AllMovie

When it debuted in 1953, The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan catered to middle-brow music fans eager to dissolve into a world of rousing light opera, vivid images, and a script that takes to heart Mark Twain's famous writing admonition: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Viewers got what they wanted -- a potpourri of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta favorites in stereophonic sound, colorful period and stage costumes photographed in brazen Technicolor, and a plot that sometimes thumbs its nose at historical accuracy in order to better amuse and entertain. In other words, The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan is a good, old-fashioned, '50s-style biodrama that tickles the senses without taxing the intellect. Based on The Gilbert and Sullivan Book by Leslie Baily, the film is a jolly good show, moving along at a comfortable pace with the always animated Robert Morley in the role of lyricist Sir William Swenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and the always distinguished Maurice Evans in the role of his partner, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900). Both actors perform ably, in spite of sometimes uninspiring dialogue, as Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate on their operettas, most of which spoof highfalutin English manners and customs. Peter Finch also performs well as Gilbert and Sullivan's producer and partner, Richard D'Oyly Carte, who founds an opera company, the D'Oyly Carte, to perform the operettas, and builds a theater, the Savoy, to stage them. Although Gilbert and Sullivan's music is not exactly high art, it is diverting; and in this film it gets loving treatment from the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Malcolm Sargent.