Product: The Great Mr. Handel [VHS] (1942)
Rating: 3.0
Handel: Secular and Sacred
I never knew this 1942 British film existed and while it simplifies Handel's life and implies that the Composer and The Deity co-authored The Messiah, it is an enjoyable curiosity on several points .The liner notes indicate it was the first Technicolor feature done under natural lighting conditions. The colors in the well preserved DVD transfer print were indeed more "natural" than the hyper-realism you get from Hollywood Technicolor of the same period. The biggest shock came right away in hearing the music performed by a huge orchestra (The London Philharmonic) with a monolithic Mahlerian sound that makes the MET's recent production of his opera Rodelinda seem like the last word in period performance practice.There is not much music for a film honoring a composer the title itself proclaims as "Great" - mainly because at the time it was made Handel = Messiah and not much else. You get a snippet or two from Faramondo (I think...), Acis and Galatea, and "Ombra mai fu" from Serse - all of it performed as if it were Puccini. Elizabeth Allen is Susannah Cibber, though I couldn't tell who dubbed her singing voice. During Serse the various permutations and extendings of her arms made me think she was going to launch into "Stormy Weather" or "The man (Tree, I suppose in thiscase...) that got away."The first half of the movie held the most interest for me - an amusing summary of the various political machinations Handel, Heidegger, and their opera company got mixed up with, ultimately leading to Handel's fall from fashion and near bankruptcy. The character of Mrs. Cibber becomes the repository for all the Cuzzoni / Bordoni type of Prima Donna Handel had to contend with and therefore it is Mrs. Cibber he threatens to throw out the window while referring to himself as the Devil. She also functions as a sort of protective Muse, looking out for the reclusive, crotchety genius when he is unable to take care of himself.The movie turns sanctimonious after the bankrupt, now passe Handel suffers a serious illness. Largely through orchestral transcriptions, Messiah begins to take shape in his mind, aided by a series of religious tableaux he imagines while looking through a big picture window . Mrs. Cibber comes back into his life, sings a bit of "He was Despised," we get the Hallelujah chorus, George II stands, and the movie abruptly ends.Even though he lacked Handel's imposing bulk as seen in many of the contemporary paintings, Wilfrid Lawson maintains a convincing balance between the eccentric and the comedic. It would have been easy to play him with lots of rolled "r's" in Sig Ruman / S.Z. Sakall / Hermann Bing mode, but Lawson never looses sight of Handel's dignity and genius.