Valerie Hobson Movies
British actress Valerie Hobson had barely begun her studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts when, at 16, she was discovered for the movies. In 1934, Hobson was signed to a Hollywood contract by Universal pictures, where for a frustrating 12 months she served as a Fay Wray substitute in roles calling for wide-eyed terror and little else. During this period, she played the title role in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) -- not the monstrosity portrayed by Elsa Lanchester, of course, but the imperiled missus of Colin Clive -- and was equally unhappily married to "The Werewolf of London" in the picture of the same name. Returning to the British film industry in 1936, Hobson developed into one of the most popular and versatile leading ladies in the business. She was a delightful "Nora Charles" type in the 1938 murder mystery This Man is News (1938), and was both sexy and resourceful opposite Conrad Veidt in a brace of espionage thrillers, The Spy in Black (1939) and Contraband (1940). Hobson was seen at her best in her postwar films, notably as the demure lady love of homicidal Dennis Price in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), the selfish mother of John Howard Davies in The Rocking Horse Winner (1950), and the screwball "professional guest" in the "Ways and Means" episode of the Noel Coward omnibus Tonight at 8:30 (1952). In 1946, Hobson offered an exquisite performance as Estella in David Lean's adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations; ironically, she had played a smaller role in the 1934 Universal version of the same Dickens novel, but her part had wound up on the cutting room floor. Previously wed to producer Anthony Havelock-Allen, Hobson retired from films in 1954 to marry future British Minister of War John Profumo. Valerie Hobson was reluctantly thrust back into the public eye during the Christine Keeler sex scandal of 1963, faithfully and courageously standing by her disgraced husband as Profumo and several other members of the British cabinet were forced to resign. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1954
Rene Clement's Monsieur Ripois was released in English-speaking countries as The Knave of Hearts and Lovers, Happy Lovers. Relying heavily on voiceover narration and subjective camerawork, the film has Gerard Phillipe in the title role. Believing himself to be love with his wife's best friend (Natasha Parry), Ripois pours out his heart to her by recounting his past amours. Though he has known many women, he has never truly loved any of them. This has proved more troublesome for Ripois than for the ladies in his life, but somehow he never learns his lesson--not even during the film's final scene. British actresses Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood are well cast as Ripois' wife and former girlfriend, respectively, while Germaine Montero has an effective cameo as a warm-hearted prostitute. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Germaine Montero, (more)
- 1953
James Robertson Justice, Edward Underdown and Henry Kendall are implicated in an unsolved murder. the victim was a beautiful secretary on intimate terms with the suspects. Justice, a waspish author married to long-suffering Valerie Hobson, is the most suspicious of the bunch. As the case unfolds, one of the three suspects becomes the target of a murder plot himself. The culprit could be the most timid of the trio, but that would be too easy for the scriptwriters--or would it? Murder Will Out was originally released in Britain as The Voice of Merrill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Hobson, Edward Underdown, (more)
- 1953
Background is a tearful flashback drama centering around a dysfunctional family. Valerie Hobson and Philip Friend play a long-married couple on the verge of divorce. As they ponder the question of who will receive custody of their children (Janette Scott, Mandy Miller and Jeremy Spencer), the couple has second thoughts about their upcoming litigation. It is the children who eventually bring Hobson and Friend back together, though the reunion seems strangely without passion. Background was released in the US as Edge of Divorce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Hobson, Rick Hart, (more)
- 1952
Meet Me Tonight was the American title for the British-filmed Tonight at 8:30, adapted from the Noel Coward stage production of the same name. Several rotating playlets were presented in the original Tonight at 8:30, most of them starring Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. The film version utilizes three of these short plays. "The Red Peppers" stars Kay Walsh and George Pepper as a brash music-hall team (their big number is "Has Anybody Seen our Ship") on the verge of splitting up. "Fumed Oak" stars Stanley Holloway as a man finagled into marriage by a domineering woman (Betty Ann Davies). And "Ways and Means" stars Valerie Hobson and Nigel Patrick as a pair of impoverished "professional guests" who have worn out the welcome of every wealthy host in Europe. Meet Me Tonight was given its American TV premiere on the ABC network in November of 1956, at which time its original title was restored. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Also known as Who Goes There?, The Passionate Sentry is a frothy British comedy distinguished by its flippant dialogue exchanges. Peggy Cummins plays a frivolous young woman who becomes enamored of a dour Buckingham Palace guard (Nigel Patrick). While on duty, the guard is not permitted to show the slightest trace of emotion. Off duty it's a different matter, as he becomes intertwined in a romantic triangle. John Dighton adapted The Passionate Sentry from his own hit stage play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- A.E. Matthews, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1952
