Mary Newland Movies
- 1935
In this drama, a group of shopkeepers unite to prevent the owners of a major department store from buying up their stalls. Together, the vendors plan an enormous sale in the hope that it will save their failing businesses. Unfortunately, their plan fails and they must sell out. Fortunately, their stalling tactics have forced the store to pay them each a considerable sum. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Peter Haddon plays Dorothy L. Sayers' amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey in the Anglo-American The Silent Passenger. A scurrilous blackmailer is murdered by one of his victims, but it is innocent John Loder who is suspected of the crime. Making the casual acquaintance of Loder, Lord Peter Wimsey sets about to prove his new friend's innocence. It all takes place on a train trip from London to the English Channel, with Loder acting as bait to flush out the real killer. Dorothy L. Sayers wrote the original story for Silent Passenger directly for the screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1934
Originally released in 1934 as Death at Broadcasting House, this musty British whodunit was distributed in the US in 1941 to cash in on the Hollywood-engendered popularity of its star, Ian Hunter. Set in a BBC radio studio, the story gets under way when a much-despised airwaves personality is murdered in the middle of a live broadcast. Scotland Yard inspector Gregory (Ian Hunter) shows up to piece together the clues and sift through the suspects. The solution of the mystery hinges on the fact that the victim insisted upon broadcasting in a private room, far removed from his fellow actors. Inspector Gregory provides this solution by coming up with a transcription of the fatal broadcast (this at a time when few radio programs were recorded for posterity). Elements of Death at a Broadcast resurfaced in the 1942 Abbott & Costello comedy Who Done It? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Hunter, Austin Trevor, (more)
- 1933
Ask Beccles, a fast-moving British stage farce by Cyril Campion and Edward Dignon, was transferred to the screen in 1933. Garry Marsh plays Beccles, a highly respected business consultant who, in a moment of weakness, turns to crime. Beccles steals a valuable diamond, and for a while congratulates himself for getting away scot free. But when an innocent man is arrested for the crime, the guilt-ridden Beccles plots to return the gem-without, of course, implicating himself. Ask Beccles was released in the US by Paramount Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1931
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, All Movie Guide
- 1931
An Edgar Wallace story was at the base of this turgid British comedy-drama. Music-hall favorite Maisie Gay stars as a dimwitted cook who goes to work for young marrieds Warwick Ward and Mary Newcomb. Gay's ineptitude sabotages an important dinner party, very nearly losing Ward his cushy job. But our heroine makes up for past boo-boos by charming the couple's Very Wealthy Guest with a medley of musical numbers. A piquant example of the pitfalls of Britain's "quota-quickie" production policy, To Oblige a Lady was so bad that audiences went home whistling the scenery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warwick Ward, Haddon Mason, (more)
