Robert Stevenson Movies

The ill-advised battle of Balaclava, immortalized as a moral victory in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem Charge of the Light Brigade, was lavishly re-created in this British historical spectacle. Among those converging in the Crimea in the mid-19th century are "good" British officer Cyril McLaglen and his "bad" counterpart Miles Mander. The latter falsely accuses the former of murder, whereupon McLaglen is dishonorably discharged from the service. He returns to the Crimea as a common horse soldier, whereupon heroine Benita Hume warns him of the presence of a Russian spy amidst the British troops. This minor revelation snowballs into the "heroic" military blunder at Balaclava ("Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do or die"). Completed as a silent film by the prolific Maurice Elvey, Balaclava was extensively re-shot as a talkie under the direction of Milton Rosmer; the dialogue was written by Robert Stevenson, later an important director in his own right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

In this British musical, a shop assistant attempts to impress a girl by telling her that he is actually the manager. Unfortunately, when he is fired, he is also alone. Later he catches robbers trying to pillage the place. He is then rehired as the store manager for real. The girl comes back and he puts her in charge of the music department. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This romance, based on a surprisingly sophisticated story by Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne, teams up Herbert Marshall with his then-wife Edna Best. Best is Mary Price, deserted by her husband when he leaves England to seek his fortune during the Boer War in 1900. Destitute and desperate, she meets aspiring author Michael Rowe (Marshall) at a museum. Rowe offers to share what little money he has with her and soon a romance develops. They agree to marry, in hopes that her husband has disappeared for good. And, as the years pass, it seems like he has. Rowe becomes a successful and respected writer and he and Mary raise a son, David (Frank Lawton). On the night that David becomes engaged to pretty society girl Romo (Elizabeth Allan), however, Price (D.A. Clarke-Smith) reappears, and while the young couple is away, Rowe has a fight with Price, who dies at the scene from a heart attack. Michael and Mary are interrogated, but Scotland Yard never makes the connection between Price and Mary, and the investigators assume that Michael was merely protecting himself from an intruder. While the couple is off the hook legally, they feel it is morally necessary to come clean about their past in front of David and his fiancée. David is more than willing to forgive his parents their sins, and Romo stands by them, too. What could have been a tiresome subject is brought to life by the talent of all involved -- not only the actors, but also writers Angus MacPhail, Robert Stevenson, and Lajos Biro, who brought Milne's story to the screen. Stevenson, incidentally, would become one of Britain's most respected directors, and MacPhail would frequently work with Alfred Hitchcock -- though apparently not on The Man Who Knew Too Much, which gave Best one of her best screen roles. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In this British romance, a German duke falls passionately in love with the owner of a beautiful singing voice, even though he has never seen her. When he first hears it, the duke assumes that it belongs to the empress. The voice actually belongs to her hairdresser. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Herbert Marshall and Edna Best, husband and wife in 1933, star in the British drama Faithful Hearts. Best plays the daughter of Marshall, who years earlier had run out on his family. When Edna re-enters Marshall's life, it causes him to reassess his values-and to end his engagement to his judgmental fiancee. When Faithful Hearts was released in the US, all the voices were redubbed by American actors; even Herbert Marshall, a fixture in Hollywood films since the dawn of the talkie era, was submitted to this electronic augmentation. Original titled The Faithful Heart (Americans must have more of everything!), the film was based on a play by Monckton Hoffe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This lush historical drama chronicles the brief reign of the late Henry VIII's successor, Lady Jane Grey. After only nine days on the throne, she was beheaded at the behest of the treacherous Mary Tudor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Fourteen-year-old British actress Nova Pilbeam (best known for her work in Hitchcock's Man Who Knew too Much and Young and Innocent) plays the title role in Little Friend. When her parents (Matheson Lang and Lydia Sherwood) decide to divorce, poor Felicity Hughes (Pilbeam) seeks out a way to bring them back together. She tells a few "white lies" on the witness stand, which merely exacerbates the situation. Finally she attempts suicide, and it is this that brings Mr. and Mrs. Hughes back to their senses. Surprisingly, the Margaret Kennedy-Christopher Isherwood screenplay isn't as sappy and overdone on screen as it plays on paper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Attractive scientist Dr. Clare Wyatt (Anna Lee) fondly declines the proposal of journalist Dick Haslewood (John Loder), who loves her, and she goes to work for the reclusive Dr. Laurience (Boris Karloff), whom the scientific world regards as a crackpot. At Laurience's remote estate, she's greeted at the door by bitter, wheelchair-bound Clayton (Donald Calthrop), one of the doctor's more hopeless cases. Dick hangs around the neighborhood, sending stories to his newspaper, which is owned by his tycoon father, Lord Haslewood (Frank Cellier). Laurience demonstrates the reality of his discredited theory to an astonished Claire. Using an array of electrical equipment, he switches the minds of a good-natured and a cranky chimpanzee, then suggests to Claire that this could be done with people, making immortality possible. Lord Haslewood turns up unexpectedly, and offers the skeptical scientist the full use of the prestigious Haslewood Institute in exchange for the right to run stories on Laurience's progress, and to own the resulting patents. But problems arise when Haslewood sets up a conference of prominent scientists to hear Laurience explain the intent of his research. They all scoff loudly, and walk out. Lord Haslewood is furious, feeling he's been humiliated; he tells the shocked Laurience that he, not the scientist, owns everything, and orders him out of the Institute. Laurience suffers a mental breakdown, and invites Haslewood to his lab, where he straps him into the chair of his apparatus, then switches the minds of Haslewood and the crippled Clayton. When Haslewood realizes he's now in Clayton's body, he bursts into laughter and drops dead, puzzling the other two. Clayton is delighted to be in a body that's not only capable of walking, but is that of a financially powerful man. When Laurience offers Claire "eternal youth, eternal loveliness," she is shocked, and he realizes she's in love with Dick, so he makes plans for Dick to come to the Institute.

Meanwhile, Clayton learns why Haslewood laughed: Clayton is trapped in the body of a dying man: Haslewood had a weak heart. With his own scheme in mind, Laurience murders Clayton. He switches his mind with Dick's, giving the perfect alibi for murder -- and Laurience, in Dick's body, will have Claire. After the transfer, Laurience, in Dick's body, places Dick, in Laurience's body, in a chamber with poison gas. But when Claire arrives, she immediately realizes what has happened. Dick, in Laurience's body, awakes and falls out a window, gravely injured. On the street below, Sue encounters scientist Dr. Gratton (Cecil Parker), and convinces him to help her switch back the minds of Dick and Laurience before Laurience's body dies. Afterward, Laurience, in his own body, admits he was wrong, and begs Claire to destroy his equipment, then he dies.

A few years after this film, Karloff would make a series of movies for Columbia Pictures with plots very similar to this, but British film is far livelier than those; it's to the point, intelligent and entertaining. This was partly due to the clever script by L. Du Garde Peach, Sidney Gilliat and John L. Balderston. Gilliat later wrote several films for Alfred Hitchcock, and Balderston had co-written Dracula, among other notable films. Director Robert Stevenson was busy making a name for himself as a kind of back-up Hitchcock, though Hitchcock was not likely to have tackled The Man Who Changed His Mind, King Solomon's Mines or Non-Stop New York. Later, Stevenson came to the United States and gradually evolved away from thrillers to more romantic films, such as the 1944 Jane Eyre. His career was then spotty until he signed with Walt Disney, where he helmed many of the more prestigious films, including Mary Poppins, a far cry from the brisk horror of The Man Who Changed His Mind. Also known as The Man Who Lived Again, the U.S. title of this film is Brainsnatcher, and the U.S. reissue title is Dr. Maniac. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

British musical-comedy star Jack Hulbert and Hollywood ingenue Patricia Ellis share top billing in Gaiety Girls (aka Paradise for Two). Hulbert plays Martin, a straight-laced Parisian millionaire who falls in love with saucy chorus girl Jeannette (Ellis). The plot requires that Martin pose as a reporter who is called upon by Jeannette to pose as her wealthy benefactor: in other words, he's hired to impersonate himself! With all this going on, it's a wonder that our hero has time to offer a few song-and-dance numbers of his own, but Jack Hulbert does not disappoint his fans. Billed fourth in Gaiety Girls is Googie Withers, whose name would mean a lot more at the box-office within a few short years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While W.C. Fields poked fun at the asinine notion of a high-speed airplane with an open observation deck in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), the producers of the futuristic British melodrama Non-Stop New York (1937) take this notion quite seriously. The film's setpiece is a streamlined luxury plane designed for transatlantic passenger flight (something that would not become a common occurrence until 1940). Anna Lee plays a chorus girl whose has been targeted for extermination by the London underworld because she can provide an alibi for a murder suspect. The police won't believe her, but that doesn't dissuade the syndicated hit men. Seeking escape, Lee stows away on a plane bound for New York; the gangsters follow, overpower the pilots, and parachute from the plane, leaving Lee and the passengers helplessly hurtling through the clouds. The day is saved by detective John Loder, who'd also boarded the plane in search of Lee. The climax involves an aerial fistfight on the wing of the speeding plane. If you believe this sequence, chances are you'll swallow whole the rest of Non-Stop New York: if not, you'll have a grand old time all the same. The script by (among others) Curt Siodmak and Roland Pertwee was based on Sky Steward, a novel by Ken Attiwill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this taut drama, a wealthy financier is tried for the murder of his brother-in-law after the damning corpse is found floating in his garden pond. He is eventually acquitted. Upon his return home, he is angered to find his lawyer has become romantically involved with his wife. An argument ensues, during which the financier confesses his guilt and then makes a fatal leap from a balcony. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this gentle comedy, an aristocratic English fellow is not happy to be betrothed to a brewery heiress. One day he goes to a circus and ends up with a lively human cannonball in his life. He immediately falls for the daring young performer and they end up eloping and going to Paris to live out the rest of their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide