O.B. Clarence Movies

Based on the play by Joan Temple, No Room at the Inn takes place in the early stages of WW2, when the children of London were evacuated to the Country. A group of these youthful refugees are taken in by Mrs. Voray (Freda Jackson), who already has several orphans in her charge. Outwardly the soul of Christian charity, Mrs. Voray is actually a drunken harridan who treats the children like her own personal slaves. It is said that when the villainess received her comeuppance, movie audiences were known to stand up and cheer. The most intriguing aspect of this melodramatic exercise is that the screenplay was written by legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An evil guardian plots the murder of his young heiress niece in this Victorian melodrama, also known as Uncle Silas. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

This romantic comedy is set in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. It tells the story of a professional duelist who is hired by politicians to insult and challenge an important senator. He does this by pretending to have a tiff over a young woman whose father runs the local newspaper. Having no idea that it his daughter who is the bone-of-contention in the duel, he dubs the woman "Madame X. " In the end, the duelist and the girl fall in love, but now he must duel with her father, whom he accidentally insulted. To save his honor, and his life, the hero allows the father to nick him during the contest. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Immediately grabbing the audience's attention with a heart-stopping opening scene in a dark graveyard, acclaimed British director David Lean realizes the cinematic potential of Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel, and the result is considered by many to be one of the finest literary adaptations ever made as well as one of the greatest British films of all time. Crystallized into a tight 118-minute running time by Lean, Ronald Neame, and a corps of uncredited contributors, this is the story of young Pip, a lad of humble means whose training as a gentleman is bankrolled by a mysterious benefactor. Along the way, Pip falls in love with the fickle Estella, befriends the cheerfully insouciant Herbert Pocket, has memorable encounters with the escaped convict Magwitch and the lunatic dowager Miss Havisham, and almost (but not quite) forgets his modest origins as the foster son of kindhearted blacksmith Joe Gargery. The role of Pip is evenly divided between Anthony Wager as a child and John Mills as an adult; Alec Guinness makes his starring film debut as the jaunty Pocket; Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson are costarred as the younger and older Estella; and Martita Hunt is unforgettable as the mad Miss Havisham ("It's a fine cake! A wedding cake! MINE!") Remade several times, Great Expectations resurfaced in 1989 as a TV miniseries, with Jean Simmons, originally the young Estella, tearing a passion to tatters as Miss Havisham; and in 1998 it was remade again, in a contemporary version, with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, and Anne Bancroft in the Miss Havisham role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally released in England as The Way to the Stars, Johnny in the Clouds is the story of how the Battle of Britain affected the lives of combatants and civilians alike. Terence Rattigan's screenplay concentrates on three groups of people: an American pilot and his wife, a doomed British officer with a wife and child, and a young couple who plan to marry despite the precariousness of wartime romances. Most of the action takes place at an air base and the neighboring village, where the private citizens react to rationing and other restrictions with various degrees of nobility and selfishness. The American title of this film is derived from the poem "Johnny in the Clouds," recited in tribute to the decease British airman; the U.S. version, which was released after the war, includes a prologue set in the deserted air base, with the bulk of the film offered as a flashback. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

