Walter Huston plays the title role in this impressively-staged biopic of the imperialist. Attitudes to Rhodes have changed so much since this film was made that it is difficult to enjoy without thinking of the misery his actions lead to in Southern Africa.
Script adapt.: Michael Barringer, Miles Malleson, Leslie Arliss. (o.a.) Sarah Millin
Director: Berthold Viertel
Players: Oscar Homolka, Basil Sydney, Peggy Ashcroft, Frank Cellier, Renee de Vaux, Bernard Lee, Lewis Casson, Glennis Lorimer, Ndaniso Kumala
A riveter, working on a high building, takes a shine to a pretty young thing from the dance studio opposite. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm leads to a fall and a couple of broken ankles. The pretty young thing encourages him to take up tap to help his recovery and, when he finds he's developed a fear of heights, wangles him a job in the show she's starring in. Now he's only a few tippy-tap steps from stardom and romance. Will he get the lead and the girl? Of course, it's a musical!
This unlikely tale is loosely based on star Jack Donohue's real-life story. Once he was a skyscraper builder before injury forced him into a tap-dancing rehabilitation regime and leads in such musicals as Sunny, Rosalie and one of the Ziegfeld Follies. He was billed as the World's Fastest Tap Dancer, but his chief claim to fame is as the man who taught Eleanor Powell to tap.
In this film he is partnered by his real-life wife Tutta Rolf. Between his inability to carry a tune and her Nordic accent the songs are murdered, but they weren't worth saving anyway. What counts is the dancing and they generally deliver the goods. In the romantic numbers they come across like a cut-price Fred and Ginger, but in the livelier numbers they do well. He's like a big, friendly lumberjack and it's impossible not to warm to him as he taps like a wild thing.
Also along for the ride are Vic Oliver as an impresario, Leslie Perrins as the nasty choreographer, and best of all a brief turn by an uncredited Terry-Thomas as the drunken lead who needs to be replaced. He may be about twenty years away from stardom, but already his screen persona is fully formed.
Rhythm in the Air, despite its American star, was never going to compete with the best of the Hollywood musicals but it is an amusing way to spend an hour or so.
Script: Jack Donohue, Vina de Vesci
Director: Arthur Woods
Players: Kitty Kelly, Tony Sympson, Peter Popp, Charles Carson
A Chicago gangster realises a London bandleader is his double and persuades him to cross the Atlantic.
Never mind the plot, the real interest is in its star, Harry Roy, and the rather charming Busby-Berkley-on-a-budget numbers.
Script: John Byrd
Director: James Seymour
Players: Harry Roy, Princess Pearl, James Carew, Norma Varden, Johnny Hines, Johnny Schofild, Judith Wood, Georgie Harris, Pamela Randall, James Pirrie, Harry Roy's Band
Though she wants to join the services, a woman is kept in her factory and is persuaded to run a childcare for her fellow workers. She sets up shop at the home of a man who is not fighting, and falls for him despite his belief he's a coward.
Curious Vera Lynn vehicle which emphasises the importance of non-glamorous work to its home-front audience.
Script: Marjorie Deans, Basil Woon, Margaret Kennedy, Edward Dryhurst
Director: Gordon Wellesley
Players: Vera Lynn, Peter Murray Hill, Julien Mitchell, Charles Victor, Jimmy Jewel, Ben Warriss, Joss Amber, Rosalyn Boulter, Betty Jardine, Irene Handl, Lloyd Pearson, Jimmy Clitheroe, Joan Kemp-Welch, Aubrey Mallalieu, Maurice Rhodes, Peter Madden
A uptight young couple come into some cash and spend the money on a round the world trip that turns out more adventurous than they hoped.
This is possibly Hitchcock's weirdest film but it has bags of charm and a lot of the playfulness that would become his trademark.
