The Great Mr. Handel

{{Infobox film

| name = The Great Mr. Handel

| image = "The_Great_Mr._Handel"_(1942).jpg

| caption =

| director = Norman Walker

| producer = James B. Sloan

| writer = {{ubl|Lawrence du Garde Peach|Gerald Elliott|Victor MacLure}}

| narrator =

| starring = {{ubl|Wilfrid Lawson|Elizabeth Allan|Malcolm Keen|Michael Shepley}}

| music = {{ubl|George Frideric Handel|Ernest Irving}}

| cinematography = {{ubl|Jack Cardiff|Claude Friese-Greene}}

| editing = Sam Simmonds

| studio = G.H.W. Productions

| distributor = General Film Distributors

| released = {{Film date|1942|11|09|df=yes}}

| runtime = 98 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

The Great Mr. Handel is a 1942 British Technicolor historical film directed by Norman Walker and starring Wilfrid Lawson, Elizabeth Allan and Malcolm Keen.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ab83dcc|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104205934/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ab83dcc|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 November 2016|title=The Great Mr. Handel (1942)}} The film is a biopic of the 18th-century German-British composer Georg Friedrich Händel, focusing in particular on the years leading up to his 1741 oratorio Messiah.{{Cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-great-mr-handel-v93788|title = The Great Mr. Handel (1942) - Norman Walker | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie}}

Plot

Cast

Wilfrid Lawson as George Frideric Handel
Elizabeth Allan as Mrs. Cibber
Malcolm Keen as Lord Chesterfield
Michael Shepley as Sir Charles Marsham
Max Kirby as Frederick, Prince of Wales
Hay Petrie as Phineas
Morris Harvey as John Heidegger
A. E. Matthews as Charles Jennens
Frederick Cooper as Pooley
Andrew Leigh as Captain Coram

Production and release

The film was made by the Rank Organisation at Denham Film Studios, using Technicolor. After a private screening, the company head J. Arthur Rank criticised its lack of glamorous appeal. The film was not a box office success on its release.Macnab p.52

References

Bibliography

Harper, Sue. Picturing the Past: The Rise and Fall of the British Costume Film. British Film Institute, 1994.
Macnab, Geoffrey. J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry. Routledge, 1994.
Murphy, Robert. Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain, 1939-1949. Routledge, 1989.