Basil Gill Movies

After befriending talented dancer and pickpocket Libby (Vivien Leigh), street performer Charles (Charles Saggers) strikes up a partnership with the gifted young performer and invites Libby to join his act. With Libby's graceful moves steadily drawing an audience to Charles' dramatic act, the performers soon catch the eye of theater magnate Harley (Rex Harrison), who is so mesmerized by the performance that he invites Libby and her fellow performers to a post-play party. When Libby arrives at the party alone, her career rapidly ascends, as Charles and the rest of the performers remain behind to toil amongst the famished masses. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat star in this gripping melodrama about the Russian revolution, based on the novel by James Hilton. Donat plays A.J. Fothergill, a British interpreter in St. Petersburg who is ordered to leave Russia after writing an article that criticized the czar. Fothergill meets a British secret agent who can arrange for him to stay in Russia if he will agree to spy for England and monitor revolutionary groups trying to depose the czar. Fothergill infiltrates a group planning to kill Russian nobleman Vladinoff (Herbert Lomas); the radicals bomb Vladinoff's coach, but he and his daughter, Alexandra (Marlene Dietrich) escape unharmed. Fothergill is arrested and sent to Siberia. When the monarchy is deposed during the Russian Revolution in 1917, Alexandra is arrested by Communist forces and put on trial. Fothergill is freed from prison with his friend Axelstein (Basil Gill), and they are now revolutionary heroes. Alexandra must go to Petrograd to face trial and Fothergill is chosen to escort her. When they reach the train station, Fothergill discovers the White Army (fighting to restore the czar) is coming. He leads Alexandra to safety behind the White Army lines, but the Red Army has surrounded the city and Fothergill, smitten with Alexandra, rescues her again before the city is shelled. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Lightning steadfastly refused to strike twice for the director/actor team of Alexander Korda and Charles Laughton. Though the pair had scored an international success with the 1933 quasi-biopic The Private Life of Henry VIII, they couldn't make the magic happen again with 1936's Rembrandt. Laughton's performance is solid throughout, and Korda's recreation of Rembrandt's Holland is meticulous, but the film suffers from a lack of overall dramatic tension. Except for his artistic achievements and the deaths of his two wives, nothing really "happens" to Rembrandt--at least nothing as colorful as the escapades of Henry VIII. The best element of the film is the successful effort by cinematographer Georges Perinal to recreate the famous "Rembrandt lighting" effect in each scene. Laughton is given fine support by Elsa Lanchester (his real-life wife), and by legendary stage star Gertrude Lawrence in a rare film role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, a prisoner must break out in time to keep his wife, who has involved herself with a creepy gang, from selling their son to a rich family who has just lost their own child. He succeeds, but then must find his son and the new family. He locates them aboard their yacht. There he begins to realize that the boy is far better off with them and he returns to prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Martha Eggerth heads the cast of Casta Diva, but the central character is famed Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, here played by American actor Phillips Holmes. Paying but scant attention the facts, the film concentrates on Bellini's colorful love life. Evidently the film went through several rewriting processes, as witness the curious performances of Donald Calthrop and Arthur Margetson, whose characters do complete about-faces halfway through the story. Amidst so many British accents, Martha Eggerth's Polish intonations seem out of place, but she photographs beautifully and sings quite well. Casta Diva was attractively filmed on location in Naples. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

His Hollywood career a thing of the past, director Herbert Brenon returned to his native England in 1934, where he continued making films until his retirement in 1940. Brenon's first project upon his arrival in London was the feature-length documentary Royal Cavalcade. Covering a 25-year period, the film is an encapsulation of the comings and goings of the British empire since the 1910 coronation of King George V. The highlights, drawn from the newsreel files of several English and European archives, include Captain Scott's arrival at the South Pole (and the tragic aftermath), the First World War, the Roaring 20s, and the Depression. Of special interest to show-biz buffs is the footage of the first Royal Command Performance at the Palace in 1911, featuring such matchless performers as Anna Pavlova and George Robey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in the Yiddish language, The Wandering Jew features Jacob Ben-Ami as a young Jewish artist living in Germany in the early 1930s. As the Nazis gain in influence, the artist's life and livelihood are slowly eroded: his non-Jewish fiancee leaves him and his paintings are rejected by the Academy of Art. Growing to despise his heritage, the artist prepares to destroy his latest painting, a portrait of his father titled The Eternal Jew. Suddenly the figure in the portrait comes to life, and as the astonished artist listens in rapt attention, the figure relates the history of Jewish perseverance in the face of such horrors as the Spanish Inquisition and the Russian pogroms. Inspired, the artist vows to devote his life to the anti-Nazi cause. The Wandering Jew is a remarkable film for its era, so far and yet so near to the "Final Solution." In retrospect, the film's most poignant moments occur when the hero's father describes the comparatively benign treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. The filmmakers weren't in possession of all the facts in 1933--nor was the rest of the world, for that matter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a charming elderly gentleman, a former famous thespian, still finds himself a ladies man. Unfortunately, he is disturbed to discover that his latest conquest is engaged to his son. When the woman's father learns of this he angrily confronts the old actor who then must concoct an elaborate plan to get rid of her without letting her know that he is her betrothed's father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Dr. Bruce Smith (Basil Gill) refuses to violate his Hippocratic oath of secrecy by testifying in a divorce case. This earns him widespread public approval but ends up boomeranging on him when he learns that his son Roger's (Maurice Evans) fiancee Joan (Norah Murray) is pregnant with another man's baby. Since the girl revealed this information in the confidence of Dr. Smith's office, he is honor-bound not to tell anyone -- even if it may damage his son's future happiness. Ultimately, the girl solves the doctor's problem by revealing the truth herself. Should A Doctor Tell? is a curious cinematic contribution from Edgar Wallace, an author most closely associated with pulpish melodramas and mysteries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced and directed by Walter West, this British silent melodrama starred one of England's favorite screen actresses, Violet Hopson, as Margaret Carson, whose husband (James Lindsay) is mistreating her. She finds comfort with handsome Sir Felix Faber (Basil Gill) but refuses to leave her husband until it's too late. When she finally admits defeat, Sir Felix has married someone else. Violet Hopson later became her own producer, filming at Kew Bridge, England. She was reduced to bit parts in talkies. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide