|
Hotel Reserve
''Hotel Reserve'' is a 1944 British spy film starring James Mason as an innocent man caught up in pre-Second World War espionage. Other cast members include Lucie Mannheim, Raymond Lovell and Herbert Lom. It was based on Eric Ambler's 1938 novel '' Epitaph for a Spy''. Unusually, it was both directed and produced by a trio: Lance Comfort, Mutz Greenbaum and Victor Hanbury. It was shot at Denham Studios with sets designed by the art director William C. Andrews. The film was produced and distributed by the British branch of RKO Pictures. Plot In 1938, refugee Peter Vadassy decides to take a holiday at the Hotel Reserve on the French Mediterranean coast to celebrate both his completion of medical school and his impending French citizenship. When he goes to pick up some photographs at the local pharmacy, he is taken away and questioned by Michel Beghin of French naval intelligence. When his negatives had been developed, some of them turned out to be of French military installations. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lance Comfort
Lance Comfort (11 August 1908 – 25 August 1966) was an English film director. He was a prolific maker of B movies from 1945 to 1965. Early life Lance Comfort was born in Harrow, London on 11 August 1908. Career In a career spanning over 25 years, he became one of the most prolific film directors in Britain, though he never gained critical attention and remained on the fringes of the film industry, creating mostly B movies. Comfort carried on working almost right up to his death in Worthing, Sussex, on 25 August 1966. Critical assessment The film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane praise Comfort's gifts "in the confident exercise of melodramatic impulses in the interests of illuminating character and relationship, in a decorative visual style to serve these impulses, and in giving their heads to string of dominant actors". They add that all of his films "are persuasive narratives, marked by absence of sentimentality and the whiff of human reality".Steve Chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine, who also founded AllMusic and AllGame. The AllMovie database was licensed to tens of thousands of distributors and retailers for point-of-sale systems, websites and kiosks. The AllMovie database is comprehensive, including basic product information, cast and production credits, plot synopsis, professional reviews, biographies, relational links and more. AllMovie data is accessed on the web at the AllMovie website. It was also available via the AMG LASSO media recognition service, which can automatically recognize DVDs. In late 2007, TiVo Corporation acquired AMG for a reported $72 million. The AMG consumer facing web properties AllMusic, AllMovie and AllGame were sold by Rov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurence Hanray
Laurence Hanray ( Lawrence Henry Jacobs; 16 May 1874 – 28 November 1947), sometimes credited as Lawrence Hanray, was a British film and theatre actor born in London, England. He is also credited as the author of several plays and music hall songs. Laurence Hanray was born Lawrence Henry Jacobs in St John's Wood on 16 May 1874, the son of Angelo Jacobs (c. 1851–1910), a glass manufacturer, and Leah (née Nathan; 1850/1851–1946). His father changed his name to Angelo Jacobs Hanray, and with it the family name, after becoming bankrupt in 1897, although Laurence had been using the name Hanray professionally from at least 1892, when he appeared as a member of the Hermann Vezin Theatre Company in supporting roles in ''Hamlet'' and ''Macbeth'' at Her Majesty's Theatre, Dundee. Australian newspapers show he was in Australia and New Zealand from around 1901–04, appearing as Carraway Bones the undertaker in the farce ''Turned Up'' at the Theatre Royal, Perth, in May 1901, and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patricia Medina
Patricia Paz Maria Medina (19 July 1919 – 28 April 2012) was a British actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films ''Phantom of the Rue Morgue'' (1954) and ''Mr. Arkadin'' (1955). Early life Medina was born on 19 July 1919 in Liverpool, England, as the daughter of Laureano Ramón Medina Nebot, a Spanish lawyer and opera singer from the Canary Islands, and an English mother, Edith May Strode. Patricia had two sisters, Pepita "Piti" and Gloria Nebot. Born in Liverpool, her sisters and she grew up at a mansion in Stanmore. Medina began acting as a teenager in the late 1930s, and worked her way up to leading roles in the mid-1940s, when she left London for Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood. Career In 1950's ''Fortunes of Captain Blood'', she teamed with British actor Louis Hayward. They subsequently appeared together in 1951's ''The Lady and the Bandit'', ''Lady in the Iron Mask'', and ''Captain Pirate'' from 1952. Medina was often typecast in period melodrama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Valk
Frederick Valk (10 June 1895 – 23 July 1956) was a German-born stage and screen actor of Czech Jewish descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalised British citizen. Despite making his later career in the English-speaking world, Valk never attempted to shed his heavy accent in either his stage or film work, and it became a trademark, particularly in film where he was often the first choice for a role which called for a German or generic Central European accent. Stage career Valk made his first appearance on the London stage in 1939, going on to play in numerous productions of classic drama including leading roles in Shakespeare, with his performances as Shylock in ''The Merchant of Venice'' and in the title role of ''Othello'', attracting critical admiration. In 1946 he won the ''Ellen Terry Award'' for best actor for his performance in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's '' The Brothers Karamazov''. Valk also tour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara (; 17 August 1920 – 24 October 2015) was an Irish-born naturalized American actress who became successful in Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural redhead who was known for playing passionate but sensible heroines, often in Westerns and adventure films. She worked with director John Ford and long-time friend John Wayne on numerous projects. O'Hara was born into a Catholic family and raised in Dublin, Ireland. She aspired to become an actress from a very young age. She trained with the Rathmines Theatre Company from the age of 10 and at the Abbey Theatre from the age of 14. She was given a screen test, which was deemed unsatisfactory, but Charles Laughton saw potential in her and arranged for her to co-star with him in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Jamaica Inn'' in 1939. Laughton insisted that she change her surname from FitzSimons against her wishes, and she became "O'Hara". She moved to Hollywood the same year to appear with him in th ... [...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] |
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon has a population of 176,198 people (2018), making it France's 13th-largest city. It is the centre of an urban unit with 580,281 inhabitants (2018), the ninth largest in France by population. Toulon is the second largest French city by urban area on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille. Toulon is an important centre for naval construction, fishing, wine making, and the manufacture of aeronautical equipment, armaments, maps, paper, tobacco, printing, shoes, and electronic equipment. The military port of Toulon is the major navy, naval centre on France's Mediterranean coast, home of the French aircraft carrier ''French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, Charles de Gaulle'' and her battle group. The French Mediterranean Fleet is based in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalitarianism, totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies of World War II, Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, End of World War II in Europe, ending World War II in Europe. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole ''Führer'' (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Democratic
Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, social democracy has taken the form of predominantly capitalist economies, a robust welfare state, policies promoting social justice, market regulation, and a more Redistribution of income and wealth, equitable distribution of income. Social democracy maintains a commitment to Representative democracy, representative and participatory democracy. Common aims include curbing Social inequality, inequality, eliminating the oppression of Social privilege, underprivileged groups, eradicating poverty, and upholding universally accessible public services such as child care, Universal education, education, elderly care, Universal health care, health care, and workers' compensation. Economically, it support ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RKO Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Classical Hollywood cinema#1927–1960: Sound era and the Golden Age of Hollywood, Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America studio were studio system, brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA executive David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone, and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name (an initialism of Radio-Keith-Orpheum). Two years later, another Kennedy concern, the Pathé Exchange, Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William C
William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will or Wil, Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill, Billie, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie). Female forms include Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the German given name ''Wilhelm''. Both ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic ''*Wiljahelmaz'', with a direct cognate also in the Old Norse name ''Vilhjalmr'' and a West Germanic borrowing into Medieval Latin ''Willelmus''. The Proto-Germanic name is a compound of *''wiljô'' "will, wish, desire" and *''helmaz'' "helm, helmet".Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
