Owen Nares Movies
British actor Owen Nares played leads in many silent films. Following the advent of sound, he eventually became a character actor. Nares also was a matinée idol in London theater. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1941
Produced by Britain's Teddington Studios on behalf of Hollywood's Warner Bros., the morale-boosting The Prime Minister details the career of 19th century political wizard Benjamin Disraeli, here played by John Gielgud. Filmed in the early months of WW2, the screenplay parallels the diplomatic cunning of Disraeli with the more recent maneuvers of Sir Winston Churchill. This is especially obvious when Disraeli takes on the Prussian Empire during the 1878 Berlin conference, emerging triumphant over a flock of stock-company crypto-fascists. In the role of Queen Victoria, Fay Compton proves a worthy sparring partner for "Dizzy", while Stephen Murray is equally effective as the Prime Minister's principal parliamentary antagonist Gladstone. Other minor roles are vividly realized by actors ranging from venerable Will Fyffe to teenager Glynis Johns. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gielgud, Diana Wynyard, (more)
- 1938
The Loves of Mme. DuBarry was the American title of the 1935 British operetta I Give My Heart, based on the stage musical The DuBarry. German actress Gitta Alpar stars as Jeanne, the young 18th century Parisian milliner who sleeps her way to the uppermost rungs of French aristocracy, emerging at last as the glamorous Madame DuBarry, mistress of Louis XV (Owen Nares). Refusing to gloss over DuBarry's sexual peccadilloes (as previous films with Norma Talmadge and Dolores del Rio had done), the film presents the "heroine" as a whore, pure and simple-or, on second thought, not so pure and simple! Particularly troublesome for American censors was a scene in which DuBarry is depicted as a resident of a bawdy house. Otherwise, The Loves of Madame DuBarry is standard historical-drama fare, allowing dozens of top European actors to play "dress-up" for 90 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gitta Alpar, Patrick Waddington, (more)
- 1937
The rise of British entertainer Graci Fields from humble mill girl to the most popular and highest paid performer in Great Britain during the Depression era is chronicled in this biographical drama. Fields got her big break when a composer heard her singing in a ramshackle pub. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1936
In this drama, set in an office, two veterans are hired after the war by the father of a friend who was killed in battle. Trouble ensues when one discovers that the other is embezzling company funds. The other then threatens to tell their late friend's dad the truth about his demise--he had died a coward. Despite their attempts to keep it quiet, the truth is revealed and the embezzler gets his due. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1935
His Hollywood career a thing of the past, director Herbert Brenon returned to his native England in 1934, where he continued making films until his retirement in 1940. Brenon's first project upon his arrival in London was the feature-length documentary Royal Cavalcade. Covering a 25-year period, the film is an encapsulation of the comings and goings of the British empire since the 1910 coronation of King George V. The highlights, drawn from the newsreel files of several English and European archives, include Captain Scott's arrival at the South Pole (and the tragic aftermath), the First World War, the Roaring 20s, and the Depression. Of special interest to show-biz buffs is the footage of the first Royal Command Performance at the Palace in 1911, featuring such matchless performers as Anna Pavlova and George Robey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1934
Producer and director (Alexander Korda) followed up The Private Life of Henry VIII (one of the first internationally successful British films) with this historical comedy. After years in exile, the great lover Don Juan (Douglas Fairbanks) returns to Seville, the city of his salad days. However, Don Juan is now married and middle-aged, and his days as a spoiler of women seem to be behind him. When he learns that a young man in town (Barry McKay) has been posing as him and making time with the local ladies, Don decides to prove who the great lover truly is and attempts the seduction of Antonia (Merle Oberon), a beautiful dancer. However, Don's doctor informs him that girl-hunting will tax his fragile health, and his wife Dolores (Benita Hume) will no longer turn a blind eye to his infidelity. When the impostor is killed by a jealous husband, Don is relieved, as his "death" allows him to retire from his career as a rake with his reputation intact. But when the old itch returns, Don makes the sad discovery that if he can't convince women he's Don Juan, they simply aren't interested in him. The Private Life of Don Juan provided one of the few speaking roles for silent screen swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks, and proved to be his last picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Merle Oberon, (more)
- 1933
In this comedy, a young woman rebels against her betrothal and runs away to Paris. While on the train she meets and falls for a handsome man. It is a tumultuous courtship, but in the end, romantic bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessie Matthews, Owen Nares, (more)
- 1933
A classy woman has an affair with a rake after she learns that she has a terminal disease in this British melodrama. When the cad dumps her, the woman's husband soon learns of her shenanigans, but he forgives her. She then gets even better news when her doctor tells her that they have finally found a cure for her disease. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1933
In this romantic drama a struggling composer tries to protect his wife from the lecherous Lord Quilhampton. The nobleman is producing a anonymously written stage show, and to win the wife's affection, wants to use her as his star. Fortunately for the marriage, the unknown author of the production is the composer and this gives him the final say when it comes to casting. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
The Love Contract was based on Chauffeur Antoinette, a French stage comedy. Wealthy Antoinette (Winifred Shotter) loses all her money in the stock market, whereupon she puts her mansion up for sale. The first potential buyer turns out to be Neville Cardington (Owen Nares), the stockbroker who inadvertently brought about Antoinette's ruin. Upon learning that Cardington, a married man, intends to use the mansion as a trysting place for himself and his mistress, our heroine plots a diabolically clever revenge. But she forgets all this when her nemesis turns out to be a decent sort who eventually falls in love with her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Winifred Shotter, Owen Nares, (more)
- 1932
The crackerjack director/cinematographer team of Harry Lachman and Rudolph Mate (Dante's Inferno, Our Relations) brought an extra veneer of class to the 1932 Gertrude Lawrence vehicle Aren't We All. She plays a shy and retiring lass who harbors a secret past indiscretion. Her "shameful" secret is revealed just as she plans to marry wealthy Owen Nares. The future husband expresses outrage, but his father Hugh Wakefield comes to Lawrence's rescue by exposing one or two of Nares' past peccadillos, and by inviting the girl's former lover to state his case. This British drawing room comedy was based on a stage play by the prolific Frederick Lonsdale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gertrude Lawrence, Hugh Wakefield, (more)
- 1932
In this melodrama, a woman bears a child out of wedlock during WW I. She gives the child up to a rich old woman. Twenty years pass and the old lady dies. The girl's mother finally weds the real father who only does it because he feels responsible for the child. This causes the despondent wife to kill herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
In this musical romance, the chairman of a financially foundering bank is forced into a relationship with a supposed heiress. Unfortunately, they both love others and in their passion forget all about the bank. After the institution folds, it is turned into a popular nightclub. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marta Eggerth, Wendy Barrie, (more)
- 1931
Released in the U.S. as The Office Girl, Sunshine Susie is the English-language version of the German comedy hit Die Privatsekretarian. The charming Renate Muller repeats her role from the German version as Susie, the perky new stenographer for a stuffy Viennese banking firm. Here she falls in love with Arvay (Owen Nares), whom she assumes is a lowly clerk. In fact, Arvay is the bank's managing director, but he doesn't let on, fearful that Susie has a prejudice against wealthy men. Reviewers in 1931 were most impressed by the breezy comic performance of Jack Hulbert, who was hailed as a "new find," even though he'd been a stage favorite since 1916! Enlivening the proceedings are four songs, carried over from Die Privatesekretarian but "English-ized" by Paul Abraham and Desmond Carter. Sunshine Susie was distributed in the U.S. by RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Owen Nares, Renate Muller, (more)
- 1931
Two prolific British character actors contributed to the production end of The Woman Between; its script was adapted from Conflict, a play by Miles Malleson, and it was directed by Miles Mander (best to avoid any cracks about "miles and miles"). Adrienne Allen plays Lady Pamela, the daughter of nobleman Earl Bellingdon (C.M. Hallard) -- and the mistress of Conservative parliamentary candidate Tremayne (David Hawthorne), her father's best friend. Tremayne's well-ordered lifestyle is upset when Cambridge classmate Tom Smith (Owen Nares), now down on his luck, hits Tremayne up for a five-pound loan. Using the money to get back on his feet, Smith enters the world of politics as a Labor candidate, and within months he is running against Tremayne in an impending election. Pamela becomes the "Woman Between" of the title when she falls in love with Smith, leading to a political scandal of potentially cataclysmic dimensions. The Woman Between was retitled The Woman Decides in the U.S., to avoid confusion with a like-vintage RKO picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1930
A literal adaptation of the popular stage play by Ian Hay and Stephen King-Hall, specialists both in maritime comedies, The Middle Watch stars Owen Nares as Captain Maitland, skipper of a battleship bound for the high seas. Not only is Maitland a by-the-book disciplinarian, but he's also an avowed woman-hater. Unbeknownst to the captain, two pretty damsels, Mary (Jacqueline Logan) and Fay (Dodo Watts), have been sneaked aboard by their sailor boyfriends. Upon learning the truth, poor Maitland has a devil of a time trying to keep the girls hidden from the Lord Admiral. The Middle Watch was remade as a Jack Buchanan vehicle in 1939, then again in 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Owen Nares, Jacqueline Logan, (more)
- 1930
In this drama, a female reporter gets blackmailed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Owen Nares, Edna Best, (more)
- 1926
Though D.W. Griffith had given up his independent-filmmaker status by joining Paramount Pictures in 1926, he had lost none of his artistry, if this film is any indication. Based on a mystical novel by Marie Correlli, Adolphe Menjou stars as the elegant, sartorially splendid Prince Lucio de Rimanez--but you and I know that he's really the Prince of Darkness. When struggling writer Ricardo Cortez is moved to curse God for his misfortunes, Prince Lucio makes a sudden appearance, informing Cortez that he's inherited a fortune. The only proviso is that Cortez must place his fate entirely in the Prince's hands. As he ascends to the uppermost rungs of European society, Cortez is ordered by Lucio to marry Russian princess Lya DePutti, even though the writer still loves his pre-wealth sweetheart Carole Dempster. Eventually, Prince Lucio reveals his true satanic identity, but not before Lya has taken her own life. By rejecting the Devil and all his false promises, Cortez is permitted a happily-ever-after with Dempster. A tantalizing contemporary article describes how Sorrows of Satan was supposed to have opened with an impressive special-effects sequence, wherein we see Satan literally falling from grace; alas, this prologue was excised from the film and has been lost forever. If it is true that Griffith intensely disliked the Correlli novel upon which Sorrows of Satan was based, one would never know it from his masterful, sensitive direction. The film represented the final screen appearance of Griffith's protege (and reputed lover) Carole Dempster, who actually evinces some acting ability this time around. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Ricardo Cortez, (more)
- 1923
American screen actress Catherine Calvert ended her decade-long career with this British-made potboiler based on a poem by Laurence Hope, Garden of Karma. The darkly handsome Calvert played Queen Vashti, an Indian potentate attempting to force her daughter (Malvina Longfellow) into a marriage for political convenience. The girl, however, escapes by posing as a commoner. Owen Nares, arguably the most popular British screen idol of his generation, played the princess' royal intended, with whom she falls in love after all. New Zealander Shayle Gardner was the villain. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Arthur Applin's mystery novel Wicked served as the launching pad for the British silent All the Winners. Matinee idol Owen Nares stars as a world-famous sportsman with a sordid past. Nares is blackmailed by oily villain Sam Livesey (the father of popular British talking-picture actors Roger and Jack Livesey). The price for Livesey's silence is Nares' delectable daughter Maudie Dunham. The hero is able to forestall this disastrous union, but at a great personal price. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1919
Edge O'Beyond is a godforsaken speck somewhere in Colonial Africa. Heroine Dinah Webberley (Ruby Miller) is driven to near madness by the sadistic excesses of her aristocratic husband. When her baby dies and her husband feigns indifference, it's the last straw. Dinah escapes into the jungle, caring little about her own well-being or survival. This adaptation of the novel by Gertrude Page was a strong pill to take for 1919 audiences accustomed to escapist entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
