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Bruce Lester
Bruce Lester (6 June 1912 – 13 June 2008) was a South African-born English film actor with over 60 screen appearances to his credit between 1934 and his retirement from acting in 1958. Lester's career divided into two distinct periods. Between 1934 and 1938, billed as Bruce Lister, he appeared in upwards of 20 British films, mostly of the cheaply shot and quickly forgotten quota quickie variety. He then moved to the US, where he changed his surname to Lester, and found himself for a time appearing in some of the biggest prestige productions of their day, alongside stars such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn. Lester himself never achieved star-billing, but was said to have remarked that this at least meant that if a film was a flop, no blame ever fell on his shoulders.Bruce Lester obi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Tarzan And The Trappers
''Tarzan and the Trappers'' is a 1960 action adventure film featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous jungle hero Tarzan and starring Gordon Scott, Eve Brent, Rickie Sorensen and Lesley Bradley. The twentieth film of the ''Tarzan'' film series that began with 1932's '' Tarzan the Ape Man'', it was filmed in 1958 as three pilot episodes for a television series which were edited into a feature film when the project was abandoned. As a television project, it was shot in black-and-white rather than color, like other contemporary Tarzan films, including ''Tarzan's Fight for Life'', released later the same year. The film did finally appear on television, but only in 1966. It was shot in Chatsworth, California. Plot The idyllic jungle life of Tarzan (Gordon Scott), Jane (Eve Brent) and Tartu (Rickie Sorensen) is interrupted by a drum message telling them of predatory hunters loose in the jungle. Tarzan disrupts the animal-collecting expedition of the hunters, Schroeder (Lesley Bradley) a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Death At Broadcasting House
''Death at Broadcasting House'', also known as ''Death at a Broadcast'', is a 1934 UK, British mystery film directed by Reginald Denham and starring Ian Hunter (actor), Ian Hunter, Austin Trevor, Henry Kendall (actor), Henry Kendall, and Jack Hawkins. Novel The original plot comes from a novel of the same name, set in what was then the mysterious world of radio in what was then the BBC's new broadcasting centre, Broadcasting House. It was written in 1934 by Val Gielgud – brother of John Gielgud and at that time the BBC's Head of Productions – and "Holt Marvell" - actually Eric Maschwitz, a lyricist and writer for films and the BBC. Film In the same year, it was made into the film, directed by Reginald Denham, with Ian Hunter (best known as King Richard I in the 1938 ''The Adventures of Robin Hood (film), Adventures of Robin Hood'') as the detective, Donald Wolfit as the murder victim, and Val Gielgud himself as the drama producer, Julian Caird. The film sticks closely to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Above Suspicion (1943 Film)
''Above Suspicion'' is a 1943 American spy film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray. The screenplay was adapted from the 1941 novel ''Above Suspicion'' by Scots-American writer Helen MacInnes, which is loosely based on the experiences of MacInnes and her husband Gilbert Highet. The plot follows two newlyweds who spy on the Nazis for the British secret service during their honeymoon in Europe. Plot In the spring of 1939 in England, Oxford University professor Richard Myles and his new bride Frances spend their honeymoon in continental Europe. They are commissioned by the British secret service to find a scientist who has developed a countermeasure against a new Nazi secret weapon, a magnetic sea mine. Without knowing his name, what he looks like or where to find the scientist, the couple look upon the search as an adventure and cross Europe seeking clues from clandestine contacts. In Paris, Frances is given a hat decorated with a rose as a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Fred MacMurray
Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film leading man began in 1935, but his most renowned role was in Billy Wilder's film noir ''Double Indemnity''. From 1959 to 1973, MacMurray appeared in numerous Disney films, including ''The Shaggy Dog (1959 film), The Shaggy Dog'', ''The Absent-Minded Professor'', ''Follow Me, Boys!'', and ''The Happiest Millionaire''. He starred as Steve Douglas in the television series ''My Three Sons''. Early life and education Frederick Martin MacMurray was born on August 30, 1908, in Kankakee, Illinois, the son of Maleta (''née'' Martin) and concert violinist Frederick Talmadge MacMurray, both natives of Wisconsin. His aunt, Fay Holderness, was a vaudeville performer and actress. When MacMurray was an infant, his family moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Desperate Journey
''Desperate Journey'' is a 1942 American World War II action and aviation film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan. The supporting cast includes Raymond Massey, Alan Hale Sr., and Arthur Kennedy. The melodramatic film featured a group of downed Allied airmen making their way out of the Third Reich, often with their fists. Director Raoul Walsh called it "a war comedy spiced with enough tragedy to give it reality... beyond doubt the forerunner for '' Hogan's Heroes''." Plot Assigned to bomb a critical German railway junction at Schneidemühl, Flight Lt. Terrence Forbes presses home an attack at low altitude, and his bomber is shot down near the former Polish border. The five survivors—Forbes, American Flying Officer Johnny Hammond, Flight Sgt. Kirk Edwards, Flying Officer Jed Forrest, and the injured Flight Sgt. Lloyd Hollis—are quickly captured by the Germans. Interviewed by Major Otto Baumeister, Hammond creates a distraction by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
A Yank In The RAF
''A Yank in the R.A.F.'' is a 1941 American war drama film directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power, Betty Grable and John Sutton. Released three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II, it is considered a typical early-World War II production. Originally titled ''The Eagle Squadron'', it is based on a story by "Melville Crossman", the pen name for 20th Century Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. It follows an American pilot who joins the Royal Air Force (RAF), during a period when the United States was still neutral. Plot In 1940, American-built North American Harvard training aircraft are flown to the border with Canada, where they are towed across the frontier for use by Britain. (The procedure is necessary to avoid violating the Neutrality Acts, as the United States is still neutral.) Cocky American pilot Tim Baker decides to fly across the border to Trenton, Ontario, and winds up in trouble with the military authorities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Man Hunt (1941 Film)
''Man Hunt'' is a 1941 American political thriller film, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Walter Pidgeon and Joan Bennett. It is based on the 1939 novel '' Rogue Male'' by Geoffrey Household and is set in Europe just prior to the Second World War. Lang had fled Germany into exile in 1933 and this was the first of his four anti-Nazi films, which include '' Ministry of Fear'', '' Hangmen Also Die!'', and ''Cloak and Dagger''. It was Roddy McDowall's first Hollywood film after escaping London following the Blitz. ''Man Hunt'' was one of many films released in 1941 that were considered so pro-British that they influenced neutral members of the U.S. public to sympathize with the British side in World War II. The film portrays Britain's pre-war policy of appeasement with Germany in its willingness to extradite one of its own citizens without any defense, and its depiction of Nazi agents freely walking about London, impersonating police, and terrorizing civilians. The story w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve personnel and 4,697 "other personnel", for a total of 108,413. The British Army traces back to 1707 and the Acts of Union 1707, formation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain which joined the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland into a Political union, single state and, with that, united the English Army and the Scots Army as the British Army. The Parliament of England, English Bill of Rights 1689 and Convention of the Estates, Scottish Claim of Right Act 1689 require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army. Members of the British Army swear allegiance to the Charles III, monarch as their commander-in-chief. The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence (United Kingd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The Letter (1940 Film)
''The Letter'' is a 1940 American crime film noir melodrama directed by William Wyler, and starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson. The screenplay by Howard E. Koch is based on the 1927 play of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham derived from his own short story. The play was first filmed in 1929, by director Jean de Limur. The story was inspired by a real-life scandal involving the Eurasian wife of the headmaster of a school in Kuala Lumpur who was convicted in a murder trial after shooting dead a male friend in April 1911. She was pardoned by the local sultan after a public furor. Plot Leslie Crosbie, the wife of a British rubber plantation manager in Malaya, shoots dead Geoffrey Hammond, a well-known member of the expatriate community. Leslie tells the servant to send for the new district officer and her husband Robert, who is loading rubber for shipment. Crosbie returns, delivered by his attorney, a close family friend. Leslie claims that she ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Pride And Prejudice (1940 Film)
''Pride and Prejudice'' is a 1940 American film adaptation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel '' Pride and Prejudice'', starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, the screenplay was written by Aldous Huxley and Jane Murfin, adapted specifically from the stage adaptation by Helen Jerome, in addition to Jane Austen's novel. The story is about five sisters from an English family of landed gentry who must deal with issues of marriage, morality and misconceptions. The film was released on July 26, 1940 in the United States by MGM and was critically well received. ''The New York Times'' film critic praised the film as "the most deliciously pert comedy of old manners, the most crisp and crackling satire in costume that we in this corner can remember ever having seen on the screen." Plot Mrs. Bennet and her two eldest daughters, Jane and Elizabeth, are shopping for new dresses when they notice two gentlemen and a lady arriving outside, exiting from a very ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
If I Were King
''If I Were King'' is a 1938 American biographical and historical film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee. It is based on the 1901 play and novel, both of the same name, by Justin Huntly McCarthy, and was directed by Frank Lloyd, with a screenplay adaptation by Preston Sturges. Plot In Paris, which has long been besieged by the Burgundians, François Villon is the despair of Father Villon, the priest who took him in and raised him from the age of six. Father Villon takes François to mass after his latest escapade (robbing a royal storehouse). There François spies a beautiful woman, Katherine DeVaucelles. Entranced, he tries to strike up an acquaintance, reciting one of his poems (from which the film takes its title) and pretending it was written specially for her. On the surface, she is unmoved, but when soldiers come to take him into custody, she provides him with an alibi. The crafty King Louis XI of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Boy Meets Girl (1938 Film)
''Boy Meets Girl'' is a 1938 American screwball comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The supporting cast features Marie Wilson, Ralph Bellamy, Frank McHugh, Dick Foran and Ronald Reagan. The screenplay by Bella and Sam Spewack is based on their 1935 stage play of the same name, which ran for 669 performances on Broadway. The two zany screenwriters played by Cagney and O'Brien were based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, while Ralph Bellamy's part as the producer was based on Darryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox. Plot Two screenwriters, Law and Benson (James Cagney and Pat O'Brien), are in need of a story for cowboy star Larry Toms ( Dick Foran). When studio waitress Susie Seabrook ( Marie Wilson) faints in the office of producer C.F. Friday (Ralph Bellamy) because she is pregnant, the writers get an idea for a story about a cowboy and a baby, and cast Susie's unborn baby Happy in the part. The story will be the classic Hollywood ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
