Victoria Hopper Movies
Victoria Hopper played leading roles in a number of British films during the 1930s. She was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1937
It's a tossup as to which George Eliot novel has most often been adapted to the screen, though it appears that Mill on the Floss has nosed out Silas Marner. Set in early 19th century England, the story focuses on the long-standing rivalry between two Lincolnshire families. The animosity stems from the refusal of mill owner Mr. Tulliver (Sam Livesey) to relinquish his water rights to demonic solicitor Mr. Wakem (Felix Aylmer). Caught in the legal crossfire is Tulliver's daughter Maggie (Geraldine Fitzgerald), in love with Wakem's good-hearted (albeit physically challenged) son Philip (Frank Lawton). When Maggie's good name is compromised by scandal, it is Philip who champions her cause, allowing them both a brief respite of happiness before the inevitable tragic denoument, in which the Floss River itself becomes a "character". Released in the US at 82 minutes, Mill on the Floss has since been restored to its original 94 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Fitzgerald, Frank Lawton, (more)
- 1936
Released in the U.S. as Scotland Yard Commands, The Lonely Road was based on a novel by Nevil Shute (of On the Beach fame). When his marriage proposal is rejected by his sweetheart, retired naval commander Stevenson (Clive Brook) goes on a bender and drives his car wildly along a country road. No, he doesn't hit anyone, but he does plow his way right into a gang of weapons smugglers. Fearing that he'll blow the whistle on them, the crooks knock out Stevenson and arrange the evidence so as to convince him that he suffered his cranial blow in an auto accident. Released from hospital, Stevenson heads to a cabaret, where he makes the acquaintance of dancer Molly Gordon (Victoria Hopper) -- who turns out to be the sister of one of the smugglers. Falling in love with Molly, Stevenson must wrestle with his conscience when afforded the opportunity to turn the crooks over to the authorities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clive Brook, Victoria Hopper, (more)
- 1936
The oft-filmed life of Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is again cinematized in this elaborate but ponderous British production. Stephen Haggard plays Mozart, the former child prodigy who becomes the fair-haired boy of Austria, only to lose it all and die in poverty before his 40th birthday. The screenplay, by Margaret Kennedy (The Constant Nymph), chooses to sidestep the less-savory aspects of Mozart's life and death, choosing to end on a note of triumph as the composer's The Magic Flute temporarily rescues him from bankruptcy. Conspicuous by his absence is the composer Salieri, whose rivalry with Mozart formed the basis of the 1984 Oscar-winner Amadeus. Completed in the late 1930s, Mozart was released in 1940, as the last non-documentary effort by director Basil Dean (whose wife Victoria Hopper appears as Mrs. Mozart). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Haggard, Victoria Hopper, (more)
- 1936
Though director Carol Reed seldom included Laburnham Grove on his resumé, he allowed that it was quite successful, and a cut above the minor programmers he was usually assigned in the mid-1930s. Based on a novel by J. B. Priestley, the film stars Edmund Gwenn as Mr. Radfern -- solid citizen by day, counterfeiter by night. Saddled with a pack of tedious in-laws, Radfern decides to dispose of them by handing them a roll of "funny money" and inviting them to shop in town to their heart's content. He then skips town, secure in the knowledge that his unwelcome guests will soon be rounded up by the authorities. Edmund Gwenn would later play a more benign (and less skilled) counterfeiter in the 1950 Hollywood production Mister 880. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Gwenn, Cedric Hardwicke, (more)
- 1934
A man's love for his wife overcomes his hatred for the family that brought her up in this period romantic adventure. Jan Ridd (John Loder) is a farmer in 17th Century England who has sworn to take revenge upon the Doones, an outlaw family who have laid waste to much of the property in his part of the country and were responsible for the death of Ridd's father. Ridd meets a woman named Lorna (Victoria Hopper), and in time they fall in love and marry. However, Ridd learns that Lorna was kidnapped by the Doones as a child and raised among them; she is eventually taken into custody by the Court of St. James in hopes of reforming her from the influence of her delinquent "family," and Ridd must fight to free the woman he loves. This was the second screen adaptation of the novel by R.D. Blackmore, and the first in the sound era; two more films based on Lorna Doone would follow, in 1951 and 1990. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Hopper, John Loder, (more)
- 1933
Previously filmed in 1928, the sentimental Margaret Kennedy novel The Constant Nymph was sumptuously remade by Gaumont Productions in 1933. Victoria Hopper plays the title character, a Belgian gamine named Tessa. The girl falls hopelessly in love with world-famous composer Lewis Dodd (Brian Aherne), who is so full of himself that he barely acknowledges Tessa's existence. As she looks on in quiet desperation, Dodd marries another woman, his distant cousin Florence (Leonora Corbett). It takes him nearly the entire picture to realize what a fool he's been, and that Tessa was the one girl for him all along -- but alas, it's too late. Constant Nymph was remade by Warner Bros. in 1943, at which time all prints of the 1933 version were supposed to be destroyed; happily, they weren't. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Aherne, Victoria Hopper, (more)
