Irene Vanbrugh Movies
- 1945
I Live in Grosvenor Square is better known by its American release title, A Yank in London. Anna Neagle, whose husband Herbert Wilcox produced and directed the film, stars as Lady Patricia Fairfax, who enters into a brief wartime romance with American air force sergeant John Patterson (Dean Jagger). The plot proper is based on a true WW II incident, wherein an Air Corps crew deliberately sacrificed their lives to save an English village of no strategic importance. The multinational supporting cast includes Rex Harrison, Robert Morley, Jane Darwell, and real-life American PFC Elliot Arluck. At the time of its release, I Live in Grosvenor Square was praised for the authenticity of its settings and characterizations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Dean Jagger, (more)
- 1944
The inspiration for this British seriocomedy was Victor Skutezky's stage play She Met Him One Sunday. "She" is Moya Malone (Barbara White), an Irish maid living in Liverpool. "He" is Tom Stevens (Robert Beatty), a Canadian sailor. That "one Sunday" is a busy one, encompassing a few romantic strolls down the dock, Moya's renouncing of her servant status, and a run-in with crooks. Playwright Skutezky also served as producer of It Happened One Sunday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Beatty, Barbara White, (more)
- 1937
This romantic comedy, set amidst the exciting world of horseracing is Britain's first Technicolor film. The story, set in the late 1880s, concerns the tempestuous love between an Irish nobleman and the fiery Spanish gypsy he loves. Despite the strident objections of his stuffy, blue-blooded parents, the lovers wed. Unfortunately, the woman is widowed when her husband falls from a horse. The grieving lass returns to her wandering clan in Spain and does not return to Erin for thirty years. When she finally does, it is with a fabulous race horse and her beautiful granddaughter (the spitting image of the old woman in her youth) who masquerades as a boy so she can ride the horse in the Epsom Downs Derby. While awaiting the big race, the granddaughter meets a handsome Canadian horse trainer. He finds out her true sex, but says nothing. One night, he sees her dressed for a gala and seeing that she is truly a beauty falls deeply in love, even though he knows that the lass is engaged to another. Still the trainer and the bogus jockey fall in love. The excellent cinematography offers one of the film's highlights. Rather than following the Hollywood custom of using almost garish and vividly contrasting colors (to create a larger-than-life, almost cartoonish ambiance) in shooting, cinematographers Ray Rennahan and Jack Cardiff elected to film the story in beautiful pastel hues that add a soft pastoral feeling. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annabella, Leslie Banks, (more)
- 1937
Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat star in this gripping melodrama about the Russian revolution, based on the novel by James Hilton. Donat plays A.J. Fothergill, a British interpreter in St. Petersburg who is ordered to leave Russia after writing an article that criticized the czar. Fothergill meets a British secret agent who can arrange for him to stay in Russia if he will agree to spy for England and monitor revolutionary groups trying to depose the czar. Fothergill infiltrates a group planning to kill Russian nobleman Vladinoff (Herbert Lomas); the radicals bomb Vladinoff's coach, but he and his daughter, Alexandra (Marlene Dietrich) escape unharmed. Fothergill is arrested and sent to Siberia. When the monarchy is deposed during the Russian Revolution in 1917, Alexandra is arrested by Communist forces and put on trial. Fothergill is freed from prison with his friend Axelstein (Basil Gill), and they are now revolutionary heroes. Alexandra must go to Petrograd to face trial and Fothergill is chosen to escort her. When they reach the train station, Fothergill discovers the White Army (fighting to restore the czar) is coming. He leads Alexandra to safety behind the White Army lines, but the Red Army has surrounded the city and Fothergill, smitten with Alexandra, rescues her again before the city is shelled. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlene Dietrich, Robert Donat, (more)
- 1935
Margaret Kennedy, whose novel The Constant Nymph dealt with a musician's love for a pretty young gamin, penned a variation of the same concept in Escape Me Never. Elizabeth Bergner stars as an unwed mother, who is befriended by impoverished composer Hugh Sinclair. He marries her out of pity, but his heart belongs to Penelope Dudley Ward, the wife of his brother. Sinclair is shaken out of his infidelity when his own wife's baby dies. This popular British version of Escape Me Never was remade by Warner Bros. in 1946, which though not as well cast (Ida Lupino is not a fair exchange for Elizabeth Bergner) boasts a superb musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold--who'd also scored Warners' filmization of Margaret Kennedy's Constant Nymph. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elisabeth Bergner, Hugh Sinclair, (more)
- 1934
Best known today as the wife of famed caricaturist Al Hirschfield, actress Dolly Haas enjoyed a long and fruitful career in England and Europe. One of Haas' best vehicles is the gender-bending British farce Girls Will Be Boys, in which she plays the granddaughter of the Duke of Bridgewater (Cyril Maude). Because her name in the film is "Pat," our heroine is assumed to be a boy by her woman-hating grandpop, and she does nothing to dissuade him of this belief, dressing up in drag when she goes to meet him for the first time. The rest of the picture is a reverse Charley's Aunt, with Pat endeavoring to be "one of the guys" under the most trying of circumstances (yes, she even smokes a cigar at one point). For a one-joke film, Girls Will be Boys is surprisingly substantial, managing to keep the audience amused for 71 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolly Haas, Cyril Maude, (more)
- 1934
In this romance, a working-class musician falls in love with a beautiful socialite. He is so smitten that he abandons his current lover to be with the rich girl. His little sister comforts the jilted girl and advises that she forget all about the louse. By the story's end the chastened young man returns and the humble lovers reconcile. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1934
This historical drama recounts the events that led up to the rule of Russia's 18th-century Catherine the Great. Arriving from Germany as a young woman who is to wed Grand Duke Peter, she soon becomes caught up in the court intrigue and marries the lit-fuse duke. As the Grand Duke's mother lays dying, she relates her fears about her son's mental states, leaving Catherine to contend with his irrational and cruel behavior. When he goes too far with his antics, he is overthrown and put to death, though not by her wishes. Soon, however, Catherine is made the new Czaritza and restores order to her country. Elisabeth Bergner stars with Douglas Fairbanks in this British production. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Elisabeth Bergner, (more)
- 1933
In this drama, a financially bankrupt man becomes a night watchman for the rival company responsible for his ruin. The honest guard proves his loyalty when he catches and turns in his own son who had been attempting to burglarize the place. In the end, he marries the bosses daughter and merges their two companies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1917
British stage luminary Ben Webster plays the lead in Gay Lord Quex. Based on a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, the film finds Lord Quex on the verge of matrimony. Unfortunately, a woman from his past threatens to disrupt his future. Lord Quex arranges for his nemesis to be compromised by a cardboard lover. But things don't quite work out as planned, and what started as a light comedy threatens to veer into heavy drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