Script adapt.: Val Valentine, Alma Reville, Alfred Hitchcock. (o.a. Dale Collins)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Players: Henry Kendall, Joan Barry, Percy Marmont, Betty Amann, Elsie Randolph, Hannah Jones, Aubrey Dexter
Utterly uncinematic front-of-stalls filming of F.R. Benson's Stratford Memorial Production. It does however provide a fascinating glimpse of pre-war stage practise.
Script: William Shakespeare
Players: Frank Benson, Constance Benson, Eric Maxon, Violet Fairbrother, Murray Carrington, Alfred Brydone, Harry Caine, Moffat Johnston, Marion Rathbone
A duke schemes his way to the throne, but can't hold on to it.
Olivier's performance is one of the most parodied in cinema history, but that's because it's so memorable.
Script adapt.: Alan Dent (o.a. William Shakespeare)
Director: Laurence Olivier, Anthony Bushell
Players: John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Alec Clunes, Claire Bloom, Cedric Hardwicke, Norman Wooland, Stanley Baker, Laurence Naismith, Pamela Brown, Mary Kerridge, Helen Haye, John Laurie, Esmond Knight, Michael Gough, Andrew Cruickshank, Clive Moreton, Nicholas Hannen, Russell Thorndike, Paul Huson, Stewart Allen, Wally Bascoe, Norman Fisher, Terence Greenidge, Dan Cunningham, Douglas Wilmer, Michael Ripper, Andy Shine, Roy Russell, George Woodbridge
Fairground boxer "One Round" Jack Sanders (Carl Brisson) gets beaten to a bloody pulp by a challenger who turns out to be the famous boxer Bob Corby (Ian Hunter). Despite this whipping, Jack is asked to join the same boxing stable as Bob. Jack's girlfriend (Lillian Hall Davis) gets the hots for Bob and carries on fancying him even after she marries Jack. Jack becomes aware of this and as he battles his way up the billing the stage is set for a final showdown with Bob.
That's the plot of what Hitchcock described as his second "Hitchcock" film and as you can tell, there are few of the elements we would recognise as essentially Hitchcock. There are no murders, no innocent young men on the run, the girl's even a brunette. Indeed, apart from setting the climax in a recognisable place (the Albert Hall) there's nothing here to suggest it's directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Nothing - except for the fact that it is excellent.
The film is full of the little touches and details that turn an ordinary story into memorable cinema: best man Gordon Harker picking his nose in church, the champagne going flat, the way the bracelet given to the girl snakes through the narrative. Best of all are the authentic-seeming details of life in the twenties particularly the fairground sequences and the very ordinary wedding feast.
The film's sexual politics are so antediluvian as to be refreshing. The girl (she's not given a name in the credits though some sources call her Nelly) changes her affections from one man to the other depending on which is on top, with no conscience. Few films have endorsed the Alpha-male theory with such enthusiasm.
Script: Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Players: Forrester Harvey, Harry Terry, Gordon Harker, Billy Wells
A crooked lawyer is in the sights on a master of disguise out for revenge for his dead sister.
The fourth screen version of Edgar Wallace's play avoids being a museum piece by having a top-grade cast playing it straight.
Script adapt.: Val Valentine, Lesley Storm. (o.a. Edgar Wallace)
Director: Guy Hamilton
Players: Herbert Lom, Donald Wolfit, Mai Zetterling, Greta Gynt, William Hartnell, Norman Wooland, Denholm Elliott, Charles Victor, Dora Bryan, Walter Fitzgerald, John Stuart, John Slater, Campbell singer
A police operation to foil diamond smugglers nets a young America radio operator used to unknowingly move the goods from a ship into London. Since she can recognise the next link in the chain, the gang gets nervous.
Not massively exciting, but it does feature a lot of location shooting in Docklands London which at least adds colour to the background.
Script: Rex Rienits
Director: Guy Green
Players: Phyllis Kirk, John Bentley, Robert Ayres, Ewan Roberts, Leonard White, Harold Ayer, Glyn Houston, Charles Lloyd Pack, David Hurst, Patrick Jordan, Margaret Anderson, Isabel George, Michael Balfour
Police investigate the shooting of a financier, but can't stop further murders from happening.
