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This light musical comedy was thought lost for many years until its reappearance in the early 1990s after a hunt initiated by the British Film Institute.
His Lordship was not well-received on its release in 1932 (when it was reportedly booed by audiences), but it has a certain charm, and is interesting for the way it anticipates Powell's experimentation with musical cinema in later works like Tales of Hoffmann (1951) and Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955). It is also a rare example of Powell explicitly tackling issues of class - of his major works, only The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) has much to say on the subject.
The screenplay by Ralph Smart - from a novel by Oliver Madox Hueffer - has an interesting premise: a humble and well-meaning plumber, Bert (Jerry Verno), attempts to hide the peerage he has inherited from his father, a leading Labour politician, from his fiancée, the uncompromising idealist Leninia (Janet Megrew).
But the film is undermined by a weak attempt at political and social satire, peddling a selection of stereotypes, including a pair of corrupt fake revolutionaries - played as over-the-top pantomime villains by Michael Hogan and V.C. Clinton Baddeley - a status-obsessed Hollywood starlet and her ruthlessly manipulative agent, and a gormless aristocrat.
Star Jerry Verno made four films with Powell in the 1930s, and reappeared 15 years later with a supporting role in The Red Shoes (1948).
Mark Duguid
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A momentous wedding (8:42)
Production stills
