The Young 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.

I first saw this film many years at school when the headmaster, a most enlightened man, had a film collector show it to us one afternoon. It made a lasting impression. It is beautifully made and wittily written. Donat gives an excellent performance as our most brilliant prime minister who gave his life, in effect, in the service of his country. There are also some superb cameos, most notably Robert Moreley as Charles James Fox. It gives an intriguing, if overdrawn, view of 18th century manners and behaviour. The House of Commons scenes, with members imitating clucking chickens to vent their disapproval is memorable. So no change there, then. And look out for the little man at the end of the row in No 10 as Pitt leaves office for the first time. Pitt lived to hear of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, so it is not true, as one reviewer commented, that he died without knowing of Britain's victory over Napoleon. But why, with due respect, is it an American import? It is an essentially British film. Churchill raised the money to make it.

I don't get that Maltin bloke at all. Overlong? Occasionally moving? I wonder what gave him the right to be so jumped up. Has he missed the humour? The perfect castings of Lom. Lovell and Donat? Yes it might be a thinly veiled morale booster, but hello it was WW2 and I am sure even the USA did these but none quite as good or as able to use memories of an epic period in a long and successful history. Pride does count for something here. All I can say is WATCH IT AND JUDGE FOR YOURSELF and then laugh at how pretentious Maltin really is.

Donat lived only a couple of miles from where I live.The house has a blue plaque and a covered drive to save him him from adoring fans.This is a typical wartime biog,when you see Napoleon, see Hitler.The film covers a lot of ground and has a linking narration. This obviously makes it rather episodic. Robert Morley is good as Charles Fox.

Robert Donat is of course the leading character here, playing both father and son William Pitt with sincerity and honour, but Robert Morley as the indomitable opposition leader Charles Edward Fox is at least equally impressing. It's a very human film watching one of the most important and famous British prime ministers from the inside, his drinking, his health problem, and so forth, but the times around 1800 are conscientiously caught on celluloid, and Herbert Lom practices his great part as the best Napoleon ever before King Vidor's "War and Peace" 1956. It's a great history lesson with great human insights, and although a propaganda film during the war, as a history cavalcade from the days of George III it is wholly convincing and most entertaining, especially the election scenes.