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The Key (1958 Film)
''The Key'' is a 1958 British-American war film set in 1941 during the Battle of the Atlantic. It was based on the 1951 novel ''Stella'' by Jan de Hartog (later republished as ''The Distant Shore'' and ''The Key'') and was directed by Sir Carol Reed. William Holden, Sophia Loren and Trevor Howard starred in the production. The key to a flat in wartime Britain may augur bad luck for a succession of tug captains of the Royal Navy whose task is to rescue crippled ships in "U-boat Alley." As each takes possession from his unfortunate predecessor, the flat's other occupant, a Swiss expatriate named Stella, apparently goes with it. The latest captain struggles with his conflicting fears and affection for its apparent jinx. Plot American David Ross (William Holden), a former tugboat captain now in the Canadian Army, is hastily commissioned in the Royal Navy and assigned to rotating command of ''W88'', a double-screwed rescue tug then in dry dock due to battle damage. His predecessor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for '' Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and ''Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the Academy Award for Best Director. ''Odd Man Out'' was the first recipient of the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. ''The Fallen Idol'' won the second BAFTA Award for Best British Film. The British Film Institute voted ''The Third Man'' the greatest British film of the 20th century. Early life and career Carol Reed was born in Putney, southwest London.Philip Kem"Reed, Carol (1906-1976)" ''Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Director'', reprinted at BFI Screenonline. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' has Wandsworth, London as Reed's place of birth. He was the son of actor-producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his mistress, Beatrice May Pinney, who later adopted the surname of Reed. He was educated at The King's School ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Army
The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also responsible for the Army Reserve, the largest component of the Primary Reserve. The Army is headed by the concurrently held Commander of the Canadian Army and Chief of the Army Staff, who is subordinate to the Chief of the Defence Staff. The Army is also supported by 3,000 civilian employees from the civil service. Formed in 1855, as the Active Militia, in response to the threat of the United States to the Province of Canada after the British Garrison left for the Crimean War. This Militia was later split into the Permanent Active Militia and the Non-Permanent Active Militia. Finally, in 1940, an Order in Council was issued to rename the active militias to the Canadian Army. On 1 April 1966, prior to the unification of the Canadian Arm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russell Waters
Russell Waters (born 10 June 1908, Glasgow, Lanarkshire – died 19 August 1982, Richmond, Surrey) was a Scottish film actor. Waters was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School, Glasgow and the University of Glasgow. He began acting with the Old English Comedy and Shakespeare Company then appeared in repertory theatre, at the Old Vic and in the West End. On screen Waters generally found himself playing mild mannered characters. Waters played the leading man in Richard Massingham's amusing instructional short subjects, among them ''Tell Me If It Hurts'' (1936), ''And So Work'' (1937), ''The Daily Round'' (1947) and ''What a Life!'' (1948). In feature films, Waters played secondary roles such as Craggs in '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1949), Mr. West in '' The Happiest Days of Your Life'', Palmer in '' Chance of a Lifetime'' and "Wings" Cameron in '' The Wooden Horse'' (all three in 1950). In later years, Waters was briefly seen as the Harbour master in ''The Wicker Man'' (1973), and hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rupert Davies
Rupert Davies FRSA (22 May 191622 November 1976) was a British actor. He is best remembered for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of '' Maigret'', based on Georges Simenon's novels. Life and career Military service Davies was born in Liverpool. After service in the British Merchant Navy he was a Sub-Lieutenant Observer with the Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. In 1940, the Swordfish aircraft in which he was flying ditched in the sea off the Dutch coast, following which he was captured and interned in the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp. He made three attempts to escape, all of which failed. During his captivity he began to take part in theatre performances, entertaining his fellow prisoners. Acting On his release Davies resumed his career in acting almost immediately, starring in an ex-prisoner of war show, ''Back Home'', which was hosted at the Stoll Theatre, London. In 1959, he played the role of the Colonel in Alun Owen's ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Vivian
Sidney Vivian (18 April 1901 – 22 December 1984) was a British stage, film and television actor. Selected filmography Film appearances * ''Dick Barton Strikes Back'' (1949) - Inspector Burke * '' Dr. Morelle: The Case of the Missing Heiress'' (1949) - Inspector Hood * '' Diamond City'' (1949) - Reader (uncredited) * '' Double Confession'' (1950) - Ring Stall Attendant * '' No Trace'' (1950) - Barman * ''Lady Godiva Rides Again'' (1951) - Councillor * ''Whispering Smith Hits London'' (1951) - Hotel Porter * '' Down Among the Z Men'' (1952) - Landlord Isaiah Crabb * ''The Great Game'' (1953) - Club Chairman * ''Stryker of the Yard'' (1953) * ''One Stop Shop'' (1953) - Jim Brown * '' The Scamp'' (1957) - Drunken Reveller *''Rogue's Yarn'' (1957) - Corner Shop Proprietor * '' Carve Her Name with Pride'' (1958) - Bus Passenger (uncredited) * '' The Key'' (1958) - Grogan * ''The Secret Partner'' (1961) - Dock Foreman * '' Mary Had a Little...'' (1961) - Grimmick * '' Offbeat'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2013 and "one of the most important figures in the British film industry".Batty DBryan Forbes, acclaimed film director, dies aged 86 ''The Guardian''. 8 May 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013 He directed the film ''The Stepford Wives'' (1975) and wrote and/or directed several other critically acclaimed films, including '' Whistle Down the Wind'' (1961), '' Séance on a Wet Afternoon'' (1964) and '' King Rat'' (1965). He also scripted several films directed by others, such as ''The League of Gentlemen'' (1960), '' The Angry Silence'' (1960) and ''Only Two Can Play'' (1962). Early life Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, London. His father was a salesman and he grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noel Purcell (actor)
