Herbert Marshall Movies
British actor Herbert Marshall was born to a theatrical family, but initially had no intentions of a stage career himself. After graduating from St. Mary's College in Harrow, Marshall became an accounting clerk, turning to acting only when his job failed to interest him. With an equal lack of enthusiasm, Marshall joined a stock company in Brighton, making his stage debut in 1911; he ascended to stardom two years later in the evergreen stage farce, Brewster's Millions. Enlisting in the British Expeditionary Forces during World War I, Marshall was severely wounded and his leg was amputated. While this might normally have signalled the end of a theatrical career, Marshall was outfitted with a prosthesis and determined to make something of himself as an actor; he played a vast array of roles, his physical handicap slowing him down not one iota. In tandem with his first wife, actress Edna Best, Marshall worked on stage in a series of domestic comedies and dramas, then entered motion pictures with Mumsie (1927). His first talking film was the 1929 version of Somerset Maugham's The Letter, which he would eventually film twice, the first time in the role of the heroine's illicit lover, the second time (in 1940) as the cuckolded husband. With Ernst Lubitsch's frothy film Trouble in Paradise (1932), Marshall became a popular romantic lead. Easing gracefully into character parts, the actor continued working into the 1960s; he is probably best remembered for his portrayal of author Somerset Maugham in two separate films based on Maugham's works, The Moon and Sixpence (1942) and The Razor's Edge (1946). Alfred Hitchcock, who'd directed Marshall twice in films, showed the actor to good advantage on the Hitchcock TV series of the 1950s, casting Marshall in one episode as a washed-up matinee idol who wins a stage role on the basis of a totally fabricated life story. Marshall hardly needed to embroider on his real story of his life: he was married five times, and despite his gentlemanly demeanor managed to make occasional headlines thanks to his rambunctious social activities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1937
In this screwball comedy, Valentine Ransome (Barbara Stanwyck) is an heiress who falls for Jonathan Blair (Herbert Marshall), a carefree playboy who owns part of a large steamship line. However, Valentine doesn't especially like Jonathan's brassy fiancé, Carol Wallace (Glenda Farrell), and thinks he needs to start taking a more serious attitude about his money and his investments. To teach Jonathan a lesson (and get closer to him in the process), Valentine arranges to buy enough stock in the shipping company that she's the majority owner, and begins giving him orders about how things should be done. Jonathan isn't about to stand for that, and set off for a cruise on one of his ships, with Carol in tow and every intention of having the ship's captain marry them. But Jonathan's sidekick Butch (Eric Blore) doesn't like Carol any more than Valentine, and seizes every available opportunity to throw a spanner into the works. The same year that the versatile Barbara Stanwyck starred in this comic trifle, she received an Oscar nomination for her dramatic work in the movie Stella Dallas. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1937
Generally considered one of director Ernst Lubitsch's lesser works, Angel stars Marlene Dietrich as Maria, the neglected wife of Sir Frederick Barker (Herbert Marshall), a British diplomat who travels often and seems little concerned with his spouse. Maria has nearly reached her breaking point when she travels to Paris to visit her old friend Anna Dmitrivena (Laura Hope Crews), a Grand Duchess who also operates an exclusive bordello. While in Paris, Maria meets Anthony Halton (Melvyn Douglas), a visitor from America who seems quite taken with her. While Maria enjoys Anthony's attentions, she backs off and retreats to England. Shortly after her return, Maria and Frederick attend the races and she spots Anthony in the crowd. Maria is tempted to continue her romance with Anthony (who now realizes that she's married), while Frederick begins to wonder if his wife might be growing restless. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1936
Based on a novel by Netta Syrett, A Woman Rebels is the story of Pamela Thistlewaite (Katharine Hepburn), whose mission in life is to defy the restrictive and often hypocritical conventions of Victorian England. Refusing to conform to the status quo, Pamela lives alone, reads, and says whatever she wishes, and even -- horrors! -- takes a job. Her romantic dalliance with young Gerald (Van Heflin, in his film debut) results in an illegitimate daughter (Doris Dudley), whom Pamela raises as her niece until she decides it's high time to tell the truth in all matters. Faithful suitor Thomas Lane (Herbert Marshall) offers to make an "honest woman" of her, but Pamela refuses until she can stand on her own two feet financially. Fiercely independent to the last, she becomes the crusading editor of a pioneering pro-feminist magazine and an early champion of Women's Suffrage. It was hoped by RKO Radio that The Woman Rebels would restore the popularity of Katharine Hepburn, which thanks to a series of expensive failures had been flagging for the past two years. Though the film turned out to be a box-office loser (it posted a $220,000 deficit), in retrospect it can be regarded as an artistic triumph -- and a remarkably timely one at that. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1936
Anne Shirley is the teenaged "lady" in this filmization of Elizabeth Jordan's novel My Daddy and I. Shirley plays the daughter of widowed Herbert Marshall, who suffers in silence as his daughter tries to "match" him with every eligible woman in sight. Misinterpreting a delicate situation, Shirley attempts to link up Marshall with a woman (Margot Grahame) he actively dislikes. The highlight of the film is a ramshackle staging of "Romeo and Juliet" at Anne's high school, with the unflappable young girl contending with an adenoidal Romeo (Frank Coghlan Jr.) whose tights keep slipping as he struggles through his Shakespearian dialogue. The protagonist of Make Way for Lady was one of several teen ingenues played by former child actress Dawn O'Day under her new screen name of Anne Shirley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Anne Shirley, (more)
- 1936
Ann Harding stars as Anne Talbot, the wife of prominent physician Michael Talbot (Herbert Marshall). Despite his happy marriage, the good doctor's head has been turned by much-younger socialite Jerry Mannerly (Margaret Lindsay). A "modern woman," Anne gallantly steps aside, confident that Michael will eventually tire of his new flame and come to his senses. And of course, he does, but not without the help of his wise old dad (Edward Ellis). This harmless romantic drama was raked over the coals by the American and Canadian Glass Blowers' Union, who complained that beer was served in a tin can in one scene (special-interest pressure groups were definitely not a phenomenon of the 1990s!). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1936
Jim Buchanan (Herbert Marshall) is a wealthy, highly successful automobile company president, who is about to enter into a marriage-of-convenience with a socially-connected young woman (Frieda Inescort). When his board of directors votes down a new, revolutionary line of cars that he wants to adopt, Jim walks out on his company and his social obligations to re-think his future. He meets Joan Hawthorne (Jean Arthur), an unemployed and homeless young woman, in the park; she doesn't recognize him, and mistakes his uncertainty for desperation similar to her own. Joan persuades him to pose as her husband so can apply as the cook and butler in the home of Mike Rossini (Leo Carrillo), who turns out to be a gangster laying low in the wake of Prohibition's end. Rossini loves Joan's cooking and tolerates Jim's butling; but his henchman Flash (Lionel Stander), who is suspicious of everyone, is puzzled by the fact that the couple don't seem to be living as husband and wife, and also by Jim's nocturnal wanderings back to his corporate offices. Still hiding his identity from Joan, he passes himself off as a frustrated engineer (which he is), and impresses her with his ideas and drawings. A case of mistaken identity and mis-directed good intentions briefly lands Joan in jail, while Jim keeps trying to sort out his attraction to her, versus the loveless marriage he's about to enter into. When all seems lost for Joan, Rossini -- who likes her and her cooking -- comes through with his boys, kidnapping Jim out of his own wedding to try to get the couple back together. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1936
In this taut WW I espionage thriller set in 1914, an English actor falls in love with a German actress. When the war erupts, the two are torn apart and begin working as spies for their countries. They encounter each other, but now they are enemies. Fortunately their love is too deep and is soon rekindled, and an understanding master-spy helps them get to Holland where they can be married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Gertrude Michael, (more)
- 1936
Forgotten Faces is the third of four versions of the old chestnut Heliotrope Harry. Herbert Marshall stars as Harry Ashton, a gambler-turned-jailbird saddled with a vindictive ex-wife named Cleo (Gertrude Michael). Seventeen years after the break-up, an impoverished Cleo, now a cheap burlesque performer, searches for her daughter Sally (Jane Rhodes), whom she gave up for adoption. She blackmails Sally's foster parents, threatening to tell the girl that her real mother is a tramp and her real father has just served a long prison term. But Harry, recently paroled, stops Cleo in her tracks by killing her. This grand gesture also costs him his own life, but at least he can shuffle off his mortal coil secure in the knowledge that his daughter will be spared the truth. Director E. A. Dupont is at his Germanic best in Forgotten Faces, which is altogether suitable to the melodramatic nature of the storyline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Gertrude Michael, (more)
