Esme Percy Movies
- 1956
Seven Years in Tibet tells the story of Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer, who at the start of World War II escaped from a British POW camp in India, fleeing north across the Himalayan mountains into Tibet. There he met and befriended the young Dalai Lama, only to have to escape back into India some years later when the Red Chinese Army invaded his adopted home. The film includes the 16 mm color footage shot by Harrer during 1939 and 1940 while in Tibet. There are also a substantial number of recreated scenes dramatizing parts of Harrer's journey that were not originally recorded by camera. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
- 1947
Firmly in the fantasy groove previously plowed by such films as The Canterville Ghost and The Time of Their Lives is the 1947 British comedy The Ghosts of Berkeley Square. Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer play a pair of fatuous Colonel Blimp military types, whose efforts to shorten the war results only in getting the both of them killed. Summoned to a Heavenly court, Morley and Aylmer incur the wrath of Queen Anne. She orders them to haunt a mansion until they can prove themselves worthy of entering the Pearly Gates. For a film that practically no one has ever heard of, Ghosts of Berkeley Square is an embarrassment of riches in the casting department: among the British favorites appearing in the film are Martita Hunt, A.E. Mathews, James Hayter, Ernst Thesiger, and Wilfred Hyde-White. The film was based on the novel No Nightingales by Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne Arnaud, Felix Aylmer, (more)
- 1946
George Bernard Shaw adapted his own play for the screen in this blithe film version of the romance between Caesar (Claude Rains) and Cleopatra (Vivien Leigh). Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra are merely Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle cast back into ancient times with Caesar doting with admiration and burgeoning love upon Cleopatra and expostulating, "You have been growing up since the Sphinx introduced us the other night." The story is a simple one concerning Caesar instructing Cleopatra on how to act like a queen. But Cleopatra is left cold by Caesar and his blatherings. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains, (more)
- 1946
Previously costarred in The Trojan Brothers, David Farrar and Patricia Burke were reteamed in the British musical The Lisbon Story. Though the film ostensibly concerns the wartime exploits of a Gallic chanteuse (Burke) and a British spy (Farrar), the film's main selling angle was international popular operatic tenor Richard Tauber. Peripherally involved in the storyline, Tauber steals the show with his spirited musical renditions. The fact that the villains in the film are Nazis must have gratified Tauber, who would have faced extinction at the hands of the Gestapo had he remained in his native Germany. Sadly, The Lisbon Story proved to be Tauber's final screen appearance; he died two years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Burke, David Farrar, (more)
- 1945
Considered the greatest horror anthology film, the classic British chiller Dead of Night features five stories of supernatural terror from four different directors, yet it ultimately feels like a unified whole. The framing device is simple but unsettling, as a group of strangers find themselves inexplicably gathered at an isolated country estate, uncertain why they have come. The topic of conversation soon turns to the world of dreams and nightmares, and each guest shares a frightening event from his/her own past. Many of these tales have become famous, including Basil Dearden's opening vignette about a ghostly driver with "room for one more" in the back of his hearse. Equally eerie are Robert Hamer's look at a haunted antique mirror that gradually begins to possess its owner's soul, and Alberto Cavalcanti's ghost story about a mysterious young girl during a Christmas party. Legendary Ealing comedy director Charles Crichton lightens the mood with an amusing interlude about the spirit of a deceased golfer haunting his former partner, leaving viewers vulnerable to Cavalcanti's superb and much-imitated closing segment, about a ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) slowly driven mad when his dummy appears to come to life. Deservedly acclaimed and highly influential, Dead of Night's episodic structure inspired an entire genre of lesser imitators. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mervyn Johns, Michael Redgrave, (more)
- 1942
