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Dame Flora Robson
Dame Flora McKenzie Robson (28 March 19027 July 1984) was an English actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity. Her range extended from queens to murderesses. Early life Flora McKenzie Robson was born on 28 March 1902 in South Shields, County Durham, of Scottish descent to a family of six siblings. Many of her forebears were engineers, mostly in shipping. Her father was a ship's engineer who moved from Wallsend near Newcastle to Palmers Green in 1907 and Southgate in 1910, both in north London, and later to Welwyn Garden City. She was educated at the Palmers Green High School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she won a bronze medal in 1921. Career Her father discovered that Flora had a talent for recitation and, from the age of 5, she was taken around by horse and carriage to recite, and to compete in recitations. This established a pattern that remained with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dame
''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several other Commonwealth realms, such as Australia and New Zealand, with the masculine form of address being ''Sir''. It is the female equivalent for knighthood, which is traditionally granted to males. Dame is also style used by baronetesses Suo jure, in their own right. A woman appointed to the grades of the Dame Commander or Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg), Order of Saint John, Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, Most Honourable Order of the Bath, the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, the Royal Victorian Order, or the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire becomes a dame. A Central European order in which female members receive the rank of Dame is the Order of St. George (H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fire Over England
''Fire Over England'' is a 1937 London Film Productions film drama, notable for providing the first pairing of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. It was directed by William K. Howard and written by Clemence Dane from the 1936 novel ''Fire Over England (novel), Fire Over England'' by A. E. W. Mason, AEW Mason. Leigh's performance in the film helped to convince David O. Selznick to cast her as Scarlett O'Hara in his 1939 production of ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind''. The film is a historical drama set during the reign of Elizabeth I focusing on England's victory over the Spanish Armada. Plot During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, England is concerned by the impending arrival of the Spanish Armada. In 1588, relations between Spain and England are at breaking point. With the support of Queen Elizabeth I (Flora Robson), English privateers such as Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake regularly capture Spanish merchantmen bringing gold from the New World. Elizabeth's ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Good-Time Girl
''Good-Time Girl'' is a 1948 British film noir-crime drama film directed by David MacDonald. A homeless girl is asked to explain her bad behaviour in the juvenile court, and says she’s run away from home because she’s unhappy there. They explain in detail what happened to the last girl who thought she could cope on her own, and this becomes the main plot. Plot The film opens with Miss Thorpe, chairwoman of the Juvenile Court, giving advice to troubled teenager Lyla Lawrence. Miss Thorpe tells Lyla that her life has a similar beginning to that of Gwen Rawlings. She then recounts Gwen's story in a series of flashbacks. Gwen is a 16-year-old girl who repeatedly falls in with the wrong crowd. Her troubles begin with her employer, a pawnbroker, who catches her "borrowing" a brooch from his shop. Although Gwen had only borrowed it to wear at a dance and had every intention of returning it, she is fired. When she arrives home and informs her father, he beats her. The next day Gwen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Narcissus
''Black Narcissus'' is a 1947 British Psychological fiction, psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by Powell and Pressburger, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu Dastagir, Sabu, David Farrar (actor), David Farrar, Flora Robson, Esmond Knight, and Jean Simmons. The title refers to the Parfums Caron, Caron perfume ''Narcisse Noir''. Based on the 1939 Black Narcissus (novel), novel by Rumer Godden, the film revolves around the growing tensions within a small convent of Anglican religious order, Anglican sisters who are trying to establish a school and hospital in the old palace of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain above a fertile valley in the Himalayas. The palace has ancient Indian erotic paintings on its walls and is run by the agent of the Indian general who owns it, a handsome middle-aged Englishman who is a source of attraction for the sisters. ''Black Narcissus'' achieved considerable ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holiday Camp (film)
''Holiday Camp'' is a 1947 British comedy drama film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Flora Robson, Jack Warner, Dennis Price, and Hazel Court, and also features Kathleen Harrison and Jimmy Hanley. It is set at one of the then-popular holiday camps. It resonated with post-war audiences and was very successful. It was the first film to feature the Huggett family, who went on to star in "The Huggetts" film series. Synopsis Set in a Butlin's-style holiday camp on the English coast in contremporary post-war Britain, a working class London family have their first visit to a summer holiday camp. It was the first film to feature the Huggett family, who went on to star in "The Huggetts" film series. The film is a kaleidoscope of events involving the Huggetts and others, including a pregnant young girl and her boyfriend, a sailor whose girlfriend has jilted him, a girl looking for a husband, a spinster, a pair of dishonest card sharps, and a murderer on the run. It captures the round ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caesar And Cleopatra (film)
''Caesar and Cleopatra'' is a 1945 British Technicolor film directed by Gabriel Pascal and starring Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains. Some scenes were directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, who took no formal credit. The picture was adapted from the play '' Caesar and Cleopatra'' (1901) by George Bernard Shaw, produced by Independent Producers and Pascal Film Productions and distributed by Eagle-Lion Distributors. Upon release, ''Caesar and Cleopatra'' failed to earn back its colossal budget. John Bryan was nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction. Plot Aging Julius Caesar takes possession of the Egyptian capital city of Alexandria and tries to resolve a feud between the young princess Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy. Caesar develops a special relationship with Cleopatra and teaches her how to use her royal power. Cast * Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra * Claude Rains as Caesar * Stewart Granger as Apollodorus * Flora Robson as Ftatateeta * Francis L. Sullivan as Pothinus * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as ''Man and Superman'' (1902), ''Pygmalion'' (1913) and '' Saint Joan'' (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh ( ; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967; born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London's West End in 1949. She also won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway musical version of '' Tovarich'' (1963). Although her career had periods of inactivity, in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Leigh as the 16th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. After completing her drama school education, Leigh appeared in small roles in four films in 1935 and progressed to the role of heroine in ''Fire Over England'' (1937). Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that her physical attributes sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress. Despite her fame as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saratoga Trunk
''Saratoga Trunk'' is a 1945 American Western film (or historical romance film, per the American Film Institute) directed by Sam Wood and starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, and Flora Robson. Written by Casey Robinson, based on the novel ''Saratoga Trunk'' by Edna Ferber, the film is about a Texas gambler and the daughter of a Creole aristocrat and his beautiful mistress. They become lovers and work together to seek justice from a society that has ruined their parents and rejected them. The title of the film and novel has a dual meaning. Clio says at one point that she thought a Saratoga trunk had to do with luggage, not a railroad line. It meant both. Saratoga trunks were top of the line for elegant travelers. Plot New Orleans, 1875. Clio Dulaine returns, plotting revenge. Years earlier, she and her late mother were banished to Paris by her father's family, the Dulaines. Clio's mother was his mistress; Clio was born out of wedlock. His family forced him to marry a woman of hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catherine The Great (1934 Film)
''The Rise of Catherine the Great'' (also titled ''Catherine the Great'') is a 1934 British historical film about the rise to power of Catherine the Great. It was directed by Paul Czinner, and stars Elisabeth Bergner as Catherine, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., as Grand Duke Peter, Dorothy Hale as Countess Olga, and Flora Robson as Empress Elizabeth. The movie was banned in Germany. On 14 March 1934 this matter invoked a question in the British Parliament (House of Commons): "Is it to be understood that no British film in which there is a Jewish actor or actress will be permitted to be shown in Germany in future?". Plot This historical drama recounts the events that led to the accession of Catherine the Great, Empress of all the Russias. The film opens with the arrival in 1744 of Princess Sophie Auguste Frederika – whose name would be changed to ‘Catherine’ – from her father's court of Anhalt-Zerbst (in modern Germany) to the court of the Empress Elizabeth. "Little Catherine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
