Mackenzie Ward Movies
- 1951
Four relatives find themselves going to unusual lengths to inherit a fortune in this British comedy. Henry Russell (Hugh Griffith) was a practical joker all his life, and his sly sense of humor is hardly stilled by his death; when his four closest relatives gather for the reading of the will, they discover that each is to be left $140,000 -- but, as always, there are strings attached. His sister Agnes (Fay Compton) has always treated her hired help with an attitude bordering on contempt, so Henry leaves her the money with the proviso that she must first work as a maid for 28 days. His cousin Deniston (Alastair Sim) writes detective novels for a living, so Henry insists that he get a clearer perspective on how bad guys live -- to collect his inheritance, he must spend four weeks in prison. Herbert (George Cole), a milquetoast clerk at a bank, will only receive his share if he's able to pull off a robbery at his place of employment. And Simon (Guy Middleton), a confirmed ladies' man, must marry the first girl he meets (and stay married to her) if he's to collect his $140,000. Keep an eye peeled for a youthful Audrey Hepburn, who has a bit part as a cigarette girl. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Fay Compton, (more)
- 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
- 1950
In this comedy, a street artist has successfully conned his wife and family into believing that he is a well-to-do businessman. This scam has been going on for many years. Unfortunately, it all blows up in his face when his alter ego is believed murdered and that he is the prime suspect. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1949
In this crime melodrama, a young couple moves into a charming rural cottage. There the wife becomes fixated upon the mysterious demise of the earlier occupant. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1949
In this comedy, two brothers, both of them Welsh coal-miners, win a contest and get to go on a day trip to London. Upon their arrival in the town, they miss their newspaper escort and get separated. Mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, Donald Houston, (more)
- 1948
A gambler receives the legendarily troublesome magical monkey's paw and is told that he can have three wishes. Not knowing that the paw's wishes are often granted at a terrible cost, he hastily wishes to have enough money to pay his large gambling debts. Sure enough, he gets his wish. Unfortunately, it is at the expense of his son's life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1946
Of the many films (English and American) bearing the title Carnival, only one was based on the Compton MacKenzie novel of the same name. This 1946 melodrama stars Sally Gray as a 19th century ballet dancer who makes an unfortunate career move by marrying a taciturn Cornish farmer (Bernard Miles). Sally soon longs for the bright lights of the big city, and for the arms of her artist lover (Michael Wilding). Her husband is all too aware of this; and when the lover comes calling to renew the affair, the husband shoots Gray to death. The first film version of Compton MacKenzie's Carnival was filmed in 1931 as Dance Pretty Lady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Arundell, Marie Ault, (more)
- 1944
In this melodrama, a pilot gets amnesia after a plane crash. A good friend helps him to remember by discussing the troop transport plane they built together. While still in the hospital recovering, the pilot asks the friend to marry him. He then learns that they are already married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1941
Carol Reed directed this adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel about a British shopkeeper who inherits money and tries to crash society; it was later the basis of the Tommy Steele musical Half a Sixpence. Michael Redgrave is Arthur Kipps, a nondescript storekeeper who finds himself heir to a large fortune. Society golddigger Helen Walshinham (Diana Wynyard) immediately comes on the scene, hoping to trick Kipps into marrying her. Right before the wedding, Kipps gets cold feet and instead runs off with his childhood sweetheart, Ann Pornick (Phyllis Calvert). The two get married but Ann wants to live simply while Kipps continues to want to live large with his inherited fortune. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Diana Wynyard, (more)
- 1941
In this comedy, a groom's constant jealousy creates domestic turmoil for his devoted bride. More trouble comes when he buys a lot of untried material for the lingerie factory where he works as a foreman. The material proves flimsy and he is fired. Things get worse when his overbearing and disapproving mother moves in. Fortunately, the poor bumbler's wife has a keen business sense and is able to turn her husband's failure into a wonderful success. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Formby, Edward Chapman, (more)
- 1939
Originally released in England by British Consolidated, Sons of the Sea was the last film to be distributed in America by Grand National Pictures. Generally cast in villainous roles, Leslie Banks plays the film's true-blue hero Captain Hyde. Alas, Hyde's young son Philip (Simon Lack), though a graduate of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, does not possess the noble purpose of his father, and soon finds himself inadvertently involved with a foreign spy. But with the British Secret Service involved, the villains don't stand a chance. Sons of the Sea was lensed in Dufaycolor, a two-tint process which looked suspiciously like America's Cinecolor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Banks, Mackenzie Ward, (more)
