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Bitter Sweet (1933 Film)
''Bitter Sweet'' is a British musical romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and released by United Artists in 1933. It was the first film adaptation of Noël Coward's 1929 operetta '' Bitter Sweet''. It starred Anna Neagle and Fernand Gravey, with Ivy St. Helier reviving her stage role as Manon. It was made at British and Dominion's Elstree Studios and was part of a boom in operetta films during the 1930s. It tells the story of Sarah Linden's romance. Sarah, now a gray-haired old woman, tells her story to a girl who is on the eve of marrying an obnoxious man when she is really in love with a musician. The operetta was remade in 1940 as a film of the same name with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy; however, it was less faithful to the original story than the less censored 1933 version. Plot summary The movie recounts the romantic and tragic story of Sarah Millick, a young woman from a wealthy and traditional English family. Sarah shocks her family and social circle by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Wilcox
Herbert Sydney Wilcox Order of the British Empire, CBE (19 April 1890 – 15 May 1977) was a British film producer and film director, director. He was one of the most successful British filmmakers from the 1920s to the 1950s. He is best known for the films he made with his third wife Anna Neagle. Early life Wilcox's mother was from County Cork, County Cork, Ireland, and Wilcox considered himself Irish, but he was born in Norwood, south London.7 Dagmar Villas, Gipsy Road. ''Mr Michael Thornton'' re Mr Herbert Wilcox. ''The Times'', Thursday, 19 May 1977; p. 18; Issue 60007; col F His family moved to Brighton when Wilcox was eight years old; he was one of five children. His family was poor and Wilcox had to do a number of part-time jobs, including some work as a chorus boy at the local Hippodrome. His mother died of tuberculosis when she was 42. Wilcox left school before the age of fourteen to find work. Shortly afterwards, his father died at the age of 42. Wilcox began earni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American soprano and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (''The Love Parade'', ''Love Me Tonight'', ''The Merry Widow (1934 film), The Merry Widow'' and ''One Hour With You'') and Nelson Eddy (''Naughty Marietta (film), Naughty Marietta'', ''Rose Marie (1936 film), Rose-Marie'', and ''Maytime (1937 film), Maytime''). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Academy Awards, Oscars (''The Love Parade'', ''One Hour with You'', ''Naughty Marietta (film), Naughty Marietta'' and ''San Francisco (1936 film), San Francisco''), and recorded extensively, earning three Music recording sales certification, gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to film-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Napier
Alan William Napier-Clavering (7 January 1903 – 8 August 1988), better known as Alan Napier, was an English actor. After a decade in West End theatre, he had a long film career in Britain and later on in Hollywood. Napier is best remembered for portraying Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler in the 1960s live-action ''Batman'' television series. Early life and career Alan William Napier-Clavering was born on 7 January 1903 in Birmingham to Claude Gerald Napier-Clavering, managing director of the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft, and Millicent Mary, daughter of politician William Kenrick. He had two older siblings, Mark (born 1898) and Mary Helen- "Molly"- (born 1900). The Napier-Clavering family were landed gentry- the senior line owning Axwell Park near Gateshead until 1920- and descended from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier. Napier was a first cousin-once removed of Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister from 1937 to 1940. He was educated at Packwood Haugh Scho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nat Gonella
Nathaniel Charles Gonella (7 March 1908 – 6 August 1998) was an English jazz trumpeter, bandleader, vocalist, and mellophone, mellophonist. He founded the big band The Georgians (Nat Gonella), The Georgians, during the British dance band era. Early life and career Gonella was born in Islington, North London, where he attended St Mary's Guardian School, an institution for underprivileged children, where he started playing cornet. After a short spell as a furrier's apprentice, his professional career began in 1924 when he joined Archie Pitt's Busby Boy's Band, a small pit orchestra and touring review band. During his four years with the band, he discovered the music of Louis Armstrong and dixieland jazz. He transcribed Armstrong's solos and learned them by heart. Beginning in 1928, Gonella spent a year in Bob Bryden's Louisville Band before working with Archie Alexander and Billy Cotton. Cotton's band allowed him to record his first solos and to explore scat singing. The 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Bowlly
Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1899 – 17 April 1941) was a South African-British vocalist, crooner, and dance band guitarist who was Britain's most popular singer for most of the 1930s. He recorded upwards of 1,000 songs that were listened to by millions and even crossed over to the United States. His most popular songs include " Midnight, the Stars and You", " Goodnight, Sweetheart", " Close Your Eyes", " The Very Thought of You", "Guilty", " Heartaches" and " Love Is the Sweetest Thing". He also recorded the only English version of "Dark Eyes" by Adalgiso Ferraris, as "Black Eyes", with lyrics by Albert Mellor. Early life He was born in 1899 in Lourenço Marques (today Maputo) in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. Al's father, Alick, was an Orthodox Christian who was Greek by nationality. His mother, born Miriam Ayoub, was a Lebanese Catholic, though Al himself was raised Greek Orthodox. They met en route to Australia and moved to British South Africa. Bowlly was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norma Whalley