- 1936
French actress Simone Simon made her American film debut in Girls' Dormitory. Simon portrays a twentyish student in a Swiss private school, harboring a secret passion for headmaster Herbert Marshall. For her own amusement, Simon writes an intense love letter to an imaginary beau; the letter falls in the hands of two snoopy teachers, who suspect the worst. Running away from her accusers, Simone has a chance meeting with Marshall, who reveals that he is in love with her. The official studio synopsis for Girl's Dormitory states that Simone nobly steps aside to allow a middle-aged teacher (Ruth Chatterton) to marry Marshall, but in the film itself Simon ends up with Marshall after all. The synopsis barely mentions Tyrone Power, appearing in his first film for 20th Century-Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Ruth Chatterton, (more)
- 1935
MGM's The Flame Within was the second entry in the "psychiatric" film-cycle inaugurated by Paramount's Private Worlds. Ann Harding stars as female psychiatrist Mary White, who likes to think that she is personally above her patients' emotional problems. This proves not to be the case when Mary takes a more than professional interest in the plight of self-destructive alcoholic Jack Kerry (Louis Hayward). Also involved in this situation is Kerry's troubled fiancee Lillian Belton (Maureen O'Sullivan), who has twice attempted suicide out of love for the man. Thus, Mary's dilemma is compounded: she has fallen in love with Kerry herself, and where does that leave poor Lillian? A little shaky in terms of psychology, The Flame Within works best on a purely melodramatic level. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1935
Samuel Goldwyn's The Dark Angel is a sumptuously produced soap opera with a poignant "Enoch Arden" style denouement. Fredric March, Merle Oberon and Herbert Marshall star respectively as Alan Trent, Kitty Vane and Gerald Shannon, friends since childhood. Though Gerald is deeply in love with Kitty, it is Alan who wins her hand in marriage. But before the wedding can take place, WW I intervenes, and both Alan and Gerald march off with their regiments. Blinded on the battlefield, Alan gallantly pretends to have been killed so that Kitty will not feel obligated to care for him. Eventually, however, she discovers that he's still alive, which leads to the film's most memorable scene, in which the proud Alan painstakingly arranges all the furniture and bric-and-brac in his room to make it seem as though he can still see. Though the film is set in the late teens and early '20s, Merle Oberon is garbed throughout in the latest 1935 fashions -- an endearingly anachronistic Sam Goldwyn trademark. Oscar nominations went to star Oberon and art director Richard Day, with the latter taking home the gold statuette. Adapted by Lillian Hellman and Mordaunt Sharp from a stage play by Guy Bolton (written pseudonymously as H. B. Treveleyen), The Dark Angel was previously filmed by Goldwyn in 1925. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Merle Oberon, (more)
Margaret Sullavan graduates from a girl's orphanage to an usherette's job at a Budapest movie theatre. Bibulous millionaire Frank Morgan makes a play for Margaret, but she keeps him at arm's length by picking a name from the phone book and insists that that's the name of her husband. The man chosen at random is attorney Herbert Marshall, who can't understand why Morgan has taken a sudden interest in him. Morgan offers Marshall a huge contract in hopes that Margaret will be "exchanged", but the truth comes out to everyone's satisfaction. Adapted from a Ferenc Molnar play by Preston Sturges (who added a hilarious movie-within-a-movie in which the "stars" emote by speaking in one-syllable sentences), Good Fairy was remade as the Deanna Durbin vehicle I'll Be Yours (47). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1935
Based on Samson Raphaelson's stage play, Accent on Youth focuses on a May-December romance. Herbert Marshall (46 years old at the time) is a successful middle-aged playwright; Constance Cummings is his young secretary, who prefers the company of mature men. She sets her cap on marrying the playwright, while he fends off her attentions. By the time Marshall has grown fond enough of Constance to propose, she has changed her mind and fallen for a man her own age. Accent on Youth was remade as Mr. Music (50) and But Not For Me (59), with, respectively, 49-year-old Bing Crosby and 58-year-old Clark Gable as the "elderly" hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Sidney, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1934
Cecil B. DeMille's least characteristic sound feature, Four Frightened People is a character study about a quartet of castaways whose fates are permanently altered by spectacular circumstances. Four coastal steamer passengers jump ship when a deadly bubonic plague breaks out. They steal a lifeboat and land on a remote Malayan island. The frightened people are a wealthy, married rubber chemist (Herbert Marshall), a mousy schoolteacher (Claudette Colbert, with requisite eyeglasses), a tough news correspondent (William Gargan) and the supercilious wife of a British official (Mary Boland). As the four adapt themselves to the rigors of jungle life, the lady teacher sheds her glasses and becomes more attractive by the day--and is subsequently fought over by the two men in the party. Their native guide (Leo Carrillo) dead, the castaways are captured by hostile Islanders. The newsman dies, the chemist and the teacher are thrust together in peril, and the official's wife becomes the unofficial queen of the island thanks to her diplomatic skills. Upon rescue, the married chemist nobly parts with the schoolteacher, but eventually escapes his loveless marriage and is reunited with his new love--even as her young pupils look on in adolescent fascination. As entertaining as any of DeMille's "big" pictures, Four Frightened People did disappointing business, prompting DeMille to return to historical spectacles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1934
A few unique touches aside -- notably the opening costume-party scene, in which the revellers are dressed as insects -- Rip Tide is a standard-issue Norma Shearer soap opera. Shearer plays Mary, a footloose and fancy-free American heiress who weds British nobleman Lord Rexford (Herbert Marshall). Five years later, Rexford embarks upon a business trip to New York, while Mary, urged on by her fun-loving aunt, vacations on the Riviera. Here she is reacquainted with her ex-boyfriend Tommie (Robert Montgomery), whose drunken misbehavior causes scandal to befall them both. Refusing to hear Mary's side of the story, Rexford begins divorce proceedings, but a happy ending finally manifests itself after reels and reels of endless high-toned dialogue. Legendary stage star Mrs. Patrick Campbell makes her Hollywood film debut in Rip Tide as Shearer's all-knowing Aunt Hetty, while Walter Brennan and Bruce Bennett show up in microscopic bit roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, (more)
- 1934
A W. Somerset Maugham novel was the source for the fair-to-middling Greta Garbo vehicle The Painted Veil. In a situation comparable to the plotlines of most of her silent films, Garbo is lovelessly married to Herbert Marshall, but carries a flaming torch for George Brent. (Also harking back to Garbo's silent days is the fact that neither one of the men in her life is particularly interesting!) Marshall, a brilliant physician, is compelled to go into the interior regions of China to quell a cholera epidemic. He knows that Garbo has been having an affair with politician Brent, and chivalrously gives her the choice of remaining with Brent or accompanying him. Fearing a scandal, Brent bids farewell to Garbo. Once they're in the midst of the epidemic, Garbo tirelessly works by her husband's side; eventually she falls in love with him for the first time. Seriously injured in a peasant uprising, Marshall hovers near death. Brent reappears, offering to take Garbo back with him. She refuses, electing to stay with her husband no matter what the future brings. Among the supporting players in The Painted Veil are Warner Oland and Keye Luke, one year away from their memorable pairing in Fox's Charlie Chan films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Garbo, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1934
This story of espionage in World War I is based on a true story. Marthe McKenna (Madeleine Carroll) is a nurse from Belgium who uses her beauty and charm to serve her native land during the war. McKenna is able to ferret out secret information from German officers and pass it along to Allied intelligence officers with the help of fellow spy Stephan (Herbert Marshall). When the evil Commandant Oberaertz (Conrad Veidt) discovers what McKenna has been doing, she's sentenced to be executed, and Stephan must step in to save her. I Was a Spy was the first American sound feature for German actor Conrad Veidt, who electrified audiences with his performance in the silent classic Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari; Veidt left his homeland when the Nazis began their rise to power, though ironically he was to play a number of Nazi villains during his stay in Hollywood. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Carroll, Conrad Veidt, (more)
- 1934
