''Little Friend'' is a 1934 British

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Berthold Viertel Berthold Viertel (28 June 1885 – 24 September 1953) was an Austrian screenwriter and film director, known for his work in Germany, the UK and the US. Early career Viertel was born in Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but later ...

and starring

Matheson Lang Matheson Alexander Lang (May 15, 1879 – April 11, 1948) was a Canadian-born stage and film actor and playwright in the early 20th century. He is best remembered for his performances roles in Great Britain in Shakespeare plays. Biography Lang w ...

Nova Pilbeam Nova Margery Pilbeam (15 November 1919 – 17 July 2015) was an English film and stage actress. She played leading roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films of the 1930s, and made her last film in 1948. Early life Pilbeam was born in Wimbledon, Sur ...

and

Lydia Sherwood Lydia Sherwood (5 May 1906 – 20 April 1989) was a British film actress and stage actress. She made her debut on stage in Daisy Fisher's comedy play ''Lavender Ladies''.Wearing, 2014, p. 379 She was married to the poet Lazarus Aaronson fro ...

. The film was based on a novel by

Ernst Lothar Ernst Lothar (; 25 October 1890 – 30 October 1974) was a Moravian-Austrian writer, theatre director/manager and producer. He was born Ernst Lothar Müller, and as Müller is a very common German surname, he dropped it. His brother, Hans ...

and adapted for the screen by

Margaret Kennedy Margaret Moore Kennedy (23 April 1896 – 31 July 1967) was an English novelist and playwright. Her most successful work, as a novel and as a play, was '' The Constant Nymph''. She was a productive writer and several of her works were filmed. T ...

and Christopher Isherwood.

Plot summary

A young girl (Pilbeam) slowly becomes aware that her parents' marriage is disintegrating.

Cast

... John Hughes *

... Helen Hughes *

... Felicity Hughes *

Arthur Margetson Arthur Margetson (27 April 1887 – 13 August 1951) was a British stage and film actor. Margetson worked as a stockbroker before he became an actor. In 1936, Margetson married actress Shirley Grey. Filmography * ''Wolves'' (1930) as Mark (fil ...

... Hilliard *

Jean Cadell Jean Dunlop Cadell (13 September 1884 – 29 September 1967) was a Scottish character actress. Although her married name was Jean Dunlop Perceval-Clark she retained her maiden name in the context of acting. Life and career She was born at 4 ...

... Miss Drew *

Jimmy Hanley Jimmy Hanley (22 October 1918 – 13 January 1970) was an English actor who appeared in the popular Huggetts film series, and in ITV's most popular advertising magazine programme, ''Jim's Inn'', from 1957 to 1963. Early life Born in Norwich, No ...

... Leonard Parry *

Gibb McLaughlin George McLoughlin (19 July 1879 – 30 June 1961), known professionally as Gibb McLaughlin, was an English film and stage actor. Early days McLaughlin was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England in 1879. For about 10 years he was a sale ...

... Thompson * Diana Cotton ... Maud * Cecil Parker ... Mason *

Clare Greet Clare Greet (14 June 1871 – 14 February 1939) was an English stage and film actress. She began on stage in Shakespeare with the Ben Greet Company. She appeared in 26 films between 1921 and 1939, including seven films directed by (and one ...

... Mrs. Parry *

Jack Raine Thomas Foster "Jack" Raine (18 May 1897 – 30 May 1979) was an English stage, television and film actor. He was a leading man of the British cinema in the late twenties and early thirties in such films as ''The Hate Ship'' (1929), '' Raise the ...

... Jeffries * Finlay Currie ... Grove *

Robert Nainby Robert Nainby (1869–1948) was an Irish male actor. Filmography References External links * 1869 births 1948 deaths Male actors from Dublin (city) Irish male film actors 20th-century Irish male actors {{Ireland-actor-stub ...

... Uncle Ned *

Atholl Fleming Atholl Fleming MBE (6 December 1894 – 6 May 1972) was a British actor and an Australian radio personality. Early life He was the third of nine children of the Rev R. S. Fleming, a Scottish Baptist minister of Pitlochry and later Beckenham in ...

... Shepherd * Basil Goth ... Doctor * Charles Childerstone ... Solicitor * Gerald Kent ... Butler *

Allan Aynesworth Edward Henry Abbot-Anderson (14 April 1864, Sandhurst, Berkshire – 22 August 1959, Camberley, Surrey), known professionally as Allan Aynesworth, was an English actor and producer. His career spanned more than six decades, from 1887 to 1949 ...

... Col. Amberley *

Lewis Casson Sir Lewis Thomas Casson MC (26 October 187516 May 1969) was an English actor and theatre director, and the husband of actress Dame Sybil Thorndike.Devlin, DianaCasson, Sir Lewis Thomas (1875–1969) ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biograph ...

... Judge *

Fritz Kortner Fritz Kortner (born Fritz Nathan Kohn; 12 May 1892 – 22 July 1970) was an Austrian stage and film actor and theatre director. Life and career Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn into a Jewish family. He studied at the Vienna A ...

... Giant *

Hughie Green Hugh Hughes Green (2 February 1920 – 3 May 1997) was an English radio and television presenter, game show host and actor. Early life Green was born in Marylebone, London, to a Scottish father, Hugh Aitchison Green, a former British Army offic ...

... Boy

''Prater Violet''

Christopher Isherwood based his novel ''

Prater Violet ''Prater Violet'' (1945) is Christopher Isherwood's fictional first person account of film-making. The Prater is a large park and amusement park in Vienna, a city important to characters in the novel for several reasons. Though Isherwood broke ont ...

'' (1945) on his experience of working with Viertel and others on the production of ''Little Friend''.Fryer, p. 210

References

Bibliography

* Jonathan Fryer, ''Isherwood: A Biography'' (Garden City, NY, Doubleday, 1977)

External links

* 1934 films 1934 drama films British drama films Films directed by Berthold Viertel Films scored by Ernst Toch Films about divorce British black-and-white films Films with screenplays by Berthold Viertel 1930s English-language films 1930s British films {{1930s-UK-film-stub