The Promoter was based on the Arnold Bennett novel The Card, which served as its British release title. Impoverished young clerk Alec Guinness works his way up the financial ladder until he has become a successful and highly respected loan officer. Actually, Guinness is not as above-board as the world perceives him. Beginning with cheating on a high school exam, he has wheeled and dealed his way to the top, and ethics be damned. Balancing Guinness' cold-blooded business savvy is his comparative ineptitude with women, particularly the bewitching Glynis Johns. Only Alec Guinness could succeed at making his "Sammy Glick" character appealing from first scene to last. The Promoter was scripted by Eric Ambler, who managed to unearth moments of sly cynicism that original author Bennett had barely touched upon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, Petula Clark, (more)
Alec Guinness gets to die eight times, playing a line of successors to a dukedom, in the Ealing black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) is ninth in line to inherit the dukedom from the aristocratic D'Ascoyne family. Louis vows to kill all eight people who stand between him and the duke's title. Aside from two cases of natural causes, Louis works through the list, eliminating rivals (all played by Guinness). Along the way he romances Sibella (Joan Greenwood), a childhood friend who ends up marrying a dullard, and Edith (Valerie Hobson), the beautiful widow of one of his victims with whom he plans to share his title. But just when Louis is ready to assume the D'Ascoyne mantle, a bizarre irony strikes. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, (more)
- 1949
Intending to run off with the wife (Christine Norden) of his publisher (Alexander Gauge), novelist John North (Richard Todd) thinks the better of it as he sits in the compartment of a speeding train. North's journey is interrupted (hence the title) by a train crash, in which his lover is killed. Sifting through the wreckage, railroad inspector Clayton (Tom Walls) discovers that the dead woman didn't perish in the crash: someone shot her in the back! That's all the information that can be revealed without giving away the ending. Top billed in Interrupted Journey as Richard Todd's patient, supportive wife is Valerie Hobson, whose patience and support would be sorely tested in real life when she stood by her husband John Profumo during the British Parliament sex scandals of the early 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Hobson, Richard Todd, (more)
- 1949
The British Train of Events explores the consequences of a railroad accident from four different viewpoints. Jack Warner plays the engine driver, whose daughter's boy friend is responsible for the crash. Peter Finch plays a homicidal actor whose "perfect murder" of his wife is thwarted by the wreck. Lonely orphan girl Joan Dowling is killed while trying to help her fellow passenger, duplicitous German POW Laurence Payne, escape. The fourth story is the humorous tale of a woman scorned (Valerie Hobson), who survives the crash with a renewed determination to get even with her composer-conductor lover (John Clements). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Warner, Valerie Hobson, (more)
D.H. Lawrence's tragic fable The Rocking Horse Winner is faithfully transferred to the screen in this 1950 gem. John Howard Davies, the young star of Oliver Twist (and the future chief film editor at the BBC) plays sensitive lad Paul Grahame, whose selfish, grasping mother (Valerie Hobson) warps his values. When his mom once more whines over her lack of wealth, the boy retreats to his new Christmas present, a hobby horse. Having been taught to ride like a real jockey by kindly handyman Bassett (John Mills), Paul furiously bobs up and down on his horse, hoping to drive his mother's words out of his brain. Instead, Paul suddenly acquires the ability to pick the names of winning race horses. Capitalizing on her son's "gift," Paul's mother becomes fabulously wealthy, only to spend the money as quickly as it comes in. Thinking only of his mother's happiness, Paul continues to ride his magical horse, which results in more lucrative racetrack predictions. Before his mother can come to her senses, the boy takes one "ride" too many, dropping dead from the exhaustion. Though essentially a dark fantasy, The Rocking Horse Winner is rendered with utter credibility by writer/director Anthony Pelissier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Hobson, John Howard Davies, (more)
- 1948
Blanche Fury combined two elements that were surefire moneymakers in postwar Britain: a brooding, Gothic-novel storyline and the dazzlingly handsome Stewart Granger. Heroine Blanche Fury (Valerie Hobson) is an impoverished governess who marries into wealth and sets herself up as the mistress of a vast estate. Enter Heathcliffe-like stable boy Philip Thorn (Granger), who intends to run the estate and eventually claim Blanche as his own. After a torrid, bodice-ripping romance between Blanche and Philip, the story segues into a no-names-please reenactment of the infamous 19th-century "Rush Murder." To "explain" the motives of the characters, the screenwriters deviate from the original Joseph Shearing novel by imposing all sorts of 20th-century "psychological disturbances" upon hero and heroine, with an abruptness and lack of logic that takes the viewer's breath away. Up until the end, however, Blanche Fury is a prime example of high-budget postwar British melodrama. Oddly, despite its $1.5 million price tag, con brio performances and superb Technicolor cinematography, Blanche Fury was a box-office disappointment, bringing an end to the "Gothic cycle" that had begun so promisingly with 1943's The Man in Grey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Hobson, Stewart Granger, (more)