Outcast Lady is a heavily censored version of Michael Arlen's once-notorious novel The Green Hat, previously filmed by Greta Garbo as A Woman of Affairs. Constance Bennett is Iris March, a woman cursed by her beauty, doomed to drive everyone around her -- including herself -- to destruction. When her new husband Boy Fenwick (Ralph Forbes) commits suicide on their wedding night, Iris, who's been unfaithful to him, is held responsible, especially when the reason for Fenwick's demise is kept a secret by his snobbish family (He had contacted syphilis in the Arlen original; in the film, he fears exposure of a previous prison term). Realizing that she has brought nothing but sorrow to the Fenwick family, Iris nobly steps into her fashionable touring car and smashes it into a tree. Oddly enough, Iris' death is amusing in retrospect, inasmuch as Constance Bennett would suffer a similar demise at the beginning of 1937's Topper, thereby allowing her to cavort through the rest of the picture as a ghost. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Bennett, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1933
A splashy journalist finds herself embroiled in international intrigue when she hooks up with a sneaky Russian correspondent who curries favor by saving a Secret Police official. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Benita Hume, (more)
- 1933
Based on a story by Bela and Samuel Spewack, Solitaire Man stars Herbert Marshall as Oliver Lane, a "diamond expert" (read: master jewel thief). During a plane flight across the English channel, Lane becomes aware that practically every member of his gang plans to double-cross him -- not that the crooks trust one another any more than they trust their boss. Even detective Wallace (Lionel Atwill), assigned to keep tabs on Lane, turns out to be a double-crossing scoundrel. Under the circumstances, Lane becomes the film's hero by default. Practically the only person worth caring about in the story is heroine Helen (Elizabeth Allen) -- and one has one's doubts about her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, May Robson, (more)
- 1933
Herbert Marshall and Edna Best, husband and wife in 1933, star in the British drama Faithful Hearts. Best plays the daughter of Marshall, who years earlier had run out on his family. When Edna re-enters Marshall's life, it causes him to reassess his values-and to end his engagement to his judgmental fiancee. When Faithful Hearts was released in the US, all the voices were redubbed by American actors; even Herbert Marshall, a fixture in Hollywood films since the dawn of the talkie era, was submitted to this electronic augmentation. Original titled The Faithful Heart (Americans must have more of everything!), the film was based on a play by Monckton Hoffe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Edna Best, (more)
- 1932
Marlene Dietrich stars as Helen Faraday, a German cabaret singer in the States whose husband, Ned, falls ill and his only hope is to receive expensive medical treatment at a clinic in Europe. Struggling to afford his care and to support their son Johnny, she works at a nightclub and succumbs to the advances of wealthy playboy Nick, whose gifts assist in her husband's recovery. Soon Ned recovers and returns, but when he discovers that Helen has been unfaithful, he divorces her, threatening to take their son. After running with little Johnny, she ends up a prostitute in New Orleans, where she is found by the detective hired by Ned. The boy is taken from her and Helen flees to Paris where she becomes a cabaret sensation. Upon witnessing a performance, Nick begins seeing her again and when the show moves to NYC, he secures a meeting between her and her ex -- who is finally made aware of the motivation behind her affair years before. This is the feature containing the well-known scenes where Dietrich performs stage numbers in an ape-suit and a white tuxedo (complete with top hat). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1932
In this romance, an impoverished Viennese aristocrat becomes a gigolo. While on the job, he encounters a Yankee widow who is terribly impressed by titled men. They get involved and she helps him start afresh. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herbert Marshall, Sara Maritza, (more)
Ernst Lubitsch used Laszlo Aladar's play The Honest Finder as a springboard for one of his most delightful early-'30s Paramount confections. Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins play Gaston and Lily, a pair of Parisian thieves, both disguised as nobility, who decide to rob lovely perfume company executive Mariette Colet (Kay Francis); Gaston gets a job as Mariette's confidential secretary, while Lily installs herself as the woman's typist. Love rears its head, forcing Gaston to choose between marriage to Mariette and a fast getaway with Lily. Filled with marvelous throwaway gags and sophisticated innuendo, Trouble in Paradise was described by one critic as "as close to perfection as anything I have ever seen in the movies." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, (more)
