Sybil Thorndike Movies
"I would rather have been a pianist than anything," admitted Sybil Thorndyke to one of her chroniclers. Even so, from her first concert at age 11 onward, Ms. Thorndyke never quite overcame her nervousness. She would later insist that it was nerves as much as anything else that caused her to suffer the wrist injury that ended her musical career. Seeking another creative outlet, she joined the rest of her family in their favorite pastime of amateur theatricals (her father was a minister, inclined toward ripe oratory; her brother Russell later became a prominent actor/playwright; his best known work was the moody melodrama (Dr. Syn). Sent to America to study at the Ben Greet, Sybil made her first stage appearance in Greet's 1904 production of Merry Wives of Windsor. She went to tour the U.S. in Shakespearean repertory for three years, playing some 112 roles. Once again, her nervousness got the better of her, causing her to develop acute laryngitis; fortunately, her voice came back stronger and more forceful than ever, enhancing her effectiveness in such classic stage roles as Medea and Lady MacBeth. In 1909, Sybil wed Welsh-born actor/director Lewis Casson; the marriage, which lasted until Casson's death in 1969, produced five children, all of whom successfully pursued acting careers. From 1920 through 1922, Sybil and her husband starred in a British version of France's Grand Guignol; during this same period, she made her film debut in Moth and Rust (1921). In 1924, Sybil created the title role in Shaw's St. Joan, a part which she would reprise with great success well into her sixties. While is said that Shaw wrote the play with Sybil specifically in mind, the actress insisted that Shaw himself interpreted the part far more persuasively than anyone during the first read-through. A veteran of twenty-seven years by 1931, Sybil was that year made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. During the 1940s, Dame Sybil and her husband toured Welsh mining villages in Shakespearean productions on behalf of the Council For the Encouragement of the Arts. Though her screen appearances remained infrequent, they were always welcome, always unforgettable. Among Dame Sybil's film roles were Nurse Edith Cavell in Dawn (1928), General Baines in Major Barbara (1941), Mrs. Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby (1948) and Queen Victoria in Melba (1952). She made her last film in 1963, and her final stage appearance in 1969. Books about Dame Sybil's life and career include her brother Russell's 1950 biography Sybil Thorndyke, and her son John Casson's 1962 volume Lewis and Sybil. Though Dame Sybil Thorndyke never wrote an autobiography, she was the author of the 1927 book Religion on the Stage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1963
This version of Chekov's classic play was recorded at the 1963 Chichester Festival. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
This adventure melodrama concerns Vic Brennan (Stephen Boyd), who persuades his family to put up money for him to leave Dublin for the remote African town of Jebanda in order to start up a truck-hauling business. The family agrees to give Vic the money under the stipulation that his cousin Samuel (David Wayne), a bank clerk, go with him to protect their investment. Vic and Samuel arrive in the Ivory Coast along with Vic's bride Marie (Juliette Greco). Samuel loses their customs papers, and Vic's truck is impounded. Luckily, Marie recognizes a friend, a French naval captain, and he gets Vic's truck released. They then proceed onward toward Jebanda, but they have nothing but bad luck along the way --their truck crashes into a tree, and Vic has to bribe the natives with some beer to get the tree removed; a German guide tries to steal their cargo; and the African sun makes Samuel delirious, and he declares his love for Marie. Finally, the truck reaches a raging river. They try to cross it, and Vic is knocked unconscious by a log. Samuel must now find the courage to rescue Vic and continue on to Jebanda. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Boyd, Juliette Greco, (more)
- 1960
Director Philip Leacock, praised for his handling of child actors, does another excellent job with the two young stars in this story about religious tolerance -- and intolerance. Loretta Parry is Rachel, a seven-year-old Jewish girl whose best friend and playmate Michael (Philip Needs) is exactly the same age. Michael has been raised in an Irish Catholic family, but neither child thinks very much about their religious differences. At least, not until certain biases begin to make their presence known. But Rachel and Michael's friendship is so strong that even when they visit each other's place of worship and are wholly intimidated by the strangeness of it all, they still remain best buddies. Interwoven with threads of wisdom that might be a little forced at times, this family-oriented drama is also enlivened by comic moments and good acting and directing that keep the story from slipping into saccharine clichés. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Parry, Philip Needs, (more)
