but Flynn demanded his presence be acknowledged in the title. However, the new title, The Knight and the Lady, upset Davis, who felt it gave the male lead more importance than her and was, to her mind, essentially "a woman's story." She sent at least two telegrams in April and June 1938 to studio president Jack L. Warner demanding that the title include the character of Elizabeth by name and before the character of Essex, or she would refuse to make the film. Elizabeth and Essex, one of Davis's preferred titles, was already under copyright as the title of a book written by Lytton Strachey. In the end, the studio acquiesced and gave the film the title it bears today, mirroring the titles of earlier historical films such as The Private Life of Henry VIII and The Private Life of Don Juan. On-screen partnership of Davis and Flynn Davis recounted later in life her difficulties in making the film. She had been very enthusiastic about the challenge of playing Elizabeth (in 1955, she would play her as an old woman in The Virgin Queen). She had lobbied for Laurence Olivier to play the part of Essex, but Warner Brothers, nervous at giving the part to an actor who was relatively unknown in the United States, instead cast Errol Flynn, who was at the height of his success. Davis felt he was not equal to the task, and also believed from past experience that his casual attitude to his work would be reflected in his performance. For her own part, she studied the life of Elizabeth, worked hard to adopt a passable accent, and shaved her hairline to achieve a greater resemblance. Many years later, however, Davis viewed the film with her friend, Olivia de Havilland. At the film's end, Davis turned to de Havilland and admitted, "I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Flynn was brilliant!" Flynn and Davis, born respectively in 1909 and 1908, were almost the same age (30 and 31 in 1939), in contrast to the age gap of more than 30 years between Elizabeth and Essex in real life. Davis was also less than half the age the real Elizabeth had been at the time of the events depicted, which was 63. A final scene of Essex on the execution block was cut after previews. Reception Box office The film made a profit of $550,000. According to Warner