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Counterblast
''Counterblast'' (also known as ''Devil's Plot'') is a 1948 British thriller film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Robert Beatty, Mervyn Johns and Nova Pilbeam. It was written by Guy Morgan and Jack Whittingham, and made by British National Films at Elstree Studios. Plot A Nazi scientist escapes from prison, murders a leading professor and takes his place at a research laboratory, where he experiments with biological warfare with which he intends to wage the next war against Britain. Cast * Robert Beatty as Doctor Paul Rankin * Mervyn Johns as Doctor Bruckner * Nova Pilbeam as Tracy Hart * Margaretta Scott as Sister Johnson * Sybille Binder as Martha Lert, Bruckner's housekeeper * Marie Lohr as Mrs Coles * Karel Stepanek as Professor Inman * Alan Wheatley as M.W. Kennedy * Gladys Henson as Mrs Plum * John Salew as Padre Latham * Anthony Eustrel as Doctor Richard Forrester * Carl Jaffe as Heinz * Ronald Adam as Colonel Ingram * Martin Miller as Van Hessian * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Miller (actor)
Martin Miller (born Johann Rudolph Müller; 2 September 1899 – 26 August 1969), was a Czech-Austrian character actor. He played many small roles in British films and television series from the early 1940s until his death. He was best known for playing eccentric doctors, scientists and professors, although he played a wide range of small, obscure rolesincluding photographers, waiters, a pet store dealer, rabbis, a Dutch sailor and a Swiss tailor. On stage he was noted in particular for his parodies of Adolf Hitler and roles as Dr. Einstein in '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' and Mr. Paravicini in ''The Mousetrap''. Miller appeared in several notable films, including '' Squadron Leader X'' (1943), '' English Without Tears'' (1944), ''The Third Man'' (1949), ''The Gamma People'' (1956), ''Peeping Tom'' (1960), ‘’ Exodus,’’ '' 55 Days at Peking'' (1963), '' The V.I.P.s'' (1963), ''The Pink Panther'' (1963), and '' The Yellow Rolls-Royce'' (1964). His most substantial roles inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guy Morgan (writer)
Edward Guy Trice Morgan (6 February 1908 – 20 July 1964) was a British screenwriter. Morgan was educated at Haileybury College and Merton College, Oxford, graduating in 1929. He worked as a journalist and film critic for the ''Daily Express''. During the Second World War, Morgan served in the RNVR; he was wounded in a raid on a Yugoslav island, and became a POW. After the war he wrote his first novel, ''The Captive Heart'', which he sold to Ealing, launching his career. His other books included ''Only Ghosts Can Live'' (1945) and ''Adventures of the Sea Hawk''. He was co-author of the play '' Albert R.N.'', which he later adapted as a screenplay. He also wrote early episodes of the Storm Nelson strip in Eagle. Morgan married, and had a daughter. He died in 1964. Selected filmography * ''The Captive Heart'' (1947) * ''Counterblast'' (1948) * ''Anna Karenina'' (1948) * '' There Is Another Sun'' (1951) * ''Hell Is Sold Out'' (1951) * '' The Girl on the Pier'' (1953) * '' Albert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Whittingham
Jack Whittingham (2 August 1910 – 3 July 1972) was a British playwright and screenwriter. Early life Whittingham was born in Heaton, West Yorkshire, England, and educated at Charterhouse between 1924 and 1929. He then went up Lincoln College, Oxford to read law. During the early 1930s he was briefly engaged to the Wrigley heiress, Ada Elizabeth Offield. Between 1932 and 1937, Whittingham worked for a number of newspapers and in 1937 joined Alexander Korda as a contract screenwriter. During the Second World War, he was based on Iceland with an artillery regiment. Film career Beginning with the film ''Q Planes'' in 1938, Whittingham was a prolific screenwriter. Between 1937 and 1948, he wrote 14 screenplays for companies including RKO, Associated British Picture Corporation, British National and Ealing Studios. Ealing Studios In 1948 he was a contracted screenwriter for Ealing Studios. He wrote the original story and screenplay for '' Cage of Gold'' (1950), ''Pool of London' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mervyn Johns
David Mervyn Johns (18 February 18996 September 1992) was a Welsh stage, film and television actor who became a fixture of British films during the Second World War. Johns appeared extensively on screen and stage with over 100 credits between 1923 and 1979. He made his theatrical debut while on tour of the British dominions in 1923. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with honours in 1924, he appeared in a succession of diverse roles in the West End and Bristol. He made his screen debut with '' Lady in Danger'' in 1934 and appeared in several supporting roles in the 1930s before becoming a leading man in the 1940s and 50s. In his most critically acclaimed period, he became an indelible part of British wartime cinema with starring roles in '' Saloon Bar'' (1940), '' The Next of Kin'' (1942), '' Went the Day Well?'' (1942), '' The Halfway House'' (1944), '' Twilight Hour'' (1945), and '' Dead of Night'' (1945). In the postwar era, Johns worked regularly as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans May
Hans May (11 July 1886 – 31 December 1959) was an Austrian-born composer who went into exile in Britain in 1936 after the Nazis came to power in his homeland, being of Jewish descent. Born in Vienna, May studied there with Anton Door (piano) and Richard Heuberger (composition). He gave his first piano recital at the age of 10 and had qualified as an operatic conductor by 18, touring extensively from Berlin to Cairo and Istanbul.John Huntley. ''British Film Music'' (1947), p. 216 He first gained attention as a composer during the 1920s and 1930s, writing German language songs such as ''Ein Lied geht um die Welt'' (1933) and ''Es wird im Leben dir mehr genommen als gegeben'' (1936), gaining considerable popularity in Europe through recordings by Joseph Schmidt and Richard Tauber. He was one of the pioneers of film music, writing scores for silent movies in Berlin and Paris, and associated with the Kinothek catalogued library of music intended to accompany silent films. Initial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moray Grant
Moray Grant (1917–1977) was a Scottish cinematographer. Born 13 November 1917, near Forres, Morayshire. Full name Robert David Moray Grant. Married Antoinette Christiansen, oldest daughter of Arthur Chritiansen, editor of the Daily Express, in March 1951, in Kensington, London. One daughter. Selected filmography * '' The Trojan Brothers'' (1946) * ''Counterblast'' (1948) * ''The Three Weird Sisters'' (1948) * '' The Jack of Diamonds'' (1949) * ''Night Was Our Friend'' (1951) * '' The Dark Light'' (1951) * ''Conflict of Wings'' (1954) * '' Up the Creek'' (1958) * ''The Vampire Lovers'' (1970) * ''I, Monster ''I, Monster'' is a 1971 British horror film directed by Stephen Weeks (his feature debut) and starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. It was written by MIlton Subotsky, adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella '' Strange Case o ...'' (1971) * '' An Appointment in London'' (1952) References External links * 1917 births 1977 deaths Scottish cinema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Wilson (cinematographer)
James Wilson was a British cinematographer. The film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane describe his work for the B movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ... production company The Danzigers in the 1950s as one of the company's "strongest assets", especially in his ability to create a sense of "unillusioned grimness".Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, ''The British 'B' Film'', Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, p. 95. Selected filmography * '' One of the Best'' (1927) * '' Balaclava'' (1928) * '' A South Sea Bubble'' (1928) * '' The Man from Chicago'' (1930) * '' Symphony in Two Flats'' (1930) * ''Keepers of Youth'' (1931) * ''Potiphar's Wife (1931 film), Potiphar's Wife'' (1931) * ''The Flying Fool (1931 film), The Flying Fool'' (1931) * ''Lord Camber's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sybille Binder
Sybille Binder (5 January 1895 – 30 June 1962) was an Austrian actress of Jewish descent whose career of over 40 years was based variously in her home country, Germany and Britain, where she found success in films during the 1940s. Career Binder began her stage career in Berlin in 1915, then in 1918 moved to Munich, where she enjoyed success in classical drama. Between 1916 and 1918 she also appeared in a handful of silent films. In 1922, she returned to Berlin and received acclaim for her performance in Frank Wedekind's '' Earth Spirit''. Over the next few years she performed regularly in Germany and Austria then, in the mid-1930s as war approached and conditions in Germany became difficult, she made the decision to move to England. Between 1942 and 1950 Binder featured in 13 British films, including several of superior quality. Her first screen appearance in Britain came auspiciously in the highly acclaimed supernatural drama '' Thunder Rock'', playing opposite dramatic he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aubrey Mallalieu
