|
Meet Mr. Lucifer
''Meet Mr. Lucifer'' (also known as ''Let's Put out the Light)'' is a 1953 black-and-white British comedy satire film directed by Anthony Pelisser starring Stanley Holloway, Peggy Cummins and Jack Watling. It is based on the 1951 play ''Beggar My Neighbour'' by Arnold Ridley. It opened on 26 November 1953 at the Haymarket Gaumont cinema in London. It was filmed at Ealing Studios, London, and is one of the Ealing comedies. A television set makes people act out of character, with visible encouragement from the Devil in human form. Plot When Mr Pedelty leaves his firm, he is given a television set as a retirement present. At first, he enjoys all the attention from his neighbours, but soon the attraction wears off, and he sells it on to a young married couple the Nortons, living in the flat above him. They soon encounter the same problems, and again the set is passed on to several different characters all with the same results. The set passes to the chemist Hector McPhee who fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Pelissier
Harry Anthony Compton Pelissier (27 July 1912 – 2 April 1988) was an English actor, screenwriter, producer and director. Biography Pelissier was born in Barnet, north London, and came from a theatrical family. His parents were the theatre producer H. G. Pelissier (who presented ''Pelissier's Follies'') and the actress Fay Compton. His uncle was Compton MacKenzie, who wrote '' Whisky Galore''. He was barely a year old when his father died, and with his nineteen year-old widowed mother in pursuit of her acting career, was mostly raised by his grandmother Virginia Compton and a series of nannies. This background would inform one of his most successful films, ''The Rocking-Horse Winner'' with its plot of a neglected young boy desperate to please his worldly mother. Pelissier began acting in the 1930s. In 1935 and 1936, he was featured in Noël Coward's play cycle, '' Tonight at 8.30'', both in Britain and on Broadway. He also played in Coward's '' Set to Music'' (1939).T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Tomelty
Joseph Tomelty (5 March 1911 – 7 June 1995) was an Irish actor, playwright, novelist, short-story writer and theatre manager. He worked in film, television, radio and on the stage, starring in Sam Thompson's 1960 play ''Over the Bridge''. Life and career Born in Portaferry in 1911, he was the son of James Tomelty, a skilled fiddler who was nicknamed "Rollicking"; and the brother of Peter Tomelty, a tenor and recording artist. Tomelty's exposure to music at a young age influenced his work as a playwright, with several of his stage works being named after songs, including ''The Singing Bird'' (1948), ''Down the Heather Glen'' (1953) and ''The Drunken Sailor'' (1954). Tomelty was a co-founder, in 1940, of the Group Theatre in Belfast, and served as its general manager until 1951. He married Lena Milligan in 1942.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaryjoseph-to melty-1586249.html They had two daughters together: Frances Tomelty is an actress and the first wife ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Sims
Irene Joan Marion Sims (9 May 1930 – 27 June 2001) was an English actress and comedienne, best remembered for her roles in the ''Carry On'' franchise, appearing in 24 of the films (the most for any actress). On television, she is known for playing Gran in '' Till Death Us Do Part'' (1967–1975), Madge Kettlewell in ''Sykes'' (1972–1978), Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton in ''Worzel Gummidge'' (1979–1981), an eccentric youth hostel owner in ''Victoria Wood'' (1989), Mrs Wembley, the cook with a liking for sherry, in '' On the Up'' (1990–1992), and Madge Hardcastle in '' As Time Goes By'' (1994–1998). Early life and education Sims was born on 9 May 1930, the only child of John Henry Sims (1888–1964), Station Master of Laindon railway station in Essex, and his wife Gladys Marie Sims, ''née'' Ladbrook (1896–1981). Sims's early interest in being an actress came from living at the railway station. She would often put on performances for waiting passengers. She decided that she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
McDonald Hobley
Dennys Jack Valentine McDonald-Hobley (9 June 1917 – 30 July 1987) was a British actor of stage and screen, radio and television broadcaster and compère, who was one of the earliest BBC Television continuity announcers, appearing on screen from 1946 to 1956. Born in Stanley in the Falkland Islands and educated at Brighton College, England, he decided to become an actor and began his career as a character actor in repertory theatre. The Second World War saw Hobley serve as a gunner in the Royal Artillery and become a captain in the South East Asia Command. He was seconded by Lord Mountbatten to the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Ceylon. After he was demobbed in 1946, Hobley was entered into a competition for announcers of the BBC Television service and was successful. He announced, commentated on sport, compèred panel games, provided film commentary and conducted interviews on chat shows. Holbey resigned from the BBC in 1956 to join ABC Weekend TV as an announce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Harben
Philip Hubert Kendal Jerrold Harben (17 October 1906 – 27 April 1970) was an English cook, known for his radio and television programmes about food and cooking. With no formal training as a cook he ran a restaurant in Hampstead in the 1930s and had charge of a major airline's test kitchens in the 1940s, before being spotted by the BBC and given his own series on radio from 1943 and television from 1946. In 1955 he moved to Independent Television, where he presented his cookery programmes until 1969. He aimed to show viewers the basics of cookery techniques, and published more than twenty books on the subject between 1945 and his death in 1970. Life and career Early years Harben was born in Fulham, London, on 17 October 1906, into a theatrical family. His parents – Hubert Harben and Mary Jerrold – were actors, and his younger sister, Joan, joined the profession, becoming celebrated as Mona Lott in the BBC radio series ''It's That Man Again'' (ITMA).Levy, Paul"Harben, Ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert Harding
Gilbert Charles Harding (5 June 1907 – 16 November 1960) was a British journalist and radio and television personality. His many careers included schoolmaster, journalist, policeman, disc jockey, actor, interviewer and television presenter. He also appeared in several films, sometimes in character parts but usually as himself – for example in '' Expresso Bongo'' (1959). Harding had a sizeable role alongside John Mills in the 1952 film '' The Gentle Gunman'', and narrated the introduction to the film '' Pacific Destiny'' (1956). He also made a couple of comedy records in the 1950s. Early life Harding was born in Hereford where his parents, Gilbert Harding and May King, were employed as "master" and "matron" of the city's workhouse. His father died in 1911 at the age of thirty following an appendicitis operation, and so his mother sent their son to board at the Royal Orphanage of Wolverhampton, "an excellent academy" which prepared him for his subsequent education at Queens' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olive Sloane
Olive Sloane (16 December 1896 – 28 June 1963) was an English actress whose film career spanned over 40 years from the silent era through to her death. Sloane's career trajectory was unusual in that for most of her professional life she was essentially an anonymous bit part actress, and her best, most substantial roles did not come until relatively late in her career when she was in her 50s. Her most famous film appearance is the 1950 production '' Seven Days to Noon''. Career 1920s–1940s Born in London in 1896, Sloane's first screen credit came in a 1921 silent film ''The Door That Has No Key'' produced by Frank Hall Crane, and there were five further appearances in silents up to 1925, including 1922's ''Trapped by the Mormons'', a film which many decades later became a cult favourite with midnight film aficionados owing to its unintentionally ludicrous hilarity, and received a DVD release in the US in 2006. After 1925, there would be no further film appearance for Sloan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Pettingell
Frank Edmund George Pettingell (1 January 1891 – 17 February 1966) was an English actor. Pettingell was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, and educated at Manchester University. During the First World War he served with the King's Liverpool Regiment. He appeared in such films as the original version of '' Gaslight'' (1940), ''Kipps'' (1941 - as Old Kipps), and ''Becket'' (1964 - as the Bishop of York). His collection of printed and manuscript playscripts - mostly acquired from the son of the comedian Arthur Williams (1844–1915) - is held at the Templeman Library, University of Kent. He also had an extensive collection of serial fiction and penny-dreadfuls, and this can now be found in the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books in Toronto. Collection Pettingell was an avid collector of popular playscripts and other literature which range from the 18th century to the early 20th century. In 1966, the Bodleian Library in Oxford purchased Pettingell’s collection of 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Thesiger
Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger (15 January 1879 – 14 January 1961) was an English stage and film actor. He is noted for his performance as Doctor Septimus Pretorius in James Whale's film ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935). Early life Ernest Thesiger was born 15 January 1879 in London. He was the third of four children of Hon. Sir Edward Peirson Thesiger (1842–1928), KCB, Clerk Assistant to Parliament, and Georgina Mary, daughter of William Bruce Stopford Sackville, of Drayton House, Thrapston, Northamptonshire, of the family of the Earl of Courtown. He was the grandson of the 1st Lord Chelmsford, first cousin once removed of the explorer and author Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003), and the nephew of the 2nd Lord Chelmsford. Thesiger attended Marlborough College and the Slade School of Art with aspirations of becoming a painter, but quickly switched to drama, making his professional debut in a production of ''Colonel Smith'' in 1909. He also processed with the Men's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Huntley
Horace Raymond Huntley (23 April 1904 – 15 June 1990) was an English actor who appeared in dozens of British films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He also appeared in the ITV period drama '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' as the pragmatic family solicitor Sir Geoffrey Dillon. Life and career Early life Horace Raymond Huntley was born in Kings Norton, Worcestershire (now a suburb of Birmingham) in 1904. Career Stage He made his stage debut at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 1 April 1922, in ''A Woman Killed with Kindness''. His London debut followed at the Court Theatre on 22 February 1924, in ''As Far as Thought can Reach''. He subsequently inherited the role of Count Dracula from Edmund Blake in Hamilton Deane's touring adaptation of ''Dracula'', which arrived at London's Little Theatre on 14 February 1927, subsequently transferring to the larger Duke of York's Theatre. Later that year he was offered the chance to reprise the role on Broadway (in a script streamlined by Jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Cadell
Jean Dunlop Cadell (13 September 1884 – 29 September 1967) was a Scottish character actress. Although her married name was Jean Dunlop Perceval-Clark she retained her maiden name in the context of acting. Life and career She was born at 4 Buckingham Terrace in Edinburgh, the daughter of Dr Francis Cadell (1844-1909), a wealthy surgeon, and his wife, Mary Hamilton Boileau (1853-1907). The family moved to 22 Ainslie Place, a huge Georgian house on the Moray Estate, in her youth. She performed in the cinema and on the stage. Among her best-known cinema roles was in the Ealing Studios comedy ''Whisky Galore! (1949 film), Whisky Galore!'' (1949), as well as ''Pygmalion (1938 film), Pygmalion'' (1938) and ''I Know Where I'm Going!'' (1945). She once performed opposite W.C. Fields in Hollywood, cast as Mrs. Micawber to his Wilkins Micawber in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1935 production of ''David Copperfield (1935 film), David Copperfield''. Although Cadell remains in the released vers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphrey Lestocq
Humphrey Lestocq (23 January 1919 – 29 January 1984) was a British actor, best known for his roles in ''Angels One Five'' (1952) and '' The Long Shadow'' (1961), and guest appearances in the television series '' The Avengers''. Lestocq shot to fame as Flying Officer Kyte in the BBC radio wartime comedy ''Merry-Go-Round'' (1944–1948), which later evolved into ''Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh''. He was also the presenter of the TV series ''Whirligig'', the first Saturday children's programme to be broadcast live from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios. It ran from 1950 to 1956. Calling himself "H.L.", he was the stooge of the puppet Mr. Turnip, voiced by Peter Hawkins. Lestocq's catchphrases were "Goody, Goody Gumdrops" and "Jolly D", and Mr. Turnip's was "Lawky, Lawky, Lum". Family He was born Humphrey Lestocq Gilbert on 23 January 1919 in Chiswick, London, England. His parents were George Marx Gilbert and May Frances née Wooldridge, married 1911 in Brentford (Chiswick). They h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
