''The Midas Touch'' is a 1940 British
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
directed by
David MacDonald and starring
Barry K. Barnes,
Judy Kelly
Julie Aileen Kelly (1 November 1913 – 22 October 1991), known professionally as Judy Kelly, was an Australian-born British actress. She arrived in Britain in 1932 after winning a competition organised by the Australian British Empire Films, ...
,
Frank Cellier and
Bertha Belmore
Bertha Belmore (22 December 1882 – 14 December 1953) was an English stage and film actress. Part of the Belmore family of British actors through her marriage to actor Herbert Belmore, she began her career as a child actress in British pantomim ...
. It is an adaptation of the 1938
novel of the same title by
Margaret Kennedy
Margaret Davies, Lady Davies (née Kennedy ; 23 April 1896 – 31 July 1967) was an English novelist and playwright. Her most successful work, as a novel and as a play, was '' The Constant Nymph''. She was a productive writer and several of her ...
.
[Goble p. 256]
It was made as a
second feature
A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second half of a double feature, s ...
at
Teddington Studios
Teddington Studios was a large British television studio in Teddington, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, providing studio facilities for programmes airing on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky One and others. The complex also prov ...
by
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
. The film's sets were designed by
Norman G. Arnold
Norman G. Arnold (19 September 1892 – 7 December 1963) was a British art director who designed the sets for over a hundred and twenty films.
Early life and World War I
Arnold studied architecture, interior decoration & design. During the First ...
.
Cast
*
Barry K. Barnes as Evan Jones
*
Judy Kelly
Julie Aileen Kelly (1 November 1913 – 22 October 1991), known professionally as Judy Kelly, was an Australian-born British actress. She arrived in Britain in 1932 after winning a competition organised by the Australian British Empire Films, ...
as Lydia Brenton
*
Frank Cellier as Corris Morgan
*
Bertha Belmore
Bertha Belmore (22 December 1882 – 14 December 1953) was an English stage and film actress. Part of the Belmore family of British actors through her marriage to actor Herbert Belmore, she began her career as a child actress in British pantomim ...
as Mrs Carter-Blake
* Eileen Erskine as Rosalie
*
Philip Friend
Philip Wyndham Friend (20 February 1915 in Horsham, Sussex – 1 September 1987 in Chiddingfold, Surrey) was a British film and television actor.
Career Britain
Friend went to Bradfield College where he became interested in acting. He began a ...
as David Morgan
* Scott Harrold as Harkness
*
Iris Hoey
Wilhelmina Iris Winifred Hasbach (17 July 1885 – 13 May 1979), known as Iris Hoey, was a British actress in the first half of the twentieth century, both on stage and in movies.
Early life
Iris Hoey was born in London, daughter of Wilhelm ...
as Ellie Morgan
*
Anna Konstam
Anna Konstam (22 February 1914 – 21 November 1982) was a British theatre and film actress.
She appeared in the comedy '' Love in a Mist'' at St Martin's Theatre in 1941. She also played roles at Stratford in 1942–43, including Desdemona i ...
as Mamie
*
Evelyn Roberts
Evelyn Roberts (28 August 1886 – 30 November 1962) was an English stage and film actor. He made his stage debut in 1918 after serving in WW I; and his theatre work included the original Broadway production of R.C. Sherriff's '' Journey's E ...
as Major Arnold
References
Bibliography
* Chibnall, Steve & McFarlane, Brian. ''The British 'B' Film''. Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.
* Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
External links
*
1940 films
1940s thriller films
British thriller films
Films shot at Teddington Studios
Warner Bros. films
Films set in England
Films based on British novels
British black-and-white films
Films produced by Samuel Sax
1940s English-language films
1940s British films
Films scored by Bretton Byrd
English-language thriller films
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