Victor Weske Movies
- 1948
The oft-used title Night Beat was applied to the 1948 British melodrama. After serving as commandoes in WW2, Felix (Maxwell Reed) and Andy (Ronald Howard) follow widely divergent paths in peacetime. Andy joins the London police, while Felix falls in with the Black Market. As a result, their friendship and fidelity is sorely tested. The women in the case include Andy's fretting wife Julie (Anne Crawford) and sultry nightclub chanteuse Jackie (Christine Norden). Though its starts out strong, Night Beat metamorphoses into standard melodramatics towards the end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Crawford, Maxwell Reed, (more)
- 1946
In this detective drama, Scotland Yard enlists the aide of Paul Temple, novelist and amateur sleuth, to help them solve a puzzling murder committed by diamond thieves. Temple is assisted by a woman reporter. It was her brother who was killed; together they catch the gang leader who turns out to be the person they least expected. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1945
That daring pulp-novel detective Sexton Blake is back again in The Echo Murders. David Farrar stars as Blake, a Sherlock Holmes wannabe who takes on a gang of Nazi spies. While solving a series of baffling murders, Blake is captured and beaten by the bad guys, but emerges from his ordeal none the worse for wear and with hardly a crease in his trousers. In one scene, our hero uses acid to burn off the ropes that bind his hands, miraculously doing no harm whatsoever to his wrists. Of interest is the presence in the cast of future British leading man Dennis Price, who like David Farrar seems to be grateful to have the work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Farrar, Dennis Price, (more)
- 1945
Leo Martin (William Hartnell) is a low-level member of a smash-and-grab gang run by shady dance-club owner Loman (Raymond Lovell), who is cajoled into a risky job on a major jewelry store. When the robbery goes wrong, and Martin is caught (and his wrists broken), the hood keeps silent and does his stretch in prison -- all along, he nurses a grudge against Loman and his driver Hatchett (Victor Weske) for running out on him. And that grudge grows to full-blown, murderous vengeance when Loman blows off the newly-released Martin as no use to the gang (as his hands aren't what they used to be). Now Martin plans to get even by squeezing Loman dry of everything he has, starting with his peace-of-mind -- he implicates the club owner in a murder, while planning a seemingly perfect alibi for himself, and also manages to latch on to the ring-leader that Loman is fronting for, "respectable" art dealer Gregory Lang (Herbert Lom). Lang has a knack for tying up loose ends -- including Loman -- and thinks he can handle a low-level spiv like Martin, but he doesn't reckon with the latter's rage, deviousness, or resourcefulness. Martin's planning gets him past all of the obstacles in his way, even -- so it seems -- the plodding efforts of Inspector Rogers (Robert Beatty), still investigating the killing that put Martin's plan into operation. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Hartnell, Raymond Lovell, (more)
- 1944
In this drama, an amnesiac gardener, who lost his memory after he was buried alive during WW I, works for a wealthy man whose son is about to marry an actress. When he is accused of stealing, the honest gardener becomes so upset that his memory returns. He then remembers that he is a wealthy military officer. He also realizes that the actress is none other than his own daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1943
Will Hay, he of the pince-nez, outraged sniff, and overall demeanor of dignified incompetence, stars in (and codirects) another of his popular British comedies. In My Learned Friend, Hay is a seedy lawyer, one of several people targeted for death by a vengeful escaped convict. As the criminal's victims pile up, Hay can't help but feel a bit insecure. When he ends up the only survivor on the list, Hay begins to really worry. A slapstick climax on the clock-face of Big Ben caps this rapid-fire comedy of murders. Released in 1943, My Learned Friend was Will Hay's final film; he died of a lingering illness in 1949. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Hay, Claude Hulbert, (more)
- 1943
