Peter Penrose Movies
- 1935
Hay Petrie ingests the scenery as the demonic, hunchbacked Mr. Quilp in this 1935 British adaptation of Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop. Quilp is the wicked landlord who dominates and later ruins the lives of shopkeeper Trent (Ben Webster) and his resourceful granddaughter Little Nell (Elaine Benson). The death of the heroine, which created quite a brouhaha when the book was first published, is here handled with discretion and taste. Scenarists Margaret Kennedy and Ralph Neale successfully tackle the challenge of whittling Dickens' massive novel into a playable 90 minutes. The Old Curiosity Shop would be remade three times, once as a musical with Anthony Newley as Quilp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Webster, Elaine Benson, (more)
- 1934
The venerable Warwick Deeping story Sorrell and Son was dusted off again for this 1934 screen incarnation. Repeating his role from the 1927 film version, H.B. Warner plays Captain Stephen Sorrell, a WW I hero reduced to scrubbing floors in a hotel. This he does for the sake of his beloved son Kit (Hugh Williams), who thanks to his father's sacrifices becomes a successful surgeon. The film's emotional undercurrents boil over in the climax, when Kit must decide whether or not to put his father out of his misery when the old man is stricken with a fatal disease. The most memorable characterization is delivered by Wally Patch as a sadistic bellboy, whose bullying of Sorrell senior literally makes the flesh creep. Featured in a minor role is Louis Hayward, just before embarking upon his Hollywood career. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- H.B. Warner, Peter Penrose, (more)
- 1934
A man's love for his wife overcomes his hatred for the family that brought her up in this period romantic adventure. Jan Ridd (John Loder) is a farmer in 17th Century England who has sworn to take revenge upon the Doones, an outlaw family who have laid waste to much of the property in his part of the country and were responsible for the death of Ridd's father. Ridd meets a woman named Lorna (Victoria Hopper), and in time they fall in love and marry. However, Ridd learns that Lorna was kidnapped by the Doones as a child and raised among them; she is eventually taken into custody by the Court of St. James in hopes of reforming her from the influence of her delinquent "family," and Ridd must fight to free the woman he loves. This was the second screen adaptation of the novel by R.D. Blackmore, and the first in the sound era; two more films based on Lorna Doone would follow, in 1951 and 1990. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Hopper, John Loder, (more)
