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Venetian Bird
''Venetian Bird'' is a 1952 British thriller film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Richard Todd, Eva Bartok and John Gregson. The screenplay was adapted by Victor Canning from his own 1950 novel of the same title. It was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location in Venice. The film's sets were designed by the art director George Provis. It was released in America by United Artists where it was titled ''The Assassin''. Production Michael Balcon originally rejected the idea of a film based on Canning's novel because it was set in Italy and dealt with Italians, not Britons. Betty Box appealed to Earl St John who over-ruled Balcon. Italian censors did require the script clear up the portrayal of political struggles in post-war Venice that were in the novel. The film was shot entirely on location in Venice. Box and Thomas decided not to use colour as they felt it would not suit the genre. Plot British private detective Edward Mercer (Richard Todd) is employed to travel t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Thomas
Ralph Philip Thomas Military Cross, MC (10 August 1915 – 17 March 2001) was an English film director. He is perhaps best remembered for directing the ''Doctor Series, Doctor'' series of films. His brother, Gerald Thomas, was also a film director, probably best remembered for the ''Carry On (film series), Carry On...'' film series, and his son is the Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award-winning film producer, Jeremy Thomas. He cast the actor James Robertson Justice in many of his films. Thomas often worked with the producer Betty Box, Betty E. Box, who was married to ''Carry On'' producer Peter Rogers. Thomas was a nephew of producer Victor Saville. Early career Born in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, Thomas studied law at Middlesex University College. He entered the film business as a clapperboard, clapper boy at Shepperton Studios in 1932 during his summer vacation while at college. Following graduation, instead of becoming a lawyer he decided t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vision of an artistic production. In particular, they are in charge of its overall visual appearance and how it visual communication, communicates visually, stimulates moods, contrasts features, and psychologically appeals to a target audience. The art director makes decisions about visual elements, what artistic style (visual arts), style(s) to use, and when to use motion graphic design, motion. One of the biggest challenges art directors face is translating desired moods, messages, concepts, and underdeveloped ideas into imagery. In the brainstorming process, art directors, colleagues and clients explore ways the finished piece or scene could look. At times, the art director is responsible for solidifying the vision of the col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1952 Films
The year 1952 in film involved some significant events. Top-grossing films United States The top ten 1952 released films by box office gross in the United States are as follows: International Events *January 10 – Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, '' The Greatest Show on Earth'', is premièred at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. *March 27 – The MGM musical '' Singin' in the Rain'' premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. *May 26 – Decision reached in Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson determining that certain provisions of the New York Education Law allowing a censor to forbid the commercial showing of any non-licensed motion picture film, or revoke or deny the license of a film deemed to be "sacrilegious," was a "restraint on freedom of speech" and thereby a violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. *September 19 – While Charlie Chaplin is at sea on his way to the United Kingdom, the United States Attorney-General, James P. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Pohlmann
Eric Pohlmann (german: Erich Pohlmann; born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the primary antagonist of the ''James Bond'' series, in the films '' From Russia with Love'' and '' Thunderball''. Early life Born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Pohlmann was a classically trained actor who studied under the renowned director Max Reinhardt. He appeared at the Raimund Theater, and supplemented his income by working as an entertainer in a bar. In 1939, he followed his fiancée and later wife, actress Lieselotte Goettinger (best known in the UK for playing the concentration camp guard in the war films, '' Odette'' and '' Carve Her Name With Pride''), into exile in London. Until mid-1941, both were kept in an internment camp. After their release, Eric took part in propaganda broadcasts against the Nazis on the BBC World Service. ... [...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] |
Sydney Tafler
Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s. Personal life Tafler was born into a Jewish family, the son of Eva (née Kosky) and Mark Tafler, an antique dealer. His sister, Hylda, married the film director Lewis Gilbert. Another sister, Sheila, was also an actress. He was married to the actress Joy Shelton from 1941 until his death from cancer; they had three children – two sons, Jeremy and Jonathan, and a daughter, Jennifer, who became a child actress. Career After two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Tafler first appeared on stage in London's West End in 1936, with Sir Seymour Hicks in ''The Man in Dress Clothes''. His other stage roles included the menacing character of Nat Goldberg in a production of Harold Pinter's ''The Birthday Party'', directed by the playwright; a role he reprised in Will ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sid James
Sidney James (born Solomon Joel Cohen; 8 May 1913 – 26 April 1976) was a British actor and comedian whose career encompassed radio, television, stage and screen. He was best known for numerous roles in the Carry On film series. Born to a middle-class Jewish family in South Africa, James started his career in his native country before finding his greatest success in the UK. Beginning his screen career playing bit parts in films from 1947, he was cast in numerous small and supporting roles into the 1950s. He appeared in the film ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' in 1951, starring Alec Guinness. His profile was raised as Tony Hancock's co-star in ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first in the radio series and later when it was adapted for television and ran from 1954 to 1960. Afterwards, he became known as a regular performer in the Carry On films, appearing in 19 films of the series, with the top billing roles in 17 (in the other two he was cast below Frankie Howerd). His starring roles in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bailey (British Actor)
John Albert Bailey (26 June 1912 – 18 February 1989) was a British screen and TV actor who had a long screen, stage and TV career. He was born in South East London. He took a number of film roles during the late 1940s and early 1950s which included a sinister role, Stringer, in ''High Treason''. During the 1960s, he appeared in a number of high-profile BBC TV roles such as in ''Doctor Who'' and ''Steptoe and Son''. Most famously, he played the artist Aubrey Green in ''The Forsyte Saga'' in (1967). He also took the lead in a highly acclaimed ''Wednesday Play''. One of his notable early films was ''High Treason'' by Roy Boulting (1951). Set in a tense and austere London during the early Cold War, the tense plot follows the secret services MI5 pursuing a terrorist cell group. John Bailey's cold and ruthless assassin, Stringer, speaks with a convincing Russian accent. As an actor, he had considerable vocal range, notably employing a clipped, upper class English accent as Inspector ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Rilla
Walter Rilla (22 August 1894 – 21 November 1980) was a German film actor of Jewish descent. Siegbert Salomon Prawer, ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933'', Berghahn Books (2007), pg. 213 He appeared in more than 130 films between 1922 and 1977. He was born in Neunkirchen, Germany and died in Rosenheim, Germany. Career Having debuted on the stage, Rilla began his film in career in Germany during the silent era. This included an early role for him in Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's ''The Grand Duke's Finances'' in 1924. Following the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933, he emigrated to Britain and became a regular performer in British films often in villainous or aristocratic roles. Both during and after the Second World War he played Nazi officers or agents. From the 1950s onwards he returned to West Germany to appear in films and on television, alternating this with continued roles in British cinema. He was the father of film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Hurst
David Hurst (born Heinrich Theodor Hirsch; 8 May 1926 – 15 September 2019) was a German actor, best known for his role in the film ''Hello Dolly! (film), Hello, Dolly'' as Rudolph the headwaiter. Biography Early life and career Hurst grew up in a family of actors. As a Jewish child living in 1930s Germany, he faced persecution from the Nazi regime. After the pogroms of Kristallnacht, the British government allowed for the rescue of Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig. He was one of the nearly 10,000 children in 1938–1939 moved with the Kindertransport to the United Kingdom. He was separated from his mother at 12 years old, and never saw her again. Housed in a manor in Northern Ireland, he lived with other young emigrants in the care of the family of an estate manager. His first stage experience was in Belfast at a repertory theatre, where he also changed his name from Heinrich Hirsch to David Hurst. During the Second W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margot Grahame
Margot Grahame (born Margaret Clark; 20 February 1911 – 1 January 1982) was an English actress most noted for starring in '' The Informer'' (1935) and ''The Three Musketeers'' (1935). She started acting in 1930 and made her last screen appearance in 1958. Film actress She was born Margaret Clark in Canterbury, Kent. Her family went to South Africa when she was three years old, which led to her being educated there. She began her stage career in Pretoria, with Dennis Neilson-Terry, a few weeks after leaving school at the age of 14. She made her London stage debut in 1927 as understudy to Mary Glynne in ''The Terror''. Her screen debut was in the 1930 film '' Rookery Nook''. During the early 1930s, Grahame was gradually becoming a popular actress in Britain. Hollywood producers were impressed that, in only three years, she had appeared in 42 major roles in British films. After she went to America, she was signed to a long-term contract with RKO and performed in a number of m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Coulouris
George Alexander Coulouris (1 October 1903 – 25 April 1989) was an English film and stage actor. Early life Coulouris was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, the son of Abigail (née Redfern) anNicholas Coulouris a merchant of Greek origin. He was brought up both in Manchester and nearby Urmston and was educated at Manchester Grammar School. He attended London's Central School of Speech and Drama, in the company of fellow students Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft. Early career Coulouris made his stage debut in 1926 with ''Henry V'' at the Old Vic. In 1928 and 1929 he appeared in several productions at the Cambridge Festival Theatre including Eugene O'Niell's ''The Hairy Ape.''. By 1929, he made his first Broadway appearance, followed by his first Hollywood film role in 1933. A major impact on his life was Orson Welles, whom he met in 1936 when they both had roles in the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's ''Ten Million Ghosts''. Welles invited Coulouris to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