The Bells Go Down is a dramatization of London firefighting efforts during the 1940 Blitz. In structure, the film is very much like any other smoke-eating melodrama, with perhaps more emphasis on comedy than usual. The omnipresence of the Luftwaffe gives the film an urgency that others in its genre tend to lack. Making it all the more remarkable is the fact that most British studios were just as vulnerable as London's burned-down landmarks--a fact not lost on the actors, who perform with heightened credibility. Many of the better composed shots in The Bells Go Down would find their way into TV documentaries of the 1950s and 1960s as "reality" footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Trinder, James Mason, (more)
- 1943
Tartu--or more formally, The Adventures of Tartu--stars Robert Donat as a Rumanian-born British spy, dispatched to Czechoslovakia during World War II. Posing as an ineffectual milquetoast, Donat is hired as a chemist in a Nazi-controlled poison gas factory. Working in concert with the Underground, our hero spends his off-hours dismantling the Nazi operation. Then he has to figure a way to get out of Czechoslovakia as adroitly as he got in. Adventures of Tartu was filmed at MGM's British studios (it was Metro's first British production in two years), with an American director but with a full cadre of English acting talent: Donat, Valerie Hobson, Glynis Johns, etc. The Teutonic villain is played by Walter Rilla, whose son Wolf Rilla later became a prominent British director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Donat, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1942
Despite its fervently flag-waving title, the British Salute John Citizen is a simple, low-pressure study of the wartime "home front." Edward Rigby plays Mr. Bunting, an out-of-work clerk who is rehired during the manpower shortage of World War II. Bunting's son Ernest (Jimmy Hanley) is determined to stay out of the line of fire, but changes his mind after witnessing the horrors of the London Blitz. In its own quiet, unassuming war, Salute John Citizen paints a truer portrait of a proud populace besieged by war than the more celebrated Mrs. Miniver. The film was based on a brace of novels by Robert Greenwood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Rigby, Mabel Constanduros, (more)
- 1942
The phrase "Loose Lips Sink Ships" takes on a new and special meaning in the cautionary British war drama Next of Kin. In grade-school-primer fashion, the film shows how careless talk can have a devastating and tragic effect in times of war, sometimes boomeranging on the "talker" in the form of lost loved ones. Extra attention is paid the gossipy "Ma" Webster (Mary Clare), whose casual revelation of troop movements, culled from a recent visit by her son, has long-ranging, fatal consequences. American critics, unmoved by the melodramatic breast-beating of Next of Kin, suggested that the film might cause viewers to swear off moviemaking rather than talking. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Basil Sydney, Frederick Leister, (more)
- 1942
Future action-film expert Basil Dearden cut his directorial teeth on The Goose Steps Out, a wartime espionage comedy. The star (and co-director) is Will Hay, a major British comedian of the era whose stock in trade was playing pompous, inefficient schoolmasters. This time Hay and his confederates cross the path of a gang of Nazi spies, operating covertly in London. Using his wits (such as they are), Hay collars the Nazis and preserves the Empire. The popularity of Will Hay did not extend to American audiences, who couldn't see anything funny in such a pathetic character, but The Goose Steps Out was a big moneyspinner in Britain. The film also served as the screen debut of 20-year-old Peter Ustinov. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Released in the US as Forty-Eight Hours, Went the Day Well? is a solidly constructed wartime melodrama. Actually, the film covers 72 hours in the life of the small British village of Bramley Green, which serves as the focal point for an attempted German invasion. Immediately upon parachuting in the community, vicious Nazi officer Ortier (Basil Sydney) makes contact with local Fifth Columnist Oliver Wileford (Leslie Banks), using the film's British title as their password. Fortunately, Democracy is preserved when postmistress-telephone operator Mrs. Collins (Muriel George), picking up on a simple clue inadvertently left behind by the well-disguised Germans, alerts her neighbors of impending danger. The British home guardsmen and German soldiers seen in the film were drawn from the ranks of of the real-life Gloucestershire Regiment, who volunteered their services for this patriotic morale-booster. The episode screenplay of Went the Day Well (based on Graham Greene story) was unified by the direct-to-camera narration of the town gravedigger, a device deftly borrowed from Our Town. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Banks, Basil Sydney, (more)
- 1942
Tower of Terror is set in a lonely lighthouse on a tiny German-controlled island. Demented lighthouse keeper Kristan (Wilfred Lawson) is terrified that someday, somehow, the world will know that he murdered his wife 16 years earlier. Though he openly discourages visitors, Kristan is forced to play host for an odd assortment of strangers: A British secret agent (Michael Rennie),a German naval officer (John Longden) and a beautiful concentration-camp escapee (Movita). The latter so closely resembles Kristan's late wife that the old man goes completely round the bend, ordering the poor girl to dress in his wife's clothes and ultimately attempting to do her in as well. This juicy slice of Grand Guignol was produced in England by Pathe in 1941 and released in the US by Monogram the following year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wilfred Lawson, Movita, (more)
- 1942
Also known as The Avengers, the British The Day Will Dawn is set in Norway at the outbreak of WW2. British foreign correspondent Lockwood (Ralph Richardson), forced out of Norway by the Nazi invasion, returns to the occupied Scandanavian country at the request of the War Office. Lockwood's assignment is to guide the RAF to a heavily camouflaged German U-boat base for sabotage purposes. With the help of patriotic Norwegian seaman Alstad (Finlay Currie), Lockwood completes his mission, only to be arrested as a spy and sentenced to be shot. The final portions of the film detail our hero's attempt to escape back to England with Alstad's daughter Kari (Deborah Kerr), with whom he has fallen in love. The intricately crafted screenplay is attributed to three of Britain's finest scriveners, Terence Rattigan, Anatole de Grunewald and Patrick Kirwen-and one suspects that there were even more talented hands involved in this thrill-packed wartime adevnture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, (more)
- 1942
Let the People Sing is an offshoot of J. B. Priestly's earlier show business-based fable The Good Companions. In Companions, a trio of mismatched dogooders save a musical troupe from ruin. In Let the People Sing, Alastair Sim is a besotted nobleman who comes to the aid of indigent comedian Fred Emney. Through Sim's intervention, the planned closing of a local music hall is prevented. Even if Sim hadn't let the people sing, as the title implores, they probably would have done so anyway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Fred Emney, (more)
- 1941
In this drama, an amiable steel worker suddenly changes when he becomes a foreman. Suddenly Mr. Nice Guy becomes Mr. Hard Nose and he mercilessly pushes his men to work harder and faster. His callous attitude comes home with him and his wife, too suffers. Trouble ensues when the foreman pushes the men so hard that a man dies. The other workers revolt, and at home, his wife leaves. The foreman turns to his friend, a preacher, for guidance and begins to see where he went wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1940
In this patriotic drama, the courage of a German pastor is presented as he makes a public stand against Nazi philosophies and actions. Unfortunately, the outspoken fellow is sent to a concentration camp where he is beaten and tortured. Still he manages to escape and give one final sermon to his congregation before he is gunned down. The story is based on an actual event. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wilfred Lawson, Nova Pilbeam, (more)
- 1937
In this British comedy, a middle-aged fellow set in his ways marries a sweet young thing. After the wedding, he is surprised to discover that she is not willing to give in to his desire that she take the "second best bed." Later he begins flirting with another while his wife heads for Monte Carlo with her pals. In the end, the two reconcile and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1934
Its title inspired by Albert Chevalier's world-famous music-hall ballad, My Old Dutch is a treacly tale of mother love. Marrying against her wealthy father's wishes, young Betty Balfour is left a widow when her husband is killed in WW I. Doing her best to raise her baby by herself, Balfour is challenged by her own father, who wishes to gain custody of the child and raise him in a "proper atmosphere." All sorts of misfortunes are heaped upon the hapless heroine before the tear-stained climax. The screenplay for My Old Dutch was put together by two "second generation" screenwriters, Leslie Arliss (son of George) and Bryan Wallace (son of Edgar). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Balfour, Gordon Harker, (more)
