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Blonde Sinner
''Yield to the Night'' (also titled ''Blonde Sinner'' in the US) is a 1956 British crime drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Diana Dors. The film is based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Joan Henry. The storyline bears a superficial and coincidental resemblance to the Ruth Ellis case, which had occurred the previous year but subsequent to the release of Henry's novel. The film received much positive critical attention, particularly for the unexpectedly skilled acting of Dors, who had previously been cast solely as a British version of the typical "blonde bombshell". The movie was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Premise Mary Hilton (Diana Dors) has been convicted of murder and sentenced to hang, and she spends her last weeks in the condemned cell in a British women's prison. While there she remembers the events in her life leading up to the murder. Cast * Diana Dors as Mary Hilton * Yvonne Mitchell as Matron Hilda MacFarla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth Harper
Kenneth Harper (1913–1998) was an English film producer. He produced 13 films between 1954 and 1973. He was a member of the jury at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival. He produced the first films of Peter Yates and Ken Russell and four films starring Cliff Richard. In a 1964 interview he said he found producing "fascinating - finding the story, the director and the cast: mixing people, you know? It's like being a chef in the kitchen." Biography Harper's first credit as producer was a Dirk Bogarde comedy, '' For Better, for Worse'' (1954) directed by J. Lee Thompson for Associated British. Harper and Thompson reunited on ''Yield to the Night'' (1956) a drama with Diana Dors. Harper teamed up with George Willoughby and made '' Action of the Tiger'' (1957) at MGM, directed by Terence Young, and ''Passionate Summer'' (1958) for Rank. Harper had a big hit with '' The Young Ones'' (1961) starring Cliff Richard and directed by Sidney J. Furie. It was the second most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liam Redmond
Liam Redmond (27 July 1913 – 28 October 1989) was an Irish character actor known for his stage, film and television roles. Early life Redmond was one of four children born to cabinet-maker Thomas and Eileen Redmond. Educated at the Christian Brothers schools in Dublin, he later attended University College, Dublin and initially read medicine before moving into drama. Acting career While Director of the Dramatic Society he met and married the society's secretary Barbara MacDonagh (sister of Donagh MacDonagh and daughter of 1916 Rising leader Thomas MacDonagh and Muriel Gifford). They had four children. Redmond was invited to join the Abbey Theatre in 1935 as a producer by William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet. Yeats wrote his play ''Death of Cuchullain'' for Redmond to star as Cúchullain, hero of one of Ireland's foundational myths. Redmond made his acting debut at the Abbey Theatre in 1935 in Seán O'Casey's ''The Silver Tassie''. His first stage appearance was in 1939 i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Weak And The Wicked
''The Weak and the Wicked'' (called ''Young and Willing'' in the United States) is a 1954 British drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson based on the autobiographical novel '' Who Lie in Gaol'' by his wife, Joan Henry, starring Glynis Johns and Diana Dors. Based on a best-selling book and prison experiences of author Joan Henry, director J. Lee Thompson's prison saga explores the life of inmates behind bars where innocence is lost in the world of vice. Despite its pulpy pot-boiler title, the film settles for earnest social drama over melodrama. Plot Frank "women in prison" story that sympathetically tracks several inmates through their imprisonment and subsequent return to society. Some are successfully rehabilitated; some are not. Female prisoners talk about the events that brought them there and each of their stories is detailed in a series of flashbacks; the upper-class Jean (Glynis Johns), the brash Betty (Diana Dors) and the pregnant Pat (Rachel Roberts). Jean has a ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dandy Nichols
Dandy Nichols (born Daisy Sander; 21 May 1907 – 6 February 1986) was an English actress best known for her role as Else Garnett, the long-suffering wife of the character Alf Garnett who was a parody of a working class Tory, in the BBC sitcom ''Till Death Us Do Part''. Early life and career Born Daisy Sander in Fulham, London, she started her working life as a secretary in a London factory. Twelve years later, after drama, diction and fencing classes, she was spotted in a charity show by a producer, who offered her a job in his repertory theatre company in Cambridge. During her early career on stage she acted under the name Barbara Nichols but later changed it to Dandy, her childhood nickname. When the Second World War broke out, she returned to office work but later undertook a six-week tour with ENSA. When the war was over, she returned to the theatre and also began appearing in films: usually comedies and almost invariably as a maid or charlady. The latter role she to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Lloyd-Pack
Charles Lloyd-Pack (10 October 1902 – 22 December 1983) was a British film, television and stage actor. Life and career Lloyd-Pack was born at Wapping, East London, to working-class parents. He was seen in several horror films produced by the Hammer Studios including '' Dracula'', ''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'', ''The Revenge of Frankenstein'', ''The Terror of the Tongs'' and ''Quatermass 2'', the film version of the 1955 BBC TV serial. In 1970 he appeared as Claud Nau at the Chichester Festival Theatre in Robert Bolt's play, '' Vivat! Vivat Regina!''. His best known role was Professor Marks in the British television series ''Strange Report'' but he is also known from other television appearances in '' The Avengers'', ''Man in a Suitcase'', '' Randall & Hopkirk'', ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'', ''The Prisoner'' and the mini-series ''Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill'' (1974). Personal life and death Lloyd-Pack married Viennese Jewish refugee Ulrike Elisabeth Pulay (25 A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marianne Stone
Marianne Stone (23 August 1922 – 21 December 2009) was an English character actress. She performed in films from the early 1940s to the late 1980s, typically playing working class parts such as barmaids, secretaries and landladies. Stone appeared in nine of the ''Carry On'' films, and took part in an episode of the ''Carry On Laughing'' television series ("The Case of the Screaming Winkles"). She also had supporting roles with comedian Norman Wisdom. Film work Stone also appeared in '' Brighton Rock'' (1947), ''Seven Days to Noon'' (1950), '' The 39 Steps'' (1959), ''Lolita'' (1962), ''Ladies Who Do'' (1963), ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' (1969) and the first two "Quatermass" films. Her most serious and arguably most dramatic role was as Lena Van Broecken in three episodes of the BBC's '' Secret Army'' between 1977 and 1978. Stone, whose nickname was "Mugsie", was credited in her early films under the name "Mary Stone", and also has been credited as "Marion Stone". She was marr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mona Washbourne
Mona Lee Washbourne (27 November 1903 – 15 November 1988) was an English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film '' Stevie'' (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award. Early life Mona Washbourne was born in Sparkhill, Birmingham, and began her entertaining career training as a concert pianist. Her sister Kathleen Washbourne was a violinist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult. Career Washbourne was performing professionally from the early 1920s. She married the actor Basil Dignam. Her brother-in-law Mark Dignam was also a stage and film actor. In 1948, after numerous stage musical performances, Washbourne began appearing in films. Her film credits include the horror movie ''The Brides of Dracula'', '' Billy Liar'' (1963) and ''The Collector'' (1965). She is probably best known to American audiences for her role as housekeeper Mrs. Pearce in ''My Fair ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athene Seyler
Athene Seyler, CBE (31 May 188912 September 1990) was an English actress. Early life She was born in Hackney, London; her German-born grandparents moved to the United Kingdom, where her grandfather Philip Seyler was a merchant in London. Athene Seyler was educated at Coombe Hill School in Surrey, a progressive co-educational school which disliked petitionary prayer and whose advanced biology classes studied Darwin's ''On the Origin of Species''. Seyler took part in an anti-blood sports demonstration, during which pupils captured the fox from the local hunt.MacKillop, I. D. (1986) ''The British Ethical Societies'', Cambridge University Press, nlineAvailable from: https://books.google.com/books?id=mqgsFS_MN9UC&pgis=1 (Accessed 13 May 2014). She was also active in the South Place Ethical Society during the 1920s, where her father Clarence H. Seyler took his family for many years to hear Moncure Conway lecture as an alternative to attending a religious Sunday service. Clarence r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joyce Blair
Joyce Blair (born Joyce Ogus; 4 November 1932 – 19 August 2006) was an English actress and dancer. She was the younger sister of Lionel Blair, with whom she often performed. Early life and education Blair was born in London, as the daughter of Myer Ogus, a Lithuanian Jewish barber, who changed the family name to Blair. and Debora "Della" Greenbaum. Her family was Jewish. Her father changed the family name to Blair in her youth; he died when Joyce was 12 years old. Blair was educated at Cone's School in London, and started her show-business career by singing and tap-dancing in front of captive audiences in London air raid shelters during the Second World War. Career She and her brother took up showbusiness as professionals to support their mother after their father's death in 1944. She made her first professional stage appearance in the J.M. Barrie play '' Quality Street'' at the Embassy Theatre in 1945, aged 13. She appeared in minor roles in the original London productio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Ripper
Michael George Ripper (27 January 1913 – 28 June 2000) was an English character actor. He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown; he was seldom credited. Along with Michael Gough he played one of the two murderers in Laurence Olivier's film version of ''Richard III'' (1955). Ripper became a mainstay in Hammer Film Productions playing supporting character roles: coachmen, peasants, tavern keepers, pirates and sidekicks. Appearing in more of the company's films than any other performer, these included ''The Camp on Blood Island'' (1958), ''The Revenge of Frankenstein'' (1958), ''The Mummy'' (1959), ''The Brides of Dracula'' (1960), '' Captain Clegg'' (1962), ''The Scarlet Blade'' (1963), ''The Reptile'' (1966), ''The Plague of the Zombies'' (1966) and ''The Mummy's Shroud'' (1967). Some of his parts were little better than glorified bits (as in ''The Curse of the Werewolf''), but his penultimate role for Hammer Fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Locke
Harry Locke (10 December 1913 – 7 September 1987) was an English character actor. He was born and died in London. He married Joan Cowderoy in 1943 and Cordelia Sewell in 1952. He was a good friend of the poet Dylan Thomas. Their friendship in London and South Leigh, Oxfordshire, has been described by Locke in a 1970s interview with the radio journalist Colin Edwards. Locke was a familiar face in three decades of British cinema, playing small parts such as assorted cockneys, working men, clerks, porters and cab drivers, with appearances including ''Passport to Pimlico'' (1949), '' Reach for the Sky'' (1956), ''Carry On Nurse'' (1959), ''The Devil-Ship Pirates'' (1964), ''Alfie'' (1966) and ''The Family Way'' (1966). His numerous roles on TV included ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' as a night porter in 1969. In 1972 he played Platon Karataev in the BBC production of ''War and Peace'', with his final role, playing a gardener, in an episode of ''Just William'', in 1977. Selec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Mackenzie
Mary Mackenzie (3 May 1922 – 20 September 1966) was an English actress. One of her earliest credited TV roles was in 1950 on BBC's ''Sunday Night Theatre'', as Miriam in an adaptation of H. G. Wells' ''The History of Mr Polly'', a role she returned to in the 1959 BBC serialization. Early and personal life Mackenzie was born in Burnley, Lancashire, where she spent her early years. She died at the age of 44 in a car accident in London in 1966. Acting career Television *'' Ghost Squad'' (1963) as Gertrude in the Episode "Gertrude" (season 2, episode 16) *''Z-Cars'' (1963) as Martha Mather in the Episode "The Listeners" (season 2, episode 22) *''The History of Mr Polly'' (1959) as Miriam *''Sunday Night Theatre'' (1950) as Marjorie Radley in the episode "Miss Hargreaves" *''Sunday Night Theatre'' (1950) as Miriam in the Episode "The History of Mr Polly" Film *''Wanted for Murder'' (1946) as first victim *''Lady in the Fog'' aka '' Scotland Yard Inspector'' (1952) as Marilyn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
