oscar for the film. Having previously been nominated for Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, he finally won in 1949, for his version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. He would also be nominated for his versions of Richard III and Othello, but did not win.

Other film versions of Henry V have starred Kenneth Branagh in 1989, Tom Hiddleston as part of the BBC series The Hollow Crown in 2012, and Timothée Chalamet (who, conveniently, has the middle name "Hal") in 2019.

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November 22, 1944 was a Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. If this had been an American film, that would have been a consideration in its release date. But since it was a British film, the American market had nothing to do with the timing. It was, however, chosen as the release date of Meet Me In St. Louis, directed by Vincente Minnelli, and starring his soon-to-be-wife Judy Garland. I have a separate entry for this event.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And no games were played in the NHL. So there were no scores on this day.