At the time it was released, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Denmark were all occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union was still officially allied with the Third Reich, so the British were fighting against the Nazis alone and felt the need to produce films that would both boost their morale and also portray them sympathetically to the foreign world, especially the United States.

When Horatio Nelson arrives in Naples, Emma is soon deeply attracted to him and impressed by his passionate insistence upon resisting Napoleon's wars of conquest.

The Admiralty contacts Sir William and he graciously explains to Emma that it (not he) has ordered her to go to Cairo and Nelson to return to Britain.

Shot in the United States during September and October 1940,[11] That Hamilton Woman defines Britain's struggle against Napoleon in terms of resistance to a dictator who seeks to dominate the world.

[12] The film was intended to parallel the current situation in Europe and to serve as propaganda at a time, before the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the U.S. was still formally neutral.

[citation needed] Because of the strict Motion Picture Production Code, the two lovers never appear in bed together or ever even partially undressed together.

Short's study of the film, the major problem for the Production Code office was not the scenes showing romantic encounters: It was the script's treating an "adulterous relationship as a romance instead of a sin".

[15] The supporting cast of That Hamilton Woman includes Sara Allgood as Emma's mother, Henry Wilcoxon as Captain Hardy, Gladys Cooper as Lady Nelson, and Alan Mowbray as William Hamilton, Emma's husband, the British ambassador to Naples and a collector of objets d'art.

[19] The movie premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, and in his review of That Hamilton Woman for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther said the film is "just a running account of a famous love affair, told with deep sympathy for the participants against a broad historic outline of the times... Perhaps if it had all been condensed and contrived with less manifest awe, the effect would have been more exciting and the love story would have had more poignancy.

All of the charm and grace and spirit which Miss Leigh contains is beautifully put to use to capture the subtle spell which Emma most assuredly must have weaved.

Laurence Olivier's Nelson is more studied and obviously contrived, and his appearance is very impressive, with the famous dead eye and empty sleeve.

[23] In her research on the subject, film historian Professor Stacey Olster reveals that at the time the film was made, Alexander Korda's New York offices were "supplying cover to MI-5 agents gathering intelligence on both German activities in the United States and isolationist sentiments among makers of American foreign policy.

"[22] According to Olivier's biographer Anthony Holden, That Hamilton Woman "became Exhibit A in a case brought against Korda by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

[24] According to Kinematograph Weekly, the film was the fifth most popular movie at the British box office in 1941, after 49th Parallel, The Great Dictator, Pimpernel Smith and All This, and Heaven Too.