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The Beggar's Opera (film)
''The Beggar's Opera'' is a 1953 British historical musical film, a Technicolor adaptation of John Gay's 1728 ballad opera of the same name. The film, directed by Peter Brook in his feature film debut, stars Laurence Olivier (in his sole musical), Hugh Griffith, Dorothy Tutin, Stanley Holloway, Daphne Anderson and Athene Seyler. Olivier and Holloway provide their own singing, but Tutin and others were dubbed. With additional dialogue and lyrics by Christopher Fry, the film expands on some elements in the opera, such as giving Mrs Trapes a larger role and adding dramatic action sequences to Macheath's escape. The framing device is also changed: the Beggar is himself a prisoner in Newgate with the real Macheath, who escapes at the end under cover of the confusion created when the Beggar decides that his fictional Macheath should be reprieved. Plot In the 1700s, a beggar is tossed into London's Newgate jail, along with a pile of papers upon which his unfinished opera is scribbl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). With them, he directed the first English-language production in 1964 of ''Marat/Sade'' by Peter Weiss, which was transferred to Broadway theatre, Broadway in 1965 and won the Tony Award for Best Play, and Brook was named Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, Best Director. He also directed films such as an iconic version of ''Lord of the Flies (1963 film), Lord of the Flies'' in 1963. Brook was based in France from the early 1970s, where he founded an international theatre company, playing in developing countries, in an approach of great simplicity. He was often referred to as "our greatest living theatre director". He won multiple Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Japanese Praemium Imperiale, the Prix It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Historical Films
This is an index of lists of historical films. By country of origin * List of Estonian war films * List of Polish war films * List of Romanian historical films * List of Russian historical films * List of Vietnamese historical films By era * List of films set in ancient Rome * List of films set in ancient Greece * List of films set in ancient Egypt * List of war films and TV specials * List of English Civil War films * List of films about the American Revolution * List of films set during the French Revolution and French Revolutionary Wars * List of Napoleonic Wars films * List of films and television shows about the American Civil War * List of Second French intervention in Mexico films * List of Boshin War and Satsuma Rebellion films * List of Franco-Prussian War films * List of Mexican Revolution and Cristero War films * List of World War I films * List of Irish revolutionary period films * List of Spanish Civil War films * List of films about the Spanish Maquis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandra Dorne
Sandra Dorne (born Joan Smith; 19 June 1924 – 25 December 1992) was a British actress. Career Also known as Sandra Holt, Dorne was often known in the 1950s as the B-film Diana Dors. As a platinum blonde, she was a regular female lead in B-films in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She trained at the Rank Organisation's "charm school". Film roles dried up as she grew older, but she still found work and acted mainly in British television, appearing in such series as ''Z-Cars'', '' The Avengers'' and ''The Third Man''. She also starred in ''Five Go Mad in Dorset'', the first episode of the '' Comic Strip Presents...'' series broadcast on the opening night of Channel 4 in 1982. Personal life Married to the actor Patrick Holt from 1954 until her death, Dorne died on 25 December 1992 at Paddington Community Hospital, Westminster, London. The cause of death was kidney cancer. Partial filmography * ''Eyes That Kill'' (1947) – Joan * '' Saraband for Dead Lovers'' (1948) � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was a British actor and comedian. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 ''Carry On'' films, and appeared in many British television programmes and radio comedies, including series with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as being a frequent panellist on BBC Radio 4's comedy panel show ''Just a Minute'' from its second series in 1968 until his death 20 years later. Williams grew up in Central London in a working-class family; he said his father spoke Cockney. He served in the Royal Engineers during World War II, where he first became interested in becoming an entertainer. After a short spell in repertory theatre as a serious actor, he turned to comedy and achieved national fame in ''Hancock's Half Hour''. He sustained continued success throughout the 1960s and 1970s with his regular appearances in ''Carry On'' fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yvonne Furneaux
Yvonne Furneaux (born Elisabeth Yvonne Scatcherd; 11 May 1926 – 5 July 2024) was a French-British actress. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she worked with notable filmmakers like Peter Brook, Federico Fellini, Roman Polanski, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Claude Chabrol, as well as in several genre productions. Early life Furneaux was born Elisabeth Yvonne Scatcherd to English parents living in Roubaix, France on 11 May 1926. Her Yorkshireman father, Joseph Scatcherd, was a director at a local branch of Lloyds Bank. Her mother, Amy Furneaux, was from Devon. She had a sister, Jeanne. The family moved to England prior to the outbreak of World War II, and Yvonne enrolled in St Hilda's College, Oxford in 1946 to study Modern Languages, where she was known as "Tessa Scatcherd". While studying at Oxford she became involved in university theatre groups, and after graduating enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which she graduated from in 1951. Career Furneau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Pohlmann
Eric 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 Pohlmann was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, and received classical actor training 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, 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. In order to earn a living, the Pohlmanns temporarily took positions in the household of the Duke of Bedford, Lieselotte as a cook and Eric, as he then be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Clare
Mary Clare Absalom (17 July 1892 – 29 August 1970) was a British actress of stage, film and television. Biography Daughter of George Alfred Absalom, Clare was educated at Wood Green secondary school, first worked in an office but a loan of £50 allowed her to train at a dramatic school and she began her thespian career on the London stage at the age of 18 in 1910, following which she spent two years touring the provinces to appear back in London in "A Posy on a Ring" at the Earl's Court Exhibition Theatre. She made her London West End debut in '' Turandot'' at the St James's Theatre in 1913, following which she appeared in many West End productions. In the theatre, she became one of Noël Coward's "leading ladies" appearing in several of his plays, in particular, '' Cavalcade'' in 1931. In September 1936 she played the leading role in the play ''Laura Garnett'', by Leslie and Sewell Stokes, at the Arts Theatre Club, London and played the lead role of the victim in Ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Devine
George Alexander Cassady Devine (20 November 1910 – 20 January 1966) was an English theatrical manager, director, teacher, and actor based in London from the early 1930s until his death. He also worked in TV and film. Early life and education Devine was born in Hendon, London to Georgios Devine (son of an Irish father and a Greek mother) and a Canadian mother, Ruth Eleanor Cassady (from Vancouver). His father was a clerk in Martins Bank. Ruth Devine became mentally unstable after her son's birth, and his parents' marriage, deeply unhappy throughout his early childhood, had broken down by the time he was in his early teens. Around this time he was sent to Clayesmore School, an independent boys' boarding school founded by his uncle Alexander "Lex" Devine, who took his nephew under his wing hoping that he would take over the running of the school. In 1929, Devine went to Oxford University to read for a degree in history at Wadham College. It was at Oxford that his interest i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stuart Burge
Stuart Burge (15 January 1918 – 24 January 2002) was an English stage and film director, actor and producer. The son of H. O. Burge, by his marriage to K. M. Haig, Burge was educated at Eagle House School, Sandhurst, and Felsted School, Essex, then trained for an acting career at the Old Vic, 1936–37, and at Oxford Rep, 1937–38. He was back at the Old Vic and appearing in the West End theatre in 1938–39, then during the Second World War of 1939–45 he served in the British Army's Intelligence Corps. After the war he returned to his acting career at the Bristol Old Vic, the Young Vic, and the Commercial Theatre, between 1946 and 1949.‘BURGE, Stuart’, in ''Who Was Who'' (A. & C. Black, 1920–2008)online article(subscription site), by Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 20 April 2012 He was a director by 1948. He was responsible for many distinguished productions for both stage and television, including four film adaptations of plays. He married Jos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Rose (actor)
George Walter Rose (19 February 1920 – 5 May 1988) was an English actor and singer in theatre and film. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for roles in ''My Fair Lady'' and '' The Mystery of Edwin Drood''. Early life Born in Bicester, Oxfordshire, the son of a butcher, Rose studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. After graduation, he was briefly a farmer and secretary. After wartime service and studies at Oxford, he made his Old Vic stage debut in 1946. Career Rose spent four years with the Old Vic company and made his Broadway debut in a 1946 production of '' Henry IV, Part I'' and continued to play in New York City and London's West End for the remainder of the decade. He spent most of the 1950s appearing in broad comedy roles in the UK, later joining the Royal Shakespeare Company. He returned to Broadway to portray Dogberry in ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in 1959. Two years later, he co-starred to much acclaim in Robert Bolt's '' A Man for All Sea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newgate
Newgate was one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the River Fleet to Middlesex and western England. Beginning in the 12th century, parts of the gate buildings were used as a gaol, which later developed into Newgate Prison. Name It was once thought that Newgate was "New" since it was built after the Roman period, but archaeological evidence has shown that it was of Roman origin; it is therefore possible that the gate was named so when the Ludgate became less used, due to the building of the fourth St Paul's Cathedral in the early medieval period. It was previously known as Chamberlains Gate, there was a landholding referred to as the Chamberlain's Soke lying just outside Newgate, forming part of the ward of Farringdon Without. Structure and history Excavations in 1875, 1903 and 1909 revealed the Roman str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Directorial Debuts
This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early works by Orson Welles such as his filming of his stage production of ''Twelfth Night (1933 film), Twelfth Night'' in 1933 or his experimental short film ''The Hearts of Age'' in 1934. Often, these early works were not intended for commercial release by intent, such as film school projects or inability to find distribution. Subsequently, many directors learned their trade in the medium of television as it became popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Notable directors who did their first directorial work in this medium include Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet, and Alfonso Cuarón. As commercial television advertising became more cinematic in the 1960s and 1970s, many directors early work was in this medium, including directors such as Alan Parker and Ridle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
