A cardinal is arrested for treason against the state. He is a popular hero of his people, for his resistance against the Nazis during the war and his resistance when his country again fell to a totalitarian conqueror. In prison, his interrogator is determined to extract a confession of guilt, and thus destroy his power over his people.
This classic film reveals how the great composer Georg Friedrich Handel rose above the personal anguish and difficulties in his life to create the sublime musical composition, The Messiah.
During the First World War a group of British soldiers serving on the Western Front stage a comic performance of the play East Lynne to entertain their comrades.