Hilda Bayley Movies
- 1922
With her Hollywood career in the doldrums, actress Mae Marsh briefly set up shop in England, where she appeared in several intriguing productions. In Flames of Passion, Mae plays a married woman who falls in love with her chauffeur. When her lover accidentally kills her child, Mae refuses to betray the man to the police. Only under intensive cross-examination by lawyer C. Aubrey Smith does Marsh break down and tell the truth. Flames of Passion was one of many felicitous collaborations between producer Herbert Wilcox and director Graham Cutts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1936
In this drama, set in an office, two veterans are hired after the war by the father of a friend who was killed in battle. Trouble ensues when one discovers that the other is embezzling company funds. The other then threatens to tell their late friend's dad the truth about his demise--he had died a coward. Despite their attempts to keep it quiet, the truth is revealed and the embezzler gets his due. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1940
The British Room for Two takes place in a back-lot Venice. Womanizing Englishman Vic Oliver takes a fancy to married tourist Frances Day. In a plot device right out of Charley's Aunt, Oliver disguises himself in drag and hires on as Day' maid (female impersonation was a valuable part of music-hall favorite Oliver's repertoire). When Day's philandering hubby Basil Radford comes home, the laughs start rolling in. Room for Two is based on a stage farce by Gilbert Wakefield. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Released in the US as Forty-Eight Hours, Went the Day Well? is a solidly constructed wartime melodrama. Actually, the film covers 72 hours in the life of the small British village of Bramley Green, which serves as the focal point for an attempted German invasion. Immediately upon parachuting in the community, vicious Nazi officer Ortier (Basil Sydney) makes contact with local Fifth Columnist Oliver Wileford (Leslie Banks), using the film's British title as their password. Fortunately, Democracy is preserved when postmistress-telephone operator Mrs. Collins (Muriel George), picking up on a simple clue inadvertently left behind by the well-disguised Germans, alerts her neighbors of impending danger. The British home guardsmen and German soldiers seen in the film were drawn from the ranks of of the real-life Gloucestershire Regiment, who volunteered their services for this patriotic morale-booster. The episode screenplay of Went the Day Well (based on Graham Greene story) was unified by the direct-to-camera narration of the town gravedigger, a device deftly borrowed from Our Town. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Banks, Basil Sydney, (more)
- 1942
A bashful artist finds all kinds of trouble in this comedy. A handyman by profession, the shy fellow loves to paint, but can only paint the heads of his models as he is too embarrassed to render the rest of their nude forms. The portraits are very good, and later, in a commercial art class, other students add bodies to his heads. This gets the handyman in all sorts of hot water with the models when the painting is used as an advertisement for soap. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1943
In this melodrama, two lovers plan to marry when the man returns from his stint in the war. The woman's life is shattered when she learns that he is listed as missing in action. She then becomes a nurse and falls in love with a doctor. Later the husband, an amnesiac returns. His memory also returns when he hears his favorite romantic song. This reunites him with his true love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1944
Give Me the Stars is a British comedy aimed squarely at the regional audiences of the 1940s. Lenni Lynn plays an American girl (complete with a line of unconvincing slang) who heads to Scotland on family business. She appoints herself protector of her cranky Scots grandfather (Will Fyffe), who of course is not nearly as helpless as she believes. While tolerably produced, Give Me the Stars rather resembles an elongated music hall sketch. But Will Fyffe was enormously popular, and the film brought in the shillings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1945
