Before he was famous, Evelyn Waugh and a few of his fellow students created this hilariously irreverent short film. Waugh had not yet become a Catholic, and is satirical at the expense of the Church, but still more merciless in his treatment of the British Establishment: the real name of "Derek Erskine", who played the King, will probably never be known, as he was a Guardsman and knew that he would be kicked out of his regiment if he was ever identified as the man mocking the monarch from behind that false beard. Four real figures of the day appear amid the fictional throng: the Pope is portrayed as a Machiavellian conspirator, the King as a pompous booby, the Prince of Wales as a dissolute, weak-willed young libertine; while the Dean of Balliol (Waugh's own college*) comes off worst of all. ("My son! With the Dean of Balliol!" exclaims the King. "Act quickly, Kettering!") Waugh himself proves as fine a comic actor as he was a writer, in the double roles of the predatory Dean and parasitic Lord Borrowington, while Elsa Lanchester (making her cinematic debut) is delightful as the coke-sniffing chorus girl who exposes the "Popish Plot". The evil cardinal's doddering, alcoholic mother, played by a man in drag (Lanchester is the only female cast member) and flirting with the Pope, is another comic gem.
Waugh was a genius. If you can find this film (it's very difficult to obtain), I urge you to see it.
* Edit - d'oh! Of course, Waugh wasn't at Balliol. Thanks for the correction.
Waugh was a genius. If you can find this film (it's very difficult to obtain), I urge you to see it.
* Edit - d'oh! Of course, Waugh wasn't at Balliol. Thanks for the correction.