• Source: The Iron Duke (film)

      • The Iron Duke is a 1934 British historical film directed by Victor Saville and starring George Arliss, Ellaline Terriss and Gladys Cooper. Arliss plays Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington in the events leading up to the Battle of Waterloo and beyond.


      Plot


      With Napoleon defeated and exiled, the reluctant Duke of Wellington is persuaded by Lord Castelreagh to represent Great Britain's interests at the Congress of Vienna, where the victorious allies will decide the future of Europe. While there, his friend the Duchess of Richmond introduces the married man to the pretty Lady Frances Webster, an ardent admirer, at her ball. During the course of the evening, however, Wellington receives an urgent message: Napoleon has escaped and has landed in France.
      French King Louis XVIII and his niece and most trusted adviser, Madame, the Duchess d'Angoulême, are not alarmed in the least. Ney, formerly one of Napoleon's marshals, volunteers to take 4000 picked men and capture his former leader. However, he switches sides, and the majority of Frenchmen follow suit.
      With France once again under Napoleon's control, both sides race to gather their armies. Napoleon routs the Prussians under Marshal Blücher before coming to grips with his old nemesis Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo. At the crucial point of the battle, Blücher's timely arrival turns the tide, and Napoleon is defeated for the final time.
      The allies occupy France and gather in Paris to divide the spoils. Once again, Castelreagh sends Wellington to try to restrain the others from punishing France too severely, in order to ensure a lasting peace. Wellington's task is made more difficult by the opposition of Madame, who is certain he wants to rule France himself.
      Wellington warns Louis that Madame's desire to have the still-popular Ney executed for treason would risk another revolution. Madame arranges for Wellington's recall to London to answer a newspaper story that he is carrying on an affair with Lady Frances. Wellington soon disproves the claim, but while he is gone, Ney is convicted and shot by firing squad. The French people are outraged. Upon his return, Wellington forces the King to dismiss his advisers, including Madame.
      Back in London, Wellington has to defend his decision to accept no reparations for his country.


      Cast


      George Arliss as Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
      Ellaline Terriss as Catherine Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington
      Gladys Cooper as Madame, Duchess d'Angoulême
      A. E. Matthews as Lord Hill
      Allan Aynesworth as Louis XVIII
      Lesley Wareing as Lady Frances Webster
      Emlyn Williams as Bates, the reporter who writes the story that bedevils Wellington
      Edmund Willard as Marshal Ney
      Norma Varden as Charlotte Lennox, Duchess of Richmond
      Felix Aylmer as Lord Uxbridge
      Gerald Lawrence as Lord Castelreagh
      Gibb McLaughlin as Talleyrand
      Farren Soutar as Count Metternich
      Walter Sondes as James Wedderburn Webster, Lady Frances' jealous husband
      Frederick Leister as King of Prussia
      Gyles Isham as Czar of Russia
      Annie Esmond as Denise
      Paddy Naismith as Lady Frances' Maid (as Paddie Naismith)
      Ernest Jay as First Orderly
      G. H. Mulcaster as First Delegate
      Frank Freeman as Second Delegate
      Franklin Dyall as Marshal Blücher
      Campbell Gullan as D'Artois
      Norman Shelley as Pozzo di Borgo
      Peter Gawthorne as Duke of Richmond


      Reception


      The film was the ninth most popular at the British box office in 1935–36.
      The New York Times reviewer wrote, "The Iron Duke can be recommended to Mr. Arliss's admirers everywhere as a pseudo-historical drama which manages to be both impressive and amusing and which reveals the star at his very best". The Maclean's magazine critic complained that "The picture went on quite a long time after Waterloo, however, without a great deal of story to go on" and that "George Arliss, however, with his familiar blend of elderly gentlemanly oddity and amiability, didn't seem very fortunately cast as a warrior, especially a warrior on the grand scale of the Duke of Wellington."
      More recently, TV Guide gave the film two out of four stars, and wrote, "Not only are the pace and direction of The Iron Duke uninspired and haphazard, but the script is rife with historical inaccuracies, the glossing over of less flattering events, and definite misrepresentation in the case of Marshal Ney's (Willard) execution". Britmovie called the film a "colourful yet flat historical drama", though it praised George Arliss, "who was skilled at playing historical characters and delivers a typically perceptive performance."


      Notes




      References


      Wedderburn, Alexander Dundas Ogilvy (1898), The Wedderburn book: a history of the Wedderburns in the counties of Berwick, and Forfar, Printed for private circulation


      External links


      The Iron Duke at the British Film Institute
      The Iron Duke at IMDb
      The Iron Duke at the TCM Movie Database
      ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› The Iron Duke at AllMovie

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