Dir: Henry King | Cast: Alexander Knox, Geraldine Fitzgerald | US Biopic 154’
James Agee paid a backhanded tribute to the ambition of Darryl Zanuck when he began his review that “‘Wilson’ is by no means the first film in which one might watching Hollywood hopping about on one foot trying to put on long pants”.
It was certainly brave of Zanuck to lavish a £4 million budget on an ambitious Technicolor biography on the founder of The League of Nations in wartime and bold to entrust to actor rather than a star, he rather hedges his bets by convincing he’s just a regular guy by devoting far too much footage to Wilson cheering on baseball matches and sing songs round the old piano; although for the connoisseur seeing the likes of Marcel Dalio as Clemenceau has its pleasures. @RichardChatten