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The Queen Of Spades (1949 Film)
''The Queen of Spades'' is a 1949 British fantasy-horror film based on the 1834 short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. It stars Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans and Yvonne Mitchell. Evans and Mitchell were better known at the time as stage actors; this film was their cinematic debut. Plot Captain Herman Suvorin is a Russian officer of the engineers in St Petersburg in 1806. He constantly watches the other officers gamble at faro, but never plays himself because he is adverse to the risk of losing his money. Herman overhears gossip among several military officers about the aging Countess Ranevskaya, who knows the secret of winning at cards and won a large sum of money after selling her soul. Later Herman purchases a book titled ''The Strange Secrets of the Count de Saint Germain'' purporting to tell the true stories of people who sold their souls for wealth, power or influence. One chapter of the book describes how in 1746 a "Countess R***" obtained the secret from the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thorold Dickinson
Thorold Barron Dickinson (16 November 1903 – 14 April 1984) was a British film director, screenwriter, film editor, film producer, and Britain's first university professor of film. Dickinson's work received much praise, with fellow director Martin Scorsese describing him as "a uniquely intelligent, passionate artist... They're not in endless supply." Early life Of Norwegian descent,David Thomso"Creator and critic" ''New Statesman'', 23 October 2009 his father was the Archdeacon of Bristol from 1921 to 1927, Dickinson was educated at Clifton College and Keble College, Oxford where he read theology, history and French. He was sent down from Oxford in his last year because his interest in theatre and film caused him to neglect his studies; he was inspired by lectures given by Edward Gordon Craig. During his time at Oxford he interrupted his studies to observe the film industry in France where he worked with George Pearson, the father of an Oxford friend.Philip Horn"Somethin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), is the second-largest city in Russia. It is situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, with a population of roughly 5.4 million residents. Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe after Istanbul, Moscow and London, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As Russia's Imperial capital, and a historically strategic port, it is governed as a federal city. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress, and was named after apostle Saint Peter. In Russia, Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hay Petrie
David Hay Petrie (16 July 1895 – 30 July 1948) was a Scottish actor noted for playing eccentric characters, among them Quilp in ''The Old Curiosity Shop'' (1934), the McLaggen in ''The Ghost Goes West'' (1935) and Uncle Pumblechook in '' Great Expectations'' (1946).McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. p. 595; Hay Petrie was born in Dundee, Angus, Scotland, where he went to Harris Academy. He later attended St Andrew's University, where he first discovered the stage. In 1915, he joined the Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) as a second lieutenant. After the war, he studied with Rosina Filippi joining the Old Vic Company appearing as "Starveling" in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' in 1920. In 1924 Albert de Courville brought Hay Petrie into vaudeville with ''The Looking Glass'', in which he sang "Oh Shakespeare you're the best of all but you can't fill the fourteen shilling stall". His first film part was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pauline Tennant
Pauline Laetitia Tennant, later Pauline Graham, Pauline Rumbold and Lady Rumbold (6 February 1927 – 6 December 2008) was an English actress, poet and socialite. Family Born into an aristocratic family, she was the daughter of David Pax Tennant and Hermione Baddeley. She was married three times, to Julian Pitt-Rivers (1946–53); Euan Douglas Graham, grandson of the fifth Duke of Montrose (from 1954-70); and then Sir Anthony Rumbold (1974–83). Stage and screen Tennant played on the West End stage in Ben Travers' ''She Followed Me About'' (1943) and alongside Fay Compton in ''No Medals'' (1947). She also appeared in two films: '' Great Day'' (1945, screen debut) and '' The Queen of Spades'' (1949). In an obituary for ''The Independent'', the writer Philip Hoare Philip Hoare (born Patrick Kevin Philip Moore, 1958) is an English writer, especially of history and biography. He instigated the Moby Dick Big Read project. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the Universi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Violetta Elvin
Violetta Elvin ( Prokhorova; 3 November 1923 – 27 May 2021) was a Russian prima ballerina and actress. In 1986, ''The Times'' described Elvin as "the only rival ever to give Dame Margot Fonteyn a run for her money". Early life Elvin was born on 3 November 1923 in Moscow, and graduated from the Moscow State Dance School in 1942. She was the daughter of Irena Grimouzinskaya, an actor and artist, and Vassilie Prokhorov, an aviation pioneer. Career Elvin was only 20 when she had already danced the leads in Swan Lake, Marius Petipa's Don Quixote, and The Fountain of Bakhchisarai with the State Ballet of Tashkent. From 1951 to 1956 she was a prima ballerina of Sadler's Wells Ballet, now The Royal Ballet, before retiring and moving to Italy. Personal life In 1945, she met and married British architect Harold Elvin in Moscow, and was allowed to leave the USSR. On the journey, she played chess with Dimitri Shostakovich. They divorced in 1952. In 1953, she married the American impresa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aubrey Mallalieu