Standard whodunit, enlivened by Judy Gunn as a reporter determined to get a scoop.
Script adapt.: Selwyn Jepson, Leslie Landau (o.a. Andre Steedman)
Director: Albert Parker
Players: Basil Sydney, Judy Gunn, Alastair Sim, Tom Helmore, Ian Fleming, Reginald Tate, Martin Lewis, Aubrey Mallalieu, Zoe Davis
A struggling disc jockey tries to get his idea for a rock and roll TV show accepted.
Dramatically inert cheap rubbish that's just an excuse to showcase early British Rock 'n Roll acts. However, the cheapness does mean there's an authentically naff atmosphere to the club scenes. Though most of the acts are so obscure (and cheap) that even today they don't have Wikipedia entries, they can certainly rock the joint. Time has been kinder to the film than its contemporary critics.
Script: Beatrice Scott
Director: Denis Kavanagh
Players: Philip Gilbert, Adrienne Scott, Colin Croft, Jackie Collins, Beckett Bould, Michael Duffield, Tony Hall, Diana Chesney, Martin Lyder, Red Montgomery, Art Baxter 'n' His Rockin' Sinners, Tony Crombie and his Rockets, Rory Blackwell and the Blackjacks, Joan Small, Dickie Bennett, Curly Pat Barry, Don Sollash and His Rockin' Horses, George (Calypso) Brown
The inhabitants of the Hebridean island of Todday are dismayed when the government plans to build a rocket base there.
A sequel to Whiskey Galore which never approaches the heights of the first film. Few of the original cast are on hand (though it is fun to see Gordon Jackson still being bullied by Jean Cadell) and the script just trundles along mirthlessly. The main problem is that it doesn't give the government side the same sense of mission it had when it was trying to protect the whiskey, and on the other side having your home demolished isn't quite as funny as wanting to get rat-arsed after years of rationing. And though the islands look lovely in Eastmancolour, they looked a lot better in black and white.
Script adapt.: Monja Danischewsky (o.a. Compton Mackenzie)
Director: Michael Relph
Players: Jeannie Carson, Donald Sinden, Roland Culver, Noel Purcell, Ian Hunter, Duncan Macrae, Jean Cadell, Gordon Jackson, Alex Mackenzie, James Copeland, Carl Jaffe, Nicholas Phipps, Catherine Lacey, John Laurie, Reginald Beckwith, Ronnie Corbett, Jameson Clark, John Stevenson Lang, Arthur Howard, Neil Ballantyne, Jack Short, Gabrielle Blunt
D.H. Lawrence's weird short story is brought to the screen by Anthony Pelissier. John Howard Davies is the lad who predicts races by putting himself in a trance while riding the rocking horse. Valerie Hobson and John Mills are among the actors desperately trying to ignore Lawrence's sexual symbolism. A minor classic.
Script adapt.: Anthony Pelissier. (o.a. D.H. Lawrence)
Director: Anthony Pelissier
Players: Ronald Squire, Hugh Sinclair, Charles Goldner, Susan Richards, Cyril Smith, Michael Ripper
On holiday in France, a young English girl is helped by a French soldier conducting some secret research. Trapped by the tide with him overnight, her reputation is ruined and her guardian sends her back to England. The soldier's research is stolen and used by a rival, and when he protests he is himself accused of the theft. Disgraced, he ends up in England where he is given a helping hand by a man who has married the young girl. Can he and the girl ignore their passion in gratitude to their protector?
Romantic tosh enlivened by the fabulous Torbay locations and some decent performances.
Script adapt: R Byron-Webber (o.a. Ehel M Dell)
Director: Maurice Elvey
Players: Basil Gill, Peggy Carlisle, Cowley Wright, Humberston Wright, Barry Bernard, Hugh Dabernon-Stoke, William Saville, Winifred Sadler
A man murders his rich invalid wife taking care to establish a perfect alibi. A Scotland Yard detective carefully unpicks the alibi to get his man.