Released worldwide by 20th Century Fox, Carol Reed's The Young Mr. Pitt is a static but sincere filmed biography of 19th century British prime minister William Pitt Jr., here played by Robert Donat. Appointed to his office at the tender age of 24, Mr. Pitt spends most of his time in Parliament alerting his countrymen of the dangers posed by France's Emperor Napoleon (Herbert Lom, in his first English-speaking role). The Frank Launder-Sidney Gilliat screenplay works overtime drawing parallels between the Pitt-Napoleon conflict and the present crisis involving Great Britain and Nazi Germany. Various historical personages are impersonated by the likes of Phyllis Calvert, John Mills, and Robert Morley, with Morley stealing the show hands down. Like its thematic "twin" Penn of Pennsylvania, Young Mr. Pitt is lavishly produced, but suffers from pedantic speechifying and substandard special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Donat, Robert Morley, (more)
- 1941
Barbara Mullen stars as Jeannie, a spirited Scots girl who comes into an inheritance. She heads for her family castle after encountering numerous adventures on a Continental holiday. Jeannie also finds romance in the form of handsome washing machine salesman Stewart Granger, who wins out over the romantic overtures of gigolo Albert Lieven. Based on a play by Aimee Stewart, Jeannie overcame its attenuated budget with a plethora of good cheer, enabling the film to garner good reviews on both sides of the Atlantic (in America, the film was retitled Girl in Distress). The story was musicalized for its 1957 remake, Let's Be Happy, in which the heroine (Vera-Ellen) was changed into an American girl who comes to Scotland, rather than using the Highlands as a starting point. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Mullen, Wilfred Lawson, (more)
- 1940
Laurence Olivier plays a young Londoner implicated in a brutal murder. According to the rules of British law, he is permitted 21 days of comparative freedom from the time of the first hearing to the time of trial -- provided he does not leave London. As the three weeks pass, Olivier falls deeply in love with girlfriend Vivien Leigh, who at first believes in his innocence. But as the deadline approaches, Olivier's mood swings and erratic behavior shakes Leigh's faith in him. Scripted by British suspense expert Graham Greene, 21 Days Together was originally released under the simpler title 21 Days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivien Leigh, Leslie Banks, (more)
Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller star in Anthony Asquith's and Leslie Howard's classic version of George Bernard Shaw's satiric comedy. Henry Higgins (Howard) is an upper class phonetics professor who encounters low-class guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle (Hiller) and bets his friend Colonel Pickering (Scott Sunderland) that he can pass her off as a duchess within three months. Pickering accepts Higgins' bet, with Eliza readily agreeing to the proposal, since she will get to live in Higgins' fancy home. Once in Higgins' house, Eliza is subjected to intensely repetitive phonetics lessons in an effort to transform her Cockney accent into the speech of proper English. Things are a bit rocky at first, with Eliza blurting out "Not bloody likely" at a tea party. But when Eliza is presented at the Ambassador's Ball, she is not only accepted as a princess but is the talk of the ball, everyone in attendance commenting on her charm, beauty, and poise. Relishing his success, Higgins abruptly dismisses her. But Eliza has fallen in love with Higgins and is aghast at her cursory treatment by him. She tells him, "I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me, I'm not fit to sell anything else." When Eliza leaves, Higgins realizes that he loves her too, but Eliza has announced to Higgins that she plans to marry high society playboy Freddie Eynsford-Hill (David Tree). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wendy Hiller, Leslie Howard, (more)
- 1937
The French revolutionary Robespierre vows to get revenge on the Scarlet Pimpernel who has been helping the aristocracy escape from the dreaded guillotine in this sequel to 1934's The Scarlet Pimpernel. To do so Robespierre kidnaps the Pimpernel's wife and takes her to France. Unfortunately, he is not clever enough for the roguish hero and he soon frees her. Together they return to England. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Barnes, Sophie Stewart, (more)
- 1937
A trio of American actors head the cast of the British naval drama Torpedoed. Noah Beery appears as the unnamed President of an equally unnamed South American banana republic. When a group of insurgents stage of revolt, His Majesty's Navy is dispatched to put down the uprising. Richard Cromwell carries the romantic subplot as Bill Armstrong, the sweetheart of Pamela (Hazel Terry), daughter of American businessman Mr. Brent (H. B. Warner). Robert Douglas, years before being typecast as a villain, costars as stalwart captain Markham, while Esme Percy, a specialist in indeterminate "foreign" types, plays the rebel leader. Originally filmed as Our Fighting Navy, the title was changed to keep apace of world events-specifically, the torpedoing of the Athenia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- H.B. Warner, Robert Douglas, (more)
- 1937
Directed by Raoul Walsh, When Thief Meets Thief chronicles the story of two ex-partners in crime who have fallen in love with the same woman. When cat-burglar Ricky Morgan (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) gets emotionally involved with one of his victims, Glory Fane (Valerie Hobson), he doesn't realize that she's engaged to his adversary, Jim Dial (Alan Hale). Claiming to have reformed, Dial (Hale) masquerades as a successful businessman. When Jim winds up dead, however, Glory (Hobson) is blamed for his murder. Though innocent himself, Ricky (Fairbanks) tries to take the rap for her. Once the police figure out that Jim committed suicide after his stocks crashed, Glory and Ricky are both set free and allowed to continue their newfound romance. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1937
Having flunked out as Sam Goldwyn's answer to Greta Garbo, Russian actress Anna Sten retreated to Britain for the 1936 historical drama A Woman Alone. Based on a novel by Fedor Ozop, the film is set in 19th century Russia. Sten plays a peasant girl who falls in love with military captain Henry Wilcoxon. The subsequent emotionally supercharged complications are reminiscent of the similar ill-fated romance in Tolstoy's Resurrection (which Sten had earlier filmed as We Live Again). Produced by Anna Sten's husband Eugene Frenke, A Woman Alone was originally released in Britain as Two Who Dared. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Sten, Henry Wilcoxon, (more)
- 1936
The time is WWI. A mysterious Italian secret agent known only as "Spy 77" has been responsible for the undermining of Austrian battle plans. Captain von Hombergck (Carl Diehl) makes it his mission in life to reveal the identity of the elusive Spy 77. Along the way, he falls in love with beautiful Italian marchesa Marcella Galdi (Greta Nissen) -- so guess who she really is? Choosing love over duty, Marcella willingly sacrifices her own life to save Von Hombergk's. A little comedy relief -- or even a song or two -- wouldn't have hurt this picture at all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Nissen, Don Alvarado, (more)
- 1936
The Amateur Gentleman takes place in England during the Regency era. The hero is Barnaby Barty (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), an innkeeper's son. To prove his dad innocent of a crime, Barnaby poses as a famous bare-knuckle gentleman prizefighter. In this guise he gains access to the Royal court, and in short order falls in love with aristocratic Lady Cleone (Elissa Landi). He also discovers that Cleone's fiancé (Basil Sydney) is the man responsible for the crime for which his dad was blamed. Produced by Douglas Fairbanks Jr's own company in England, The Amateur Gentleman was based on a popular novel by Jeffrey Farnol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Elissa Landi, (more)
- 1936
Accused is a British melodrama starring American actor (and confirmed Anglophile) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Somewhat incongruously cast as an Apache dancer, Fairbanks and his dance partner/wife Dolores Del Rio headline a Paris musical. Fairbanks becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Florence Desmond (the famed British impressionist, here playing a hateful adventuress). Desmond is later murdered with the dagger used by Fairbanks and his wife in their act, and Dolores is accused of the crime. A florid court trial unmasks the real killer. Zoe Akins, a prominent playwright of the 1920s whose once-celebrated works seem somewhat childish today, was one of the scenarists of Accused. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dolores Del Rio, (more)
- 1936
