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Basil Radford
Arthur Basil RadfordAdam Greaves, "Radford, (Arthur) Basil (1897–1952)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, May 201available online Retrieved 3 August 2020. (25 June 189720 October 1952) was an English character actor who featured in many British films of the 1930s and 1940s. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first stage appearance in July 1924. He is probably best remembered for his appearances alongside Naunton Wayne as two cricket-obsessed Englishmen in several films from 1938 to 1949. Early life Radford was born in Chester, England, on 25 June 1897. First World War He was a commissioned officer in the South Staffordshire Regiment in the First World War, in 1918 transferring into the Royal Air Force, ending the war as a subaltern when he was demobilised in 1920. Radford had a crescent-shaped scar on his right cheek from a wound sustained during his time in the trenches. Depending on the lighting and camera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naunton Wayne
Naunton Wayne (born Henry Wayne Davies, 22 June 1901 – 17 November 1970), was a Welsh character actor, born in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales. He was educated at Clifton College. His name was changed by deed poll#Use for changing name, deed poll in 1933. Stage actor His first London stage roles were in ''Streamline'' at the Palace in 1934 and in ''1066 and All That'' at the Strand in 1935 (where he provided comic continuity for other performers). His first full role was as Norman Weldon in ''Wise Tomorrow'' at The Lyric in 1937. He played Mortimer Brewster in ''Arsenic and Old Lace (play), Arsenic and Old Lace'' at the Strand for four years. He was a leading member of The Stage Golfing Society. In 1949, he starred in Young Wives' Tale, at the Savoy Theatre. From November 1956 he appeared in the long-running farce ''The Bride and the Bachelor'' at the Duchess Theatre. Film actor He became best known for his role as a supporting character, Charters and Caldicott, Caldicott, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night Train To Munich
''Night Train to Munich'' is a 1940 British thriller film directed by Carol Reed and starring Margaret Lockwood and Rex Harrison. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, based on the 1939 short story “Report on a Fugitive” by Gordon Wellesley. The film is about an inventor and his daughter who are kidnapped by the Gestapo after the Nazis march into Prague in the prelude to the Second World War. A British secret service agent follows them, disguised as a senior German army officer pretending to woo the daughter over to the Nazi cause. Plot As German forces take over Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Axel Bomasch, a Czechoslovak scientist working on a new type of armour-plate, is flown to Britain. Bomasch's daughter, Anna, is arrested before she can reach the airport and sent to a concentration camp, where she is interrogated by Nazis who are pursuing her father. Anna refuses to cooperate. Soon she is befriended by a fellow prisoner named Karl Marsen, who says he is a te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Captive Heart
''The Captive Heart'' is a 1946 British war drama, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Michael Redgrave. It is about a Czechoslovak Army officer who is captured in the Fall of France and spends five years as a prisoner of war, during which time he forms a long-distance relationship with the widow of a British Army officer. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. The film is partly based on the true story of a Czechoslovak officer in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, Josef Bryks MBE, and his relationship with a British WAAF, Gertrude Dellar, who was the widow of an RAF pilot. Plot In 1940 France, Czechoslovak Army Captain Karel Hašek escapes from Dachau and assumes the identity of a dead British officer, Geoffrey Mitchell. He later winds up with British prisoners of war, captured when the Germans overrun the French. They are marched to a prison camp in western Germany. Hasek is initially suspected of being a spy by his fellow prisoners. Some wish to lync ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Way To The Stars
''The Way to the Stars'' is a 1945 Anglo-American black-and-white Second World War drama film made by Two Cities Films. The film was produced by Anatole de Grunwald, directed by Anthony Asquith, and stars Michael Redgrave, John Mills, Rosamund John, and Douglass Montgomery. In the United States it was shortened by 22 minutes, and the shortened version was distributed by United Artists under the title ''Johnny in the Clouds''. The screenplay for ''The Way to the Stars'' was written by noted dramatist Terence Rattigan, based on a scenario co-written by Rattigan with USAAF Captain Richard Sherman. The film is a significant reworking of Rattigan's 1942 play ''Flare Path''. Rattigan, then a Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant, was posted in 1943 to the RAF Film Production Unit to work on ''The Way to the Stars'' and '' Journey Together''. The title ''The Way to the Stars'' is often assumed to have been taken from the Latin motto of the RAF, '' Per ardua ad astra''. However, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Young And Innocent
''Young and Innocent'', released in the US as ''The Girl Was Young'', is a 1937 British Crime film, crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney. Based on the 1936 novel ''A Shilling for Candles'' by Josephine Tey, the film is about a young man on the run from a murder charge who enlists the help of a woman who must put herself at risk for his cause. An elaborately staged crane shot Hitchcock devised, which appears towards the end of the film, identifies the real murderer. Plot On a stormy night, at a retreat on the English coast, Christine Clay, a successful actress, argues passionately with her jealous ex-husband Guy. Not accepting her Nevada#Divorce, Reno divorce as valid, he accuses her of having an affair. Finally, she slaps him and he leaves the room. His eyes twitch violently. The next morning, writer Robert Tisdall is walking along the seaside when Christine's dead body washes ashore. He recognizes her, and runs for h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passport To Pimlico
''Passport to Pimlico'' is a 1949 British comedy film made by Ealing Studios and starring Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford and Hermione Baddeley. It was directed by Henry Cornelius and written by T. E. B. Clarke. The story concerns the unearthing of treasure and documents that lead to a small part of Pimlico to be declared a legal part of the Duchy of Burgundy, House of Burgundy, and therefore exempt from the Rationing in the United Kingdom, post-war rationing or other bureaucratic restrictions in Britain. ''Passport to Pimlico'' explores the spirit and unity of wartime London after the war and offers an examination of the English character. Like other Ealing comedies, the film pits a small group of British people against a series of changes to the ''status quo'' from an external agent. The story was an original concept by the screenwriter T. E. B. Clarke. He was inspired by an incident during the Second World War, when the maternity ward of Ottawa Civic Hospital was Extrate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stop Press Girl
