Hugh Wakefield Movies
- 1935
Ratoff is a lion tamer who hears that a rival of his has died by a lioness. Ratoff adopts the daughter of the deceased man, and he buys the lioness that killed him. As time goes on, he becomes increasingly jealous of the men who pay attention to the girl, who has grown into a beautiful woman. As his fame at the circus is being surpassed, he demands the woman marry him. She becomes involved with the very one surpassing his fame, however, and this pushes Ratoff too far. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Ratoff, John Loder, (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)
The Noel Coward/David Lean combination which turned out such dramas as Brief Encounter and This Happy Breed sets its sights on the viewer's funny bone with Blithe Spirit. Rex Harrison plays a novelist, newly married to straight-laced Constance Cummings. Via a seance, Harrison accidentally summons the spirit of his first wife, Kay Hammond. Believing that Hammond wants to ruin his marriage, Harrison enlists the services of local medium Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford) to exorcise Hammond's spirit. She fails, and in time, Harrison's second wife is killed; now he has two playful spirits on his hands! Technicolor is used throughout Blithe Spirit, with the ghosts' shimmering paleness providing contrast to the plain, everyday colors of Harrison's conservative country home. Blithe Spirit was later transformed into the Broadway musical High Spirits, with the original script bent out of shape to turn the character of Madame Arcati (played by Beatrice Lillie) into the leading role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, (more)
- 1931
Several European countries collaborated to create this drama. The story begins as a young British woman meets and falls in love with her tour guide during a vacation to Naples. Along the way, she hears him singing. Recognizing a good tenor voice when she hears one, she takes him back to England for special vocal training. The tour guide is one handsome heartbreaker and one of his lovers is angered by his desertion. In England he sings at a fancy party. They are so impressed, that he is immediately booked into an opera house the following night. During the party, he finds himself becoming increasingly jealous of his newest girlfriend's flirtatious ways. When he discovers that his operatic debut is being financed by other party goers, the tenor flies into a rage and begins attacking the backers. Naturally they cancel his performance. The tour guide returns to Naples and to his other lover. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan Kiepura, Walter Janssen, (more)
- 1937
The murder of a songstress promotes the investigation by reporter Jim Martin (Hugh Wakefield) to clear the name of Lady Constance Gaye's (Antoinette Cellier) missing brother. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1935
Dreams Come True for Ilona Ratkay (Frances Day), a popular opera singer who falls in love with gangly farm boy Anton (Nelson Keys). Not so lucky is Anton's father Albert (Hugh Wakefield), who is left all alone when his son runs off to the Big City with Ilona. Things really get sticky when Albert becomes obsessed with the notion that Ilona is actually his own illegitimate daughter! The more censurable aspects of the story are neatly skirted and circumvented with liberal doses of music and comedy. Dreams Come True is a remake of the German operetta Liebesmelodie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frances Day, Nelson Keys, (more)
- 1936
The Alexander and Zoltan Korda production Forget Me Not serves as a splendid showcase for that matchless Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli. The star is cast in the strangely unsympathetic role of opera star Enzo Curti, who falls in love with impressionable tourist Helen (Joan Gardner). After their marriage, disillusionment quickly sets in for Helen, who can't cope with sharing her new husband with his thousands of fans. When seductress Irene (Jeanne Stuart) moves in on Enzo, Helen leaves him, returning to her former sweetheart. Now contrite, Enzo spends the rest of the film desperately trying to win his young wife back. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beniamino Gigli, Joan Gardner, (more)
- 1936
Adapted from a stage play by Maurice Braddell, It's You I Want is a vehicle for veteran scene-stealer Sir Seymour Hicks. The star is cast as Victor Delaney, a middle-aged roue who decides to take a break from girl-chasing. This proves impossible when Delaney's bachelor flat becomes a veritable pit-stop for cheating husbands, vengeful wives and dizzy mistresses. Time after time, Delaney is caught in innocent but compromising situations, paying off in loud and long laughter from the audience. Director Ralph Ince does little to "cinematize" his material; it's essentially the original stage play on the original set with most of the original cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Seymour Hicks, Marie Lohr, (more)
- 1946
Filmed in 1945 and released in the US the following year, the Anglo-American Journey Together is a tribute to the Royal Air Force, with several members of the RAF (and the acting profession) in prominent roles. The story follows the progress of two aspiring RAF pilots, cockney David Wilton (Sgt. Richard Attenborough) and college graduate John Aynesworth (Aircraftsman Jack Watling), from basic training to bombing mission. David and John are briefly sent off to America, where they are trained for aerial combat by no-nonsense Dean MacWilliams (Edward G. Robinson). The two flyboys then separate, with David going to Canadian Navigational School while John earns his wings and is shipped back to England. It's a tougher road to hoe for the combative, fiercely independent David than it is for the calmly resilient John, by by film's end the two comrades in arms are together again, flying their first hazardous mission over Berlin. Bessie Love, an American actress then living in London, plays Edward G. Robinson's wife; other roles are filled by members of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the US Army Air Corps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Richard Attenborough, (more)
- 1933
In this comedy, a popular head porter at the Paris Ritz finds trouble when he falls in love with a wealthy widow who stays there. After saving her family jewels, the porter is given the title of Duke. He also receives an ancestral home in which to live. He and the widow begin planning their future. This does not set well with the little hotel maid who secretly loves the porter. He eventually returns to her when he discovers that the "mansion" is a ramshackle, worthless wreck. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1934