Basically an episode of Columbo which is rather undermined by Elwyn Brook-Jones as one of the dullest detectives ever to appear on screen.
Script: Ernie Bradford, Vernon Sewell
Director: Vernon Sewell
Players: Derek Bond, Nicole Maurey, Elwyn Brook-Jones, Hugh Latimer, John Serret, John Salew, Joan Carol, Nigel Fitzgerald, Madoline Thomas, Agatha Carroll, Barbara Christie, Hugh Morton, John Helier, Eric Corrie, Vernon Sewell
The classic train thriller looks a little faded now but still entertains. It set the pattern for all the ones that followed: set up a death and a McGuffin (stolen painting), add a detective (Frank Vosper), pack the train with suspects (Conrad Veidt, Joan Barry, Esther Ralston, Cedric Hardwicke) and let it roll.
Script: Sidney Gilliat, Clifford Grey, Frank Vosper, Ralph Stock
Director: Walter Forde
Players: Gordon Harker, Harold Huth, Donald Calthrop, Hugh Williams, Muriel Aked, Finlay Currie, Eliot Makeham
A married man tries to hide a fugitive girl from both her family and his.
The first of the Aldwych farces to be filmed with much of its original cast intact. It was a big hit in its day which still raises laughs, and also acts as a useful record for students of theatre history.
Script adapt.: W. P. Lipscomb, (o.a.) Ben Travers
Director: Tom Walls
Players: Ralph Lynn, Tom Walls, Winifred Shotter, Mary Brough, J. Robertson Hare, Ethel Coleridge, Griffith Humphreys, Margot Graham, Doreen Bendix
On the eve of WWI, a German businessman entrusts some jewels to his English friend in case his long lost son returns. 20 years later, a lot of people are after them.
Complicated whodunit which rattles along briskly to little effect.
Script adapt.: H Fowler Mear (o.a. David Whitelaw)
Director: George A Cooper
Players: Leslie Perrins, George Zucco, Judy Gunn, Russell Thorndike, Michael Hogan, Ivor Barnard, Eliot Makeham, Barbara Everest, Leo Britt, DJ Williams, Hector Abbas, Cyril Smith
A young man in a Northern town aims to better himself by using the women around him.
The angry young man theatre revolution of the 50s hit the screen for the first time with this gritty drama. Its success launched a string of sexed-up kitchen sink dramas and converted Laurence Harvey from an average leading man into star. It also brought Simone Signoret a richly-deserved Best Actress Oscar.
Script adapt.: Neil Paterson. (o.a. John Braine)
Director: Jack Clayton
Players: Donald Wolfit, Heather Sears, Donald Houston, Allan Cuthbertson, Hermione Baddeley, John Westbrook, Raymond Huntley, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Richard Pasco, Beatrice Varley, Delana Kidd, Mary Peach, Miriam Karlin, Wilfrid Lawson, Ian Hendry, Prunella Scales, Katherine Page, Thelma Ruby, Anne Leon, Wendy Craig, Anthony Elgar, Kenneth Waller, Anthony Newlands, Andrew Irving, Stephen Jack, April Olrich, John Welsh, Everley Gregg, Basil Dignam, Derren Nesbitt
Poor Jeckie Farnish! She's madly in love with Albert and he's in love with her. But he has to go away for a while, and the bailiffs are sniffing around her father's farm. She goes to her future father-in-law for help, but he wants nothing to do with a penniless nobody. Before she knows what's hit her, the farm's sold and Albert has married another. What's a girl to do? Simple: sue for breach of promise, use the money to set up a rival business, and bankrupt the git.
But Jeckie soon finds that money can't guarantee happiness...
This Gainsborough melodrama was loathed by the critics when it first came out - and it's still loathed. Put the blame on first time director Brock Williams. As a writer he had a steady, if unspectacular career, but it was as script editor he really made his mark with several of the best Gainsborough melodramas. However he couldn't transfer his skills to directing.