Patrick Joseph Noel Purcell (23 December 1900 – 3 March 1985) was a distinguished Irish actor of stage, screen, and television. He appeared in the 1956 film ''Moby Dick'' and the 1962 film ''Mutiny on the Bounty''. Early life and education Patrick Joseph Noel Purcell was the son of Dublin auctioneer Pierce Purcell and his second wife Catherine (''née'' Hoban), an antique dealer. He was born at 11a, Lower Mercer Street, one of two houses owned by his mother's family. Purcell was educated at Synge Street CBS. He lost the tip of his right index finger while making cigarette vending machines, and was also missing his entire left index finger due to a different accident while he was an apprentice carpenter, a feature which he exploited for dramatic effect in the film ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1962). Career Purcell began his show business career at the age of 12 in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. Later, he toured Ireland in a vaudeville act with Jimmy O'Dea. Stage-trained in the cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beatrix Lehmann
Beatrix Alice Lehmann (1 July 1903 – 31 July 1979) was a British actress, theatre director, writer and novelist. Early life and family Lehmann was born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. She came from a family of notable achievers: the third of four children of author and publisher Rudolph Chambers Lehmann. Her great-uncle was Henri Lehmann the artist. Her brother was publisher John Lehmann and one of her two older sisters was the novelist Rosamond Lehmann. Career Lehmann trained at RADA and made her stage debut as Peggy in a 1924 production '' The Way of the World'' at the Lyric Hammersmith. She also appeared in films and on television. She wrote short stories and two novels, including ''Rumour of Heaven'', first published in 1934 (). In 1946 Lehmann became director and producer of the Arts Council Midland Theatre Company. She was awarded Britain's Radio Actress of the Year in 1977. In 1962 she played the matriarch Bernadette Amorelle in a Maigret episode, The Dirty House. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Lee
John Bernard Lee (10 January 190816 January 1981) was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from the age of six. He was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Lee appeared in over one hundred films, as well as on stage and in television dramatisations. He was known for his roles as authority figures, often playing military characters or policemen in films such as ''The Third Man'', ''The Blue Lamp'', '' The Battle of the River Plate'', and '' Whistle Down the Wind''. He died of stomach cancer in 1981, aged 73. Early life Lee was born on 10 January 1908, the son of Nellie (née Smith) and Edmund James Lee. He was born in either County Cork in what is now the Republic of Ireland, or Brentford, Middlesex. Edmund, an actor, introduced his six-year-old son to the stage in 1914 in a sketch called "The Double Event" at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kieron Moore
Kieron Moore (born Ciarán Ó hAnnracháin, anglicised as Kieron O'Hanrahan) (5 October 1924 – 15 July 2007) was an Irish film and television actor whose career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. He may be best remembered for his role as Count Vronsky in the film adaptation of ''Anna Karenina'' (1948) with Vivien Leigh. Early years Moore was raised in County Cork in an Irish-speaking household. His father, Peadar Ó hAnnracháin (born 1873) (also known as Peter/Peadar Hourihane and Peadar O'Hourihane) was a writer and poet, and a staunch supporter of the Irish language. Peadar, a son of Seaghan Ó hAnnracháin (born 1834) and Máire Ní Dhonabháin (also born 1834) and who was one of the first organisers for Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), was twice imprisoned by the British during the Irish Civil War. Peadar lived with his parents and his sister, Áine Ní Annracháin (born 1885), and his niece, Máirín Ní Dhiomasaig (born 1903), at 14 Poundlick, Skibbereen, Count ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oskar Homolka
Oskar Homolka (August 12, 1898 – January 27, 1978) was an Austrian film and theatre actor, who went on to work in Germany, Britain and America. Both his voice and his appearance fitted him for roles as communist spies or Soviet officials, for which he was in regular demand. By the age of 30, he had appeared in more than 400 plays; his film career covered at least 100 films and TV shows. Career After serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War, Homolka attended the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, the city of his birth, and began his career on the Austrian stage. In 1924 he played Mortimer in the premiere of Brecht's play ''The Life of Edward II of England'' at the Munich Kammerspiele, and from 1925 in Berlin where he worked under Max Reinhardt. Other stage plays in which Homolka performed during this period include: The first German performance of Eugene O'Neill's '' The Emperor Jones'', 1924, '' Anna Christie'', 1924, ', 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mate (naval Officer)
A mate is a deck naval officer aboard a merchant vessel, such as the chief mate (first mate), second mate, or third mate. Between 1800 and 1890 "mate" was also the naval rank now known as sub-lieutenant—master. One of the mates is always the watch keeping officer, unless the master takes that responsibility. Each mate also has other duties, such as making the passage planning, overseeing loading and unloading and personnel management. The United States Navy had the rank of mate from the mid-1800s until the early 20th century. Mates in the US Navy were junior warrant officers, originally known as masters mates, who assisted a ship's sailing master. From 1912 to 1931, mate was a commissioned rank within the Royal Navy, for ratings who were selected for a commission through the Mate Scheme. Commissioned mates ranked with sub-lieutenants. In 1931, the scheme was renamed to the Upper Yardman Scheme, and those who selected under it were promoted to sub-lieutenant instead. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