''Stop Press Girl'' is a 1949 British fantasy comedy film directed by Michael Barry and starring Sally Ann Howes, Gordon Jackson, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne; the latter two appearing in several different roles in the film. It marked an early screen appearance by Kenneth More, who later co-starred with Howes in ''The Admirable Crichton'' (1957). The film was one of the four of David Rawnsley's films that used his "independent frame" technique, a form of back projection. Plot Roy Fairfax, junior partner for timepiece manufacturers Fairfax & Sons, arrives in the quiet village of Slipfold to visit his fiancée Jennifer Peters and ask her uncle for permission to marry. On his way through town in his new motorcar, Roy causes a commotion and spooks the horse of village dentist Arthur Peters. Arriving at her home, Roy encourages Jennifer to join him for a drive and gives her a new watch in lieu of an engagement ring, however Jennifer explains she never wears a watch as they alw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It's Not Cricket (1949 Film)
''It's Not Cricket'' is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Alfred Roome and starring Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Susan Shaw and Maurice Denham. It was written by Gerard Bryant, Lyn Lockwood and Bernard McNabb. It is the second (after 1941's ''Crook's Tour'') of two starring films for Radford and Wayne. It was one of the final films made by Gainsborough Pictures before the studio was merged into the Rank Organisation. Plot Major Bright and Captain Early are intelligence officers in the British army of occupation in post-World War 2 Germany. They are sent home on leave, but fail to notice that their new batman is actually wanted war criminal Otto Fisch. He vanishes on arrival in England and the two officers are punished by early demobilisation. Uncertain what to do in civvy street, they decide to use the "skills" they learned in the army and set up a private detective agency, "Bright and Early". They engage a secretary, Primrose Brown, but she's not very busy as they have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quartet (1948 Film)
''Quartet'' is a 1948 British anthology film with four segments, each based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham. The author appears at the start and end of the movie to introduce the stories and comment about his writing career. It was successful enough to produce two sequels, '' Trio'' (1950) and ''Encore'' (1951), and popularised the compendium film format, leading to films such as '' O. Henry's Full House'' in 1952. The screenplays for the stories were all written by R. C. Sherriff. The Facts of Life Based on "The Facts of Life", included in the 1940 collection of Maugham stories '' The Mixture as Before''. * Director: Ralph Smart * Cinematographer: Ray Elton Cast * Basil Radford as Henry Garnet * Naunton Wayne as Leslie * Mai Zetterling as Jeanne * Angela Baddeley as Mrs. Garnet * Jack Watling as Nicky * Nigel Buchanan as John * James Robertson Justice as Branksome * Ian Fleming as Ralph * Jack Raine as Thomas * Jean Cavall as Cabaret Artist Plot Despite their reservations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dead Of Night
''Dead of Night'' is a 1945 British supernatural horror anthology film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer. It stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Sally Ann Howes, and Michael Redgrave. Produced by Ealing Studios, the film features five segments within a frame narrative during which a group of guests assembled at a country manor who recount stories of their own individual nightmares. It is best remembered for the concluding story featuring Redgrave and an insane ventriloquist's malevolent dummy. Eagle-Lion Films released ''Dead of Night'' theatrically in the United Kingdom on 9 September 1945. ''Dead of Night'' is one of the few horror films made in England during the 1940s, as horror films had been banned from production in Britain during World War II. It was also one of the few horror efforts from Ealing Studios, who were primarily known for producing comedies. The film was greatly influential on the horror and anthology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Millions Like Us
''Millions Like Us'' is a 1943 British propaganda film, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory in documentary detail. It stars Patricia Roc, Gordon Jackson, Anne Crawford, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Moore Marriott and Eric Portman. It was co-written and co-directed by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. According to the British Film Institute database, this film is the first in an "unofficial trilogy", along with '' Two Thousand Women'' (1944) and '' Waterloo Road'' (1945). Radford and Wayne reprise their roles of Charters and Caldicott from ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) and '' Night Train to Munich'' (1941), both scripted by Launder and Gilliat and produced by Edward Black. Plot The opening credits show huge crowds of workers going into factories. The narrator begins the film with nostalgic views of crowded beaches and remembering what it was like to eat an orange (unavailable during the war). Celia Crowson and her family go on holiday to the south coast of England i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Next Of Kin
''The Next of Kin'', also known as ''Next of Kin'', is a 1942 Second World War propaganda film produced by Ealing Studios. The film was originally commissioned by the British War Office as a training film to promote the government message that " Careless talk costs lives". After being taken on by Ealing Studios, the project was expanded and given a successful commercial release. After the war and up until at least the mid 1960s, services in British Commonwealth countries continued to use ''The Next of Kin'' as part of security training. The film's title is derived from the phrase "the next of kin have been informed" as used by radio announcers when reporting on the loss of personnel in action. Plot In preparing for a secret raid on a German-held French coastal village, a British security officer is chosen to monitor activities in England among army personnel of the 95th Infantry as well as civilians with whom they mingle. At the same time, German intelligence send Agents 23 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
