Herbert Wilcox Movies
One of England's top producer-directors from the '20s until World War II, Herbert Wilcox was born in Ireland and worked as a journalist before serving as a flyer with the British during World War I. He entered the movie business as a distributor in 1919, and three years later began producing movies. Wilcox was one of the few producers in England during the '20s with a Hollywood-style flair for showmanship, and occasionally imported American stars such as Dorothy Gish for his films. He made his greatest single contribution to films in 1926 by founding Elstree Studios, which remained a major production facility right into the '80s. As a producer, he had no peer during the '20s, and was rivalled in the '30s only by Sir Alexander Korda. Korda quickly succeeded in international production on a scale that Wilcox found hard to top, but in England, Wilcox remained a major figure, especially in connection with the movies he directed and produced for actress Anna Neagle, his future wife. Sixty Glorious Years (1939) was a groundbreaking film, as a dramatization of the life of a British monarch. He went to Hollywood in the wake of the latter movie, but was not able to repeat its success, and returned to England, where he was never able to repeat his pre-war success, although he did co-produce one superb film, The Beggar's Opera (1954), starring Laurence Olivier and directed by Peter Brook. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1932
In this farce, a playboy falls for a nightclub dancer who is being blackmailed by the club owner over a necklace she borrowed. The playboy and an Irish cop ensure that everything turns out OK. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- 1929
In this British drama, a female circus performer runs away to join her aunt after her mother dies. She is trying to escape her abusive father. Unfortunately, he follows her. Fortunately, everything is all straightened out by the story's end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1938
A Royal Divorce is the misleading title bestowed upon this dramatization of certain events in the lives of Napoleon and Josephine. Making her first screen appearance in two years, Hollywood's Ruth Chatterton tops the cast as Josephine, whose widowhood is relieved upon her marriage to up-and-coming military officer Napoleon (France's Pierre Blanchar). Though she's several years older than her husband, Josephine tries to be the wife he wants-but she cannot give him what he really wants, namely an heir. Miles Malleson's screenplay puts forth the theory that Josephine agreed to her divorce from the Emperor so that he might father a legitimate child by his mistress, Marie Louise. In terms of costumes and settings, A Royal Divorce is authentic to a fault; in terms of adherence to the facts, it's a bit shaky, though undeniably dramatic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Chatterton, Pierre Blanchar, (more)
- 1924
This romantic drama is taken from the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow entitled "The Spanish Student." Dolores (Betty Blythe) is the beguiling gypsy dancer who rejects the lecherous advances of Count de Silva (Randle Ayrton). Pedro (Herbert Langley) kills the count, but Dolores is jailed when she refuses to reveal the count's killer. Warwick Ward, Liane Haid, and Hal Martin co-star in this well-crafted melodrama filmed in Vienna by Irish director Herbert Wilcox. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 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)
- 1931
No relation to American author Sidney Howard, bulbous Briton Sydney Howard was the star comedian in several cheaply made film farces of the 1930s. In Almost a Divorce, Howard over-imbibes at the wedding of his best friend Nelson Keys. Howard's besotted antics (and incessant repetition of his stage catch phrase "What's to do?") nearly ends Keys' marriage before it begins. The film was produced by Herbert Wilcox, but try getting him to admit it in later years. Almost a Divorce is worth a look for the presence of Eva Moore, the onetime mother-in-law of Laurence Olivier who was memorably cast as a retrogressive Victorianite in James Whale's The Old Dark House. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sydney Howard, Nelson Keys, (more)
- 1937
Backstage is more flavorful fluff from the star/director combo of Anna Neagle and Herbert Wilcox Neagle. Neagle plays a likeable chorine who hears tenor Arthur Tracy singing on streets. No surprises here: before he left for England, Tracy had gained fame in the US as radio's "Street Singer". But back to the plot: Neagle tries to find work for Tracy, but he doesn't get his Big Break until a major star comes down with laryngitis. Nope, still no surprises here. Once he becomes a star himself, Tracy grows swell-headed. What does down-to-earth Neagle do about this? Well, let's leave at least one surprise wrapped up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Arthur Tracy, (more)
- 1933
The first of two film versions of Noel Coward's operetta, 1933's Bitter Sweet stars British favorite Anna Neagle and continental star Fernand Graavey (who spelled his name "Gravet" in Hollywood). The wisp of a plot finds Victorian Neagle persuading Graavey to march her to the altar. A brilliant musician, Graavey is unfortunately also a chronic gambler. He is killed in a duel of honor, but his legacy lives on in his music. The already obscure 1933 Bitter Sweet was all but confined to oblivion by Hollywood's 1940 Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald version. The earlier film was produced and directed by Herbert Wilcox, whose long professional association with his star Anna Neagle culminated in marriage in 1943. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Fernand Gravey, (more)
- 1929
Produced in Hollywood by Herbert Wilcox, who had been unable to obtain sound equipment in London, this "haunted house" (actually "haunted houseboat") mystery-thriller was nevertheless Great Britain's first "all-talkie." John Loder, the only Englishman involved besides Wilcox, and Mary Brian find themselves invited on board a mysterious, fog-bound houseboat. Soon, several of their fellow passengers fall victim to a disguised madman, who proves to be none other than their host, the Reverend Eph Kelly (veteran matinee idol James Kirkwood). Written by John Willard, the author of the classic The Cat and the Canary, and featuring innovative dialogue scenes, Black Waters ultimately suffered in comparison with Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1930), the first "all-talkie" filmed entirely in England. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Kirkwood, Mary Brian, (more)
- 1933
A feisty Irish lad leaves his home village to find fortune in bustling London. Things start off well when he lands a good job working as the partner of a wealthy young nobleman in his new company. The young Irishman got the job after helping the inebriated aristocrat out of a scuffle with an irate cabby. The lad does quite well and helps make the company successful. But his dreams turn to nightmares one day when his master falsely accuses him of rigging the books and embezzling. The young lord does this to conceal the fact that he has squandered the company's money on gambling and carousing. Because the Irish youth has fallen in love with the lord's sister and wants to protect her family's reputation, he takes the fall and goes to prison. Later the nobleman's guilty conscience prompts him to tell the truth before he commits suicide. Happiness ensues when the youth and the sister finally marry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1938
Gordon Harker stars as a goonish London cabbie who finds himself up to his brimmed cap in espionage. Harker innocently thwarts an assassination attempt on a Middle-Eastern potentate. The perpetrator is a demonic British oil executive who'll stop at nothing to corner the "black gold" market. The villain sets Harker up as the fall guy for his next attempt on the potentate's life, Yeh, we know: Where are the blondes? Well, cast your eye upon leading ladies Enid Stamp-Taylor and Janet Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gordon Harker, Janet Johnson, (more)
- 1932
The credits for the 68-minute programmer Blue Danube are rather more impressive than the film itself. The picture was produced and directed by British cinematic giant Herbert Wilcox, the script is by veteran actor/director/playwright Miles Malleson, and the stars are the formidable Austrian-born stage actor Joseph Schildkraut and one-time Metropolis leading lady Brigette Helm (this was a German-English co-production). The story casts Helm and Schildkraut as European gypsies whose romance is broken up when both fall in love with aristocrats. It is Schildkraut who finally awakens to the old bromide "stay in your own backyard." Blue Danube is not a remake of the 1928 film of the same name, even though Joseph Schildkraut starred in both. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Schildkraut, Dorothy Bouchier, (more)
- 1929
The Bondman was producer-director Herbert Wilcox's third cinematic effort of 1929, and his last silent production. Hollywood favorite Norman Kerry plays Jason, a Sicilian-American lad whose mother (Dora Barton) orders him to carry out a long-standing vendetta against Jason's father (Edward O'Neill). Simultaneously, the dying father swears Jason's half-brother Michael (Donald MacArdle) to seek out the mother's forgiveness. During a political insurrection in Sicily, Jason and Michael are both arrested and thrown into the same prison camp. Unaware of each other's identity, the two brothers become close friends. In the end, it is the "unforgiving" Jason who willingly forsakes the vendetta to save Michael from a firing squad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norman Kerry, Dora Barton, (more)
- 1935
Brewster's Millions was the fourth film version (and first talkie adaptation) of the war-horse Winchell Smith/Byron Ongley play. This being a British film, it's only logical that popular British musical comedy star Jack Buchanan should portray hero Jack Brewster. Once more, Brewster will inherit his uncle's huge estate only if he's able to spend one million pounds within two months. Our hero invests in several "lost cause" stocks and businesses, only to suffer as each one of his investments makes money. A last-act surprise enables Brewster to come out on top--and to claim as his bride the lovely Nancy O'Neil, who would love him even if he were broke. Brewster's Millions would be remade three more times over the next five decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Buchanan, Lili Damita, (more)
- 1930
This bedroom farce was originally a play that centers on an unhappily married couple looking to change their lives. When they meet a similar couple, the four decide to trade mates for a while. Chaos erupts when the two husbands get drunk and begin thinking that each is insulting the wife of the other. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Walls, Yvonne Arnaud, (more)
- 1931
A love triangle forms the basis of this melodrama set during a Venetian carnival. The main couple are a famed actor and his possibly adulterous wife. During the fair, the actors do the closing scenes from Othello. At that time, the insanely jealous actor tries to choke his wife on stage. As the curtain comes down, the actor calms down and realizes his mistake in judgment. He apologizes profusely to his woman and she forgives him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Schildkraut, Dorothy Bouchier, (more)
- 1923
This two-part adventure drama finds the lovely Zahrat (Betty Blythe) stolen by the villainous Abou Hassan (Herbert Langley) before her marriage to Omar (Randle Ayrton). After Omar is captured, the two escape into the desert in an effort to be free of the evil Abou. Part two concerns Ali Baba (Judd Green) and his adventures in Arabia. Olaff Hytten plays Mucbill the auctioneer, with Eva Moore as Alcolom and Jeff Barlow as Mustafa. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Alice Duer Miller's 1921 play Come out of the Kitchen was filmed during the silent era with Marguerite Clark, then musicalized (and Americanized) by Paramount in 1930 as Honey with Nancy Carroll. A second musical version, with brand-new songs, surfaced five years later as Come Out of the Pantry. Flat broke thanks to a series of bad business decisions, Lord Robert Brent (Jack Buchanan) wanders through New York's Central Park, wondering where his next meal is coming from. Here he meets his former butler Eccles (Ronald Squire), who suggests that Lord Brent take a footman's job at the home of millionaire Mr. Beach-Howard (James Carew). This he does, and it isn't long before Lord B. falls in love with Beach-Howard's gorgeous niece Hilda (Fay Wray). The winning Jack Buchanan-Fay Wray combination, which contributed so much to the 1935 comedy thriller Bulldog Jack, is equally effective in this more sentimental effort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Buchanan, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1957
This British drama chronicles the exploits of a brutal Liverpudlian gang leader/would-be rock star who finds himself inducted into the army. The troubled youth undergoes basic training and emerges a man. Later his best friend from boot camp is killed by the camp bully. Courageously, he stands up to the bully and wounds him. Fearing retribution, he flees the barracks. Time passes and he eventually rights the wrong, matures, and marries his singing partner. Songs include: "Isn't It a Lovely Evening?" "These Dangerous Years," and "Cold, Cold Shower." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Baker, Thora Hird, (more)
- 1928
One of the most controversial British films of the 1920s, Dawn is the story of World War 1 nurse and martyr Edith Cavell. Making a rare film appearance, Dame Sybil Thorndike stars as Cavell, who risked her life by rescuing British POWs from the Germans. Captured by the Kaiser's minions, Cavell was sentenced to be executed, an action that sparked an international outpouring of outrage, even from neutral nations. At the time Dawn was filmed, the world was at peace and the Germans were striving mightily to suppress their previous reputation as warmongers. Thanks to legal and political intervention, the film was heavily censored, then removed from distribution altogether (the official reason for the suppression was the film's startlingly brutal depiction of warfare). In 1939, with the threat of war once more looming over Britain, producer/director remade Dawn as Nurse Edith Cavell, with Anna Neagle in the starring role and with all the original film's anti-German sentiments intact. Both Dawn and its remake were based on a play by Reginald Berkeley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Ault
- 1924
During the 1920s, it was a common occurrence for British filmmakers to lense their productions in Germany, and vice versa. Thus it was that Herbert Wilcox travelled to Deutschland to film his lavish Decameron Nights. The film was based on a play by McLoughlin and Lawrence, which in turn was adapted from the spicy tales of Giovanni Boccaccio. Hollywood's Lionel Barrymore plays a sultan whose son falls hopelessly in love with a Moslem princess. Also in the cast is Werner Krauss, of Cabinet of Dr. Caligari fame. Decameron Nights was more or less remade in 1953, with Louis Jourdan and Joan Fontaine in the leads. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Werner Krauss, Lionel Barrymore, (more)
- 1952
Derby Day is a typically British omnibus feature, delineating the fates of several different people during a single day at the racetrack. Peter Graves (not the American actor of the same name) plays a superficial movie star who has been won in a fan-magazine raffle by housemaid Suzanne Cloutier. Michael Wilding and Anna Neagle play a pair of disconsolates who have recently lost their respective mates in a plane crash. And Googie Withers and John McCallum (who were married in real life) portray a furtive couple whose horrible secret is revealed when they head to the window to collect their winnings. Though we count at least six principle characters in Derby Day, the film was released in the US as Four Against Fate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Sr., (more)
- 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
- 1948
Fans of British film star Anna Neagle had a field day with her bravura Technicolor vehicle Elizabeth of Ladymead--though not enough fans showed up back in 1948 to make the film a success. Neagle portrays four different characters from four different historical periods, each named Elizabeth. The first, Beth, lives in 1854 London, as the Crimean War rages thousands of miles away. The second, Elizabeth, lives in 1903, just after the Boer war. The third, Betty, is a girl of 1919, the year after World War I. And the fourth, Liz, is a contemporary lass of post-World War II London. We watch as each of the four Elizabeths emerges as a woman of independence while the menfolk are off to war. Whenever the film becomes too repetitious, Elizabeth of Ladymead scores on the charm of Anna Neagle and her attractive deportment while wearing period costumes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Hugh Williams, (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)
