The Young Mr. Pitt | |
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Directed by | Carol Reed |
Written by | Frank Launder Sidney Gilliat Viscount Castlerosse (additional dialogue and original novel) |
Starring | Robert Donat Robert Morley Phyllis Calvert John Mills |
Cinematography | Freddie Young |
Edited by | R. E. Dearing |
Music by | Louis Levy |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 118 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Young Mr. Pitt is a 1942 British biographical film of the life of William Pitt the Younger and in particular his struggle against revolutionary France and Napoleon. It was directed by Carol Reed and stars Robert Donat, Robert Morley, Phyllis Calvert and John Mills.[1] Made in black-and-white, it was produced by Edward Black and Maurice Ostrer for the British subsidiary of 20th Century Fox.
It was filmed as the Second World War was raging. Similar parallels with the struggle against Hitler's Germany were implied in That Hamilton Woman (aka Lady Hamilton, 1941), made by Alexander Korda in the United States[2] with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in the leads. Several of the speeches which Pitt makes against Napoleon are actually the words of Churchill in relation to Hitler, in particular the "we stand alone" speech from 1940.