“You can tell his Disraeli from his Voltaire because the former has a spit curl on his forehead and the latter wears a mobcap, and it’s in the scrupulous deployment of makeup and costume that Arliss shines. Not that he stints as an actor – he gives it all he’s got, and though that’s often far too much, it’s honest work; he believes in these creations, and he has great charm if you don’t mind its calculated quality. Actually, what you’re seeing here is the last traces of English stage acting from the turn of the century.”
From David Thomson’s The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated