The Great Mr. Handel

The Great Mr. Handel
Directed by	Norman Walker
Written by	Lawrence du Garde Peach Gerald Elliott Victor MacLure
Produced by	James B. Sloan
Starring	Wilfrid Lawson Elizabeth Allan Malcolm Keen Michael Shepley
Cinematography	Jack Cardiff Claude Friese-Greene
Edited by	Sam Simmonds
Music by	George Frideric Handel Ernest Irving
Production company	G.H.W. Productions
Distributed by	General Film Distributors
Release date	9 November 1942
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Great Mr. Handel is a 1942 British Technicolor historical film directed by Norman Walker and starring Wilfrid Lawson, Elizabeth Allan and Malcolm Keen. 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.

Production and release

The film was made by the Rank Organisation at Denham 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.

Main 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

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.

External links

• The Great Mr. Handel at IMDb