El joven Mr. Pitt

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.

The Young Mr. Pitt is a well mounted rather civil wartime propaganda minus the bellicose dehumanization of the enemy, substituting revolutionary France (Vichy ruled during the making) and the Little Corproral (Herbert Lom) as the latest megalomaniac in search of world domination.

The son of a former prime minister, Pitt (Robert Donat) is given the position by the flaky King George lll (Raymond Lovell) but faces heavy opposition in Parliament from the likes of James Fox (Robert Morely). His greatest enemy though is on The Continent and he is tasked with trying to get the British people up to speed on this threat while facing strong opposition at home.

Donat is spot on noble as Pitt whether passionately speaking on the house floor or in private conversation, his oratory avoiding bombast, exuding sincerity. There's a nice foppish turn from Morely and a discombobulated one from Lovell while Lom and Albert Lieven as Talleyrand fill the iniquity bill.

Directed a decade before his halcyon period of superb suspense films, Carol Reed's direction is hamstrung by a contrived romance (Pitt was a lifelong bachelor) as the film remains respectful and at times cloying but remains steadfastly patriotic from end to end, hence, mission accomplished.

"The Young Mr. Pitt" is a type of propaganda film that the British film industry made...and made quite well. Instead of filling the movie with evil Nazis, the movie is about another period in time...a period when the British people all banded together to defeat a different tyrant.

The film begins just before the American Revolution and focuses briefly on William Pitt the Elder. There are a few scenes with him and his very young son. Now, the film jumps ahead to just before the French Revolution. Young Pitt now is a member of the House of Lords like his father...and soon he'll be appointed the youngest Prime Minister in British history. The film follows him throughout the French Revolutionary period through the Napoleonic Wars.

Robert Donat is wonderful playing both Pitt the Elder and Younger. And, the film looks marvelous and is very well made. It essentially pushes the viewer toward patriotism as well as emphasizes that although the battle may be long, victory is on the horizon....just like WWII. An exceptional film that is probably much more interesting for British viewers or nuts like me who love history.

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.

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.