Aubrey Mallalieu (8 June 1873 – 28 May 1948) was an English actor with a prolific career in supporting roles in films in the 1930s and 1940s. Mallalieu began life as George William Mallalieu, the son of William Mallalieu (c. 1845–1927), a well-known stage comedian, and his wife Margaret Ellen Smith. He had a sister called Polly who corresponded with Lewis Carroll in the 1890s. He adopted the stage name of Aubrey early in his acting career. Information is scant on Mallalieu's pre-film career, but he is believed to have had a lengthy stage career before making the move into films. Archive sources available in New Zealand indicate that he spent a considerable number of years touring with stage companies in that country and Australia in the 1900s and 1910s. In December 1912 Mallalieu was touring Australia with Leal Douglas in a piece called “Feed the Brute”.Public Notices in ''Townsville Daily Bulletin'', 11 December 1912, p. 1; “Direct from Harry Rickards's Theatres. AU ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivor Barnard
Ivor Barnard (13 June 1887 – 30 June 1953) was an English stage, radio and film actor. He was an original member of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where he was a notable Shylock and Caliban. He was the original Water Rat in the first London production of A. A. Milne's "Toad of Toad Hall". In 1929 he appeared on stage as Blanquet, in "Bird in Hand" at the Morosco Theatre in New York, after a successful run in London's West End (Laurence Olivier was the juvenile). The part had been specially written for him by John Drinkwater. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1921 and 1953. He appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock film '' The 39 Steps'' in 1935. In 1943, he played the stationmaster in the Ealing war film ''Undercover''. He also appeared as Wemmick in David Lean's '' Great Expectations'' (1946), and as the Chairman of the Workhouse, in Lean's film '' Oliver Twist'' (1948). One of his last film appearances was as the murderer Major Jack Ross in John Huston's '' Beat ... [...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] |
Michael Medwin
Michael Hugh Medwin, OBE (18 July 1923 – 26 February 2020) was an English actor and film producer. Life and career Medwin was born in London. He was educated at Canford School, Dorset, and the Institute Fischer, Montreux, Switzerland. He first appeared on stage in 1940. Medwin's West End theatre credits include ''Man and Superman'', ''The Rivals'', ''Love for Love'', ''Duckers and Lovers'', ''Alfie'', ''St Joan of the Stockyards'', and '' What the Butler Saw''.Biographical note for Michael Medwin, from programme for ''Noises Off'', Savoy Theatre, December 1984. At the National Theatre he played a season which included ''Weapons of Happiness'' (Ralph Makepeace), ''Volpone'' (Corvino) and ''The Madras House''. He appeared in ''Black Ball Game'' at the Lyric Hammersmith. He also played Lloyd Dallas in one of the casts of the long-running production of ''Noises Off'' in the early 1980s. He is probably best known for his role as radio boss Don Satchley in the BBC television d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miles Malleson
William Miles Malleson (25 May 1888 – 15 March 1969) was an English actor and dramatist, particularly remembered for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in ''The Brides of Dracula'' as the hypochondriac and fee-hungry local doctor. Malleson was also a writer on many films, including some of those in which he had small parts, such as '' Nell Gwyn'' (1934) and '' The Thief of Bagdad'' (1940). He also translated and adapted several of Molière's plays (''The Misanthrope'', which he titled ''The Slave of Truth'', ''Tartuffe'' and '' The Imaginary Invalid''). Biography Malleson was born in Avondale Road, South Croydon, Surrey, England, the son of Edmund Taylor Malleson (1859-1909), a manufacturing chemist, and Myrrha Bithynia Frances Borrell (1863-1931), a descendant of the numismatist Henry Perigal Borrell and the inventor Francis Macer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Dawson
Anthony Douglas Gillon Dawson (18 October 1916 – 8 January 1992) was a Scottish actor, best known for his supporting roles as villains in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's ''Dial M for Murder'' (1954) and '' Midnight Lace'' (1960), and playing Professor Dent in the James Bond film '' Dr. No'' (1962). He also appeared as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in '' From Russia with Love'' (1963) and '' Thunderball'' (1965). Life Dawson was born in Edinburgh, the son of Ida Violet (Kittel) and Eric Francis Dawson. Career Following Royal Academy of Dramatic Art training and World War II service, he made his film debut in 1943's ''They Met in the Dark''. He went on to appear in such classic British films as ''The Way to the Stars'' (1945), '' The Queen of Spades'' (1948) and ''The Wooden Horse'' (1950), before moving to America in the early 1950s. It was while there that he appeared on Broadway in the play, and then the subsequent Alfred Hitchcock film of ''Dial M for Murder'' (1954), playing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Jerrold
Mary Jerrold (4 December 1877 – 3 March 1955) was an English actress. She was married to actor Hubert Harben, and mother of actress Joan Harben and celebrity chef Philip Harben. She made her London stage debut as Prudence Dering in ''Mary Pennington Spinster'' (1896); and played Martha Brewster for three and a half years in the original West End production of '' Arsenic and Old Lace'', opening in 1942. In 1922, in a stage production of Jane Austen's ''Pride and Prejudice'', Jerrold became one of the oldest actresses cast as Elizabeth Bennet, at age 44. In the play, she acted opposite her husband, cast as Mr. Collins. She appeared in Molly Keane's '' Ducks and Drakes'' in 1941. In 1946 she starred in the West End melodrama '' But for the Grace of God'' by Frederick Lonsdale. In 1951 she played the lead role in Kenneth Horne's comedy '' And This Was Odd'' at the Criterion Theatre. In 1953 she appeared in ''A Day by the Sea'' by N.C. Hunter. Partial filmography * ''Disraeli'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
