Patrick Ludlow Movies
British Patrick Ludlow spent most of his career on stage where he specialized in frothy comedies. He was most popular in the 1920s, having made his theatrical debut in a 1915 production of Peter Pan. Ludlow launched a sporadic film career in 1930, appearing in such lightweight fare as Naughty Husbands (1931), Love on the Spot (1932), and Old Mother Riley (1937). He retired from films in 1942, but came back in 1966 to appear in Modesty Blaise. In between, Ludlow continued to have a successful and prolific career on the British stage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A popular British comic strip series served as inspiration for this light-hearted espionage adventure, which if nothing else certainly shows the marks of its origins in the mid-1960s. A large departure for director Joseph Losey, better known for brooding interpretations of Harold Pinter works (The Servant, Accident), the film is emphatically bright and colorful, taking on at times a nearly psychedelic feel. The strangeness is emphasized by the unusual casting, including Italian star Monica Vitti in her first English-speaking role as the title character and Dirk Bogarde, playing against type as her arch-nemesis. Essentially everything is played for its camp value, including the rather convoluted, James Bond-like plot, which concerns the hijacking of a shipment of diamonds heading for the Middle East. Like its mod-era sets and costumes, this unusual, inconsistent effort is certainly intriguing and attractive, but might seem rather dated to some. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, (more)
- 1942
Comic actors Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen, members in good standing of Britain's "The Crazy Gang", head the cast of the wartime mirthspinner We'll Smile Again. The film is set at a movie studio, where production of an Arabian Nights epic is constantly interrupted by the fumbling and bumbling of Bob Parker (Flanagan) and Gordon Maxwell (Allen). The two screw-ups redeem themselves by capturing a Nazi spy ring, headed by film star Gina Cavendish (Phyllis Stanley) and Teutonic director Steiner (Meinhardt Maur). Bumptuous radio comedian Horace Kenny contributes to the zaniness as a self-important studio makeup man. The producers engagingly make fun of the film's ultra-low budget with the opening disclaimer "The Anglo-American Film Corporation announces proudly that no expense has been spared to save money on this production." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen, (more)
- 1939
In this entry in the long-running British comedy series, boisterous Irish washerwoman Mother Riley loses her laundry job and ends up running for Parliament against the man who fired her. Not only does she win, she also forces a foreign government to pay its massive debt to Britain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1938
Filmed in Ireland, Rose of Tralee purports to tell the story behind the titular song. Rose herself is played by Binkie Stuart, Dublin's answer to Shirley Temple. When her parents are separated, Rose is willing to move heaven and earth to bring them together. She is helped along by affable London restauranter Tim Kelly (Talbot O'Farrell) and by a pair of vaudeville singers (Fred Conyngham and Danny Malone). With the exception of American actress Dorothy Dare, most of the cast members are actually English rather than Irish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Binkie Stuart, Kathleen O'Regan, (more)
- 1937
In this musical, a plucky London newspaper journalist boards a transatlantic ocean liner in hopes of interviewing a prominent Hollywood starlet. She is followed by a Scotland Yard inspector who is looking for the jewel thief he knows is on board. Unfortunately, the inspector doesn't know the actual identity of the thief and his prime suspect becomes the hapless reporter who also finds herself pursued by a determined gangster who has made the same assumption. Before the boat docks in New York, the reporter is kidnapped and forced to work for the gangster's boss. Fortunately, the inspector finally discovers the thief's true identity and brings her to justice. The plot is based on a Dwight Taylor story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessie Matthews, Olive Blakeney, (more)
- 1937
This is the first entry in what became a long-running British comedy series. It is the story of a wealthy match maker who leaves his vast fortune to his family when he dies. But to get the money, they must follow one condition: they must take in the first person they see selling matches. Soon the family find themselves housing a rambunctious, opinionated Irish washerwoman, Old Mother Riley and her daughter. Mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
One man's attempts to convince his fellow jurors of the defendant's innocence provides the basis of this drama. The others point out that all the evidence presented proves his guilt, but the man is not swayed. Finally he asks them to reconstruct the crime. They do and find out that the holdout is indeed correct. They also find the real killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hartley Power, Margaret Lockwood, (more)
- 1936
Gunrunners who even kill their enemies through the use of train wrecks are being trailed by Yankee detective Lowe and girlfriend Cummings. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1936
In this comedy, an aristocratic fellow encounters opposition from his mother after he falls in love with a lowly waitress. To stop the affair, the meddlesome matriarch gets the girl fired, and then tries bribing her father into helping her bust up the happy couple. Unfortunately, the woman's wealth and power do not interest the simple stevedore. He cares only for his daughter's happiness and therefore helps them in every way he can. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1934
No relation to the 1968 John Cassavetes film of the same name, the 1934 Faces is a compact British romantic melodrama. Anna Lee plays a beautician who harbors dreams of wealth and luxury. She becomes the mistress of a millionaire, leaving her poor-but-true boyfriend Harold French in the lurch. Lee quickly changes her ways when she befriends the amiable wife of her wealthy "protector". Faces was adapted from a play by Patrick Ludlow and Walter Soames; the latter appears in the film as the philandering millionaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1934
The old Ben W. Levy war-horse play Evergreen proved to be an excellent film vehicle from British music-comedy star Jessie Matthews. Our heroine plays a popular music hall thrush of the early 1900s, whose impending marriage into nobility is destroyed by the arrival of her long-thought-dead lover. When the latter demands "hush money," Matthews disappears from public view, but not before leaving her infant daughter in the care of her maid. Flash-forward to 1924: the daughter, also played by Matthews, is seeking work as a chorus dancer. An old associate of Matthews' mother, amazed at the resemblance between the two women, decides to pass her off as her long-lost parent, making a big publicity fuss over her "ageless" beauty. The younger Matthews confesses the ruse when she falls in love with a man who claims to be the older Matthews' son. Are you following all this, or do you need a road map? Anyway, if you catch a complete print of Evergreen, you'll be able to enjoy five songs performed by Jessie Matthews, one of them by no less than Rodgers and Hart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, (more)
- 1932
In this musical romance, father and daughter con-artists prepare to go their separate ways when she learns that daddy tried to scam her newest beau. She soon discovers that he as is big a grifter as they. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
In this comedy, an ambassador becomes terribly angry after he learns that a wealthy British financier has offered to pay a foreign despot an enormous amount of money for oil rights to his country. The clever diplomat saves the day when he masquerades as the dictator, gets the money, and ends up donating it to charity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
An early example of the British musical film, His Lordship is in the long line of musicals in which a commoner finds himself elevated to the peerage, with comic results. In His Lordship, the commoner is a happy cockney plumber by the name of Bert Gibbs. Bert comes into contact with the celebrated Russian movie star Ilya Myona. Desperate for publicity and aware that nobility make for good copy, Ilya persuades Bert to pose as her fiancé (with the possibility of persuading him to go through with the marriage if need be). Things are complicated by a pair of anarchic Bolsheviks, one of whom has a daughter named Lenina who knows Bert from his plumber days and is quite in love with him. The knotty plot includes a musical segment in which Bert performs as a quick change artist in order to appear in a succession of publicity shots. Long thought lost, a print was found and restored by the British Film Institute in 1997. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- 1932
The credits for the 68-minute programmer Blue Danube are rather more impressive than the film itself. The picture was produced and directed by British cinematic giant Herbert Wilcox, the script is by veteran actor/director/playwright Miles Malleson, and the stars are the formidable Austrian-born stage actor Joseph Schildkraut and one-time Metropolis leading lady Brigette Helm (this was a German-English co-production). The story casts Helm and Schildkraut as European gypsies whose romance is broken up when both fall in love with aristocrats. It is Schildkraut who finally awakens to the old bromide "stay in your own backyard." Blue Danube is not a remake of the 1928 film of the same name, even though Joseph Schildkraut starred in both. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Schildkraut, Dorothy Bouchier, (more)
- 1932
William Freshman is in love with Ann Casson. She's engaged to military officer Henry Wenman. To eliminate competition, Freshman "borrows" a baby and claims that it's Wenman's. Fire, flood, famine, plague-you'll see none of these in Bachelor's Baby, but the complications lean towards the comically apocalyptic all the same. The film was based on a novel by Rolph Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1928
The Ware Case was adapted from the stage play by George Pleydell Bancroft, first filmed in 1917. When a voracious reader of murder mysteries is himself murdered, suspicion immediately falls upon the victim's brother-in-law. The ensuing trial is complicated by the fact that the defense attorney is in love with the wife of the accused. Despite his personal feelings, the attorney mounts a brilliant defense, thoroughly exonerating his client. But the "innocent" man has a little surprise in store for his lawyer -- and the audience. A third (and presumably final) movie version of The Ware Case was released in 1939. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Rome, Betty Carter, (more)