- 1948
The Small Voice is a tense British character study utilizing an old plot device with a modicum of freshness. American actor Howard Keel (mistakenly billed as Harold Keel in the credits) makes his film debut herein as an escaped convicts. He and fellow fugitive David Greene invade a country cottage and hold its occupants, a writer and his wife (James Donald and Valerie Hobson), hostage. Keel's carefully shaded portrayal of a desperate man with a spark of decency was duly noted by MGM, which promptly signed the actor to a long contract. The Small Voice was released in the US under the spell-it-out title of Hideout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Hobson, James Donald, (more)
- 1947
Adapted from a play by Daphne Du Maurier, The Years Between stars Valerie Hobson as war widow Diana. Determined to carry on her husband's work, Diana enters the business world, ultimately emerging as a Member of Parliament. On the eve of her second marriage, Diana's first husband Michael (Michael Redgrave) returns, proving beyond doubt that reports of his death were slightly exaggerated. The fact that Michael is irascible and unsympathetic enables the audience to remain firmly on Diana's side as she struggles with her dire dilemma. Ironically, in real life Valerie Hobson was married to British Cabinet member John Profumo, remaining steadfastly by his side when his political career was ruined by the 1963 Christine Keeler sex scandal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, (more)
Immediately grabbing the audience's attention with a heart-stopping opening scene in a dark graveyard, acclaimed British director David Lean realizes the cinematic potential of Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel, and the result is considered by many to be one of the finest literary adaptations ever made as well as one of the greatest British films of all time. Crystallized into a tight 118-minute running time by Lean, Ronald Neame, and a corps of uncredited contributors, this is the story of young Pip, a lad of humble means whose training as a gentleman is bankrolled by a mysterious benefactor. Along the way, Pip falls in love with the fickle Estella, befriends the cheerfully insouciant Herbert Pocket, has memorable encounters with the escaped convict Magwitch and the lunatic dowager Miss Havisham, and almost (but not quite) forgets his modest origins as the foster son of kindhearted blacksmith Joe Gargery. The role of Pip is evenly divided between Anthony Wager as a child and John Mills as an adult; Alec Guinness makes his starring film debut as the jaunty Pocket; Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson are costarred as the younger and older Estella; and Martita Hunt is unforgettable as the mad Miss Havisham ("It's a fine cake! A wedding cake! MINE!") Remade several times, Great Expectations resurfaced in 1989 as a TV miniseries, with Jean Simmons, originally the young Estella, tearing a passion to tatters as Miss Havisham; and in 1998 it was remade again, in a contemporary version, with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, and Anne Bancroft in the Miss Havisham role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Valerie Hobson, (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)
Bob Randall (Richard Greene) is a reporter who gets to witness first-hand the British retreat from Dunkirk in May of 1940. He returns to his job in a London now facing nightly German bombing raids, and finds himself saddled with Carol Bennett (Valerie Hobson), a neophyte reporter. Bob is eager to take on the Nazis and, in the absence of any on the ground that he can fight, he turns to the leaders of a pacifist movement, The People for Peace. But no sooner does he start to look into who they are than he finds himself being shadowed by mysterious men and stirring up a hornet's nest of activity in his wake. While Carol tries to keep up and do her bit, and Bob tries to look out for her and find out just what he's stepped into -- which soon involves kidnappings and murder -- the German bombers keep coming and the newspaper's survival is threatened. Bob and Carol are drawn together romantically in the midst of these overlapping crises, and manage to find some time for each other while helping their long-suffering editor (Brefni O'Rourke) save the newspaper and the British secret service save the country. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Greene, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1941
Emeric Pressburger was one of the scenarists on the big-budget British seafaring saga Atlantic Ferry. The film is a romanticized recounting of the first-ever steamship crossing of the Atlantic in 1837. Michael Redgrave and Griffith Jones star as the MacIver brothers (the film is based on a story by one of the MacIver progeny). The siblings battle both the Atlantic and (whenever a woman is involved) each other, but they achieve their goal, making shipping lanes safe for steam power. Inasmuch as the film was made at the outbreak of World War 2, the filmmakers contrive to rabbet a bit of anti-German propaganda into the proceedings. "Has considerable gusto" was the New York Post's pithy critique of this morale-boosting film. The huge cast includes such British-movie stalwarts as Valerie Hobson, Bessie Love, Frederick Leister and Felix Aylmer. Atlantic Ferry was distributed in the US by Warner Bros. under the title Sons of the Sea. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, (more)
