The Prime Minister. A Review

THE PRIME MINISTER

In the Victorian era, the dominant political forces were Her Majesty's Prime Ministers, the rivals William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. It says much about how history remembers them that while the latter has had at least three film and television biopics, the former hasn't even had one. The Prime Minister should be judged, in part, on when the film was made. With a correct central performance, The Prime Minister does not give us a great deal about the Earl of Beaconsfield but manages to do a respectable job.

Young foppish dandy Benjamin Disraeli (John Gielgud) is a young man in a hurry, at least on the artistic side. While he does have an interest in politics, he is unsure if he should devote his life to this line. He finds a champion in Mary Lewis Wyndham (Diana Wynyard), the widow of a Member of Parliament who finds Disraeli's writings thrilling. Pity that she did not know what Disraeli actually looked like until she inadvertently gave him a coach ride where she intended to formally meet him. Horrified by this unintended encounter, she flees and temporarily withholds her support.

The man of destiny, however, cannot and will not be denied. With the ascension of Queen Victoria, Disraeli now finally enters political life. He also enters marriage to Mary, with them having fallen in love with each other. Dizzy at first bombs his maiden Parliament speech and thinks he is destined as an also-ran. An unexpected mentor in his political frenemy Lord Peel (Nicholas Hannon) helps him overcome his initial stumbles. He then continues to face off against Gladstone (Stephen Murray) for the direction of government. Dizzy continues to rise in Conservative Party politics, with Mary forever on his side. He even has the tacit support of Queen Victoria (Fay Compton) who looks on Dizzy as a friend. Eventually, Disraeli triumphantly rises to Prime Minister, bringing peace through force in shrewd moves against the Germanic/Slavic union what would reduce Britain to slavery.

The Prime Minister was released in 1941, when the British Empire faced its greatest crisis. As such, there is something vaguely if not overtly propagandistic in the film. At one point, Disraeli insists that the Germans and Russians should be confronted rather than appeased. Appeasement to autocrats (in this case the Kaiser and the Czar) would be disastrous. One must not be afraid to use force for peace, Disraeli argues. It is not a stretch to see that Disraeli railing against appeasement to autocrats spoke more about the Second World War than it did about the Russo-Turkish War. When Disraeli is insisting that force is sometimes needed for peace, Gielgud is almost looking directly into the camera.

The message is clear: The Prime Minister is aimed at contemporary audiences who needed reminding of what Britian was and needed to be to fight on. As such, The Prime Minister loses a bit of its intended subject matter. We do not get much about what drove Dizzy to take on politics.

We do see a bit more of Disraeli the man. John Gielgud was more interested in stage acting than film acting early in his career, which makes The Prime Minister a bit of a surprise. He is a bit theatrical in the film, prone to great poses and grandiose movements. However, I imagine that this is how the real Benjamin Disraeli was, someone who thrived in being a bit over-the-top. Therefore, I do not think badly of Gielgud's performance.

The grand manner to the acting, however, does plague a lot of the performances. Pamela Standish is briefly on screen as Princess Victoria right before she is told that she is now Queen. I found her declarations of love for country rather overdone even for the occasion. I was surprised to find that The Prime Minister has Benjamin Disraeli being a silent witness to Victoria receiving the news that she is Queen. This is, I think, ahistorical, but I do not begrudge this detail. It does add the requisite drama.

Diana Wynyard is again rather grand and dare I say worshipful of Dizzy in the later scenes. To be fair, she was better early on, where she was allowed to be slightly cooky and coquettish as the Widow Lewis Wyndham. She also gets a long illness to milk as an actress, so there is that. 

One element in The Prime Minister which works well is the makeup work. You do believe that Benjamin and Mary Disraeli are aging. You also have a very convincing look to Gielgud's Benjamin Disraeli. 

I found The Prime Minister respectable, a bit dry, trying to build up a case as to Dizzy's greatness. However, in the back of my mind I remember that The Prime Minister was less about Benjamin Disraeli and the Victorian Era than it is about Winston Churchill and the Georgian Era of George VI. While not a definitive portrait of the Earl of Beaconsfield, The Prime Minister is an acceptable choice.

1804-1881

DECISION: C+