Check your listings to watch these two George Arliss Classics during the first week of April.
On April 1st is GA’s Best Actor Academy Award winning film, DISRAELI . An early talkie filmed during the stifling summer of 1929, and based on GA’s amazing 5-year theater run of the play, DISRAELI is told through a delightful series of intimate conversations that lead to a spellbinding climax.
The plot involves the British prime minister’s efforts to purchase the Suez Canal from Egypt before Russia can get its hands on it. This sounds, well, esoteric, doesn’t it? But therein lies the power of this film (and why the play ran for five years, plus two revivals, a 1921 silent film version, and also a 1938 radio adaptation that was heard live around the world).
Tune in on April 1st to discover what all the excitement was about.
Next on Friday, April 7 at 4:15 PM EDT is the “first version” of the recent hit Broadway musical, HAMILTON. GA co-wrote the play – no musical numbers in this version – that tells the story of the first Secretary of the Treasury’s extramarital affair. When this film was made in the Spring of 1931 it was decided to rename it ALEXANDER HAMILTION, perhaps to avoid confusion with the British Lord Hamilton and his extramarital affair. Is this movie dry stuff? We think not. Check it out yourself.
ARLISS ARCHIVES 
I am so excited! I saw Disraeli on TCM a few years back and it made me a George Arliss fan for life. I haven’t been able to view it since. Thanks for the heads up!
They rarely seem to show GA films on UK channels. The only one I can recall seeing is Dr Syn.
Streaming is now to the younger generations, i.e., post Boomers, what TV once was to us. GA is well represented through both his US and UK films. I’m no authority but I just Google “George Arliss” and then search under “Video.”
If you can get Turner Classic Movies via Sky, that’s how I watch my Arliss films, seen some great ones the last couple years: Voltaire, Green Goddess, House of Rothschild (which is on YouTube), A Successful Calamity and the Man Who Played God.