Norma Whalley (1882 or 1883 – 9 October 1954) was an Australian theatre and film actress active in the United States and Britain. Biography Whalley was born in Sydney in 1882 or 1883, the daughter of doctor Henry Octavius Whalley. During the late 1890s she toured South Africa, meeting Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal Republic soon after the Jameson Raid. In 1901 she was married to J. Sherrie Matthews, an American vaudeville performer, who since mid-1900 had been prevented from working due to ill health, and by 1902 was permanently disabled after a stroke of paralysis. In 1904 she divorced Matthews to marry barrister Percival Clarke (1872–1936), later Sir Percival, son of Sir Edward Clarke. She died at Grosvenor Square on 9 October 1954. Acting career Theatre Whalley was brought to the United States for a production by George Edwardes. She worked in the Chicago and New York for several years from the late 1890s. Whalley appeared in the Broadway production of ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miles Malleson
William Miles Malleson (25 May 1888 – 15 March 1969) was an English actor and dramatist, particularly remembered for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career, he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in '' The Brides of Dracula'' as the hypochondriac and fee-hungry local doctor. Malleson was also a writer on many films, including some of those in which he had small parts, such as ''Nell Gwyn'' (1934) and '' The Thief of Bagdad'' (1940). He also translated and adapted several of Molière's plays (''The Misanthrope'', which he titled ''The Slave of Truth'', '' Tartuffe'' and ''The Imaginary Invalid''). Biography Malleson was born in Avondale Road, South Croydon, Surrey, England, the son of Edmund Taylor Malleson (1859-1909), a manufacturing chemist, and Myrrha Bithynia Frances Borrell (1863-1931), a descendant of the numismatist Henry Perigal Borrell and the inventor Francis Mac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kay Hammond
Dorothy Katherine Standing, Lady Clements (18 February 1909 – 4 May 1980), known professionally as Kay Hammond, was an English stage and film actress. Family Kay Hammond was born in London, England as Dorothy Katherine Standing, the daughter of Sir Guy Standing and his wife, Dorothy Hammond (Dorothy Plaskitt). Her grandfather was Herbert Standing (1846–1923) and her uncles were Wyndham, Jack, and Percy Darrell Standing. Career She studied at RADA and first appeared on the London stage in 1927. Her most famous role was that of Elvira in Noël Coward's '' Blithe Spirit'', which she played in the original stage production. She reprised her role in the 1945 film version opposite Rex Harrison, Margaret Rutherford and Constance Cummings. She appeared as a guest of Roy Plomley on ''Desert Island Discs'' on 25 February 1951. Personal life Hammond's first husband was baronet Sir Ronald George Leon. Their sons were John Ronald Leon (the actor John Standing) and Timothy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Ludlow
Patrick Ludlow (March 24, 1903 – January 27, 1996) was a British actor predominantly on stage, with his own touring theatre company from 1943. Filmography References External links * * 1903 births 1996 deaths Male actors from London People from Kensington English male stage actors English male film actors English male television actors 20th-century English male actors Actors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea {{UK-film-actor-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Paterson
Patricia Elizabeth Paterson (born Eliza Paterson; 10 April 1910 – 24 August 1978) was an English film actress. Although she made more than 20 films, she is best known as the wife of actor Charles Boyer. Childhood and early life Paterson was born on 10 April 1910 at No.74 Fitzgerald Street, Horton, a suburb of Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. Her mother, Hannah Holroyd (b. 4 February 1888, Bradford) was English, her father, John Robb Paterson (b. 1888, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland) was a Scot. Eliza was the second of three children. She attended Newby Primary School in West Bowling, Bradford as a child. Early Hollywood career In 1928, although aged only 18 (the legal age of adulthood in the UK at that time was 21) she persuaded her parents to allow her to leave for Hollywood. She arrived in 1929 and was signed by Fox Studios as a contract player and immediately began to obtain film roles. She was renamed Patricia (almost immediately shortened to Pat) Paterson, as the Pat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Williams
Hugh Anthony Glanmor Williams (6 March 1904 – 7 December 1969) was a British actor and dramatist of Welsh descent. Early life and career Hugh Anthony Glanmor Williams (nicknamed "Tam") was born at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex to Hugh Dafydd Anthony Williams (1869-1905) and Hilda (née Lewis). The Williams family lived at Bedford Park, London, Bedford Park, in Chiswick, West London. His paternal grandfather was Hugh Williams (1796-1874), a Welsh solicitor and anti-establishment political activist. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He was a popular film actor, film and actor, stage actor, who became a major film star in the British cinema of the 1930s. In 1930 he toured America in the cast of the R.C. Sheriff play ''Journey's End'' and appeared in his first film ''Charley's Aunt (1930 film), Charley's Aunt'' during a spell in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood. He then returned to Britain and became a mainstay of the British film industry. He made 57 film appearances as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gibb McLaughlin
George McLoughlin (19 July 1879 – 30 June 1961), known professionally as Gibb McLaughlin, was an English film and stage actor. Early days McLaughlin was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England in 1879. For about 10 years he was a salesman in Kingston-upon-Hull where he sang in the Holy Trinity Church choir. He joined the Hull Amateur Operatic Society and played the part of Koko in The Mikado. After that he appeared with Anne Croft in concerts and they had a turn to themselves on the stage of the Palace Theatre. He performed as a comedian and monologist in music halls. In 1915, McLaughlin married Eleanor Morton, youngest daughter of William Morton, formerly manager of the Egyptian Hall, London and the Greenwich Theatre. Film work He appeared in 118 films between 1921 and 1959. He was known for ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951), '' Oliver Twist '' (1948) and '' Hobson's Choice'' (1954). He had a rare leading role as the sleuth J. G. Reeder in Edgar Wallace's '' Mr Reeder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
