Margaret Lockwood Movies

Filmed in Austria, this British-made musical retells the story of Cinderella as it is found in books of fairy tales. The Prince, Edward, is played by Richard Chamberlain, Cinderella by Gemma Craven. In her role as the Prince's witty mother, Dame Edith Evans provides many of the movie's highlights. The musical score and songs written by Richard Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, who also provided the music to the movie Mary Poppins, were nominated for Academy Awards. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Comparatively little known today, Republic's Laughing Anne was a Late Late Show perennial in the early 1960s. One of several Republic features lensed in England in collaboration with producer Herbert Wilcox, the film stars Margaret Lockwood in the title role. A well-known Parisian cabaret singer, Laughing Anne travels to the South Seas with her ex-prizefighter boyfriend Jem Farrell (Forrest Tucker). Here she falls in love with schooner captain Davidson (Wendell Corey), but she eventually breaks off the relationship, fearing reprisals from the brutish Jem. Years later, fate brings Davidson, Anne and Jem back together, and the results are disastrous for at least two of the three. Laughing Anne was loosely based on a story by Joseph Conrad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A society woman (Margaret Lockwood) is accused of murdering her businessman husband (Orson Welles). Called to piece the clues together is Inspector Trent (Michael Wilding), on the verge of retiring from detection. He learns that the dead man was a louse, providing the wife with plenty of motive. But the truth comes out: The so-called murder was actually a carefully choreographed suicide. End of story? Not quite. Trent's Last Case was previously filmed as a part-talkie in 1929, with comedian Raymond Griffith in the title role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Veteran British music hall favorite Sid Field made his second and last film appearance in Cardboard Cavalier. Set during the 17th-century British Civil War, the film stars Field as vegetable vendor Sidcup Butterfield. Our hero is dragooned into delivering important documents on behalf of the anti-Cromwell forces. Somehow he winds up in the court of King Charles II (Anthony Hulme) and finds himself wooing royal courtesan Nell Gwynne (Margaret Lockwood). Nothing is sacred in this historical burlesque, which even manages to work a little pie-throwing into the proceedings. One of the scripters is Noel Langley, who in 1939 contributed to the screenplay of The Wizard of Oz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ann Markham (Margaret Lockwood) is an employee with the British Embassy in Rio de Janeiro. Though ostensibly businesslike and intelligent, Ann can't help falling in love with irresponsible Charlie Kent (Griffith Jones). On their wedding day, Ann discovers that Charlie is on the lam from fraud charges throughout the world. Still, she believes his promise that he'll mend his ways once they've tied the nuptial knot. Not unexpectedly, Charlie goes back on his word, and it is up to handsome millionaire Ashley Morehouse (Norman Wooland) to save Ann from her poor judgment. It was surprising to see the British film industry's resident "wicked lady" Margaret Lockwood playing so gullible a character -- so surprising, in fact, that audiences tended to stay away from Look Before You Love in droves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The White Unicorn would be worth watching if only for that lyrical title. The film itself, however, isn't quite so whimsical, not with disgruntled widow Lucy (Margaret Lockwood) and hard-bitten unwed mother Lottie (Joan Greenwood) at the forefront. Trying to find a purpose in life, Lucy takes a job as warden at a home for wayward girls. She tries to bring comfort to Lottie, who faces a stiff prison sentence for attempting to murder her baby. As the two women compare their life stories, they realize that they're truly sisters under the skin. A "woman's picture" if ever there was one, White Unicorn also affords its male actors (Ian Hunter, Dennis Price, Guy Middleton et. al.) ample opportunity to reach new dramatic heights. Featured in the cast as Lucy's daughter Norey is Margaret Lockwood's real-life daughter Margaret Julia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Margaret Lockwood is cast against type as a "black widow" in the British Bedelia. Wealthy but naïve Charlie Carrington (Ian Hunter) is swept off his feet by the beauteous Bedelia (Lockwood), whose three previous husbands, also wealthy, have died ostensibly of natural causes. While on their honeymoon, the Carringtons are pestered by a young artist named Ben Chaney (Barry K. Barnes), who seems to be falling in love with Bedelia. No matter where they go, the Carringtons are pestered by the persistent Ben. On the verge of tossing the interloper out, Charlie reconsiders-and a good thing, too, since Bedelia has been planning all along to poison him at the first opportunity. In the film's operatic climax, Bedelia discovers that this time she has been set up for a fall! Bedelia is based on a novel by Vera Caspary, of Laura fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Australian-born comic actor Vic Oliver was usually at his best on-screen when teamed with an unusually talented leading lady. Oliver's vis-a-vis in the British I'll be Your Sweetheart was film favorite Margaret Lockwood. Set in the early 1900s, the film concerns the trials and tribulations of musical-hall diva Edie Story (Lockwood), whose happy-go-lucky partner is one Sam Kahn (Oliver). Halfway through the film, Kahn is shunted to the background when Edie falls in love with aspiring songwriter Bob Fielding, played by up-and-coming Michael Rennie. The outcome of the plot is predicated on a Parliamentary decision which rescued songwriters from being gypped out of their royalties by unscrupulous "pirate" publishers, which happens more than once in the early reels to the luckless Fielding. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No relation to the 1970 box-office blockbuster of the same name, the 1944 British film Love Story was originally released in the US as The Lady Surrenders. Margaret Lockwood stars as one of those brilliant but troubled concert pianists, so beloved of British wartime filmgoers. Knowing that she suffers from a potentially fatal heart condition, Margaret has one last fling with RAF pilot Stewart Granger, who is slowly going blind. As in such earlier romantic dramas of the One Way Passage variety, Margaret and Stewart keep their afflictions secret from each other. When the truth comes out, Granger agrees to a dangerous and experimental operation to restore his sight. This sets the stage for a war of wills between Lockwood, who wants Granger to undergo the surgery, and Gragner's fiancee Patricia Roc, who, for reasons of her own, does not. Love Story was cowritten and directed by Leslie Arliss, son of eminent British stage star Sir George Arliss. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British Alibi is based on the warhorse story by Marcel Archard, previously filmed in France in 1931. Raymond Lovell steps into the old Erich Von Stroheim role as Professor Winkler, a phony mystic playing to capacity crowds in Paris. Confronting a man who'd previously exposed him as a fraud in the US, Winkler kills the man. He then establishes an alibi by paying nightclub hostess Helene (Margaret Lockwood) to tell the police that she was in his company at the time of the murder. The upshot of this is that Helene herself is accused of the crime. Hoping to get to the truth of the matter, Inspector Calas (Hugh Sinclair) asks his deputy Andre Laurent (James Mason) to pretend to be in love with Helene. The plot thickens when Laurent genuinely falls for the distressed damsel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A set of flashbacks to 19th century London provide the action in this British wartime film, in which a wealthy girl (Phyllis Calvert) becomes friends with a young waif (Margaret Lockwood) while at school. The waif later becomes a governess for the girl, but betrays their relationship by having an affair with her friend's husband (James Mason). The Man in Grey did exceptionally well in England at the time of its release, and later spawned a cavalcade of similar movies. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Also known as Girl in the Case, this early Carol Reed effort tended to be dismissed or ignored by its director in later interviews. Even so, the film is a worthwhile effort, with an intricate and sometimes amusing script by Sydney Gilliat. Young lawyer Stephen Garringdon (Barry K. Barnes) manages to clear his first client, nurse Anne Graham (Margaret Lockwood), of charges that she has been systematically murdering his patients. At first exultant, Garringdon begins suffering pangs of guilt because he never completely believed in his client's innocence. When another murder occurs during Anne's shift, the lawyer begins to wonder if he is actually an accessory after the fact. Admittedly, things look bad for Anne, but unexpected salvation is at hand in form of affable Mr. Tracy (Emlyn Williams), who knows a lot more about the killings than anyone else-except, of course, the victims. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the 1830s, despite the development of the steamboat at the outset of the 19th century, all trans-Atlantic travel was still done by sailing ships. David Gillespie (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is first mate on one of the fastest of such ships, commanded by Captain Oliver (George Bancroft), but he is sickened and wary of the loss of life of sailing men caused by the limitations of sail. He meets John Shaw (Will Fyffe), a Liverpool-based machinist who insists that he has a design for an engine and a ship that will allow safe trans-Atlantic travel by steam power, and the two go into partnership -- but Gillespie must contend with the resistance of Shaw's headstrong and skeptical daughter, Mary (Margaret Lockwood), as well as the resistance of bankers and other shipbuilders to the new ideas he represents. All of this pleases Mary, who, despite her love of her father and attraction to Gillespie, regards herself as practical-minded and wants her father safely back working for his old employer on a steady salary, instead of pursuing what she regards as impossible goals. Gillespie gets the backing and Shaw builds his engine, but his ship is burned in an accidental fire, and all looks lost until a sympathetic backer proposes fitting the engine to an existing vessel, and suddenly Shaw is a real threat to the shipping establishment. They try to stop him in the courts, and when that fails, the race is on from Liverpool to New York, between Shaw's steam-powered ship and Gillespie's sail-driven former ship, with Mary aboard to look out for her father and Gillespie, and the future of ocean travel in the balance. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide