Word: arliss
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...elderly and distinguished British actor, eager to be knighted by his King, the business of impersonating heroes in his country's history is eminently sound. The only error made by George Arliss was in choosing two who performed on the same world stage about the same time. In The House of Rothschild (in which Wellington was impersonated by C. Aubrey Smith), Actor Arliss suggested to cinema audiences that Waterloo was a minor crisis in the affairs of a Jewish financier. In The Iron Duke, though Rothschild does not appear at all, Arliss' invariable mannerisms are so reminiscent that...
...Duke of Wellington, George Arliss gives an able and highly entertaining portrayal of how Mr. George Arliss would have conducted himself had he been in command of the army which defeated Bonaparte at Waterloo. Physically, of course, he does not come up to the heroic proportions with which we have mentally endowed the great general, and when he totteringly asseverates that he is "a soldier, not a politician," we somehow assume that Disraeli is indulging in a charming bit of modesty. The real Wellington would have been less adept in saluting the sophisticated ladies of the French court, less solicitious...
Although George Arliss makes the picture what it is, his cast ably supports him. Charlotte Henry has outgrown "Alice in Wonderland", but still looks a little too much like Shirley Temple for a mature part...
...usual, Mr. Arliss is himself in an excellent comedy production, and this time he is not hampered by the exactions of an historical role. Cabot Barr--for some reason not entirely clear, the last gentleman--is a crotchety old New Englander, who delights in insulting the lesser members of his family. And it is a compliment to his ability that he can insult them, for they are a pretty scaly lot. His sister Augusta (Edna May Oliver) is a scrawny, self-starting weeper; his only son (Donald Meek) is a fawning, scheming hypocrite, who spends his time making a record...
...Last Gentleman (Twentieth Century). For crotchety old Cabot Barr (George Arliss) life in his Barrville manor house is not all beer and skittles. His collection of 106 clocks, his fancy for stuffed peacocks on his lawn, annoy his son Judd (Donald Meek), a small, bald, middle-aged lowlife. The Barrs-son, daughter, two daughters-in-law, granddaughter and adopted grandson-are introduced in The Last Gentleman at a family memorial service for a deceased niece which Cabot Barr arranges because he is not, he says, "the sort of man who gives Christmas parties." They reassemble at Cabot Barrs summer camp...