|
Mervyn Johns
Mervyn Johns (born David Mervyn John; 18 February 18996 September 1992) was a Welsh stage, film and television character actor who became a star of British films during the Second World War. Johns was known for his "mostly mild-mannered, lugubrious, amusing, sometimes moving ‘little men’" in over 100 films and television series. After training in Camden and Primrose Hill, Johns began his career in repertory theatre in 1923. He made his screen debut with '' Lady in Danger'' in 1934 and went on to become an indelible part of British wartime cinema, with starring roles in such films as ''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, he worked regularly at Ealing Studios, first with starring roles in such films as '' They Knew Mr. Knight'' (1946), ''The Captive Heart'' (1946), ''Captain Boycott'' (1947), and '' Easy Money'' (1948), and la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Halfway House
''The Halfway House'' is a 1944 British drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Mervyn Johns, his daughter Glynis Johns, Tom Walls and Françoise Rosay. The film tells the story of ten people who are drawn to stay in an old Welsh countryside inn. Location scenes were shot at Barlynch Priory on the Devon/Somerset border. BFI Screenonline writes, "The high-quality personnel involved and the tight, professional scripting mark the film out as one of the earliest templates of what would become the traditional Ealing style." Plot During the Second World War, various people converge on the Halfway House, an inn in the Welsh countryside. In flashback, we see the events which have led them there. In Cardiff, David Davies, a famous orchestra conductor, is advised by his doctor to cancel a tour and rest, or he will live for only about three months. In London, Richard and Jill French argue about the education of their young daughter Joanna, who overhears them agree to divorce; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Repertory Theatre
A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawing her support from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Horniman's Gaiety Theatre opened its first season in September of 1908. The opening of the Gaiety was followed by the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow and the Liverpool Repertory Theatre. Previously, regional theatre relied on mostly London touring ensembles. During the time the theatre was being run by Annie Horniman, a wide variety of types of plays were produced. Horniman encouraged local writers who became known as the Manchester School of playwrights. They included Allan Monkhouse, Harold Brighouse, writer of ''Hobson's Choice'', and Stanley Houghton, who wrote '' Hindle Wakes''. Actors who performed at the Gaiety early in their careers included Sybil Thorndike and Basil Dean. From the 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Television Play
A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movie, which employs the single-camera setup of film production. United Kingdom From the 1950s until the early 1980s, the television play was a television programming genre in the United Kingdom. The genre was often associated with the social realist-influenced British drama style known as " kitchen sink realism", which depicted the social issues facing working-class families. ''Armchair Theatre'' ( ABC, later Thames, 1956–1974), ''The Wednesday Play'' ( BBC, 1964–1970) and ''Play for Today'' (BBC, 1970–1984) received praise from critics for their quality. ''Armchair Theatre'': 1956–1974 ''Armchair Theatre'' was a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 until 1968 in its original form, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Easy Money (1948 Film)
''Easy Money'' is a 1948 British satirical film about a modern British tradition, the football pools. It is composed of four tales about the effect a major win has in four different situations in the post-war period. Written by Muriel and Sydney Box, based on the play "Easy Money" written by Arnold Ridley, and directed by Bernard Knowles, it was released by Gainsborough Pictures. Plot In the first story, a comedy, a content suburban family, headed by Jack Warner, is turned into an unhappy lot by their various reactions to a win on the football pools. When matters reach a point where they begin wishing that they had never won the money, the youngest daughter (Petula Clark) announces that in fact she forgot to post their entry, and they all regain their previously happy lives. But then it is discovered that it was a previous entry she had forgotten to post and the winning coupon was mailed, and they decide that they have learned a lesson and resolve not to let the money ruin the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captain Boycott (film)
''Captain Boycott'' is a 1947 British historical drama film directed by Frank Launder and starring Stewart Granger, Kathleen Ryan, Mervyn Johns, Alastair Sim and Cecil Parker. Robert Donat makes a cameo appearance as the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell. The film explains how the word boycott appeared in the English language. Ironically, the title character plays a secondary role in the film, as an anti-hero, and the hero of the film is Hugh Davin. Plot In 1880 in County Mayo, during the period of Irish history known as the Land War, Irish tenant farmers agitated for reinstatement of their former lower rents and increased tenants' rights, especially from absentee English landlords. They particularly resented evictions. Some resorted to the gun to achieve justice, but others, inspired by the Irish statesman Charles Stewart Parnell (played in a brief cameo role by Robert Donat), shunned violence and adopted a form of passive resistance. Parnell advocates the theo ... [...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 the summer of 1940, Captain Karel Hašek of the Czechoslovak Army escapes from Dachau concentration camp and assumes the identity of a dead British officer, Captain Geoffrey Mitchell. When he is caught, he joins thousands of British prisoners of war, captured during the Battle of France, on a march to a prison camp in western Germany. He is suspected of being a spy by his fello ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
They Knew Mr
In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms: * ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''them'': the accusative (objective, called the 'oblique'.) and a non-standard determinative form. * ''their:'' the dependent genitive (possessive) form * ''theirs'': independent genitive form * ''themselves'': prototypical reflexive form *''themself'': derivative reflexive form (nonstandard; now chiefly used instead of "himself or herself" as a reflexive epicenity for ''they'' in pronominal reference to a singular referent) History Old English had a single third-person pronoun '' hē'', which had both singular and plural forms, and ''they'' wasn't among them. In or about the start of the 13th century, ''they'' was imported from a Scandinavian source (Old Norse ''þeir'', Old Danish, Old Swedish ''þer'', ''þair''), where it was a masculine plural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since. It is the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production in the world, and the current stages were opened for the use of sound in 1931. It is best known for a series of classic films produced in the post-WWII years, including '' Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949), '' Passport to Pimlico'' (1949), '' The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951), and '' The Ladykillers'' (1955). The BBC owned and filmed at the Studios for forty years from 1955 until 1995. Since 2000, Ealing Studios has resumed releasing films under its own name, including the revived '' St Trinian's'' franchise. In more recent times, films shot here include ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (2002) and '' Shaun of the Dead'' (2004), as well as '' The Theory o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dead Of Night
''Dead of Night'' is a 1945 black and white British anthology horror film, made by Ealing Studios. The individual segments were directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. It stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Sally Ann Howes and Michael Redgrave. The film is best remembered for the concluding story featuring Redgrave and an insane ventriloquist's malevolent dummy. ''Dead of Night'' is a rare British horror film of the 1940s; horror films were banned from production in Britain during the war. It had an influence on subsequent British films in the genre. Both of John Baines' stories were reused for later films and the ventriloquist dummy episode was adapted into the pilot episode of the long-running CBS radio series '' Escape''. While primarily in the horror genre, the film has shades of the comedy that would make the studio's name. Plot Walter Craig arrives at a country cottage in Kent, where he is greeted by his host Elliot Foley. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twilight Hour
''Twilight Hour'' is a 1945 British drama film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Mervyn Johns, Basil Radford, and Marie Lohr. It was shot at the British National Studios in Elstree. The film's sets were designed by the art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ... Wilfred Arnold. It was based on a novel of the same title by Arthur ValentineGoble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999. p. 471. . Cast References Bibliography * Halliwell, Leslie. ''Halliwell's Film Guide''. Scribner, 1987. External links * British drama films 1945 drama films Films directed by Paul L. Stein Films set in England British black-and-white films Films with screenplays by Jack Whittingham Films shot at British National S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Went The Day Well?
''Went the Day Well?'' is a 1942 British war film adapted from a story by Graham Greene and directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. It was produced by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios and served as unofficial propaganda for the war effort. The film shows a Southern English village taken over by German paratroopers, reflecting the greatest potential nightmare for the British public of the time, although the threat of German invasion had largely receded by that point. The film is notable for its unusually frank, for the time, depiction of ruthless violence. Plot The story is told in flashback by a villager ( Mervyn Johns). During the Second World War, a group of seemingly authentic British soldiers arrive in the small, fictitious English village of Bramley End. It is the Whitsun weekend, life is even quieter than usual and there is almost no road traffic. At first they are welcomed by the villagers, until doubts set in about their true purpose and identity. After they are revealed t ... [...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] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Repertory Theatre")
