Henry Edwards Movies

In this British comedy, a barrister badly botches his first case and begins to think he has chosen the wrong career. To assist with their bills, he and his wife sublet their apartment to several people at the same time. To fool them all, the couple pretends to be household servants and throws a dinner party for their guests. The wife then sprinkles sleeping powder into their soup. When the renters awaken, they find themselves in assorted compromising positions. The "servants" then blackmail them for their money. They wind up with a tidy sum of money. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This British programmer tells the dark, thrilling tale of a research scientist who resorts to murder to ensure continued funding for his experiments. The killing begins after the slightly insane Dr. Sartorius (Boris Karloff) runs out of money for his experiments with curing paralysis. He is so close to a breakthrough and so desperate for cash that he agrees to kill the wealthy husband of Lady Yvonne Clifford, in exchange for half of her husband's cotton fortune. To do this, he gets hired as Sir Charles Clifford's personal physician and so begins to slowly poison him with injections. Things go awry when the ailing Sir Charles figures out the scam and changes his will to benefit his son from his first marriage. Unfortunately, word gets out and Lady Yvonne changes her deal with Sartorius, claiming that now he must kill the father and the son. But neither the doctor nor the conniving wife count on interference from nurse Eve, who has fallen in love with the son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Written and directed by Henry Edwards and starring Mrs. Edwards, Chrissie White, this silent British melodrama about the wife of a coffee salesman who dreams that her husband (Edwards) goes blind and is killed in a tragic fire was filmed completely without subtitles more than one year before F.W. Murnau attempted the same feat with the German Der Letzte Man (1924). British trade papers, however, although awarding Mr. Edwards an "A" for effort, complained that the lack of sub-titles led to "some rather farfetched ways of conveying simple ideas." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Financially embarrassed, twittish Lord Richard Sandridge (Richard Cooper) is forced to put his Mayfair house up for rent. The lucky tenant turns out to be Sylvia Garland (Doris Secombe), an attractive widow. Later on, Lord Richard is framed on a theft charge and forced to go into hiding. With Sylvia's help, he poses as a butler in his own house. If a romance didn't arise from all this, the audience might have started a riot. Based on a play by Sidney Blow and Douglas Hoare, Lord Richard in the Pantry is put briskly through its familiar paces by veteran comedy director Walter Forde (who probably could have played the leading role as well). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

David Lean's Madeleine was inspired by a true story that rocked the English legal system to its foundations in the mid-19th century. Told in flashback, the film explains why aristocratic young Scotswoman Madeleine Smith (Ann Todd, then the wife of director Lean) is on trial for murder. The audience is apprised of Madeleine's illicit romance with deceptively charming Frenchman Emile L'Angelier (Ivan Desny), her futile attempts to break off the relationship, her "proper" betrothal to Englishman William Minnoch (Norman Wooland), and the murder by poison of the now-inconvenient L'Angelier. The jury's verdict was as controversial in 1950 as it had been a century earlier. David Lean and scenarists Stanley Haynes and Nicholas Phipps refuse to take sides, permitting the viewers to draw their own conclusions about the notorious Madeleine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A mystery develops when some jewels are stolen from a wealthy widow and she is murdered, with the blame wrongly falling on a phony psychic friend of hers. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

The second of director David Lean's adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel (Great Expectations (1946) was the first), Oliver Twist expertly boils down an enormous novel to a little less than two hours' screen time. The film begins with baby Oliver left on the doorstep of an orphanage/workhouse by his unwed mother. Proving a difficult charge to the wicked orphanage official, Oliver (John Howard Davies) is sold into a job as an undertaker's apprentice. He runs away and joins a gang of larcenous street urchins, led by master pickpocket Fagin (Alec Guinness). Oliver is rescued from this life by the kindly Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson); but, with the complicity of evil Bill Sikes (Robert Newton), Fagin abducts Oliver. Sikes' girl friend Nancy (Kay Walsh) restores Oliver to Brownlow, leading to tragic consequences before an ultimately happy ending. Oliver Twist was filmed in England in 1948, but its American release was held up for three years due to the allegedly anti-Semitic portrayal of the duplicitous Fagin. Even in its currently censored form, Oliver Twist is one the best-ever film versions of a Dickens novel. It served as a blueprint for Oliver! (1968), the Oscar-winning musical version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

A typically melodramatic British silent film, Possession starred the husband-and-wife team of Henry Edwards (who also directed) and Chrissie White). He played a White Russian revolutionary and she his secret wife, a Britisher. She gives birth and for the sake of appearance is forced to marry her nasty cousin (pompous-looking Gerald Ames). Based on a trashy novel by Olive Wadley, Possession was produced by Hepworth, a British company with rather lofty if often unfulfilled ambitions. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The first of three well-received "omnibus" films hosted by Somerset Maugham, Quartet features four of Maugham's most celebrated stories, each introduced by the author himself. In "The Facts of Life," a seemingly innocent British youth (Jack Watling) is targeted for a shakedown by a beautiful adventuress (Mai Zetterling), while Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne perform their usual brilliant byplay. In "The Alien Corn," a young aristocrat (Dirk Bogarde) hopes to become a professional concert pianist. "The Kite" tells the story of a preoccupied inventor (George Cole) who places his hobbies ahead of his wife (Susan Shaw) as an indirect means of defying his dominating mother (Hermione Badderly). The film concludes with "The Colonel's Lady," wherein the title character (Nora Swinburne) embarrasses her stuffy husband (Cecil Parker) by publishing a torrid volume of romantic poetry. Each of the short tales in Quartet possesses its own mood, pace and rhythm, and each is a gem in its own right. The popularity of Quartet resulted in two more Maugham compendiums, Trio and Encore, not to mention the multistoried American film O. Henry's Full House. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Starring Seymour Hicks as the title character, Scrooge is a faithful adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol about a heartless miser who discovers the true meaning of Christmas when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve. Hicks co-wrote the screenplay to this film, which is a thoroughly entertaining and effective retelling of a familiar story ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

The British Something Money Can't Buy offers a few smaller-scale variations on themes previously explored in the 1946 Hollywood Oscar-winner The Best Years of Our Lives. Harry Wilding (Anthony Steel), a high-ranking wartime military officer, has trouble adjusting to his go-nowhere civilian job and the monotony of his home life. Harry's wife Anne (Patricia Roc) tries to make things easier for her husband, but there are no easy answers to his plight. The inherent drama of the situation is leavened by moments of gentle humor, not to mention the warm rapport between stars. The supporting cast includes hirsute comic actor (and longtime David Niven crony) Michael Trubshawe and the venerable A. E. Mathews, at the time billed as England's oldest working actor. Director Pat Jackson co-authored the perceptive screenplay of Something Money Can't Buy with James Lonsdale Hudson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a stage play by M. J. Farrell and John Perry, Spring Meeting stars Enid-Stamp Taylor and Michael Wilding as Tiny and Tony Stamp-Collier, mother and son. Tiny is a wealthy British courtesan who hopes to arrange a profitable marriage for son Tony. The logical choice for a bride is beautiful but stuffy Joan Furze (played by Winston Churchill's daughter Sarah), but Tony insolently falls in love with Joan's fun-loving younger sister Baby (Nova Pilbeam). The film is stolen by Margaret Rutherford as an easily outraged maiden aunt and Henry Edwards as a miserly uncle. And in the tradition of British drawing-room comedies, the most admirable character in the story is family butler James (Basil Sydney), who solves everyone's problems just before the final-act curtain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide