O Jovem Mr. Pitt

The eighteenth century was the most interesting century. It was the century when the modern world was born, when countries and empires were created and as Dickens described it: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness etc. One of the most important people of that time was of course William Pitt so surely a film about the great man would be truly amazing?

Unfortunately although he was one of our greatest prime ministers, if not our greatest, he was famously dull. He would never have succeeded in this personality and media focussed age, he was focussed on just one thing: running the country and ensuring Napoleon's ambitions were thwarted. He had no significant relationships, no significant friends, no scandal, not even a social life. So, not the ideal subject for a film then!

Nevertheless Carol Reed does manage to inject some life into our hero. He is brilliantly portrayed by Robert Donat whose sense purpose we can very much empathise with. So despite the handicaps, Gaumont-British do pull a rabbit out of empty bag with this and make a pretty decent and very watchable biopic.