Anthony Holles Movies

Future Connecticut governor John Lodge stars in the British crime drama Sensation. Lodge plays a hotshot reporter who devotion to his job is messing up his private life. Despite warnings from his girl friend that she'll walk out if he follows up one more hot scoop, Lodge tries to flush out the murderer of a waitress. A packet of incriminating love letters is the "maguffin" in this one. Based on a play by Basil Dean and George Munro, Sensation packs an awful lot of story in its 54 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

African-American actor/singer Paul Robeson had to travel to England in the 1930s to seek out dignified film roles. In Big Fella, Robeson is a happy wanderer who chances upon a runaway child. The kid so enjoys the company of Robeson and his café-singer friend Elisabeth Welch that he threatens to claim that he's been kidnapped if Robeson tries to return the boy to his parents. Interestingly, Robeson's character name is Joe, just as it had been in the actor's 1936 Hollywood triumph Show Boat. Big Fella was based on a novel by Claude McKay. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Silent-film leading man (and third husband of Mary Pickford) Charles "Buddy" Rogers was a popular band leader at the time he appeared in the British Let's Make a Night of It. Here's the deal: Buddy owns a nightclub; his wife June Clyde runs a rival night spot. That's about it for the plot. The main attraction of Let's Make a Night of It is its cornucopia of guest stars, including impressionist Afrique, legendary Yiddish stage star Molly Picon, and band leaders Jack Jackson, Jack Harris, Sydney Lipton, Joe Loss, Eddie Carroll, Harry Acres and Rudy Starita (all major names on the British entertainment scene of 1937). Let's Make a Night of It was inspired by Henrik N. Ege's radio play The Silver Spoon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Star Jack Buchanan shared directorial credit with cinematographer Lee Garmes for the breezy British musical comedy The Sky's the Limit. Buchanan and opera star Mara Loseff star as bankrupt couturier Dave Harber and his equally cash-less partner Mme. Isobella. With the spring season approaching, our hero and heroine desperately search for a dress designer who will save their business from ruin. Their prize catch is Teddy Carson (David Hutcheson), who turns out to be more trouble than he's worth. Though the plot is as thin as gossamer, Jack Buchanan carries the picture on sheer charm power. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The unorthodox teaming of Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt is but one of the many pleasures of the 1937 spy yarn Dark Journey. Leigh plays a Stockholm dress-shop owner during World War I, who, being a neutral, is permitted to travel unmolested to and from France. Veidt plays a supposedly disgraced German officer who is actually head of his country's secret service. The two fall in love, despite the fact that Leigh has a secret as well: she is a double agent, sympathetic towards the Allied cause. During one of Leigh's voyages to France, her ship is captured by a German U-boat. Veidt swaggers on board, threatening to sink the ship if Leigh is not turned over to him. But the circumstances reverse themselves, and Veidt finds himself Leigh's prisoner--a circumstance that is not altogether unpleasant for him. When originally released in England, Dark Journey bore the title The Anxious Years. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this suspense movie, a secretary marries her rich old boss. He suddenly dies and she finds herself the prime suspect in his murder. She goes to court and is found guilty. En route to court, she is involved in a near-fatal auto-accident. Within her heart is a small piece of glass that a surgeon removes during a ground-breaking operation. The doctor then discovers that the woman has been given a death sentence. Not wanting to lose the patient he worked so hard to save, the doctor sneaks her out of the hospital and keeps her well hidden until the police accost the real killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Not to be confused with either Nicholas Ray's melancholic 1949 crime tale They Live by Night or Raoul Walsh's 1940 action-melodrama (which borrowed only its title), this British thriller concerns one flawed man's attempts at clearing his name. They Drive by Night stars Emlyn Williams as Shorty, a just-released convict eager to reunite with his girlfriend -- whom he finds strangled to death when he reaches her apartment. Certain the police won't look favorably upon him should he report the dead body, Shorty enlists the help of ex-girlfriend Molly (Anna Konstam) in an attempt to find the real killer, amidst the intrusions of Walter Hoover (Ernst Thesiger), a creepy forensic criminologist who might know more than he lets on. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Rex Harrison plays a young Englishman who suffers periodic bouts of amnesia. When the plane he is riding in crashes, Harrison blacks out again and awakens in Paris. He is told that for the past ten days he has been involved in espionage of some sort or other--and now his life isn't worth two francs. Based on the novel The Disappearance of Roger Tremayne by Bruce Graeme, the seriocomic Ten Days in Paris served as the inspiration for a multitude of future reluctant-spy escapades. The film was released outside Great Britain as Spy in the Pantry and Missing Ten Days. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this thriller, a corrupt talent agent's illegal actions are discovered by his partner. To silence him, the agent kills the partner. Unfortunately, the killing is witnessed by a young woman. Now the agent is after her. He makes one attempt but fails. Fortunately for him, the encounter rendered her an amnesiac. She is sent to her home to recover. The agent follows and decides to try again before her memory returns. Fortunately, a detective and his clever wife take the case and stop him before it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Two sisters stick by each other through thick and thin in this drama. The elder sister has a rather sexually checkered past. The tale begins as she heads for the French Riviera in search of more adventure and meets a charming man who knows nothing about her notorious past. They end up getting married. It is then he sees his bride's name figured prominently in a tabloid. The younger sister intervenes to save the union and tells him that she was the naughty sister. Unfortunately, her admission causes her own romantic life to crumble so the older sister finally 'fesses up. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi