''Star of My Night'' is a 1954 British

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

directed by Paul Dickson and starring Griffith Jones,

Kathleen Byron Kathleen Elizabeth Fell (11 January 1921 – 18 January 2009), known professionally as Kathleen Byron, was an English actress. Early life Byron was born in Manor Park (then part of Essex) to what she described as "staunch working-class social ...

and

Hugh Williams Hugh Anthony Glanmor Williams (6 March 1904 – 7 December 1969) was a British actor and dramatist of Welsh descent. Early life and career Hugh Anthony Glanmor Williams (nicknamed "Tam") was born at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex to Hugh Dafydd Anth ...

. An adaptation of Paul Tabori's novel ''Le Soleil de ma Nuit'', it concerns a sculptor who becomes romantically involved with a

ballerina A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on ye ...

. It was produced as a

second feature A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

by the Danziger Brothers, although it had a more established cast than many.

Premise

A jaded sculptor becomes romantically involved with a ballerina who gives him a fresh outlook on life.

Critical reception

A review in the ''

Kinematograph Weekly ''Kinematograph Weekly'', popularly known as ''Kine Weekly'', was a trade paper catering to the British film industry between 1889 and 1971. History ''Kinematograph Weekly'' was founded in 1889 as the monthly publication ''Optical Magic Lantern ...

'' was critical of the film's failed attempt to mix

high culture High culture is a subculture that emphasizes and encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, art, and literature that a society con ...

with popular cinema considering it "cliché-ridden from start to finish, it'll exasperate the highbrows, and bore the lowbrows".Chibnall & McFarlane p.91

Cast

* Griffith Jones as Michael Donovan *

as Eve Malone *

as Arnold Whitman * Pauline Olsen as Iris *

Harold Lang Harold Lang (December 21, 1920 – July 26, 1985) was an American dancer, singer and actor. Life and career Lang began his professional career as a ballet dancer, making his professional debut with the San Francisco Ballet in 1938 and then goi ...

as Carl * Ilona Ference as Daisy *

André Mikhelson André Mikhelson was a Russian actor, in mostly British films. He was born in Moscow, in 1903. Selected filmography * '' The Gambler and the Lady'' (1952) - El Greco (uncredited) * '' Desperate Moment'' (1953) - Polizei Inspector * '' Star of My ...

as Papa Condor * Kenneth Edwards as Doctor Dawson

References

Bibliography

* Chibnall, Steve & McFarlane, Brian. ''The British 'B' Film''. Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.

External links

* 1954 films British romance films 1950s romance films British black-and-white films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films English-language romance films {{1950s-romance-film-stub