The Danish freighter Helvig approaches English waters in early 1940 and, in keeping with the needs of British security, it is boarded by customs and naval officials in search of contraband cargo. Her skipper, Captain Anderson (Conrad Veidt), is compelled to ascede to British demands, but dreads the delay, pointing out that the medical supplies in his cargo are vital. Anderssen is a dedicated seaman, all business, even where Mrs. Sorenson (Valerie Hobson), a headstrong passenger, is concerned. Then, on their first night in port, Mrs. Sorenson and a Mr. Pidgeon (Esmond Knight) disappear from the ship with Anderson's landing papers, the captain is in hot pursuit. Forced to join the woman in what seems a mad chase across London by night, he plunges into an Alice-in-Wonderland world of the blacked out city, following a set of clues through the maze of darkened streets and uncover a Nazi spy ring operating out of a basement in Soho. Each also discovers that there's a lot to admire and even possibly to love in the other -- the challenge is for Hobson, who is something other than the divorcee and mother she pretends to be, to stay alive long enough for Captain Anderson to effect a rescue and prevent the German spies from turning the British counter-intelligence effort against the Allies. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1939
Originally released in England by British Consolidated, Sons of the Sea was the last film to be distributed in America by Grand National Pictures. Generally cast in villainous roles, Leslie Banks plays the film's true-blue hero Captain Hyde. Alas, Hyde's young son Philip (Simon Lack), though a graduate of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, does not possess the noble purpose of his father, and soon finds himself inadvertently involved with a foreign spy. But with the British Secret Service involved, the villains don't stand a chance. Sons of the Sea was lensed in Dufaycolor, a two-tint process which looked suspiciously like America's Cinecolor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Banks, Mackenzie Ward, (more)
- 1939
A genuine oddity, Life Returns was originally filmed by Universal Pictures in 1935. The story, concerning the efforts by researchers Onslow Stevens and Lois Wilson to find a means to briefly bring dead animals back to life for research purposes, was built around the actual accomplishments of Dr. Robert E. Cornish of the University of California-Berkeley. On May 22, 1934, Cornish was successful in reviving a dog that had been pronounced dead: the actual footage of this experiment was incorporated into Life Returns. Presumably because of its controversial subject matter, the film was shelved by Universal and never released by that studio. It finally received distribution in January 1939 via a small-time firm called Scienart Pictures, which also took credit for producing the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Onslow Stevens, Lois Wilson, (more)
- 1939
This Man in Paris was the followup to the successful British comedy-mystery This Man is News. Barry K. Barnes and Valerie Hobson return as Simon and Pat Drake, London's answer to Nick and Nora Charles. The plot gets under way when Simon, star reporter for a London tabloid, is dispatched to Paris to gets the goods on a counterfeiting gang. Despite warnings from editor Macgregor (Alistair Sim) to stay out of the way of the police authorities, Simon and Pat insist upon doing a lot of sleuthing themselves. Inevitably, hero and heroine find themselves at the mercy of the villains, but one is certain that they'll wriggle out of their predicament none the worse for wear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Barnes, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1939
This British spy thriller concerns the theft of valuable aircraft secrets by enemy agents. Laurence Olivier plays a firebrand test pilot who falls under suspicion when several planes disappear. Costar Ralph Richardson steals the film as a seemingly befuddled secret service operative assigned to the case. Despite its topicality (the film was made in 1939, when Europe was bracing itself against the possibility of war), Q Planes is played with the tongue-in-cheek bravado of a "Boy's Own Paper" tale. Q Planes was released in the US as Clouds over Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, (more)
- 1939
This Man is News is a British imitation of Hollywood's Thin Man pictures. The "Nick and Nora" herein are Barry K. Barnes as an investigative reporter and Valerie Hobson as his helpful wife (?) After writing a series of articles about an elusive gang of jewel thieves, Barnes is framed for robbery. He goes after the crooks himself, despite the "cease and desist" warnings of Scotland Yard and his own editor. This Man is News did well enough to warrant a sequel, but This Man in Paris did poorly enough to bring this would-be series to an abrupt end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Barnes, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1939
The Spy In Black is the story of a German World War I submarine captain (Conrad Veidt) who is given a mission to discover British intelligence secrets. Once he arrives in the Orkney Islands, he meets up with a female schoolteacher (Valerie Hobson), who happens to be a German agent. Veidt falls in love with Hobson before discovering she's actually a double agent for the British. In America, Spy in Black was originally released under the title U-Boat 29. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt, Sebastian Shaw, (more)
- 1939
This mystery is set aboard the Orient Express bound for Istanbul. There a French agent thwarts a scheme by revolutionaries to blow up a politician. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