- 1959
Filmed on location, Shake Hands With the Devil is set in Ireland during the "troubles" of 1921. James Cagney plays a brilliant medical professor who doubles as head of the Irish Republican Army. Cagney convinces one of his more pacifistic students, Don Murray, to join the underground struggle against British rule. Murray suffers a crisis of conscience when his sweetheart Dana Wynter is taken hostage by the IRA and is slated for execution by the zealous Cagney. Several members of Dublin's Abbey Players appear in supporting roles in Shake Hands With Devil. Watch for Richard Harris in the small part of Terence O'Brien. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Don Murray, (more)
- 1959
In this airborne disaster movie, a has-been brilliant scientist plants a bomb on a transatlantic jet to exact revenge upon a passenger whom he blames for his daughter's death -- she died during a plane crash. When the booby-trap is discovered and the passengers learn the motive for the scientists' actions, one of the passengers attempts to kill the man the scientist blames. A fight erupts and a window is shattered. The helpful passenger is sucked right out of the plane. Only when the scientist spies a child resembling his own lost daughter does he regain his humanity and disarm the bomb. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, (more)
- 1959
Dame Sybil Thorndike, Kathleen Harrison and Estelle Winwood, collectively representing some 200 years of British theatrical history, are top-billed in this feathery bit of whimsy. The starring trio plays three elderly residents of a nursing home, fed up with their monotonous existence. They engineer an escape from their drab surroundings and head for an impromptu holiday on an Irish island. Stanley Holloway plays a likeable old codger who becomes the ladies' partner in "crime." Alive and Kicking refuses to patronize its leading characters--or the mature audience to whom this charming comedy is aimed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sybil Thorndike, Kathleen Harrison, (more)
- 1958
In this Australian children's movie, a sequel to Smiley, set in the outback, a local policeman tries to help a rambunctious scamp settle down by promising the lad a new gun if he can stay out of mischief and treat other people with respect. Smiley, the boy, does his very best, but when the locals begin teasing him and taking bets on whether or not he will succeed, trouble ensues and the boy ends up getting blamed for robbing an eccentric old woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sybil Thorndike, Chips Rafferty, (more)
The title of the Anglo-American The Prince and the Showgirl could well have alluded to the genuine stations in life of stars Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. Based on the Terence Rattigan play The Sleeping Prince, the film casts Olivier as Charles, prince regent of Carpathia, who is in London to attend the 1911 coronation of King George V. Monroe is deceptively dizzy American chorus girl Elsie Marina, who while performing in a West End revue catches Charles' eye. The prince arranges for Elsie to attend an "intimate supper" at his hotel suite. Though Elsie successfully wards off Charles' advances, she drinks too much bubbly and ends up falling asleep. Comes the dawn, and Prince Charles is anxious to show the awkward Elsie the door. She, however, has fallen in love with the prince, and sticks around long enough to upset a plan to overthrow the Carpathian throne, and to patch up a feud between Charles and his son Nicholas (Jeremy Spencer). Olivier directed as well as starred in The Prince and the Showgirl; he knew he had his work cut out for him in dealing with the mercurial Marilyn Monroe, but he managed to hold his temper and to extract a delightful comic performance from the actress. Alas, the film was a box-office disappointment, leading many Hollywood insiders to moan and wail that Monroe was "washed up" in films -- at least until her spectacular comeback in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marilyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier, (more)
- 1954
Had the women-behind-bars drama The Weak and the Wicked been made in Hollywood, the cast would probably have included the likes of Ida Lupino, Marie Windsor, Peggie Castle and Hope Emerson. Instead, the film was lensed in Britain, with Glynis Johns and Diana Dors heading the cast. Framed on a charge of fraud, "good girl" Glynis is tossed into prison. Her cellmates include hard-boiled Ms. Dors, murder suspect Jane Hylton, blackmailer-poisoner Dame Sybil Thorndyke and shoplifter Olive Sloane. Each of their stories is detailed in a series of flashbacks. Downplay the potential sensational elments of the storyline, The Weak and the Wicked takes great pains to point out the positive values of a special rehabilitation program, wherein the main characters are given the opportunity to make themselves useful members of society. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glynis Johns, John Gregson, (more)
- 1953
American opera and musical-comedy soprano Patrice Munsel plays the title role in this filmed biography of famed Australian diva Nellie Melba. The story begins on Nellie's father's cattle farm, where she grew up under her given name of Nelly Mitchell. While studying in Paris with the great Madame Marchesi (Martita Hunt), Nelly is advised to change her name to something more exotic. After attaining international success, Nellie returns to Australia to marry her erstwhile sweetheart (John McCallum), who eventually realizes that he can never find happiness so long as he is forced to share Mme. Melba with the rest of the world. Melba was directed by Lewis Milestone, who'd originally come to Australia to lens 20th Century-Fox's Kangaroo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrice Munsel, Robert Morley, (more)
- 1951
The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister, Magic Box contends that Friese-Greene was the true father of motion pictures, and not such upstarts as W. K. L. Dickson and Thomas Edison. Told in flashback, the film details Friese-Greene's tireless experiments with the "moving image," leading inexorably to a series of failures and disappoints, as others hog the credit for the protagonist's discoveries. The huge cast includes such British film luminaries as Joyce Grenfell, Miles Malleson, Michael Redgrave, Eric Portman, Emlyn Williams, Richard Attenborough, Peter Ustinov, Cecil Parker, Kay Walsh, and, best of all, Laurence Olivier as the confused bobby who witnesses Friese-Greene's first motion picture demonstration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Donat, Margaret Johnston, (more)
- 1951
British film-favorite Anna Neagle, having previously played such great historical personages as Queen Victoria and Edith Cavell, tackles the role of Florence Nightingale in Lady with the Lamp. Based on a play by Reginald Berkeley, the film traces the indefatigable Nightingale's efforts to minister to the thousands of casualties of the Crimean War. Opposed in the uppermost circles of British government because she is "merely" a woman, Nightingale is championed by the Hon. Sidney Herbert (Michael Wilding), minister of war. Herbert pulls strings to allow Nightingale and her nursing staff access to battlefield hospitals, and in so doing changes the course of medical history. Lady with the Lamp was, as usual, produced and directed by Anna Neagle's husband Herbert Wilcox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Sr., (more)
Stage Fright toys with our notions of the dividing line between reality and artifice by being set in the London theatre world. On the lam from the police, Richard Todd takes refuge in the home of his former girlfriend, RADA student Jane Wyman. Todd has been spotted fleeing the scene of a murder, but he insists that he's innocent. Wyman believes his story, but knows that the police won't, so she decides to play detective herself. She also plays several other roles in a variety of disguises so as to escape the notice of genuine detective Michael Wilding. Top-billed Marlene Dietrich plays a Dietrich-like chanteuse whom Wyman pigeonholes as the real murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, (more)
- 1950
The brooding British romantic drama Gone to Earth is better known by its American title The Wild Heart. Filmed in England and cofinanced by David O. Selznick and Alexander Korda, the film stars Jennifer Jones (Mrs. Selznick) as Hazel Woodus, a tempestuous Welsh gypsy maid who can't seem to stay out of trouble. Feeling more of a kinship with woodland animals than with human beings, the Hazel enters into a loveless marriage with minister Edward Marston (Cyril Cusack). Believing she's been born under a curse which will punish her if she ever truly falls in love, Hazel does her best to suppress her carnal desires, but gives up the struggle when she begins an affair with rakish landowner Jack Reddin (David Farrar). Her inability to be mistress of her own fate leads to a spectacularly tragic denouement. Based on a novel by Mary Webb, Gone to Earth was cut from 110 minutes to 82 for its American release; the latter version included a narration by Joseph Cotten and several new scenes directed by Rouben Mamoulien. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, (more)
- 1949
The Anglo-American co-production Britannia Mews was released in the U.S. as The Affairs of Adelaide, then reissued as Forbidden Street, the title it carries today. Set in the Victoria era, the film focuses upon Adelaide (Maureen O'Hara), a young lady of good family who renounces both name and fame when she marries an impoverished artist (Dana Andrews). When her husband is killed in an accident, Adelaide is blackmailed by a spiteful old hag (Dame Sybil Thorndike) who claims that the girl killed her spouse. Enter a handsome young barrister who is the living image of Adelaide's late husband (and who, accordingly, is