Along with The Emperor Jones, Song of Freedom is arguably the best of Paul Robeson's starring features. Robeson plays London dockworker John Zinga, obsessed with the urge to return to his African "roots" (this was nearly 40 years before Alex Haley!) Discovered by an operatic impresario, John achieves singing stardom on the concert stage -- only to throw it all away to make a pilgrimage to Africa, there to assume leadership of his ancestral tribe, the Casangas. His efforts to free the natives of their superstitions and bring the advantages of civilization to the region are opposed by the local witch doctors, who do their best to kill John and his young wife (Elizabeth Welch). Zinga is saved when he suddenly and instinctively offers a rendition of the tribal "song of freedom," proving beyond all doubt that he is the rightful ruler of the Casangas. Advertised as a "$500,000 epic" (a not inconsiderable sum for a British film in the mid-1930s), Song of Freedom did quite well at the box-office -- except, of course, in the white-bread American South. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Robeson, Elisabeth Welch, (more)
- 1936
Imagine a whole country where music is outlawed! Director Walter Forde and writer Marian Dix dreamed up such a horrendous state of affairs for Forbidden Music (original British title: Land Without Music). It seems that the citizens of the mythical duchy of Lucco spend so much time singing that they can't get their work done; therefore, the regent in charge, lovely duchess Diane Napier, decrees that her people will sing no more. Operatic revolutionary Richard Tauber changes the duchess' mind in romantic fashion--with the comic assistance of foreign correspondent Jimmy Durante, who seems ill at ease stalking about in this Ruritanian nonsense. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1936
In this comedy, a wealthy but inept yachtsman (Buster Keaton) sails to Spain and goes looking for love in all the wrong places when a conniving seductress steals his heart. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton
- 1935
Anna Neagle is every other inch a lady in the frolicsome costume epic Nell Gwyn. The star is of course cast as the title character, the lusty orange vendor-turned-actress who becomes the "great and good friend" of merry monarch King Charles II (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). This is not to the liking of the King's current favorite, the Duchess of Portsmouth (Jeanne De Casalis), who wastes no time plotting Nell Gwyn's downfall -- only to be banished from court herself. Meanwhile, essayist Samuel Pepys (Esme Percy), the Walter Winchell of his day, records every aspect of the scandalous romance between Nell and the King in colorful detail. Perhaps as a balm to the censors, the story is told in flashback form from the point of view of an aging, dissipated Nell, who has come to learn the terrible price of living life too fully. Despite this cautionary framing device, the film was never meant to be taken seriously: in the opening titles, the screenplay is credited to Miles Malleson, "in collaboration with King Charles II, Samuel Pepys and Nell Gwyn." The film was produced by Anna Neagle's future husband Herbert Wilcox, who'd made a silent version of the same story with Dorothy Gish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Cedric Hardwicke, (more)
- 1935
His Hollywood career a thing of the past, director Herbert Brenon returned to his native England in 1934, where he continued making films until his retirement in 1940. Brenon's first project upon his arrival in London was the feature-length documentary Royal Cavalcade. Covering a 25-year period, the film is an encapsulation of the comings and goings of the British empire since the 1910 coronation of King George V. The highlights, drawn from the newsreel files of several English and European archives, include Captain Scott's arrival at the South Pole (and the tragic aftermath), the First World War, the Roaring 20s, and the Depression. Of special interest to show-biz buffs is the footage of the first Royal Command Performance at the Palace in 1911, featuring such matchless performers as Anna Pavlova and George Robey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Lilian Harvey, the toast of two continents, is her usual radiant self in Invitation to the Waltz. Harvey plays Jenny Peachey (honest!), a Drury Lane ballerina during the Napoleonic Wars. Swept off her slippers by the handsome Duke of Wurtemberg (Harold Warrender), Jenny gives up her dancing career to become the Duke's mistress. As the war between England and France intensifies, our heroine uses her influence to persuade the Duke to sign a treaty with England, thereby helping to bring about the downfall of Napoleon (Esme Percy). Through it all, Jenny is worshipped from afar by handsome lieutenant Carl (Carl Esmond). Magnificently produced, Invitation to the Waltz was a lighthearted follow-up to Lillian Harvey's more serious "ballerina sacrifices all" opus, Schwartze Rosen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lilian Harvey, Wnedy Toye, (more)
