Jean Kent Movies

Peter R. Hunt directed this World War I action-adventure, based upon the novel by Wilbur Smith. Roger Moore and Lee Marvin team up as Sebastian, a witty and cosmopolitan Englishman, and Flynn O'Flynn, a boozy and ornery Irish American, who decide to blow up a German battleship that has been hidden away for repairs in Southeast Africa. Helping the two in their quest to sink the battleship is Sebastian's wife Rosa (Barbara Parkins), who has her own reasons for seeing the ship is destroyed -- the Germans took the life of her only child. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A French nobleman who disappeared is searched for by Sir Francis Drake sent by the Queen. ~ All Movie Guide

W. Lee Wilder, the lesser-known brother of Billy Wilder, directed this unexceptional story based on the actual history of French serial killer Henri Landru. The killer (played by George Sanders) has been changed here from an ordinary, inconsequential man to a suave antique dealer with a passion for Odette (Corinne Calvet), a nightclub singer whose only interest in him is monetary. The plot places Odette's need for money at the basis of Landru's maniacal killing spree but as the duped, female victims are dispatched one after another, the horror of it all never quite coalesces into gripping suspense. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Beyond This Place is a tame murder mystery based on a novel by A. J. Cronin. Van Johnson is cast as an American citizen whose British father has supposedly been dead for years. On a visit to London, Johnson discovers that his father is very much alive, serving a life sentence for murder. Johnson inaugurates his own investigation, retraces the trail of circumstantial evidence, and unearths the real culprit. Director Jack Cardiff was not happy with his work on Beyond This Place, possibly because he was obliged for box office purposes to use an American star in an essentially British story. The film was released in the US as Web of Evidence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title of the Anglo-American The Prince and the Showgirl could well have alluded to the genuine stations in life of stars Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. Based on the Terence Rattigan play The Sleeping Prince, the film casts Olivier as Charles, prince regent of Carpathia, who is in London to attend the 1911 coronation of King George V. Monroe is deceptively dizzy American chorus girl Elsie Marina, who while performing in a West End revue catches Charles' eye. The prince arranges for Elsie to attend an "intimate supper" at his hotel suite. Though Elsie successfully wards off Charles' advances, she drinks too much bubbly and ends up falling asleep. Comes the dawn, and Prince Charles is anxious to show the awkward Elsie the door. She, however, has fallen in love with the prince, and sticks around long enough to upset a plan to overthrow the Carpathian throne, and to patch up a feud between Charles and his son Nicholas (Jeremy Spencer). Olivier directed as well as starred in The Prince and the Showgirl; he knew he had his work cut out for him in dealing with the mercurial Marilyn Monroe, but he managed to hold his temper and to extract a delightful comic performance from the actress. Alas, the film was a box-office disappointment, leading many Hollywood insiders to moan and wail that Monroe was "washed up" in films -- at least until her spectacular comeback in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this suspense film, a woman journeys home to Great Britain to attend the funeral of her parents, who according to the official report seemed to have died naturally at the same time. But the woman doesn't believe this. She thinks her stepmother, a nurse who took care of the aged couple had something to do with it. She goes to the authorities, but is unable to persuade them to look into it because the step-mother is a prominent, respected citizen in town. The young woman, who stands to inherit her father's considerable wealth when she comes of age, continues to look into it, even though she knows her own life is in jeopardy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Reluctant Widow in this muted British comedy is young 19th-century governess Elinor, played by Jean Kent. Inadvertently inheriting a vast estate, Elinor is bedeviled by both British turncoats and French espionage agents, who hide out in the mansion while preparing to steal Lord Wellington's battle plans for Waterloo. One of the British traitors is played by Julian Dallas, who as "Scott Forbes" would later star on TV's Jim Bowie. For reasons unknown, the film was heavily re-edited and restructured before its general release, making certain portions of the storyline incomprehensible. Through it all, however, Jean Kent maintains her dignity and charm as she quietly outwits the many villains. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The alternate title to the British The Woman in Question is Five Angles on Murder. That pretty much sums up the tenor of this investigatory drama, wherein an enigmatic fortune teller (Jean Kent) is murdered. The police track down the five most likely suspects and start asking questions. Each suspect offers a different perspective on the murdered woman, and each provides a vital clue towards solving the killing. This "prismatic" technique was of course the foundation of Citizen Kane; while The Woman in Question is not in Kane's league, its gimmick holds the audience's attention whenever director Anthony Asquith allows the pace to lag. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Gay Lady is better known by its British title, Trottie True. Jean Kent stars as Trottie, a turn-of-the-century British music-hall performer who works her way up the ladder from chorus girl to headliner. As her fame increases, Trottie has no time for true love, preferring instead the attentions of men of nobility and wealth who can advance her career. But it's not enough, and at the end Trottie trots back to her husband. Based on the play by Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simon, The Gay Lady is best seen in its original Technicolor British release version, which unlike some American prints leaves most of the musical numbers intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Good Time Girl, directed by David MacDonald and based on a story by Arthur La Bern (It Always Rains On Sunday) starts off unpromisingly, as juvenile justice official Flora Robson tries to keep a would-be female felon on the straight-and-narrow, telling the cautionary tale of Gwen Rawlings (Jean Kent). A victim of an unhappy home and her own stupidity, Rawlings leaves home and, with help from her sleazy new neighbor Jimmy Rosso (Peter Glenville, the future director), gets a job as a hat-check girl at a club run by Max Vine (erbert Lom). But Jimmy's jealousy soon gets him fired, and leaves him aiming for revenge on Max and Gwen. Despite the best efforts of Michael Farrell (Dennis Price), the one truly decent man she's ever met, Jimmy achieves his goal and Gwen is sent to a reformatory. It is there that she's truly corrupted by being locked up with more seasoned juvenile (and not so juvenile) felons, who know how to game the system -- whem she escapes, she's a professional criminal, and, taking on a new alias, falls in with a pair of loose-living gents. She manages to commit a vehicular homicide, and then falls in with a pair of American military deserters (Bonar Colleano, Hugh McDermott) who aren't above committing pre-meditated murder. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The dazzlingly handsome Stewart Granger is at least physically well cast as the charismatic 18th century violinist Paganini. The fact that the illusion explodes whenever he opens his mouth mattered not at all to Granger's legions of British female fans. Luckily for the screenwriters, Paganini was as celebrated for his many love affairs as for his musical accomplishments, so it wasn't necessary to cook up a romantic plotline from whole cloth. The actual Paganini solos are performed by Yehudi Menuhin, and in this respect (and this respect only) the film is worthwhile. Magic Bow was another guilty pleasure from Gainsborough Productions, England's principal purveyor of bodice-ripping romances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Of the many films (English and American) bearing the title Carnival, only one was based on the Compton MacKenzie novel of the same name. This 1946 melodrama stars Sally Gray as a 19th century ballet dancer who makes an unfortunate career move by marrying a taciturn Cornish farmer (Bernard Miles). Sally soon longs for the bright lights of the big city, and for the arms of her artist lover (Michael Wilding). Her husband is all too aware of this; and when the lover comes calling to renew the affair, the husband shoots Gray to death. The first film version of Compton MacKenzie's Carnival was filmed in 1931 as Dance Pretty Lady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sleeping Car to Trieste is a remake of one of the best railroad melodramas of the 1930s, Rome Express. The film's "maguffin" is a diary containing important political information. Stolen from a diplomat in Paris, the diary finds its way on board the Orient Express. Already, the two thieves have double-crossed each other, and among the passengers there are plenty of interested parties-heroes and villains alike-who hope to claim the diary for their own purposes. When one of these parties is murdered, police chief Jolif (Paul Dupuis) takes charge of the case, but there's still many a plot twist to come before the guilty are punished and the innocent rewarded. An inordinate amount of footage is devoted to the wisecrackery of Bonar Colleano, cast as yet another stereotyped American. The climax of Sleeping Car to Trieste is a classic, endlessly imitated by future-and lesser-Orient Express espionagers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide