The Young Mr Pitt
| The Young Mr Pitt | |
|---|---|
 A scene from the film | |
| Directed by | Carol Reed |
| Written by |
Frank Launder & Sidney Gilliat (screenplay); Viscount Castlerosse (additional dialogue and original novel) |
| Starring |
Robert Donat, Robert Morley, Herbert Lom, Ronald Shiner |
| Music by | Louis Levy |
| Cinematography | Freddie Young |
| Edited by | R.E. Dearing |
Release dates | 21 September 1942 |
Running time | 118 min |
| Country | United Kingdom & United States |
| Language | English |
The Young Mr Pitt is a 1942 British biographical film, directed by Carol Reed and starring Robert Donat, Robert Morley and John Mills.[1] Made in black-and-white, it was produced by Edward Black and Maurice Ostrer for the British subsidiary of 20th Century Fox.
Outline
A biopic, made in wartime, of William Pitt the Younger, it concerns his struggle against revolutionary France and Napoleon. Pitt, son of William Pitt the Elder, becomes the youngest Prime Minister that the United Kingdom has ever known at 24, wins an election on the promise of peace and prosperity, yet ironically ends up as the presiding spirit of an interminable war with Revolutionary France. Both his health and his private life suffer from the strain. The period costumes were designed by Cecil Beaton and Elizabeth Haffenden.
Similar parallels with the struggle against Hitler's Germany were implied in That Hamilton Woman (aka, Lady Hamilton, 1941), made by Alexander Korda in the United States[2] with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in the leads.
Cast
- Robert Donat as William Pitt
- Robert Morley as Charles James Fox
- Phyllis Calvert as Eleanor Eden
- John Mills as William Wilberforce
- Geoffrey Atkins as William Pitt, as a boy
- Jean Cadell as Mrs. Sparry
- Raymond Lovell as George III
- Agnes Lauchlan as Queen Charlotte
- Felix Aylmer as Lord North
- Ian McLean as Dundas
- Max Adrian as Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- A. Bromley Davenport as Sir Evan Nepean
- Herbert Lom[3] as Napoleon
- Albert Lieven as Talleyrand
- Stephen Haggard as Horatio Nelson
- Stuart Lindsell as Earl Spencer
- Henry Hewitt as Addington
- Frederick Culley as Sir William Farquhar
- Frank Pettingell as Coachman
- Leslie Bradley as Gentleman Jackson
- Roy Emerton as Dan Mendoza
- Hugh McDermott as Mr. Melvill
- Alfred Sangster as Lord Grenville
- Kathleen Byron as Millicent Grey (uncredited)
- Gordon James (uncredited)
- Ronald Shiner as the Man In Stocks (uncredited)
References
- ↑ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/58942?view=cast
- ↑ Patricia Warren British Film Studios: An Illustrated History, London: B.T. Batsford, 2001, p.33, 145
- ↑ In his first English-speaking role
External links
- The Young Mr Pitt at AllMovie
- The Young Mr Pitt at the British Film Institute's Film and TV Database
- The Young Mr Pitt at the Internet Movie Database