Tom Walls is both star and director of the airy comedy-melodrama Lady in Danger. Marooned in the revolution-torn kingdom of Ardenburg, British businessman Richard Dexter (Tom Walls) is requested by the leader of the insurgents to safely escort the country's beloved queen (Yvonne Arnaud) to England. Dexter obliges, bundling the queen into his private plane and zooming across the border. He hides the pretty monarch in his apartment, resulting in quite a row when his fiancee Lydia (Anne Grey) shows up unannounced. The farcical possibilities of Lady in Danger are played to the hilt, and the rest is good semi-clean fun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne Arnaud, Tom Walls, (more)
- 1932
In this British thriller, a hapless fellow learns that he has chosen to stay in a problematic hotel when he learns that the stockbroker in the adjacent room has died and a woman is being blamed for the death. It is son revealed that the hotel manager, and another are attempting to keep the killing quiet until they can arrange the clues just so. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1935
In this comedy, a young man encounters opposition when he gets engaged. His jilted girlfriend's mother then has her daughter sue the fellow for breach of promise. Meanwhile the new fiancee hires another lawyer to catch the other girl in a unseemly act to ruin her chances in court. Unfortunately the scheme falls apart and her love is blamed for it all. Then his fiancee dumps him in favor of the lawyer. In the end, he decides to go back to his first girl, the one who was suing him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1934
Mein Herz Ruft Dir is a tailor-made vehicle for Polish singing sensation Jan Kiepura. The star is cast as the lead tenor in a travelling operatic troupe, who while taking a boat to Monte Carlo falls in love with pretty stowaway Martha Eggerth. When the troupe's Monte Carlo engagement is cancelled, Kiepura tries to use his splendid singing voice to find a wealthy patron for himself and his co-workers. Nothing seems to work until he stages an impromptu street performance of Tosca, drawing a huge crowd away from an indoor performance of the same opera. Oh yes -- he also ends up marrying Marta Eggerth, who like everyone else in the film plays second fiddle to Mr. Kiepura. Director Carmine Gallone filmed Mein Herz Ruft Dir three times: this German version, the French Mon Coeur D'Appelle and the English-language My Heart is Calling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan Kiepura, Marta Eggerth, (more)
- 1951
Henry Koster directs the 1951 aviation drama No Highway in the Sky, based on the novel by Nevil Shute. James Stewart stars as Theodore Honey, a widower and single parent to 11-year-old Elspeth (Janette Scott). He's also an absent-minded engineer who has formed a scientific theory about metal fatigue in a specific model of aircraft. He tries to convince British Airways that their airplanes will come apart after a certain amount of miles, but no one believes him. Then administrator Dennis Scott (Jack Hawkins) sends him on a flying mission to investigate a crash site in Newfoundland. Along the way, he meets stewardess Marjorie Corder (Glynnis Johns) and movie star Monica Teasdale (Marlene Dietrich). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, (more)
- 1935
A remake of a German film, No Monkey Business certainly lives down to its title. Goonish comedian Richard Hearne dominates the film as Charlie, the acrobat pal of circus performer Jim Carroll (Gene Gerrard). In love with anthropologist's daughter Clare Barrington (June Clyde), Jim realizes that he'll never impress the girl unless he proves himself of a scientific nature. Thus, Jim talks Charlie into posing as a gorilla, then claims that he's trained the "beast," thereby thrilling Clare. The plot thickens when a real gorilla appears on the scene. Yes, it's Charley's Aunt with fur, and no opportunity for a low, cheap laugh is overlooked. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Gerrard, June Clyde, (more)
- 1948
In this musical, a renowned tenor meets a lovely woman at a British railway station. When the woman's dog gets in a fight, he saves it. Unfortunately this causes them to miss their train. Later, the tenor discovers that his suitcases by been stolen. The thief, a tramp, is then mistaken for the singer and taken to a Roman studio. Meanwhile, the tenor and the woman must somehow earn enough money to eat supper before the next train arrives. They do it by singing. Later they are arrested for passing a counterfeit bank note. Fortunately they are released in time to make it to Rome and find the tramp. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Martini, Patricia Roc, (more)
- 1935
In this farce, a dancing shoe almost causes the end of a marriage. More complications ensue when a fluff-headed girl attempts to return the missing slipper and ends up getting the hapless husband arrested as a jewel thief. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1952
A group of provincial actors are fond of their boss, less fond of his jealous wife. To keep wifey out of their hair, and incidentally to teach her a lesson, the troupe assumes a variety of bizarre disguises. She is allowed to assume the worst; the actors then have ever so much fun proving her wrong. Hugh Wakefield, who portrays the impresario with the inconvenient spouse, co-wrote the screenplay of The Caretaker's Daughter, which was based on a play by Guy Paxton and Edward V. Hole. The film was originally released in Britain as Love's a Luxury. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1933
In this crime melodrama, a young couple moves into a charming rural cottage. There the wife becomes fixated upon the mysterious demise of the earlier occupant. She then decides to reenact the murder and charge admission to sightseers. The recreation has interesting results. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
Blackmail is the basis of this crime drama based on a novel by Edgar Wallace. The trouble begins when the leader of a ring of blackmailers becomes an amateur sleuth to outfox Scotland Yard. He spends a lot of time in the Yard getting to know the higher ups. When not schmoozing with the cops, the crook is plotting blackmail schemes. Despite their efforts the Yard has many problems figuring out the leader of the ring. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Wakefield, Alfred Drayton, (more)
- 1936
The Improper Duchess is never as naughty as its title, or else it wouldn't have made it to the screen in 1936. Yvonne Arnaud heads the cast as the Duchess of Tann, who comes to Washington D.C. on matters of state. In her efforts to secure a much-needed loan for her country, our heroine must first do battle with a cartel of crooked oil executives. Romance enters the picture in the form of the King of Poldavia (Hugh Wakefield). The satirical nature of the story eventually gives way to farce, which in turn concedes to slapstick. Improper Duchess was adapted from a play by James B. Fagan, which also starred Yvonne Arnaud. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne Arnaud, Hugh Wakefield, (more)
