Greer Garson, Trevor Howard and Denholm Elliott star in "The Invincible Mr. Disraeli," with guest stars Hurd Hatfield, Kate Reid, Eric Berry, and Geoffrey Kean. Originally broadcast in 1963.
A very delightful play, where Trevor Howard was The Perfect casting selection due to his OWN "natural" obstinance woven thru sardonic wit!!! *THX* Alan Eichler..... very enjoyable. 👌
Fabulous historical-drama with superb cast! Trevor Howard triumphantly portrays Mr. Disraeli. Greer Garson fine as his wife, still lovely & spry in 1963. Kate Reid simply marvelous as Victoria. Although many great actresses over the years have portrayed the fabled monarch in both movies & TV productions, I was most impressed with Ms. Reids'. She really brought the queen to life in a way I don't think I've ever seen done quite so skillfully before, as both regal & human. My favorite scene of this excellent drama was the first meeting between Disraeli & Victoria---just fantastic! I'm a huge fan of this era in British political history which I find fascinating. Both Disraeli & Gladstone were true giants of the age. Geoffrey Keene as the latter was quite good in this, too. I really didn't want this program to end. I'm sure I'll be indulging myself with it again in the near future. Now, then, gentlemen, I believe we were discussing the Suez Canal, were we not?
So wonderfully done ! A pleasure to watch. This was recommended to me by the YT algorithm as I had just watched the 4 part series of " Disraeli" a 1978 BBC production starring the great Ian McShane in the title role, which was also thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you BBC and YT.
What a treat to see the great Kate Reid as Queen Victoria! She brought every part she played to brilliant, dazzling life, and Victoria R is no exception. A sadly underrated actress. Thank God we have video and film documentation of her luminous art. Thank you so much for the upload!
Trevor Howard never gave a bad performance whether it was Brief Encounter, Battle of Britain, or indeed Disraeli. His peers obviously thought he gave a good performance. He won an emmy for his portrayal.
I really enjoyed this film. I'm watching as many as I can on the subject of Disraeli at the moment. I've read a biography recently and also purchased his novel "Sybil". On a side note, Nick Mat is correct as to the date of the film. The date is shown as MCMLXXXIII which is 1983. That should be corrected in the description. Otherwise, thank you for uploading this. You've made a lot of people happy.
I feel so lucky to have seen this T.V. movie. Thank you, YT. So many of my acting favorites are in the cast; Mr. Howard, Mr. Hatfield, Ms. Garson and Ms. Reid. I also must thank Mr. Lee for his splendid screenplay, and for illuminating the great wit and wisdom of Lord Beaconsfield. I feel so proud that he and I are members of the same race. His achievements were great. Both fathers of Benjamin Disraeli and Felix Mendelssohn had their children accepted into the Christian faith because of practical means to shield their children from the anti-Semitism that permeated society; assuming the ancient hatred would not prevent the professional successes to which the children would aspire. Unfortunately, that plan did not completely work. Original family roots would be used as ammunition. However, Benjamin, Felix and Fanny excelled.
History made more palatable than usual. Thank you for sharing this "excessively honest" portrayal of Disraeli/s, Gladstone, Queen Victoria, Baron Rothschild and Mr. Corry. Semper vivent.
Great to have this. For the curious, this was part of the periodic HALLMARK HALL OF FAME series. Trevor Howard won an acting Emmy for his role and another was given for the camera work. Show racked up a further four nominations: for Kate Reid and Hurd Hatfield and for writing and directing.
"I've never been serious; I've always been critical", (referring to his health). I think I would put Disraeli on my list of "Five Dead People You'd Like At Dinner". Imagination the conversation!
The Speaker doesn’t have a gavel, Robert Peel left office 4 years before dying and Queen Victoria grew to like Disraeli while he was Chancellor under Lord Derby.
At times, Disraeli fires off one-liners like a machine gun. I had to keep pausing it until I caught my breath after laughing so hard. And no one compared to Garson.
With the exception of one very awkward and ahistorical scene where Disraeli "confesses" his manipulation of Victoria to her face, this was in many speeches, a quite faithful rendering. Although the author replaces Disraeli's disastrous maiden speech with a more cogent defense of Rothschild's right to take his seat in Parliament it certainly makes sense from the dramatic perspective. Additional liberties taken with the omission of his great triumph at the Congress of Berlin and "Peace with Honor" which brought him to the pinnacle of his fame, notwithstanding. Great performances from brilliant actors and actresses make this a jewel.
Queen victoria wasnt afraid to rebuke her parliament when the occasion arose More vocal than other monarchs who followed her Gladstone especially for Not rescuing Gordon at Khartoum!
From the get go, the timeline of this piece is all over the place, to the point of complete confusion. At the time of Peel's 1841 election victory, Queen Victoria was a vivacious young lady of 23, not a middle aged matron; Montagu Corry was 3 years old; Gladstone was a Conservative backbencher, not the leader of a party that didn't yet exist; and Disraeli, far from being the spokesman of the Conservative party, was a backbencher whom most of his own party distrusted, and who had only been in parliament for four years. The makers of this seem to have wanted to present the drama of the Corn Law crisis of the 1840s but crowbar into it the personal and political animosity of Disraeli and Gladstone in the 1860s and 70s. The result is a bewildering mess of a narrative. Still, nice to see Greer Garson as Mary Ann Disraeli.
It was visually poor, the sets looked borrowed from Crossroads & the wigs & make-up was like icing & Victoria's get up looked like hands me down. Trevor Howard was fine but he's a movie star actor & rarely do they transition from cinema screen to TV screen very well.
