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Richard Wattis
Richard Wattis (25 February 1912 – 1 February 1975) was an English actor, co-starring in many popular British comedies of the 1950s and 1960s. Early life Richard Cameron Wattis was born on 25 February 1912 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, the elder of two sons born to Cameron Tom Wattis and Margaret Janet, née Preston. He attended King Edward's School and Bromsgrove School, after which he worked for the electrical engineering firm William Sanders & Co (Wednesbury) Ltd. His uncle, William Preston (1874–1941), was the managing director and was the Conservative MP for Walsall from 1924 to 1929. Career After leaving the family business, Wattis became an actor. His debut was with Croydon Repertory Theatre, and he made many stage appearances in the West End in London. His first appearance in a film was ''A Yank at Oxford'' (1938), but war service interrupted his career as an actor. He served as a second lieutenant in the Small Arms Section of Special Operations Executive at S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wednesbury
Wednesbury () is a market town in Sandwell in the county of West Midlands, England. It is located near the source of the River Tame. Historically part of Staffordshire in the Hundred of Offlow, at the 2011 Census the town had a population of 37,817. History Medieval and earlier The substantial remains of a large ditch excavated in St Mary's Road in 2008, following the contours of the hill and predating the Early Medieval period, has been interpreted as part of a hilltop enclosure and possibly the Iron Age hillfort long suspected on the site. The first authenticated spelling of the name was Wodensbyri, written in an endorsement on the back of the copy of the will of Wulfric Spot, dated 1004. Wednesbury ("Woden's borough") is one of the few places in England to be named after a pre-Christian deity. During the Anglo-Saxon period there are believed to have been two battles fought in Wednesbury, in 592 and 715. According to The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' there was "a great slaug ... [...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] |
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film stars Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Adrian Hall, Heather Ripley, Lionel Jeffries, Benny Hill, James Robertson Justice, Robert Helpmann, Barbara Windsor and Gert Fröbe. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli. John Stears supervised the special effects. Irwin Kostal supervised and conducted the music, while the musical numbers, written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, were staged by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood. The song "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was nominated for an Academy Award. Plot The film opens with a sequence of European Grand Prix races won by the same car over an instrumental version of the main theme (" Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"), concluding with the eponymous car crashing and burning in 1909. Years later, widowed invent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness
''The Inn of the Sixth Happiness'' is a 1958 20th Century Fox film based on the true story of Gladys Aylward, a tenacious British woman, who became a missionary in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Directed by Mark Robson, who received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director, the film stars Ingrid Bergman as Aylward and Curt Jürgens as her love interest, Captain Lin Nan, a Chinese Army officer with a Dutch father. Robert Donat, who played the mandarin of the town in which Aylward lived, died before the film was released. The musical score was composed and conducted by Malcolm Arnold. The cinematography was by Freddie Young. The film was shot in Snowdonia, North Wales. Most of the children in the film were ethnic Chinese children from Liverpool, home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe. Plot The story begins with Aylward (Ingrid Bergman) being rejected as a potential missionary to China because of her lack of education. Dr. Robinson (Moultrie Ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hobson's Choice (1954 Film)
''Hobson's Choice'' is a 1954 British romantic comedy film directed by David Lean. It is based on the 1916 play of the same name by Harold Brighouse. It stars Charles Laughton in the role of Victorian bootmaker Henry Hobson, Brenda de Banzie as his eldest daughter and John Mills as a timid employee. The film also features Prunella Scales in one of her first cinema roles. ''Hobson's Choice'' won the British Academy Film Award for Best British Film 1954. Plot Henry Horatio Hobson is the autocratic proprietor of a moderately upmarket boot shop (boots, shoes and clogs) in 1880 Salford. A widower, Hobson is a notorious miser with three grown daughters: Maggie and her younger and less-dedicated sisters, Alice and Vicky. All three have kept house and worked in their father's shop for years without wages, and Alice and Vicky are eager to marry, and their intentions infect Maggie. Alice has been seeing Albert Prosser, a young up-and-coming solicitor, while Vicky prefers Freddy Beensto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Games That Lovers Play (film)
''Games That Lovers Play'', released in the US as ''Lady Chatterley Versus Fanny Hill'', is a 1971 British softcore comedy film written and directed by Malcolm Leigh and starring Joanna Lumley, Penny Brahms and Richard Wattis. The US title and the names of the female lead characters reference the 1748 erotic novel ''Fanny Hill'' and D. H. Lawrence's 1928 novel ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', which had been the subject of a celebrated obscenity trial in 1960. The film's plot is unrelated to either novel. Cast * Joanna Lumley – Fanny Hill * Penny Brahms – Constance Chatterley * Richard Wattis – Lothran * Jeremy Lloyd – Jonathan Chatterley * Diane Hart – Mrs Hill * Nan Munro – Lady Evelyn Chatterley * John Gatrell – Bishop * Charles Cullum – Charles * Leigh Anthony – Timekeeper * George Belbin – Major Thrumper * June Palmer – Girl * Graham Armitage – Mr Adams * Harold Bennett – Photographer * Sydney Arnold – Butler * Colin Cunningham – Usher * Roy Ste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Prince And The Showgirl
''The Prince and the Showgirl'' (originally titled '' The Sleeping Prince'') is a 1957 British romantic comedy film starring Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, who also served as director and producer. The screenplay written by Terence Rattigan was based on his 1953 stage play '' The Sleeping Prince''. ''The Prince and the Showgirl'' was filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. Plot In London in June 1911, George V will be crowned king on 22 June and in the preceding days, many important dignitaries arrive, including the 16-year-old King Nicholas VIII of the (fictional) Balkan country of Carpathia, with his father the stiff and pompous widower prince regent Charles, and his maternal grandmother the widowed queen dowager of Carpathia (inspired by King Michael I of Romania, Carol II of Romania and Queen Marie of Romania). The British government decide that keeping Carpathia in the Triple Entente is critical amid the rising tensions in Europe. They wish to pamper the ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministry Of Education (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Education (1944-1964) was a central government department governed by the Minister of Education, with responsibility in England and Wales for: # Promoting the education of people; # Developing educational institutions; # Developing policy to provide a comprehensive educational service; # Securing the effective execution of the education policy by local education authorities The Ministry of Education was created by the Education Act 1944. Scottish education was subject to the Education (Scotland) Act 1945 whereby the Scottish Office, under the Secretary of State for Scotland, undertook similar responsibilities to the Ministry of Education but for Scotland. Northern Irish education was subject to the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 1947, passed by the Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont, which provided powers to the Minister of Education to: * appoint members of the Northern Ireland Advisory Council for Education * appoint additional members of education ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
''The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery'' is a British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, written by Sidney and Leslie Gilliat, and released on 4 April 1966. It is the last of the original series of films based on the '' St Trinian's School'' set of images and comics, and the only one to be produced in colour. The film stars a selection of actors from previous films in the series, including George Cole, Richard Wattis, Eric Barker, Michael Ripper, and Raymond Huntley, alongside Frankie Howerd, Reg Varney, Dora Bryan, and the voice of Stratford Johns. The film's story focuses on St Trinian's becoming caught up in a train robbery, after the gang who conducted it attempts to reclaim their loot from the building that the students and teachers now inhabit. The story itself is based on the actual Great Train Robbery that took place in 1963, and includes numerous parodies of the technocratic ideas of the Harold Wilson government and its support of the comprehe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Murder At St Trinian's
''Blue Murder at St Trinian's'' is a 1957 British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder, co-written by Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Terry-Thomas, George Cole, Joyce Grenfell, Lionel Jeffries and Richard Wattis; the film also includes a brief cameo of Alastair Sim, who reprising his lead role in the 1954 film, '' The Belles of St. Trinian's''. Inspired by the '' St Trinian's School'' comic strips by British cartoonist Ronald Searle, the film is the second entry in the ''St. Trinian's'' film series, with its plot seeing the students of the fictional school making plans to secure a place on a European tour, all while subsequently aiding a criminal who is secretly seeking to escape the country with stolen jewels. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise given to the evolution of the comedy following the first film. It was later succeeded by a sequel, '' The Pure Hell of St Trinian's'', in 1960. Plot At St. Trinian's, the students run wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Belles Of St
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Trinian's School
''St Trinian's'' is a British gag cartoon comic strip series, created and drawn by Ronald Searle from 1946 until 1952. The cartoons all centre on a boarding school for girls, where the teachers are sadists and the girls are juvenile delinquents. The series was Searle's most famous work and inspired a popular series of comedy films. Concept Searle published his first St Trinian's School cartoon in 1941 in the magazine '' Lilliput''. Shortly afterward he entered the military during World War II. He was captured at Singapore and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of the Japanese. After the war, in 1946 Searle started making new cartoons about the girls, but the content was much darker compared to the earlier years. The school is the antithesis of the type of posh girls' boarding school depicted by Enid Blyton or Angela Brazil; its female pupils are bad and often well armed, and mayhem is rife. The schoolmistresses are also disreputable. Cartoons often showed dead bodies of gi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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