Carl Harbord Movies
Carl Harbord was a very busy English actor from the outset of his career, on stage and later in movies, and had the distinction of appearing in one of the earliest dramas ever broadcast by the BBC. Born in Salcombe, Devonshire, England, Harbord began working on stage in the early '20s, and his theatrical appearances included work in The Painted Veil, When Ladies Meet, and The Happy Husband. In 1932, as the BBC began experimental television broadcasts, Harbord starred opposite Isobel Elsom in The Christmas Present, which was one of the very first dramas ever shown on television. Harbord entered motion pictures in 1928 as Lt. Gunther in Bolibar, a historical drama directed by Walter Summers. He easily made the transition to sound and among the early talkies he appeared in was a now-forgotten 1929 British-made version of Liam O'Flaherty's The Informer, directed by Arthur Robinson (and featuring a young Ray Milland in a tiny role). Harbord was busy in British films right up through 1937, although his earlier films tended to be more notable, such as his portrayal of one of the doomed Australian soldiers in Anthony Asquith's 1931 drama Tell England (aka The Battle of Gallipoli). After 1937, Harbord ceased working in British films and his screen career resumed in Hollywood in 1942 with his performance as Blake in the Technicolor action vehicle Captains of the Clouds, starring James Cagney. In middle age in Hollywood, Harbord usually played small but important character roles in good movies, such as Zoltan Korda's Sahara and Roy William Neill's final Sherlock Holmes series entry with Basil Rathbone, Dressed to Kill, in 1946. In 1957, the year before his death, Harbord appeared on Broadway in Hide and Seek, an atomic-age drama that also starred Rathbone and Barry Morse. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1949
Producer Hal Wallis evidently hoped to recapture the magic of his earlier Casablanca with 1949's Rope of Sand. To that end, he hired three of Casablanca's supporting players: Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, and Peter Lorre. This time, Henreid is the villain, a sadistic police inspector named Paul Vogel. Stationed somewhere in Africa, Vogel hopes to find a legendary lost diamond field. His principal rival in this endeavor is jewel thief Mike Davis (Burt Lancaster), who continues bouncing back from every death trap lain for him by the ill-tempered Vogel. The scenes in which Davis is subjected to various physical tortures is pretty raw for a 1940s film. Claude Rains co-stars as a diamond syndicate head misleadingly named Toady, while Peter Lorre does his shifty-mercenary act. Billed ninth as the nominal heroine is Hal Wallis' latest discovery, French actress/singer Corinne Calvet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Paul Henreid, (more)
- 1947
This episodic holiday film centers around a rich spinster aunt whose greedy nephew is attempting legal action to take her estate. Before he makes a final decision, a caring judge tells the spinster that she can rally together the three foster children she raised to help her keep the estate, he will delay the nephew's action. Now she must find her three grown boys who have gone in wildly different directions. One is a boozy cowboy involved in a baby racket, another is a deadbeat deeply indebted to the nephew, and the other is a successful owner of a South American cafe on the lam for a con-job he didn't commit. She endures and adventurous journey, but the three do manage to come together on Christmas Eve, save the estate, and give the conniving nephew his due. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, George Brent, (more)
- 1947
When a man dies under suspicious circumstances, the law must decide if it was murder or an accident. Francis Macomber (Robert Preston) is a wealthy, carefree gentleman who hires Robert Wilson (Gregory Peck), an expert hunter, as his guide when he sets off on a safari in Kenya. Francis' wife Margaret (Joan Bennett) regards her husband as a fool and a coward, and before long, she develops a strong attraction to Robert -- which she does not bother to keep secret. However, Robert informs her that as a matter of personal ethics, he would not consider becoming involved with her. After several weeks on the African savannah, Francis feels himself changing; he's developed a new bravery and sense of confidence, and as a test of himself, he one day stands in the path of a charging buffalo as he prepares to shoot. However, shots ring out from behind him, and Francis falls dead. Margaret insists that she was trying to kill the animal before it could trample Francis and missed, but given her well-documented contempt for her husband, the widow finds herself on trial for murder. The Macomber Affair was based on the short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" by Ernest Hemingway, though director Zoltan Korda found it necessary to rework the material (with the input of the featured cast) in order to appease the industry censors of the day. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1947
A Woman's Vengeance concerns a "likely" murderer, Henry Maurier, played by Charles Boyer. It is no secret that Maurier is enamored with young Doris (Ann Blyth), but is his love for the girl motive enough for Maurier to murder his invalid wife? Only family friend Dr. Libbard (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) believes in Maurier, and it is Libbard who eventually extracts a confession from the real killer -- just seconds before Maurier is to be executed. Without giving the game away, we'll note that the supporting cast includes Jessica Tandy, Mildred Natwick, and John Williams (Rachel Kempson couldn't have played the murderer, inasmuch as she's the victim). A Woman's Vengeance was adapted by Aldous Huxley (the same) from his own story The Gioconda Smile. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Ann Blyth, (more)
Based on the prolific Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries, Sherlock Holmes is on the job again. This time the inmate of a British prison has incorporated stolen Bank of England engraving plates into a series of music boxes he has made and multiple criminals are out to find them. Holmes must be first. It's a weak, thin plot for the final of the Holmes/Watson series but it is still a joy to see Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce working off one another. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, (more)
Humphrey Bogart considered this World War II action epic from director Zoltan Korda one of his finest films. Sergeant Joe Gunn (Bogart) is the commander of an American M-3 tank crew allied to the British Eighth Army, which is defeated by the Germans at Tobruk. Joining the scattered retreat across the Libyan desert, Gunn and his two remaining men, Jimmy Doyle (Dan Duryea) and Waco Hoyt (Bruce Bennett) search for water. Instead the tank crew finds an international mix of stragglers, including an officer doctor (Richard Nugent) with several soldiers and a British Sudanese sergeant, Tambul (Rex Ingram), with his Italian prisoner of war (J. Carrol Naish). The rag-tag column shoots down an attacking plane and takes its German pilot (Kurt Kreuger) as a second captive, although a soldier, Fred Clarkson (Lloyd Bridges) is killed in the fighting. After one well turns out to be dry, the troupe finally reaches an abandoned mosque with a well that provides a trickle of water. Two more prisoners are taken while scouting the area and reveal that an entire German battalion is en route to the same well. Gunn misleads them into believing that there is plenty of water to go around, sets them free to report back to their superiors, and then persuades his fellow Allies to help him fight the enemy force that's en route, even though they are staggeringly outnumbered. A betrayal, an escaped prisoner, and bloody skirmishes follow in short order as Hoyt goes in search of help while Gunn and his compatriots attempt to crush the German battalion. Sahara (1943) inspired several subsequent action films, most notably Last of the Comanches (1952), and was remade as a 1995 cable television movie. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, (more)
- 1942
In this thriller set in WW II London during the bombing raids, a surgeon becomes a homicidal maniac during the frequent blackouts. Using his hypodermic needle, he only kills the people he believes are enemies to the Allies. Unfortunately, there is no real proof that the people he has offed are enemies. In the end, the police discover that several years earlier, he killed his wife. The trial is held in a basement courthouse during an air raid. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Abbott, Mary McLeod, (more)
James Cagney made his first Technicolor appearance in the morale-boosting aviation flick Captains of the Clouds. Cagney plays Brian MacLean, a hotshot Canadian bush pilot who delights in stealing jobs-and women-away from his competitors. Brian is forced to shape up in a hurry when he's assigned to train other pilots for the Royal Canadian Air Force. At the ending of the training period, he is given his first real RCAF assignment: The seemingly unimportant task of shepherding American bomber planes across the Atlantic to England. With startling suddenness, Brian comes to realize the true importance of his job when he is forced into a deadly confrontation with a fleet of Nazi raider planes. Real-life Canadian WW1 flying ace Billy Bishop plays a small but pivotal role in Captains of the Clouds, while the leading-lady duties were handled by Warner Bros. stock actress Brenda Marshall (aka Mrs. William Holden). Cinematographer Sol Polito earned an Oscar nomination for his vivid color photography, though aerial photographers Elmer Dyer, Charles Marshall and Winston Hoch were certainly just as deserving. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, (more)
- 1942
With America's Air Force not completely mobilized in mid-1942, Universal paid tribute to those foresighted Yankee flyboys who joined England's Royal Air Force before America's entry into WW2 in Eagle Squadron. Robert Stack stars as Chuck Brewer, one of several US flyers participating in RAF bombing raids of Germany. The film stresses the importance of hands-across-the-sea teamwork in this massive undertaking, concluding with Brewer leading his British compatriots on a Commando raid behind enemy lines, the better to capture a revolutionary new Nazi war plane. Every so often, the story slows to a walk as Brewer romances British lass Anne Partridge, played by the unfortunate Diana Barrymore in her last truly important screen role. Producer Walter Wanger made special arrangements with the British government to incorporate several exciting shots of authentic air battles in the film's 108 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Stack, Diana Barrymore, (more)
- 1937
In this courtroom drama a barrister's wife is tried for her husband's murder. To save the innocent woman, her husband's partner must confess. He does so. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
When 2 people plan to meet on a cruise, they send substitutes who end up falling in love with each other in this comedy. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1935
World-renowned operatic tenor Richard Tauber not only starred in Heart's Desire, but also wrote most of the songs. Tauber is cast as Joseph Steidler, a popular but relatively unknown Vienesse beer-garden singer. Discovered by a show-biz entrepreneur, Steidler is suddenly catapulted to fame and fortune. Alas, in the process he loses his sweetheart Anna (Kathleen Kelly) tossing her aside in favor of glamorous socialite Frances (Leona Wilson). By the time Steidler learns that he's out of his depth in High Society, it's almost too late. Filmed in 1935, Heart's Desire made it to American shores in 1937. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Tauber, Leonora Corbett, (more)
- 1935
Ratoff is a lion tamer who hears that a rival of his has died by a lioness. Ratoff adopts the daughter of the deceased man, and he buys the lioness that killed him. As time goes on, he becomes increasingly jealous of the men who pay attention to the girl, who has grown into a beautiful woman. As his fame at the circus is being surpassed, he demands the woman marry him. She becomes involved with the very one surpassing his fame, however, and this pushes Ratoff too far. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Ratoff, John Loder, (more)
This film from director Harold Young is the second big-screen adaptation of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. Leslie Howard stars as Sir Percy Blakeney, a British aristocrat who rescues innocent victims of the French Revolution under the guise of The Scarlet Pimpernel while maintaining the identity of a foppish dandy by day. Even his wife, Lady Marguerite Blakeney (Merle Oberon), is unaware of Percy's heroic alter-ego as he and his band of likeminded masked men save countless people from the guillotine. Perhaps the most famous adaptation of the classic book, The Scarlet Pimpernel would later be lampooned in 1966's Don't Lose Your Head. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, (more)
- 1933
In this romantic comedy, a 30-year-old spinster dreams of finding a man, but finds it difficult living with her older sister. Another of her big sisters passes on and leaves her a generous inheritance which she can only collect if she leaves her other sister's home for six months. The girl does this, and when others learn of her financial worth, she finds herself surrounded by suitors. Unsettled by all this attention, the girl decides to protect herself by claiming that she is engaged to a handsome lawyer. In the end the two actually do get married and prosperous happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
An early -- and surprisingly forgotten -- entry in the field of the feminist cinema, Strictly Business was written and co-directed by former Hollywood leading lady Jacqueline Logan (she played Mary Magdalene in DeMille's King of Kings). A very young Molly Lamont stars as a London pushcart girl, forced to sell her wares in the streets by her layabout father. Lamont proves her loyalty to her dad by saving him from a blackmailer, but in the process her reputation as a "nice girl" is placed in doubt. Disowned by her father, Lamont is saved from disgrace by her fiance, even though she seems (and is) perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Alas, Strictly Business was a box-office flop, though this can't be blamed on the incisive direction of Jacqueline Logan and Mary Field. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Molly Lamont, Carl Harbord, (more)
- 1932
Based upon a thrice-filmed book by Sir Compton Mackenzie, Dance Pretty Lady is a romantic drama set in the Edwardian era. Jenny (Ann Casson) is a young Cockney lass who, despite her humble origins, is pursuing a career as a ballerina. Jenny meets Maurice (Carl Harbord), a young bohemian artist for whom money is no problem. She finds him attractive and falls in love with him. Maurice, for his part, is quite taken with her. However, he does not support the concept of marriage, and so asks her to be his mistress rather than his wife. Despite her love for him, Jenny wants no part of such an arrangement. Maurice eventually gives in and agrees to marry her, but Jenny does not want believe in his sincerity, and so the two part. After Maurice has left for the continent, Jenny realizes how much she desperately loves him and becomes extremely unhappy. Waiting for him to return, she pines away and grows disconsolate, at length believing that he has surely become involved with someone else. Despondent, she somehow falls into a relationship with Jack Danby, a friend of Maurice's, but is then filled with remorse. When Maurice finally returns, he learns of what is happened; initially upset, he then realizes that Jenny behaved this way because of her feelings for him and the way he treated her, and he makes a genuine offer of marriage to her. Dance marked the feature film debut of a young Hermione Gingold in a small role. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- 1931
The marriage between Larry and Vera Maitland (Carl Harbourd and Dorothy Bartlam) may be over before it begins when Larry falls for glamorous actress Gwenda Farrell (Madeleine Carroll). Rather than storm out of the house in high dudgeon, Vera opts for a more civilized approach. She visits Gwenda in her dressing room, whereupon the two ladies talk over their mutual attraction for Larry. Vera and Gwenda become close buddies, obliging the sheepish Larry to return to his wife. The "money scene" in Fascination shows the two heroines kissing and making up, which tended to make audiences in 1931 a tad uncomfortable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Carroll, Dorothy Bartlam, (more)
- 1931
While Peter Weir's 1980 filmizaton of Ernest Raymond's novel Gallipoli can be considered the definitive version, writer/director Anthony Asquith's 1931 adaptation Battle of Gallipoli (alternate title: Tell England) is a powerful piece of moviemaking in its own right. Carl Harbord and Tony Bruce play two naïve young Australians--one rich, one poor--who are filled with patriotic fervor when World War I breaks out. They make a grueling cross-country trek in order to join the already conscripted troops. Once on the battlefields of Europe however, the boys are confronted with Hell on Earth. Their disillusionment with war and warfare culminates in the death of one of the boys at Gallipoli. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fay Compton, Carl Harbord, (more)
- 1930
The Hate Ship starts out as a fancy yacht, presided over by wealthy scoundrel Vernon Wolfe (Jameson Thomas). On board the yacht is financier Wardell (Carl Harbord), whom Wolfe hopes to sucker into a phony oil-well promotion. Wolfe's partner in crime is Count Ivanoff (Henry Victor), who spends most of his time putting the moves on Sylvia (Jean Colin), daughter of the financially embarrassed Colonel Paget (Ivo Dawson). Though Wolfe tries to be a convivial host, the air is thick with tension, due to the fact that the Count's father previously died on the yacht under mysterious circumstances. Things get even more dicey when Wardell is shot and killed by one of the guests, leading to a series of accusations, recriminations and sudden tragedies. Featured in the cast as a disgraced nobleman-turned-valet is Claude Rains, some four years before his "official" film debut in The Invisible Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jameson Thomas, Jean Colin, (more)
- 1930
A mother attempts to give her troubled daughter some sage advice in order to save her marriage in this domestic drama that was originally filmed as a silent and later had dialogue added to it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1929
This costume drama is set in the midst of a European war during the early 1800s and follows the exploits of a young woman who is forced to marry the wicked man who is threatening to make her father pay a major debt. One day, she meets a wounded fugitive, an American prisoner who was injured while escaping from his French captors. She helps him recover, and by the war's end he is well, they have fallen in love with each other and flee together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carl Brisson, Madeleine Carroll, (more)
- 1929
In this drama, an impoverished Irishman decides to turn an IRA colleague into the cops to receive a desperately needed reward that will allow him to escape to America with his mistress. Unfortunately his plans go awry and the young man is filled with guilt by his friends who once held his high ideals. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1928
Leo Pertuz' novel The Marquise of Bolibar was the starting point for this British silent film. The story is set during the 1808 military contretemps between England and Spain. Elissa Landi plays the daughter of an artist who leads a double life as a Spanish espionage agent. Inadvertently, Landi provides the British with the wherewithal to emerge triumphant. Curiously, Bolibar does not show up on any of the official resumes of Austro-Italian film star Elissa Landi-unless, of course, the film was also released as Underground. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerrold Robertshaw, Hubert Carter, (more)