English actor Clive Brook's only directorial effort, On Approval, is based upon Frederick Lonsdale's frothy 1926 play, though reset in the late 19th century. Brook plays George, a titled duke whose wealth has largely been spent but who has no intention of settling further into genteel poverty. George is enormously appealing to Helen (played by Googie Withers), a good-natured American heiress, and is equally appalling to Maria (Bea Lillie), an Englishwoman of considerable means. The imperious Maria is dating the eternally devoted Richard (Roland Culver), who worships her. Maria decides that she will marry Richard -- after he spends a month with her in a secluded Scottish castle, where she will try him out "on approval." Maria, however, does not intend to discover whether they are suitable for all aspects of marriage; every night he is to row across the loch and spend his nights at a local inn. Neither Maria nor Richard will lack for company, though, as George and Helen invite themselves along. Things get complicated when it turns out that there are no rooms available at the inn, leaving the men to share the castle with the women -- a prospect that so horrifies the servants that they promptly leave the two couples high and dry. Left to their own devices, the foursome get to know each other -- and they don't necessarily like what they find. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Onetime Hollywood silent film producer Joe Rock packed himself off to his native England in the 1930s to make British programmers. Captain Bill is a vehicle for the all-but-forgotten music hall comic Leslie Fuller, who teamed with Rock to put up the money for this minor-league production. The corpulent Fuller plays a bargee (dock worker) who develops a fondness for schoolteacher Kay Strozzi. He helps teacher foil a gang of scuzzy criminals. Directed by Ralph Cedar, best known for his fast-paced second unit work on such American comedies as W.C. Fields' The Bank Dick (40), Captain Bill was filmed in 1935, but not released overseas until six years later. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of the few "Inspector Hornleigh" films to gain a wide US distribution, Mail Train stars Gordon Harker as Hornleigh and Alastair Sim as his dumb-like-a-fox assistant Sergeant Bingham. Borrowing a bit from the 1939 British box-office hit Night Train, the plot pits Hornleigh and Bingham against a clever gang of Nazi espionage agents. Most of the action takes place aboard a speeding train, with our heroes never quite certain who can be trusted and who can't. Phyllis Calvert contributes to the intrigue as one Mrs. Wilkinson, who is, as the phrase goes, not all she seems to be. With Walter Forde in the director's chair, it shouldn't be surprising that Mail Train contains as many laughs as thrills. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The old reliable plot device known as premarital hanky-panky was the basis of the Esther McCracken stage play Quiet Wedding. The film version, scripted by Terence Rattigan and Anton de Grunewald, tones down some of the more censorable elements of the play, though not enough to completely mollify American censors. Margaret Lockwood stars as bride-to-be Janet Royd, who is driven crazy by the well-meaning interference of friends and family in the hours prior to her wedding. Sensing that she'll never have a moment alone with her fiance Dallas Chaytor (Derek Farr) even after they're married. Janet agrees to slip away with Dallas the night before the Big Event for a few hours of uninterrupted bliss. Nothing much really happens, at least not on screen, but the censors weren't able to blot out the gleam in the groom's eye-or the bride's, for that matter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this entry in the long-running British comedy series, boisterous Irish washerwoman Mother Riley gets into deep trouble when during her crusade to help local shopkeepers fight the presence of a ruthless chain of stores, she inadvertently pushes the chain's boss into the river. She immediately flees to a hospital where she puts on a nurse's uniform. Now she must escape from the hospital. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The original British title of this wartime musical farce was George Takes The Air. George is George Formby, the toothy little chappy with the ukulele whose films made oodles of money in the 1930s and 1940s. This time, Formby is an 'umble Army private mistaken for a dashing RAF pilot. Had their not been a slapstick airborne finale, audiences might have grown violent. Manning the cameras in It's in the Air was future director Ronald Neame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this lively British WW II comedy, the Nazis kidnap a hapless farmhand after they mistakenly identify him as one of their spies. Mayhem ensues as the farmhand escapes. En route he is nearly shot by a British spy who thinks he is an enemy agent. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Long after the company went out of business in the US, Grand National Pictures thrived in England, turning out such bread-and-butter features as The Missing People. Scottish comedian Will Fyffe once again plays Mr. Reeder, the seemingly bucolic Scotland Yard detective who's a lot shrewder than he appears. In this one, Mr. Reeder tackles the case of 27 missing persons, all of whom had been receiving remittance checks from their wealthy families. With beefy, bushy-eyebrowed Lyn Harding in the cast, it doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out who's behind the disappearances. Future star Patricia Roc has a key supporting role in this easygoing who- and why-dunit. The Missing People was based on a story by Edgar Wallace, who despite the fact that he died in 1932 was well represented on the British screen for the next four decades. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi