Fewlass Llewellyn Movies

Adapted from the best-selling novel by K. J. Benes, A Stolen Life serves as a tour de force for German actress Elizabeth Bergner, whose husband Paul Czinner directed the film. Bergner stars as identical twins Sylvina and Martina, whose mild sibling rivalry intensifies when one of the girls tricks the other's sweetheart Alan McKenzie (Michael Redgrave) into proposing to the wrong twin. While Alan is away on business, his new bride and her sister go off on a yachting expedition. A storm at sea capsizes the vessel, wherupon one of the twins-the unmarried one--is drowned. As the other girl recovers, she finds that everyone assumes that she's actually her lookalike sister. Assuming the dead woman's identity, the surviving girl hopes to resume her pre-marital romance with Alan-only to discover that her sister had been carrying on a clandestine affair. If the plot sounds familiar, it's because A Stolen Life was remade in 1946 with Bette Davis as the sisters and Glenn Ford as the confused husband. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, an impoverished bumbler becomes a waiter at a fancy party and finds himself mistaken for one of the wealthy guests by another drunken guest. Soon he is mingling with the elite and meets a beautiful girl. He decides to make the illusion real and after the party goes to his banker and blackmails him into hiring him. Soon he is promoted to a higher position until he is transferred the Paris branch where he begins living a happy, financially secure existence with the beautiful girl in his arms. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Crackerjack tells the story of Jack Drake (Tom Walls), who is seemingly an ordinary, foppish member of England's idle rich, a true ne'er-do-well. He has a secret, however (actually, several) -- the first being a heart of gold and a social conscience, which motivate him to help the less fortunate; the second is an array of special, stealthy skills that permit him to be a master thief, so masterful that he can even steal from other thieves without their knowledge. His exploits, attributed to a master thief known as "Crackerjack," are even chronicled in an anonymously authored bestseller entitled Crackerjack (which even the Scotland Yard superintendent is reading). Its royalties are all directed to a charity. As he explains to his valet/social secretary, Burdge (Charles Heslop -- the only person who knows his secret), he never steals from anyone who would actually miss the money in any material way, and he does it because they're "too mean to give it away themselves." He is also in love with the Baroness Von Haltz (Lilli Palmer) and the two interests converge at a costume party thrown by Mrs. Humbold (Muriel George) -- he plans to court the baroness and steal the Humbold pearls. But all plans of romance are swept aside when the quartet of American entertainers at the party turn out to be armed robbers who kill one of the guests. Now a cat-and-mouse game ensues: Crackerjack on the one side trying to steer Scotland Yard to the American gang, the gang trying to get a line on Crackerjack to get the Humboldt pearls, and Scotland Yard caught between them, and on top of that, baroness is in jeopardy. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this French crime comedy, the headmaster of a school located near a prison is inadvertently involved in stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. The trouble begins with one of his students who is, unbeknownst to the headmaster, the son of a famous art thief. The father has been planning the robbery for a long time and this is why the boy is enrolled in the school. When the father innocently asks the headmaster if he can stay for a while at the school, the headmaster is happy to oblige him and even ends up helping him pull off the heist. Later, the school boys rally together to help their poor teacher return the painting. In the end the schoolmaster is considered a national hero. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

When foreclosure is threatened on Gina Malo's home, she gets help from Sandy Powell, who donates his football pool winnings to her. ~ Rovi

Jack Hulbert is Jack Warrender in Jack of All Trades. A spoof of Big Business, 1930s style, the film begins as Jack ends a long spell of unemployment by taking a waiter's job at a fancy society reception. Because he's decked out in a tuxedo, Jack is assumed to be one of the guests, and before long everyone is convinced that he's a financial wizard (it's a lot more believable than it sounds!) Unable to reveal his true identity, Jack reluctantly accepts a chairmanship at a bank, and through a series of lucky breaks he manages to save the institution from ruin and enrich himself in the process. It stands to reason that Jack also wins the girl (Gina Malo), who would have loved him even if he'd remained a waiter. Jack of All Trades was co-directed by Hulbert and future Disney Studio fixture Robert Stevenson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this espionage romance, a French spy falls in love with a German operative who has been sent to learn how the French were able steal a German invention. Though she is assigned to kill the Frenchman, she instead falls in love and they decide to leave. Unfortunately, the woman knows that the car has been booby trapped and will fire a bullet into the driver when it reaches a certain speed. She saves her lover and dies in his arms. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Three talented screenwriters collaborated in adapting Evadne Price and Joan Roy Byford's play The Haunted Light to the screen as Phantom Light. This British chiller-diller-thriller begins with the mysterious murder of a lighthouse keeper. After his death, the region is plagued by shipwrecks, each heralded by a "phantom light" beaming from the lighthouse. Female detective Binnie Hale teams with new keeper Gordon Harker and navy officer Ian Hunter to solve the mystery. Directed with a sure and steady hand by Michael Powell, The Phantom Light is infinitely superior to the quota-quickie melodramas then flooding the British film market. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, a wealthy businessman and his two workers begin scoping out Chinatown for new business opportunities. It is there he learns that his new wife's ex-husband is a blackmailing crook, preparing to victimize him. The businessman decides to destroy the crook before he destroys him. Comic mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

One of the best of Michael Powell's low-budget "quota quickies" -- essentially British B-movies made on ultra-low budgets under the government-imposed quota system for British-made movies in British theaters -- Red Ensign was also one of the more intelligent thoughtful dramas of its kind. Set amid the massive economic disruptions of the worldwide depression of the mid-'30s, it tells the story of David Barr (Leslie Banks), the managing director of an idled Scottish ship-building company, who has devised a revolutionary new design for cargo vessels using arcform hulls, which permits them to operate more cheaply and efficiently than any ships currently in service. He can revolutionize the merchant shipping industry, but Barr wants more than that -- he sees that as only the first step to reviving the entire British economy. Barr, who worked his way up from the shipyards (starting as a riveter) to the boardroom, is able to see this larger picture, from the top down to the vantage point of the lowest yard worker, and from the bottom up to the management suites, and he is driven by the breadth and clarity of what he perceives. But before he can do that, or get even one ship built, he has to overcome the resistance of the other directors, upper-class all, who admire Barr's brilliance but can't understand his passion, content as they are to ride out this worldwide depression in cautious comfort. Their leader is the recalcitrant board chairman, Lord Dean (Frank Vosper), who not only doesn't believe in taking risks but also resents Barr's successful wooing of the company's principal shareholder, June Mackinnon (Carol Goodner), the daughter of the company's late founder.

Barr is single-minded in his vision and certain enough of his cause that he is willing to withhold information from the other directors to get what he wants, and even commit forgery if there's no other way to get the first ship built. Lord Dean, meanwhile, wants to sign a contract for the new ships with Manning (Alfred Drayton), the unscrupulous owner of a shipping line notorious for its use of foreign registries, poorly paid and trained foreign crews, and safety violations, which would solve the shipyard's problems for a time but do nothing for British shipping or the economy. And Manning, desiring these new ship and faced with Barr's opposition, is not above putting spies and saboteurs into the shipyard, and setting fires and explosions to undermine Barr's work. Amid the corporate maneuvering and the threat of strikes (fomented by Manning's paid agitators) and arrest, the script keeps the pacing brisk and the focus tight on the fate of Barr and his ideas, in what was one of the more cerebral and diverting dramatic thrillers of its day. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this British comedy, a young actor begins impersonating a Navy officer's wife in order to make her lover jealous. Unfortunately, trouble ensues when her jewels disappear. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The title of this British melodrama could just as well have been Long, Long Afterwards, since many of the plot twists have already occurred before the opening fade-in. J. R. Tozer plays a highly respected doctor with a highly checkered past. Years earlier, while stationed in colonial India, Tozer had killed a beautiful young Englishwoman rather than allow her to fall into the hands of marauding savages. Now Tozer is in love with Marjorie Hume, and his rival for Marjorie's affections is Cecil Barry. Ah, cruel fate! Barry was once the fiance of the girl Tozer killed. Afterwards was adapted from the suffering-in-dinner-clothes novel by Kathlyn Rhodes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

W. P. Drury's popular literary and theatrical piece The Flag Lieutenant spawned this 1927 sequel. Henry Edwards once more essays the role of Lt. Dick Lascelles, who in the 1926 filmization of Flag Lieutenant managed to clear himself from accusations of cowardice. This time, Lt. Lascelles saves a remote African post from a native uprising. The film's "Sun Never Sets" jingoism was easier to swallow in 1927 (when there was still a British Empire) than it might be today. Isabel Jeans likewise returns from the 1926 Flag Lieutenant as Pauline, the love of Lascelles' life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi