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Harold French
Harold French (23 April 1897 – 19 October 1997) was an English film director, screenwriter and actor. Biography After training at the Italia Conti School, he made his acting debut age 12, in a production of ''The Winter's Tale''. As an actor, most of his roles occurred between 1912 and 1936, not gaining as much attention as later he would as a director. He worked as a screenwriter on three of the four films produced by Marcel Hellman's and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s production company ''Criterion Film Productions'' in the late 1930s, before switching to film direction in 1937, often with Marcel Hellman as producer. From 1940 to 1955, he had several box-office successes as director. This successful period was clouded by the 1941 death of his wife Phyllis in a Luftwaffe bombing raid. Although he did some TV work after 1955, he appears to have retired from directing and acting after 1963. He directed the hit West End play ''Out of Bounds'' starring Michael Redgrave in 1962 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), literally "one who answers".''Hypokrites'' (related to our word for hypocrite) also means, less often, "to answer" the tragic chorus. See Weimann (1978, 2); see also Csapo and Slater, who offer translations of classical source material using the term ''hypocrisis'' ( acting) (1994, 257, 265–267). The actor's interpretation of a rolethe art of actingpertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. This can also be considered an "actor's role," which was called this due to scrolls being used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art. Formerly, in ancient Greece and the medieval world, and in England at the time of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secret Mission
''Secret Mission'' is a 1942 British war film directed by Harold French and starring Hugh Williams, James Mason, Nancy Price, Carla Lehmann and Roland Culver. Plot During the Second World War, British Army Major Peter Garnett assembles a team consisting of Captain ‘Red’ Gowan; Private ‘Nobby’ Clark, and Raoul de Carnot, a member of the Free French forces. A small boat takes them across the Channel, through the minefield near to the coast of occupied France. Sub-Lieutenant Jackson ( Stewart Granger) watches their dinghy pull away and remarks that he does not envy them their jobs, which are to collect intelligence on German military strength in the area, prior to an air raid. Ashore, Gowan kills a sentry. They set a time and place for a rendezvous in two days, and the code for bringing the aircraft. They split up, Gowan and Nobby to the village, Raoul and Garnett to the chateau that is Raoul's ancestral home. Nobby knows the area well: He used to live in Saint Antoine, ... [...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 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''. 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) He began writing in 1937 and directing in 1949. He was the screenwriter and director of four popular films: ''The History of Mr Polly'' (1949), ''The Rocking Horse Winner'' (1950), ''Night Without Stars'' (1951), and ''Personal Affair'' starring Gene Tierney written by Lesley Storm. He also directed ''Encore'' (1951). He also directed Ealing's satire on television '' Meet Mr Lucifer'' (1953). He lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encore (1951 Film)
''Encore'' is a 1951 anthology film composed of adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: *"The Ant and the Grasshopper", directed by Pat Jackson and adapted by T. E. B. Clarke; *"Winter Cruise" (from the 1947 collection of Maugham stories '' Creatures of Circumstance''), directed by Anthony Pelissier, screenplay by Arthur Macrae; *"Gigolo and Gigolette" (from the 1940 collection of Maugham stories ''The Mixture as Before''), directed by Harold French, written by Eric Ambler. Maugham introduces each part of the film with a piece to camera from his garden on the French Riviera. ''Encore'' was the final film in a Maugham trilogy, preceded by ''Quartet'' and '' Trio''. The film was entered into the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. Plot summary "The Ant and the Grasshopper" Idle Tom Ramsay (Nigel Patrick) continually borrows from his hard-working brother George (Roland Culver). George later puts up the Ramsay estate for sale so he can buy out his business partner, despite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Jackson
Patrick Douglas Selmes Jackson (26 March 1916 – 3 June 2011) was an English film and television director. Biography Born in Eltham, to a formerly affluent family which was severely affected by the Wall Street Crash in 1929, and his father's long-term illness and early death ending Jackson's formal education. He joined the GPO Film Unit on his 17th birthday as a messenger boy after his mother persuaded her MP, Sir Kingsley Wood, then also postmaster general, to find work for her son. Rising to production assistant, he was part of the crew for the short film ''Night Mail'' (1936). The voice narrating the poem by W.H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ... ("This is the Night Mail crossing the border, bringing the cheque and the postal order.") was Jackson him ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trio (1950 Film)
''Trio'' (also known as ''W. Somerset Maugham's Trio'') is a 1950 British anthology film based on three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Verger", "Mr Know-All" and "Sanatorium". Ken Annakin directed "The Verger" and "Mr Know-All", while Harold French was responsible for "Sanatorium". ''Trio'' is the second of a film trilogy, all consisting of adaptations of Maugham's stories, preceded by the 1948 ''Quartet'' and followed by the 1951 ''Encore''. Production budget of the film was shared by the J. Arthur Rank Organization and Paramount. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound, Recording (Cyril Crowhurst) and was the final one released under the Gainsborough Pictures banner. Plot The Verger The new vicar at St Peter's Church is astonished to learn that the long-serving verger, Albert Foreman, is illiterate. Foreman is too set in his ways to want to learn to read and write, and the vicar feels he has no choice but to sack him. Foreman's savings, while s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Smart
Ralph Foster Smart (27 August 1908 – 12 February 2001) was a film and television producer, director, and writer, born in England to Australian parents. Biography Smart found work in Britain with Anthony Asquith and later alongside the film director Michael Powell, whom he assisted with 'quota quickies': low-budget B-pictures to meet a legal commitment to the British film industry under the Cinematograph Films Act 1927. During the Second World War, Smart joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1942 and served until 1945. Afterward he worked for the Rank Organisation and Ealing Studios, returning to Australia to direct several films beginning with '' The Overlanders'' and including '' Bitter Springs'' (1950), addressing the mistreatment of young Aborigines. Back again in Britain, he became an influential figure in ITC television, producing, directing or writing a number of television series and films, including the 1950s series ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' and ''The Invi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Crabtree
Arthur Crabtree (29 October 1900 in Shipley, Yorkshire, England – 15 March 1975 in Worthing, Sussex, England) was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthur Askey and several of the Gainsborough Melodramas. Cinematographer Crabtree earliest credits as a cinematographer were for British International Pictures. He shot '' Out of the Blue'' (1931) with Jessie Matthews; '' Verdict of the Sea'' (1932); and ''The Maid of the Mountains'' (1932). Crabtree did some films for Michael Powell, '' Lazybones'' (1935) and ''The Love Test'' (1935). He was a camera operator on ''First a Girl''. Gainsborough Pictures Crabtree joined Gainsborough Pictures. He worked on '' The First Offence'' (1936) with John Mills; '' Pot Luck'' (1936) with Tom Walls and Ralph Lynn; '' Everybody Dance'' (1936) with Cicely Courtneidge; and '' All In'' (1936) with Lynn for director Marcel Varnel. He went on to ''Good Mornin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Annakin
Kenneth Cooper Annakin, Order of the British Empire, OBE (10 August 1914 – 22 April 2009) was an England, English film director. His career spanned half a century, beginning in the early 1940s and ending in 2002, and in the 1960s he was noticed by critics with large-scale adventure epic and comedies films, like ''Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines'', ''Battle of the Bulge (1965 film), Battle of the Bulge'', ''The Biggest Bundle of Them All'' and ''Monte Carlo or Bust!''. During his career, Annakin directed nearly 50 pictures. Biography Annakin was born in and grew up in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire where he attended the local Beverley Grammar School, grammar school. After leaving school he became a trainee income tax inspector in the city of Hull. Annakin subsequently decided to emigrate to New Zealand, and travelled around the world in a variety of jobs. He was Compere (host), compere and stage manager of Eugene permanent wave, Permanent Waving Company's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quartet (1948 Film)
''Quartet'' is a 1948 British anthology film with four segments, each based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham. The author appears at the start and end of the movie to introduce the stories and comment about his writing career. It was successful enough to produce two sequels, '' Trio'' (1950) and ''Encore'' (1951), and popularised the compendium film format, leading to films such as ''O. Henry's Full House'' in 1952. The screenplays for the stories were all written by R. C. Sherriff. The Facts of Life Based on "The Facts of Life", included in the 1940 collection of Maugham stories ''The Mixture as Before''. * Director: Ralph Smart * Cinematographer: Ray Elton Cast * Jack Watling as Nicky * Mai Zetterling as Jeanne * Basil Radford as Henry Garnet * Angela Baddeley as Mrs. Garnet * Naunton Wayne as Leslie * Ian Fleming as Ralph * Jack Raine as Thomas * James Robertson Justice as Branksome Plot Despite their reservations, Mr. and Mrs. Garnet allow their promising tennis player s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quiet Weekend
''Quiet Weekend'' is a 1946 British comedy film directed by Harold French and starring Derek Farr, Frank Cellier, Marjorie Fielding, George Thorpe and Barbara White. A family try to relax during a weekend holiday in the country.QUIET WEEK END (1946) It was a sequel to the 1941 film '''', with several of the actors reprising their roles. It was based on the long running 1941 West End play '''' and shot at |
English Without Tears
''English Without Tears'' is a 1944 British romantic comedy film directed by Harold French and starring Michael Wilding, Penelope Dudley-Ward and Lilli Palmer. It was released in the U.S. under the title ''Her Man Gilbey'', as a reference to the classic Screwball comedy, '' My Man Godfrey'' (1936). The film depicts the romance between a young English aristocrat and her family's butler. During World War II, the butler becomes an officer of the Royal Army Service Corps and the girl joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Their change in status and her maturity affect their relationship. The world around them is also transformed. Plot In July 1939, the top-hatted deliveryman from a Fortune and Weedon carriage takes a basket of quail to the tradesman's entrance of Beauclerk House. An elaborate process brings the birds to the dinner plates of Lady Christabel Beauclerk (Margaret Rutherford) and her nephew, Sir Cosmo Brandon (Roland Culver). a British delegate to the League of Na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