Aubrey Mallalieu (8 June 1873 – 28 May 1948) was an English actor with a prolific career in supporting roles in films in the 1930s and 1940s. Mallalieu began life as George William Mallalieu, the son of William Mallalieu (c. 1845–1927), a well-known stage comedian, and his wife Margaret Ellen Smith. He had a sister called Polly who corresponded with Lewis Carroll in the 1890s. He adopted the stage name of Aubrey early in his acting career. Information is scant on Mallalieu's pre-film career, but he is believed to have had a lengthy stage career before making the move into films. Archive sources available in New Zealand indicate that he spent a considerable number of years touring with stage companies in that country and Australia in the 1900s and 1910s. In December 1912 Mallalieu was touring Australia with Leal Douglas in a piece called “Feed the Brute”.Public Notices in ''Townsville Daily Bulletin'', 11 December 1912, p. 1; “Direct from Harry Rickards's Theatres. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Salew
John Rylett Salew (28 February 1902 (some sources state 1 January 1897)14 September 1961) was an English stage film and TV actor. Salew made the transition from stage to films in 1939, and according to Allmovie, "the manpower shortage during WWII enabled the stout, balding Salew to play larger and more important roles than would have been his lot in other circumstances. He usually played suspicious-looking characters, often Germanic in origin." His screen roles included William Shakespeare in the comic fantasy '' Time Flies'' (1944), Grimstone in the Gothic melodrama '' Uncle Silas'' (1947), and the librarian in the supernatural thriller'' Night of the Demon'' (1957). He played Colonel Wentzel in the Adventures of William Tell "The Shrew" episode (1958). John Salew was active into the TV era, playing the sort of character parts that John McGiver played in the US Selected filmography * '' It's in the Air'' (1938) – RAF Radio Operator (uncredited) * '' Dead Men are Dangerou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gladys Henson
Gladys Hilda Barbara Kate Henson (née Gunn; 27 September 1897 – 21 December 1982) was an Irish actress whose career lasted from 1932 to 1976 and included roles on stage, radio, films and television series. Among her most notable films were '' The History of Mr Polly'' (1949) and '' The Blue Lamp'' (1950). Life and career Henson was born at 4 St Stephen's Green, Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of John Gunn, the director of the Gaiety Theatre, and Hilda Killock. She married English actor Leslie Henson in 1926. In 1932, she appeared in the premiere of Noël Coward's '' Design for Living'' on Broadway, appearing in several other London and Broadway shows, including Coward's ''Set to Music'' (1939). After her divorce from Henson, she appeared in numerous well-known post-war films, often alongside Jack Warner, whose wife she played in '' Train of Events'', ''The Captive Heart ''The Captive Heart'' is a 1946 British war drama, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Micha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Wheatley
Alan Wheatley (19 April 1907 – 30 August 1991) was an English actor. He was a well known stage actor in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, appeared in forty films between 1931 and 1965 and was a frequent broadcaster on radio from the 1930s to the 1990s, and on television from 1938 to 1964. His most prominent television role was the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1950s TV series ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'', with Richard Greene as Robin Hood; Wheatley played the sheriff in 54 episodes between 1955 and 1959. Earlier, he had played Sherlock Holmes in the first television series featuring the great detective. In addition to acting, Wheatley was a radio announcer during the Second World War, broadcasting to occupied Europe, where he became a well known voice. Poetry was another of his interests: he translated the poetry of Federico García Lorca and was a frequent reader of poems on air. In his later years he worked mainly in radio, as a narrator, a verse-reader and an actor. Life a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