also played by Dana Andrews). He extricates Adelaide from her plight, reunites her with her family, and along the way falls in love with her himself. Ring Lardner Jr. adapted Britannia Mews from a novel by Margery Sharp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
also played by Dana Andrews). He extricates Adelaide from her plight, reunites her with her family, and along the way falls in love with her himself. Ring Lardner Jr. adapted Britannia Mews from a novel by Margery Sharp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maureen O'Hara, Dana Andrews, (more)
- 1946
Though it pales in comparison to the Royal Shakespeare Company's epic staging of the original novel in the early 1980s, this compact adaptation of Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby is most entertaining on its own terms. Derek Bond plays the title character, a resourceful young Britisher forced to protect his family against the demonic machinations of his wicked Uncle Ralph (Cedric Hardwicke at his most odious). Cast out into the cold cruel world, Nicholas Nickleby deals adroitly with friend and foe alike, eventually coming full circle to mete out just desserts to his unspeakable uncle. With only 108 minutes' running time at his disposal, screenwriter John Dighton (later a mainstay of the Ealing Comedies) was forced to eliminate several of the novel's 52 highly distinctive characters and intricate subplots. There is evidence that there was even more cutting after the film was completed; for example, the tatty touring theatrical troupe managed by the delightfully pompous Vincent Crummles (Stanley Holloway) appears only in a series of abrupt vignettes, while Crummles himself is confined to a mere handful of lines and gestures. Still, many of Dickens' colorful characters are vividly realized, especially the unfortunate, mentally challenged Smike (Aubrey Woods). When released in America, Nicholas Nickleby was pared down to 95 minutes, with surprisingly little damage to the continuity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jill Balcon, Derek Bond, (more)
- 1941
George Bernard Shaw's satiric comedy about wealth and poverty is brought to the screen with wonderful performances by Rex Harrison and Wendy Hiller. Hiller plays Major Barbara Undershaft, a major in the Salvation Army who is also a socialist and stridently attacks capitalists -- in particular her father Andrew (Robert Morley), the head of a munitions plant. In love with Barbara is the young Greek scholar Adolphus Cusins (Rex Harrison), whose attentions go unreturned since Barbara spends all her time on her crusade against wealth. To show up his daughter, Andrew donates 50,000 pounds to the Salvation Army which, to Barbara's horror, the Army's general (Sybil Thorndike) happily accepts. Barbara, in protest, quits her post and it is left to Adolphus to take her on a tour of her father's munitions plant and prove to her the benefits of capitalism. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison, (more)
- 1934
This lush historical drama chronicles the brief reign of the late Henry VIII's successor, Lady Jane Grey. After only nine days on the throne, she was beheaded at the behest of the treacherous Mary Tudor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cedric Hardwicke, John Mills, (more)
- 1931
Stanley Houghton's enduring 1912 stage play Hindle Wakes had already been twice adapted for the screen when this first talkie version was released in 1931. Belle Chrystal stars as Fanny Hawthorne, a Lancashire mill worker who gets more than she bargained for when taking her annual weekend holiday. After a chance meeting with mill-owner's son Alan Jeffcoate (John Stuart), Fanny spends a torridly romantic three days with him. But when he proposes, Fanny remembers her "place" and turns him down. Hoping to keep her weekend indiscretion secret from her parents, Fanny arranges for her best friend Mary (Ruth Peterson) to establish an alibi. The truth comes out when Mary is killed in an accident, and her parents begin making inquiries as to her whereabouts during that fateful holiday. Hindle Wakes was remade again in 1952 as Holiday Week. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Chrystal, Sybil Thorndike, (more)
- 1931
In this drama, a French judge, a womanizer when he is not upon the bench, is out on a date when he witnesses a murder. One of his ex-lovers is accused of the murder and the judge refuses to come forward. The situation becomes more outrageous when the judge is assigned to the case. He tries the woman, and the jury convicts her. But just before she is sentenced, the judge's conscience kicks in, confesses all, destroys his career, and saves the life of the innocent woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Wontner, Phyllis Konstam, (more)
- 1929
In this gritty drama, an epileptic john has a seizure and kills a hooker. His mother hides her distraught son. Meanwhile, the prostitute's boyfriend is accused and convicted for the crime. Just before he is to hang, the real killer confesses his crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