The film has no sense of period. I'm assuming it's a period piece since the cars look vaguely 20s to my unpractised eye and no one mentions the war. The action must take place over several years so it can't be immediately post-WWII, but the female fashions are 40s. Anyway, it's a mess.
The production design is also a mess, with all the outdoor scenes shot in the studio with little attempt to hide the ludicrous painted backdrops. Few films of the period have looked so shoddy.
None of this would matter if the acting and story gripped. But they don't. As Jeckie, star Phyllis Calvert is mis-cast and her interpretation seems to vary from line to line. This is as much a criticism of the inept editing as it is of her. She's too laid-back an actress to portray someone so driven, but at least she looks like she could run a business effectively.
As the main rivals for her hand reliable John McCallum (in his British debut) and caddish Michael Rennie are adequate. One of the few highlights is a fist fight between the two. Herbert Gregg as Albert is so far down the cast list that you know he was never going to be a contender.
Hazel Court as Jeckie's sister wins the prize for the worst performance, but that could also be due to editing. She also looks surprisingly plain, with the lighting favouring star Calvert in every scene. Her main competition is Diana Decker, as a flighty hotel maid, who looks so like Court in many scenes as to render the plot incomprehensible. Only Moore Marriott impresses as a disgruntled farmer cheated by Calvert.
This film would never have won over the critics, who were wedded to realism at the time, but it also failed with the audience. They recognised a turkey when they saw one. It hasn't improved with age.
Script adapt.: Brock Williams. (o.a. J.S. Fletcher)
Director: Brock Williams
Players: Brefni O'Rourke, Arthur Young, Reginald Purdell, George Carney, George Merritt, Pat Hicks, Bryan Herbert, Rory McDermott, Michael Medwin.
Yank import Joel McCrea is the innocent caught up in a spy ring in the sort of film Hitchcock use to make in the 30s.
Script adapt.: Eric Ambler. (o.a. Geoffrey Household)
Director: Robert Parrish
Players: Herbert Lom, Evelyn Keyes, Marius Goring, Roland Culver, Karel Stepanek, Frank Lawton, Patricia Laffan, Megs Jenkins, David Hurst, Laurence Naismith, Cyril Raymond, Joan Hickson
Minor Ealing comedy about a couple of Welsh miners who win a competition to go up to London for the England v Wales match. Not bad but not an Ealing classic.
Script adapt.: Charles Frend, Leslie Norman, Richard Hughes, Diana Morgan. (o.a. Clifford Evans)
Director: Charles Frend
Players: Donald Houston, Meredith Edwards, Moira Lister, Alec Guinness, Hugh Griffith, Clive Moreton, Leslie Perrins, Joyce Grenfell, Edward Rigby, Julie Milton
Faced with a betrothal to a man she's never met, a Ruritanian princess goes on the run and tries to live a normal life despite knowing nothing of how to go about it.
Jolly comedy fantasy.
Script adapt.: Anthony Asquith. (o.a. Elizabeth Russell)
Director: Anthony Asquith
Players: Mady Christians, Paul Cavanagh, Norah Baring, Fred Rains, Claude H. Beerbohm
Rynox is a company in trouble and its chairman is being threatened by a mysterious man. When the chairman is killed, his son has to solve the mystery of his father's death and save the company.
This is the first of Michael Powell's quota-quickie films to survive. On its first release it was liked by the critics, who were particularly taken by the surprise ending. Now it looks like a load of old tat, with a bunch of actors behaving illogically and the twist is almost ludicrously obvious.
Script: Jerome Jackson, Michael Powell, Philip MacDonald, J. Jefferson Farjeon
Director: Michael Powell
Players: Stewart Rome, John Longden, Dorothy Boyd, Charles Paton, Leslie Mitchell, Sybil Grove, Cecil Clayton, Edmund Willard
