Margaret Kennedy Movies

The British That Dangerous Age is based on Autumn, a play by Margaret Kennedy and Ilya Surgutchoff. Myrna Loy heads the cast as Lady Brooke, the wife of famed barrister Sir Brian Brooke (Roger Livesay). Neglected by her husband, Lady Brooke inaugurates an affair with a younger man. Meanwhile, Monica (Peggy Cummins), Brooke's daughter by a previous marriage, enters into her own romantic entanglement. When Sir Brian falls ill, his wife comes to her senses, and the result is lasting happiness for all, especially Monica. The story is set on the isle of Capri, allowing for several restful and pleasing landscape shots. That Dangerous Age was originally released as If This Be Sin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a play and novel by Margaret Kennedy, Escape Me Never is a remake of the same-named 1935 British film. Largely set in Italy, the story concerns the relationship between poverty-stricken musician Sebastian Dunbrok (Errol Flynn) and unwed mother Gemma Smith (Ida Lupino). Suspecting that her fiancé, Caryl (Gig Young), Sebastian's brother, is the father of Gemma's child, young heiress Fennella McLean (Eleanor Parker) retreats to the Italian Alps. Attempting to straighten out the situation, Sebastian finds himself falling in love with Fennella. For his brother's sake, Sebastian breaks off the relationship and marries Gemma, but while awaiting the birth of her child, he writes a heartfelt ballet score dedicated to Fennella. However, when Gemma's baby dies, the conscience-stricken Sebastian changes the dedication to his wife, whom he has learned to genuinely love. The main redeeming feature of this treacly soap opera is the stirring musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A set of flashbacks to 19th century London provide the action in this British wartime film, in which a wealthy girl (Phyllis Calvert) becomes friends with a young waif (Margaret Lockwood) while at school. The waif later becomes a governess for the girl, but betrays their relationship by having an affair with her friend's husband (James Mason). The Man in Grey did exceptionally well in England at the time of its release, and later spawned a cavalcade of similar movies. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this patriotic but romantic musical comedy, a young teacher runs a day school for the workers at a munitions factory. As she makes arrangements to locate the school in the empty home next to her apartment building, she falls in love with the property owner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A delightful film that begs to be rediscovered, Return to Yesterday was adapted from Goodness, How Sad, a play by Robert Morley. Clive Brook is ideally cast as Robert Maine, a famous movie star who longs for the simpler days before he became the idol of millions-and before he was trapped into a loveless marriage with his present wife. Maine takes a sentimental journey to the provincial repertory theatre where he got his first break, only to discover that the little troupe is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Without revealing his true identity, he joins the actors and helps to get them over their financial hump. He also happens to fall in love with ingenue Carol Sande (Anna Lee, the wife of director Robert Stevenson), but realizes eventually that she will be better off without him. Dame May Whitty heads the hand-picked supporting cast as Mrs. Truscott, the troupe's garrulous character woman, who is wise enough not to say anything when she overhears Maine letting Carol down gently by replaying a scene from one of his earlier stage triumphs. Long ignored by movie historians, Return to Yesterday was given an honored spot in William K. Everson's affectionate volume Love in the Film (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the best-selling novel by K. J. Benes, A Stolen Life serves as a tour de force for German actress Elizabeth Bergner, whose husband Paul Czinner directed the film. Bergner stars as identical twins Sylvina and Martina, whose mild sibling rivalry intensifies when one of the girls tricks the other's sweetheart Alan McKenzie (Michael Redgrave) into proposing to the wrong twin. While Alan is away on business, his new bride and her sister go off on a yachting expedition. A storm at sea capsizes the vessel, wherupon one of the twins-the unmarried one--is drowned. As the other girl recovers, she finds that everyone assumes that she's actually her lookalike sister. Assuming the dead woman's identity, the surviving girl hopes to resume her pre-marital romance with Alan-only to discover that her sister had been carrying on a clandestine affair. If the plot sounds familiar, it's because A Stolen Life was remade in 1946 with Bette Davis as the sisters and Glenn Ford as the confused husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The oft-filmed life of Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is again cinematized in this elaborate but ponderous British production. Stephen Haggard plays Mozart, the former child prodigy who becomes the fair-haired boy of Austria, only to lose it all and die in poverty before his 40th birthday. The screenplay, by Margaret Kennedy (The Constant Nymph), chooses to sidestep the less-savory aspects of Mozart's life and death, choosing to end on a note of triumph as the composer's The Magic Flute temporarily rescues him from bankruptcy. Conspicuous by his absence is the composer Salieri, whose rivalry with Mozart formed the basis of the 1984 Oscar-winner Amadeus. Completed in the late 1930s, Mozart was released in 1940, as the last non-documentary effort by director Basil Dean (whose wife Victoria Hopper appears as Mrs. Mozart). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Previously filmed in 1928, the sentimental Margaret Kennedy novel The Constant Nymph was sumptuously remade by Gaumont Productions in 1933. Victoria Hopper plays the title character, a Belgian gamine named Tessa. The girl falls hopelessly in love with world-famous composer Lewis Dodd (Brian Aherne), who is so full of himself that he barely acknowledges Tessa's existence. As she looks on in quiet desperation, Dodd marries another woman, his distant cousin Florence (Leonora Corbett). It takes him nearly the entire picture to realize what a fool he's been, and that Tessa was the one girl for him all along -- but alas, it's too late. Constant Nymph was remade by Warner Bros. in 1943, at which time all prints of the 1933 version were supposed to be destroyed; happily, they weren't. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is the first of three film versions of Margaret Kennedy's 1924 novel The Constant Nymph. Mabel Poulton plays the title character, an impressionable young girl named Tessa, who falls in love with brilliant but impoverished composer Lewis Dodd (Ivor Novello). Dodd, however, barely acknowledges Tessa's existence, preferring instead the company of the older, prettier and wealthier Paulina (Dorothy Boyd). Only when it is nearly too late does Dodd realize how much he loves Tessa and how the girl has influenced his finest musical work. The first directorial effort of Basil Dean, The Constant Nymph was adapted for the screen by Alma Reville, the wife of Alfred Hitchcock. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide