Once prestigious, now out-of-fashion, William Dieterle’s Great Man bio-pics (Zola; Pasteur; Juarez; Dr. Ehrlich; Reuters - with Paul Muni or Edward G. Robinson) hold up pretty well as entertainments; glosses on history fit for a Junior High Audio-Visual showing. (Or were a generation or two back.) But this British attempt at the genre, well-larded with historical parallels to current events in Churchill’s WWII England (the film came out before US entry), has all the faults of the Dieterle films (falsification, simplification, hagiography) and almost none of the virtues in succinct potted history, art design or even bravura acting. Frankly, it’s inexplicably dreadful. John Gielgud sounds like a fine idea for Benjamin Disraeli, but proves film resistant & uncomfortable. He had a couple of decent early appearances, but really wouldn’t figure out the medium till he got a couple of big Shakespearean roles under his celluloid belt. (Cassius in JULIUS CAESAR/’53 and Henry IV in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT/’65) Diana Wynyard is hopelessly miscast as his older, richer, dumber wife and the supporting players consistently bland. (Were all the good character actors at war?) Fay Compton does a bit better as a plump Queen Victoria, but even Thorold Dickson’s direction, with GASLIGHT/’40 (aka ANGEL STREET) in his past and the superb QUEEN OF SPADES/’49 in his future*, turns out a great lumpy mess with paragraphs & paragraphs of text substituting for narrative action. The film’s great climax, an eating match between an aged Dizzy & Bismarck to hold off a precursor to World War I an embarrassment. In comparison, Dieterle’s long unfashionable films look better than they have in years.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Coded allusions, but no mention of Disraeli’s Jewish background in here. Something Disraeli was always at pains to highlight. (It was Disraeli’s father who had him Baptized as a child, thus opening his path into society & politics.)
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Ian McShane made real contact with this contradictory personality in the mini-series DISRAELI: PORTRAIT OF A ROMANTIC/’78. And Alec Guinness does even better in the underrated, if minor, THE MUDLARK/’50.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:: *Ironically, if not for the accent, Anton Walbrook, the great Jewish/Austrian star of ANGEL ST. and SPADES could have made a phenomenal Disraeli.
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