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Reginald Purdell
Reginald Purdell (4 November 1896 – 22 April 1953) was an English actor and screenwriter who appeared in over 40 films between 1930 and 1951. During the same period he also contributed to the screenplays of 15 feature films, such as '' The Dark Tower'', and had a brief foray into directing with two films in 1937. Early life Purdell was born in Clapham, London, the son of Charles William Grasdorff by his marriage to Mary Ann Piddill. At the 1881 census a few weeks after the marriage the couple was living in Monmouthshire and his father stated his name as Carl H. W. Grasdorff, giving his place of birth as Germany, about 1844, while his mother gave hers as Cardiff, about 1857. Grasdorff was naturalized as a British subject under the name of Carl Hermann Wilhelm Grasdorff. Mary Ann Grasdorff's maiden name of Piddill, suitably improved, later provided their son's stage name. In 1892, Grasdorff was listed as "Grasdorff, Carl H. W., Newport, Monmouthshire, and Bute Docks, Car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clapham
Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history The present day Clapham High Street is on the route of a Roman road. The road is recorded on a Roman monumental stone found nearby. According to its inscription, the stone was erected by a man named Vitus Ticinius Ascanius. It is estimated to date from the 1st century. (The stone was discovered during building works at Clapham Common South Side in 1912. It is now placed by the entrance of the former Clapham Library, in the Old Town.) According to the history of the Clapham family, maintained by the College of Heralds, in 965 King Edgar of England gave a grant of land at Clapham to Jonas, son of the Duke of Lorraine, and Jonas was thenceforth known as Jonas "de fClapham". The family remained in possession of the land until Jonas's great ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by German communities in France ( Bas-Rhin), Czech Republic ( North Bohemia), Poland (Upper Silesia), Slovakia ( Bratislava Region), and Hungary (Sopron). German is most similar to other languages within the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German, Luxembourgish, Scots, and Yiddish. It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group, such as Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language after English, which is also a West Germanic language. Germ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brighton Rock (1947 Film)
''Brighton Rock'' (US: ''Young Scarface''). is a 1948 British gangster film noir directed by John Boulting and starring Richard Attenborough as violent gang leader Pinkie Brown (reprising his West End role of three years earlier), Rose Brown (Carol Marsh) as the innocent girl he marries, and Ida Arnold ( Hermione Baddeley) as an amateur sleuth investigating a murder he committed. The film was adapted from the 1938 novel '' Brighton Rock'' by Graham Greene, and was produced by Roy Boulting through the Boulting brothers' production company Charter Film Productions. The title comes from the old-fashioned candy " a stick of rock": Ida in the film says that like Brighton rock she doesn't change—as the name Brighton stays written the whole way through. Plot In Brighton in 1935, a gangster named Kite is found dead, shortly after a newspaper published a story exposing local rackets and gang wars. Kite's old gang, now led by the psychopathic teenaged hoodlum Pinkie Brown, learns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Town (1946 Film)
''London Town'' is a 1946 Technicolor musical film directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Sid Field and Petula Clark, generally regarded as one of the biggest flops in the history of British cinema. Plot summary The screenplay by Sig Herzig, Val Guest, and Elliot Paul, based on a story by director Wesley Ruggles, revolves around comedian Jerry Sanford ( Sid Field), who arrives in London believing he has been hired as the star of a major stage production, when in fact he is merely an understudy. Thanks to his daughter Peggy ( Petula Clark, already a screen veteran at age fourteen), who sabotages the revue's star Charlie de Haven (Sonnie Hale), he finally gets his big break. The premise allows for a variety of musical numbers and comedy sketches performed by, among others, Kay Kendall in her film debut and Tessie O'Shea. Cast * Sid Field as Jerry Sanford * Greta Gynt as Mrs. Eve Barry * Petula Clark as Peggy Sanford * Kay Kendall as Patsy * Sonnie Hale as Charlie de H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Love Story (1944 Film)
''Love Story'' is a 1944 British black-and-white romance film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Patricia Roc. Based on a short story by J. W. Drawbell, the film is about a concert pianist who, after learning that she is dying of heart failure, decides to spend her last days in Cornwall. While there, she meets a former RAF pilot who is going blind, and soon a romantic attraction forms. Released in the United States as ''A Lady Surrenders'', this wartime melodrama produced by Gainsborough Pictures was filmed on location at the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno in Cornwall, England. Plot Concert pianist Felicity Crichton Lissa Campbell (Margaret Lockwood) leaves her successful music career to devote herself to the British war effort. She applies to be in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, part of the RAF, but is rejected for health reasons. She then learns that she has a heart condition and does not have long to live. Determined to live her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gainsborough Pictures
Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, north London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The company was initially based at Islington Studios, which were built as a power station for the Northern City Line, Great Northern & City Railway and later converted to studios. Other films were made at Lime Grove Studios, Lime Grove and Pinewood Studios. The former Islington studio was converted to flats in 2004 and a London Borough of Hackney historical plaque is attached to the building. The studio is best remembered for the Gainsborough melodramas it produced in the 1940s. Gainsborough Pictures is now owned by Gregory Motton. History Gainsborough was founded in 1924 by Michael Balcon and, from 1927, was a sister company to the Gaumont British, with Balcon as Director of Production for both studios. Whilst Gaumont-British, based at Lime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two Thousand Women
''Two Thousand Women'' is a 1944 British comedy-drama war film about a German internment camp in Occupied France which holds British women who have been resident in the country. Three RAF aircrewmen, whose bomber has been shot down, enter the camp and are hidden by the women from the Germans. The film was released in the United States in 1951 in a severely cut-down version under the title of ''House of 1,000 Women''. Per the British Film Institute database, this is the second in an "unofficial trilogy" by Launder and Gilliat, along with '' Millions Like Us'' (1943) and '' Waterloo Road'' (1945). Plot During the 1940 Battle of France, Rosemary Brown (Patricia Roc), an English novice nun, is apprehended by French soldiers who have mistaken her for a fifth columnist. She is sentenced to face a firing squad, but the Germans arrive and she is sent (without her habit, which is being cleaned) to an internment camp in a grand hotel at the spa town of Marneville. She journeys there in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
We Dive At Dawn
''We Dive at Dawn'' is a 1943 war film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring John Mills and Eric Portman as Royal Navy submariners in the Second World War. It was written by Val Valentine and J. B. Williams with uncredited assistance from Frank Launder. It was produced by Edward Black. The film's sets were designed by Walter Murton. Plot It is April, 1942. Lieutenant Freddie Taylor and some crew of the submarine ''Sea Tiger'' are given a week's leave after an unsuccessful patrol. Leading Seaman Hobson goes home to save his marriage, while a reluctant Torpedo Gunner's Mate Corrigan departs for his wedding in London. When the crew are recalled early Corrigan is relieved, though later regrets not completing his marriage. ''Sea Tiger'' has been assigned the top secret mission to sink Nazi Germany's new battleship, the ''Brandenburg'', before she transits the Kiel Canal for sea trials in the Baltic Sea. ''Sea Tiger'' must put to sea immediately. Crossing the North Sea, the subma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patricia Gets Her Man
''Patricia Gets Her Man'' is a 1937 British romantic comedy film directed by Reginald Purdell and starring Hans Söhnker, Lesley Brook and Edwin Styles. The screenplay concerns a woman who attempts to attract a film star. It was made at Teddington Studios as a quota quickie by Warner Brothers.Chibnall p.290 Plot summary In an effort to attract a film star a woman pays another man to pretend to be a suitor in order to provoke jealously in the star. However, she soon begins to fall in love with her hired partner. Cast * Hans Söhnker as Count Stephan d'Orlet * Lesley Brook as Patricia Fitzroy * Edwin Styles as Brian Maxwell * Aubrey Mallalieu as Colonel Fitzroy * Cissy Fitzgerald as Duchess Banning * Betty Lynne Betty Lynne (1911–2011) was a British film actress. During the late 1930s she played the female lead in a number of quota quickies, several of them for Warner Bros. at Teddington Studios. In 1939 she co-starred with Robert Newton in the thrille ... as Marie * Yoshihid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur B
Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more widely believed, is that the name is derived from the Roman clan '' Artorius'' who lived in Roman Britain for centuries. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Italian it is Arturo. Etymology The earliest datable attestation of the name Arthur is in the early 9th century Welsh-Latin text '' Historia Brittonum'', where it refers to a circa 5th to 6th-century Briton general who fought against the invading Saxons, and who later gave rise to the famous King Arthur of medieval legend and literature. A possible earlier mention of the same man is to be found in the epic Welsh poem '' Y Gododdin'' by Aneirin, which some scholars assign to the late 6th century, though this is still a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Miller (comedian)
Thomas Henry Sargent (21 November 1894 – 7 May 1963), known professionally by his stage name Max Miller and billed as The Cheeky Chappie, was an English comedian often considered the greatest stand-up of his generation. He came from humble beginnings and left school at the age of twelve. At the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for the army. During his time in the forces, he started a troupe concert party. On leaving the army, he took up work as a light comedian, dancer, and singer. He toured extensively, appearing in variety, revues and by the early 1930s reached the top of the bill in the large music halls including the London Palladium. He recorded many songs, some of which he wrote. He appeared frequently on radio and starred in fourteen feature films. He was known for his flamboyant suits, his wicked charm, and his risqué jokes often led to difficulties with the censors. He made his last recording in January 1963 and died four months later. Early years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don't Get Me Wrong (film)
''Don't Get Me Wrong'' is a 1937 British comedy film co-directed by Arthur B. Woods and Reginald Purdell and starring Max Miller and George E. Stone. It was made at Teddington Studios with sets designed by Peter Proud.Wood p.89 The film was made by the British subsidiary of Warner Brothers, made on a considerably higher budget than many of the quota quickies the studios usually produced. Unlike several of Miller's Teddington films which are now lost, this still survives. Synopsis Miller plays a fairground performer who meets a professor who claims to have invented a cheap substitute for petrol. They team up and persuade a millionaire to finance them to develop and market the product, while unsavoury elements are keen to steal the formula and try all means to get their hands on it, involving slapstick chases and double-crosses. It then turns out that the miracle fluid is diluted coconut oil, and the genius professor is an escaped lunatic. The millionaire finds himself taking ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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