The Prime Minister (1941)

Director: Thorold Dickinson

Cast: John Gielgud, Diana Wynyard, Will Fyffe

Synopsis: The life of Benjamin Disraeli.

Watching this dismal movie was like being forced to watch educational programmes at school – dull, desperately boring, and seemingly interminable. Having said that, Thorold Dickinson’s The Prime Minister seems to speed through Disraeli’s career; episodic to such a degree that people age thirty years from one scene to the next, each episode is so short that it is impossible to become truly involved in the story. The film was obviously a war-time propaganda piece, and the symbolism is embarrassingly heavy-handed, even for the early Forties. The acting is adequate, although John Gielgud (The Elephant Man, Gandhi) sometimes hams chronically, especially as the elder Disraeli.

(Reviewed 13th March 2002)