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Mr Drake's Duck
''Misterr Drake's Duck'' is a 1951 British science-fiction comedy film directed by Val Guest and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Yolande Donlan, Jon Pertwee, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Reginald Beckwith. The screenplay concerns a farmer who discovers that one of his ducks has started laying radioactive eggs. Plot Mr. Drake inherits Green Acres Farm in Sussex, in the English countryside, where he moves with his new American bride Penny. Because of a misunderstanding, Penny unexpectedly finds that she owns 60 ducks. She is astonished when one of the ducks begins laying radioactive eggs. As the news spreads, the Drakes come under siege by the army. Green Acres Farm is designated a prohibited area, and of all its inhabitants and visitors are made prisoners. The military launches Operation Chickweed to snatch the radioactive duck. Cast * Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Donald Drake * Yolande Donlan as Penny Drake * Jon Pertwee as Reuben * Wilfrid Hyde-White as Mr May * Reginald Beckwith as Mr B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Val Guest
Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he directed 14 films, and science fiction films. He enjoyed a long career in the film industry from the early 1930s until the early 1980s. Reprinted from ''Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Directors'' Early life and career Guest was born to John Simon Grossman and Julia Ann Gladys Emanuel in Maida Vale, London. He later changed his name to Val Guest (officially in 1939). His father was a jute broker, and the family spent some of Guest's childhood in India before returning to England. His parents divorced when he was young, but this information was kept from him. Instead he was told that his mother had died. He was educated at Seaford College in Sussex, but left in 1927 and worked for a time as a bookkeeper. Guest's initial career was as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Marion-Crawford
Howard Marion-Crawford (17 January 1914 – 24 November 1969), the grandson of writer F. Marion Crawford, was an English character actor, best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in the 1954 television adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. In 1948, Marion-Crawford had played Holmes in a radio adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", making him one of the few actors to portray both Holmes and Watson. He is also known for his portrayal of Dr. Petrie in a series of five low budget Dr. Fu Manchu films in the 1960s, and playing Paul Temple in the BBC Radio serialisations. Career Howard Marion-Crawford was the son of an officer of the Irish Guards killed during the First World War. After attending Clifton College Crawford attended RADA and began a career in radio. His first film appearance was in '' Brown on Resolution'' (1935). During the Second World War he enlisted in the Irish Guards, his father's old regiment, but soon suffered a major injury to one of his legs that ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1951 Comedy Films
Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. * January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment. * January 20 – Winter of Terror: Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. * January 21 – Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea 1951 eruption of Mount Lamington, erupts catastrophically, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing great devastation in Oro Province. * January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of his children's nove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Films Directed By Val Guest
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it. Recording and transmission of film The moving images of a film are created by photographing actual scenes with a motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects. Before the introduction of digital production, series of still images were recorded on a strip of chemically sensitized ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950s English-language Films
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 '' Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Science Fiction Comedy Films
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in the United Kingdom or, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic Common Brittonic ( cy, Brythoneg; kw, Brythonek; br, Predeneg), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, was a Celtic language spoken in Britain and Brittany. It is a form of Insular Celtic, descended from Proto-Celtic, a ..., an ancient language Other uses *''Brit(ish)'', a 2018 memoir by Afua Hirsch *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707– ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950s Science Fiction Comedy Films
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 '' Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1951 Films
The year 1951 in film involved some significant events. Top-grossing films United States The top ten 1951 released films by box office gross in the United States are as follows: International The highest-grossing 1951 films in countries outside of North America. Worldwide gross The following table lists known worldwide gross figures for several high-grossing films that originally released in 1951. Note that this list is incomplete and is therefore not representative of the highest-grossing films worldwide in 1951. This list also includes gross revenue from later re-releases. Events * February 15 – new management takes over at United Artists with Arthur B. Krim, Robert Benjamin and Matty Fox now in charge. * April – French magazine '' Cahiers du cinéma'' is first published. * July 26 – Walt Disney's '' Alice in Wonderland'' premieres; while a disappointment at first and hardly released in theaters, it would later become one of the biggest cult classics in the ani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Williams (actor)
Benjamin Percy Williams (1892 in Glamorgan, Wales – December 1959 in Chelsea, London) was a British character actor from the 1930s to the late 1950s. During his career he appeared in 137 films. In 1954 Williams acted in the BBC Radio play ''Under Milk Wood'' that won the Prix Italia award for radio drama that year. Originally a miner in Swansea, Williams served in the Royal Artillery in Palestine during the First World War, and he was an Air Raid Warden in London during the Second World War. Williams made his film debut in an uncredited role in the 1933 film '' The Good Companions''. Later appearances included roles in ''Tiger Bay'' (1934), ''Java Head'' (1934), '' Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor'' (1935), '' Boys Will Be Boys'' (1935), '' Flame in the Heather'' (1935), ''The Man Without a Face'' (1935), ''Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle'' (1935), ''Gay Old Dog'' (1935), '' Blue Smoke'' (1935), and '' Find the Lady'' (1936. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Maxwell (actor)
Roger Maxwell real name Roger Done Latham (1 January 1900 – 24 November 1971) was an English actor and first-class cricketer. The son of Alexander Mere Latham, he was born at Chelsea on New Year's Day in 1900. He was educated at Wellington College, completing his education there in 1917. With the First World War ongoing, Maxwell attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst from which he graduated into the Middlesex Regiment as a second lieutenant in August 1918. Following the war, he was promoted to lieutenant in September 1921, which was antedated to February 1920. Maxwell played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against the British Army cricket team at Lord's in June 1920. Batting once in the match, he ended the MCC's first innings unbeaten on 16, sharing in a 58 runs stand for the final wicket with Richard Busk. Progressing into a career in acting, Maxwell's first role was in the 1927 docudrama ''The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands''. On ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballard Berkeley
Ballard Blascheck (6 August 1904 – 16 January 1988), known professionally as Ballard Berkeley, was an English actor of stage and screen. He is best remembered for playing Major Gowen in the British television sitcom ''Fawlty Towers''. Life and career The son of Joseph and Beatrice Blascheck, he was born in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He married Dorothy Long in 1929. During the 1930s he performed regularly in the so-called "quota quickies". One of his earliest roles was as the heroic lead in the 1937 film ''The Last Adventurers''. He served as a special constable with the Metropolitan Police during the Second World War, witnessing the Blitz at first hand, including the bombing of the Café de Paris nightclub. For his service he received the Defence Medal and the Special Constabulary Long Service Medal. He appeared in the film ''In Which We Serve'' (1942) and in the Hitchcock film ''Stage Fright'' (1950). He featured as Detective Inspector Berkeley in two episodes of Edgar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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