The Great Mr. Handel is a 1942 British Technicolor historical film directed by Norman Walker and starring Wilfrid Lawson, Elizabeth Allan and Malcolm Keen.[1] 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.[2]

The Great Mr. Handel
Directed byNorman Walker
Written by
Produced byJames B. Sloan
Starring
Cinematography
Edited bySam Simmonds
Music by
Production
company
G.H.W. Productions
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors
Release date
  • 9 November 1942 (1942-11-09)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot edit

Cast edit

Production and release edit

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.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ "The Great Mr. Handel (1942)". Archived from the original on 4 November 2016.
  2. ^ "The Great Mr. Handel (1942) - Norman Walker | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".
  3. ^ Macnab p.52

Bibliography edit

  • 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 edit