A classic in gothic-romantic excess, Madonna of Seven Moons was one of the most successful British films of its genre. Though she doesn't know it at first, young convent-bred Rosalinda (Phyllis Calvert) has been born under a curse: before her life comes to a close, she will be wife, mother and mistress all in one. As a child, Rosalinda is raped by a gypsy, an experience that renders her a schizophrenic. Years later, she is the seemingly contented wife of prosperous Italian businessman Giuseppe (John Stuart) and the mother of attractive teenager Angela (Patricia Roc). From time to time, however, Rosalinda disappears from her home and retreats to the slums of Florence, where she assumes the identity of lustful gypsy girl Maddelina, the mistress of criminal leader Nino (Stewart Granger). Then she returns to her husband and daughter, completely unaware of her "other" self or even that she's been absent. Understandably curious about her mother's long absences, Angela follows Rosalinda during one of her sojourns into the Florentine underworld. Far from home and hearth, poor Angela is targetted for seduction by Sandro (Peter Glenville)--the very gypsy who'd assaulted the younger Rosalinda! And just when it seems that things can't get any more unbelievable?..well, this one is definitely better seen than described. Originally released at 100 minutes, Madonna of Seven Moons was expertly cut to 88 minutes for US consumption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, (more)
- 1945
This musical comedy, centers around the romance between a delightful orphan and the son of a colonel and his snooty wife. The lad wants to marry the girl, but the wife refuses to give her blessing. The saddened girl then leaves and becomes a nightclub singer. Her lover follows her, but he is too late. She has already found another, amiable guy who has learned that she is actually a rich heiress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1947
Naughty, bawdy British music hall comedian Frank Randle is the whole show in When You Come Home. The story opens as Randle, decked out in old-codger makeup, relives his glory days in the British Army, a good a cue as any for the title song. The film then segues into an extended flashback to 1908, with the younger Randle causing havoc in a seedy London theater. The distinctive Lancashire humor of Frank Randle, coupled with his doubleand single-entendre quips, invariably resulted in huge box office returns in England, though American audiences were either baffled or bored by the star's cheeky vulgarity. When You Come Home was also released as Home Sweet Home. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Randle, Leslie Sarony, (more)
- 1948
Fans of British film star Anna Neagle had a field day with her bravura Technicolor vehicle Elizabeth of Ladymead--though not enough fans showed up back in 1948 to make the film a success. Neagle portrays four different characters from four different historical periods, each named Elizabeth. The first, Beth, lives in 1854 London, as the Crimean War rages thousands of miles away. The second, Elizabeth, lives in 1903, just after the Boer war. The third, Betty, is a girl of 1919, the year after World War I. And the fourth, Liz, is a contemporary lass of post-World War II London. We watch as each of the four Elizabeths emerges as a woman of independence while the menfolk are off to war. Whenever the film becomes too repetitious, Elizabeth of Ladymead scores on the charm of Anna Neagle and her attractive deportment while wearing period costumes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Hugh Williams, (more)
- 1949
In this drama, a young Englishman wants to become a surgeon, but after medical school, his father dies, leaving him the responsibility of supporting his mother and paying for his brother's education. He becomes a partner in a small practice and watches the woman he wanted to marry go off with his brother. The brother is killed in WWI, after which his illegitimate son is born. The doctor marries the woman, but she dies in childbirth, leaving him to raise his brother's child. Eventually, he finds a new wife. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilda Bayley, Beatrice Campbell, (more)
- 1949
In this entry in the comedy series, Frank Randle plays a janitor at a girl's school. Mayhem ensues when he discovers that his estranged daughter is one of the students. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1951
In this comedy, a bookie wins a boutique and decides to modernize the joint by devising, new, more effective programs for running it. Those who have worked in the shop for years are not pleased with the new changes, and when the bookies elaborate plans blow up in his face, they are only too pleased to go back to working for the shop's original owner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1953
Three disparate male travellers quietly amuse themselves by fantasizing about the same beautiful blonde in this interesting, episodic comedy. A French bus driver sees her first and promptly imagines that she is a seductive photographer's model. In his fantasy, the two end up having a passionate affair on the French Riviera. In the next episode, a Yankee Army officer sees her on the ferry across the Channel and imagines that she is a cabaret chanteuse from Berlin. In the final episode, a British fellow sees her on the boat and imagines that she is a film star who needs his help to get away from the pesky press. Unfortunately, for the three, she proves to be a different sort of woman all together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burgess Meredith, Jean-Pierre Aumont, (more)
