Valerie Hobson Movies

Bookie Allan Jeayes wins a fortune at the race track when he gets a copy of tomorrow's newspaper which unfortunately also contains his obituary. ~ All Movie Guide

Badger's Green, a barnstorming British theatrical piece by R. C. Sheriff, was given its first talking picture treatment in 1934. The resident of a tiny English village love their cricket field. A huge, impersonal corporation wants to tear down the field and build an office complex. The villagers stage a revolt, with humorous (though not hilarious) results. While the rustic one-liners and stereotypical characterizations date the film, Badger's Green is blessed with a timeless premise. 16-year-old Valerie Hobson makes one of her first movie appearances herein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Twelve years before David Lean's definitive filmization of Dickens' Great Expectations, Hollywood had a go at the novel, with mixed results. The story is the familiar one of young Pip (George Breakstone as a boy, Phillips Holmes as an adult) whose future wealth is assured through the auspices of a mysterious benefactor. It turns out that Pip's "guardian angel" is condemned convict Magwich (Henry Hull), repaying a favor the lad had done for him years earlier. The film is a faithful if rather rushed adaptation of the Dickens original, encompassing within its 100-minute running time such unforgettable characters as the vindictive recluse Miss Havisham, the arrogant Estella, the likeable blacksmith Joe Gargery and Joe's less likeable wife. Henry Hull is overly mannered as Magwich and Florence Reed is distressingly dull as Miss Havisham, but Jane Wyatt and Alan Hale are perfectly cast as Estella and Gargery, respectively. Francis L. Sullivan, playing lawyer Jaggers, repeated the role in the 1946 David Lean film. And if you pay close attention, you'll spot Walter Brennan as one of Magwich's fellow convicts. The 1934 Great Expectations is neat and precise, but nowhere near as inspired as the celebrated remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a man marries his Russian lover and discovers that she has a large extended family. He is utterly overwhelmed and decides that the only way he will be able to free himself of their burden will be to make them famous. Along the way, he keeps running into the bold lover of his new bride. Mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Originally intended as a vehicle for Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, this Universal production predated The Wolf Man by six years, but failed to whip up audience enthusiasm for the monster popularized by Lon Chaney, Jr. in the studio's later classic. Henry Hull stars as botanist Dr. Glendon, whose foray through Tibet in search of a rare night-blooming "marifasa lupina" ends when he is savagely attacked by man-beast Yogami (Warner Oland). Recovering back in London, Glendon begins to undergo the hideous transformation into a wolf-like monster at the next full moon (courtesy of makeup work by Jack Pierce), and learns that only the bloom of the marifasa can reverse his condition -- a cure which is currently being sought by yet another lycanthropic predator. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This greatest of all Frankenstein movies begins during a raging thunderstorm. Warm and cozy inside their palatial villa, Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon), Percy Shelley (Douglas Walton), and Shelley's wife Mary (Elsa Lanchester) engage in morbidly sparkling conversation. The wicked Byron mockingly chastises Mary for frightening the literary world with her recent novel Frankenstein, but Mary insists that her horror tale preached a valuable moral, that man was not meant to dabble in the works of God. Moreover, Mary adds that her story did not end with the death of Frankenstein's monster, whereupon she tells the enthralled Byron and Shelley what happened next. Surviving the windmill fire that brought the original 1931 Frankenstein to a close, the Monster (Boris Karloff) quickly revives and goes on another rampage of death and destruction. Meanwhile, his ailing creator Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) discovers that his former mentor, the demented Doctor Praetorius (Ernst Thesiger), plans to create another life-sized monster -- this time a woman! After a wild and wooly "creation" sequence, the bandages are unwrapped, and the Bride of the Monster (Elsa Lanchester again) emerges. Alas, the Monster's tender efforts to connect with his new Mate are rewarded only by her revulsion and hoarse screams. "She hate me," he growls, "Just like others!" Wonderfully acted and directed, The Bride of Frankenstein is further enhanced by the vivid Franz Waxman musical score; even the film's occasional lapses in logic and continuity (it was trimmed from 90 to 75 minutes after the first preview) are oddly endearing. Director James Whale was memorably embodied by Ian McKellen in the Oscar-winning 1998 biopic Gods and Monsters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A scientist working on bringing asphyxiation victims back to life is stopped by gangsters. ~ All Movie Guide

In this British comedy, the rotten relatives of a vanished millionaire begin brainwashing a young amnesiac into believing he is the long-lost heir to his fortune. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Chesterfield Films, one of the busiest (though not necessarily one of the best) poverty-row operations of the 1930s, was responsible for the amiable comedy August Week-End. 19-year-old Valerie Hobson is top-billed, but the film's real star is G. P. Huntley Jr., playing a British business entrepreneur. Deciding that he's outgrown his bourgeois wife and family, Huntley spends a summer weekend living the high life in the company of adventuress Hobson. He sees the error of his ways when he runs afoul of the IRS. Though partially financed by British investors, August Week-End was lensed in Hollywood over a period of six or seven days. The film was based on a short story by Faith Baldwin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, two guards lose their jobs after they start a fight with a lascivious Arab prince who tries to seduce one of their girl friends. Fortunately, the girl friend's father is thankful and gives her love a job managing one of his tobacco warehouses in Turkey. Unfortunately, he meets a beautiful Russian girl there and soon falls in love. Later he learns that she is being used by the prince who is conspiring to take over the Turkish government. Later his ex-partner and his girl come to Turkey to help him stop the prince. Action ensues, but in the end the prince is defeated and Turkey is saved. In 1940, the film was reissued as The Spy in White. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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

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