Finlay Currie Movies
Scottish actor Finlay Currie's pre-theatrical occupations included choirmaster and organist. He entered show business at the turn of the century as a musical performer, billed as "Harry Calvo, the double-voiced vocalist." For ten years, Currie toured Australia as principal comedian in Sir Benjamin Fuller's acting troupe. He returned to the London stage in 1930, where over the next three decades he would appear in such hits as The Last Mile and Death of a Salesman. In films from 1932, Currie's most memorable screen role was as the surly convict Magwitch in Great Expectations (1946). He spent much of the early 1950s in Hollywood, playing such forceful character roles as St. Peter in Quo Vadis (1951) and the mysterious Mr. Shunderson in People Will Talk (1951). Still in harness into the mid-1960s, Finlay Currie was at one juncture the oldest working actor in Great Britain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1934
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
- Starring:
- Matheson Lang, Nova Pilbeam, (more)
- 1933
Rome Express is a fast-moving British imitation of Hollywood's Grand Hotel formula. The film concentrates on the various passengers of a European express train. On this particular run, the train is a veritable hotbed of intrigue, with crooks and blackmail victims seemingly in every coach. Among the naughty and nice characters are continental favorites Conrad Veidt, Cedric Hardwicke and Finlay Currie, as well as American silent film star Esther Ralston. Rome Express enabled director Walter Forde to graduate from inexpensive regional comedies to prestige British productions. The film was also an obvious inspiration for such later intrigue-on-the-rails epics as The Lady Vanishes (38) and Night Train (39). Rome Express was remade in 1948 as Sleeping Car to Trieste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt, Esther Ralston, (more)
- 1933
Based on a novel by J. B. Priestley, this British musical-comedy follows an unlikely trio as they try to revive the fortunes of a floundering touring theatrical troupe. Inigo Jolifant (John Gielgud) is a schoolteacher with a talent for songwriting, and Jess Oakroyd (Edmund Gwenn) is a man with theatrical ambitions who has just lot his job. Together, they persuade Miss Trant (Mary Glynne), an older single woman looking for adventure, to back them as they try to bring "The Dinky Do's" back into the spotlight. Susie Dean (Jessie Matthews) is a chorus girl who dreams of stardom, and when she's made the new leader of the show, it looks as if her dreams may finally become a reality. The Good Companions is buoyed by the superb singing and dancing talents of Matthews, who was considered one of the screen's greatest musical stars in England and Europe, though she inexplicably never achieved the same fame in the United States; Gielgud also got a rare opportunity to display his vocal abilities in this film. Keep your eyes peeled for Jack Hawkins and horror film great George Zucco, who both appear in supporting roles. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessie Matthews, Edmund Gwenn, (more)
- 1933
In this British comedy, a ghost hunter believing he accidentally shot his boss, stuffs the body into a steamer trunk and races to the river where he will dispose of the body. Unfortunately before he can, the trunk gets mixed up with an exact duplicate. The one containing the body is taken by a woman who takes him into the supposedly haunted house where she stays. Meanwhile, deep within the trunk, the boss is waking up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
The Criminal at Large in this quota quickie murders his victims in the dark of night. There seems to be a pattern to the killer's activities, but darned if Chief Inspector Tanner (Norman McKinnel) can figure it out. It looks as though dilettante sleuth Lord Lebanon (Emlyn Williams) will have to come to Scotland Yard's rescue, as the killer stalks his prey in a musty old castle. Criminal at Large was based on Edgar Wallace's stage play The Frightened Lady (which was also the film's alternate title). Wallace also worked on the screenplay -- one of his final assignments before his untimely death in 1933. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emlyn Williams, Cathleen Nesbitt, (more)
- 1932
Based on a stage play by Edgar Wallace, The Old Man is nowhere near as benign as its title. The eponymous character is a mysterious, never-seen criminal mastermind, who specializes in bumping off other criminals. Scotland Yard traces the Old Man to a rustic inn, where the villain could be anybody -- even one of the female guests! When a blackmailer preying upon Lady Arranways (Anne Grey) is murdered, everyone is placed under suspicion, but eventually the Old Man tips his hand and meets a grim demise. Oddly enough, it isn't the Law who brings the Old Man to justice, but comic-relief servant Mrs. Harris, played by the inimitable cockney comedienne Maisie Gay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cecil Humphreys
