Friday, July 1, 2022

The Life Story of David Lloyd George (1918)

A bio-pic made on an epic scale of the wartime prime minister (and hero), but never shown at the time and thought lost until discovered 75 years later and finally shown to the public.



This film had the blessing of Lloyd George and his family, it starts off with photos of his birth certificate and him as a baby! We see the actual house he grew up in and various scenes from his life are dramatised by actors. Some scenes are on a massive scale with thousands of extras!

The film is quite propaganda-ish in feel at times (despite that the Liberal Party had the film suppressed for fear of harming Lloyd George before the election). Obviously being a silent movie quite a lot of the impact of various dramatic speeches he made are lost! The film is a remarkable achievement, though watchable mostly due to it's historic value and novelty more than anything else.