O Jovem Mr. Pitt

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.

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.

Only in England, surely, would anyone set out to make a propaganda movie by quoting verbatim from 18th-century Parliamentary proceedings..!

Admittedly -- as shown in the sequences where Robert Donat, as the eponymous Prime Minister, is howled down in the House of Commons -- the gentlemen of that era did not always mince their words. Still, in common with so many other famous British propaganda products of the time -- "A Matter of Life and Death", "In Which We Serve", "Pimpernel Smith", "49th Parallel" -- "The Young Mr Pitt" is a sophisticated and amazingly literate piece of work: no cheap bashing of the enemy, no sentimental romanticising of the fickle mob, no principle or personage too elevated to bear a little gentle mockery. The film's subject is presented in a manner arguably verging on hagiography (Pitt is Right, Fox is Wrong, and the former has no vices beyond a tendency to self-sacrifice)... and yet it has no qualms, for example, in counterpointing Robert Donat's great patriotic speech towards the end of the film with images of Members of Parliament yawning or exchanging long-suffering glances as he orates. By refusing to treat itself with blind veneration, it creates a depth of subtlety that stands up well in its own right so many years later, where simple-minded tub-thumping would long since have become merely embarrassing.

The script is surprisingly funny, and often sparkles: when a naval official complains that he feels more at home at sea than in politics, Pitt returns the swift quip that his rival Fox will soon feel all at sea at home. We are introduced to the King known to history as 'Farmer George' over a bowl of home-grown royal turnips, and treated to the spectacle of the Prime Minister caught out by some very important guests in mid-pillow-fight with the children of his host. By leavening its message with humour, it humanises a potentially heavy-handed political slant.

It is, of course, a one-man show, and Robert Donat proves fully equal to the task. He begins the film portraying Pitt the Elder in old age, and then develops the title character from one mocked for his youth to the sick and prematurely aged man of the final reels; and does it without overwhelming awareness of cosmetic wizardry, and with the benefit of a pair of fine expressive eyes. John Mills has the somewhat thankless role of playing reformer William Wilberforce in what is essentially the role of hero's sidekick, the ever-present character to whom Pitt can voice his plans and dilemmas for the audience's benefit. Albert Lieven is memorable as the devious Talleyrand, and Leslie Bradley and Roy Emerton make an impression in the early part of the film as the famous heavyweights of the bare-knuckle boxing era, Mendoza and 'Gentleman' Jackson.

Featuring cameo scenes for characters ranging from Lord Nelson to Danton, the film is inevitably a quick canter through the relevant history. It doesn't pretend to be a deep political analysis of the period. But as a flag-waver it aims high, and compared to your average Hollywood 'biopic' it is quality entertainment. I saw this as the fourth film at the end of a hectic day, and even under such circumstances it stood out as a more ambitious vehicle than the -- perfectly enjoyable -- rest.

It doesn't have the complexity of a great picture. But it benefits fully from the restraint and talent of its era.

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.

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.