THE PRIME MINISTER
UK, 1940, 109 minutes, Black and white.
John Gielgud, Diana Wynyard, Will Fyffe, Stephen Murray, Owen Nares, Fay Compton, Lyn Harding, Leslie Perrins.
Directed by Thorold Dickinson.
The Prime Minister is a biography of Benjamin Disraeli. He had been portrayed to great effect by George Arliss on screen in his Oscar-winning performance in Disraeli.
This is a British film, although financed by Warner Bros. and American money in the early years of World War Two. It provides a star vehicle for John Gielgud, who appeared comparatively rarely in films in the '30s and '40s. Diana Wynyard is Maryanne Lewis, his wife. Gielgud is more persuasive as the older Disraeli than as the younger, probably on account of his articulation, skill in stage presence and manner. Fay Compton appears as Queen Victoria.
The film is a mixture of tribute, biography and pageant, a British version of many of the biography films made by William Dieterle at Warner Bros around this time.
1. The film as history, portrait, biography? Period, 19th. century Britain? Britain in the early 1940s? and the threat of Hitler and his invasion, Germany and its antagonism towards Britain?
2. Black and white photography, re-creation of 19th century London? The cast and John Gielgud and his stage presence and style? Speech? Musical score?
3. The narrative and its highlighting incidents in Disraeli's life and career? Continuity, narrative? Captions and information? The passing of the years? Narrative and drama? Pageant?
4. The initial focus: Maryanne meeting Disraeli, discussions about his novel, status, ideals, ambition? The clash between the two? The croquet game, parliamentarians, Lord Melbourne and possibilities? The death of the King?
5. Maryanne and her position, influence in the election, reading and dreaming about Disraeli, interest, pressuring the party? Going to the dance, her jealousy? The proposal? Going to his first speech and his humiliation? The marriage? Her support? 37 years? Ageing, illness? Her pressure on Derby to take the ministry? Her visit to the Queen and Disraeli's comment on the honour? Her death, her letter to Disraeli? A force in his life?
6. John Gielgud's style as Disraeli? Novelist, ideals, the encounter with Maryanne, listening to her, remembering her words, croquet and his success, the friendship with Lord Melbourne, yet the political opposition? The election, his maiden speech and his anger? The Chartists and their demonstrations? Meeting Maryanne, the proposal, marriage? His successful speech? Defeating Melbourne? The passing of 37 years and his slow political climb? Confrontations with Gladstone? His sense of destiny? His background, self-made, Jewish? Derby and his principles and resignation if Derby did not become a minister? The Queen and the honour? The Empire, buying of the Suez Canal, alliance with the Turks, clashes with Cabinet, the mobilising of the Indian regiments? The parliamentary confrontation? The support of the Queen? The dinner with Bismarck? His triumph and the preservation of Empire? Dreams of Commonwealth? His political career, personal life and his love for Maryanne, his presence at her death? Grief and sharing it with the Queen? Earl Beaconsfield?
7. Lord Melbourne and 19th. century politics, the parties, Gladstone and Peel, the Liberals and the Conservatives, the industrialists, the Chartist revolution, the Commonwealth and Empire?
8. Europe and allies, threat to England? Bismarck and his shadow over the map of Europe? The collage of newspaper items indicating political clashes? War and peace? Thirty years to World War One?
9. The portrait of Queen Victoria, as a young girl, accession to the throne? As the aged Queen, her grief for Albert, her shrewdness about German politics? Prepared to take responsibility?
10. Cabinet, cabinet ministers, Disraeli's ability to rule them? His coup as regards Bismarck and the Russians? The dinner with Bismarck?
11. Insight into a politician and Empire? A tribute?