- 1938
In this romantic comedy, a humble country girl lives her life in the ramshackle mansion of her aged uncle. Feeling sorry for her "poor" relation and selflessly keeping him company until he dies, she is later shocked to learn that he has left her an enormous fortune. One might think such a windfall a dream come true, but not for the girl. Things immediagely go wrong when her fiance, the town doctor, wanting to focus on his career, refuses to abandon his patients and go galavanting across Europe. Angrily, she goes anyway and finds herself surrounded by gigolos more interested in her assets than in her perosonality. This causes her to reasses her new values and return to the man who loves her for herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Rex Harrison, (more)
- 1937
In this British musical, set in Paris, an apparently upstanding husband and father spends his nights fooling around with wild women. His son, wanting to be just like his dad, begins dating a seductive widow--the same widow his father has been seeing. Trouble ensues when the father refuses to let his daughter marry her true love. When the fiance learns of the father-son shenanigans, he begins blackmailing them into letting him marry the daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lawrence Grossmith, Helen Haye, (more)
This film version of the famed Shakespearean comedy features Laurence Olivier as Orlando and Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind. As the story goes, Rosalind, smitten by Orlando and not able to get his attention, disguises herself as a boy to more easily remain in Orlando's vicinity. Eventually Orlando grows to like his new friend and Rosalind is stuck playing a boy with a boy with whom she'd rather be a girl. Confusing? Maybe only Shakespeare could come up with the idea, but director Paul Czinner does a fine job executing the concept. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Ainley, Felix Aylmer, (more)
- 1935
In this British drawing room comedy, a poor-but-plucky shopgirl decides to teach a prominent family the true meaning of social graces when she begins dating one of the son's. During the relationship, she discovers that his brother has been having an illicit affair with a society matron. The clever girl uses this information to force the matron to become more tolerant of the lower classes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1935
A Student's Romance was based on the operetta I Lost My Heart in Heidelburg, which in turn owed a lot to that old chestnut The Student Prince. In 1825, impoverished composer Max (Patric Knowles) enrolls at Heidelburg University. Local girl Veronika (Carol Goodner) falls in love with Max, helping him to finance his education and clear his debts. Alas, Veronika is left out in the cold when Max becomes enamored with gorgeous tourist Helene (Grete Natzler). Little does he know that Helene is the daughter of the Grand Duke (Ivan Simpson), meaning of course that their romance is doomed to disappointment. Leading lady Grete Natzler later changed her screen name to Della Lynd, and under that cognomen co-starred with Laurel & Hardy in Swiss Miss (1938). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grete Natzler, Patric Knowles, (more)
- 1933
In this romance, a golddigger jilts her poorer true love in favor of a wealthy man whom she marries. The poor man is broken-hearted, but soon involves himself with another. His relationship progresses smoothly until the golddigger reappears and wants to keep their love affair going. They begin again until the girl realizes that she if she continues she will derail the gravy train and lose her luxurious life. She jilts him again and returns to her sugar daddy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Broadway star Marilyn Miller's second starring film was an adaptation of her 1925 stage hit Sunny. Flashing her celebrated dazzling smile at every possible occasion, Miller is cast as a circus bareback rider, in love with wealthy Tom Warren (Lawrence Gray). Naturally, Tom's aristocratic family are dead set against the romance and do everything they can to degrade and our poor heroine. But Sunny prevails in the end, triumphantly marching to the altar arm and arm with her beloved Tom. The Oscar Hammerstein II-Jerome Kern score includes such lasting favorites as Who (Stole My Heart Away)? Sunny was remade by RKO in 1940 as a vehicle for Anna Neagle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marilyn Miller, Lawrence Gray, (more)
- 1930
Based on Frederick Lonsdale's The High Road, The Lady of Scandal is typical of the "teacup drama" genre so prevalent during the early talkie period. It all begins with down-to-earth musical comedy star Elsie (Ruth Chatterton) visiting the home of her aristocratic fiancee, John (Ralph Forbes. She briefly becomes acquainted with his cousin Edward (Basil Rathbone), an individual of dubious character allegedly nursing an affair with a married woman. In time, two changes occur during Elsie's visit to the stiff and formal household: first, each family member falls under her spell and "loosens up"; Elsie and Edward also become amorously entwined, and in the end - when the husband of Edward's married lover dies, Elsie must make a sacrifice to this woman. In the process, she also realizes that she does not love John and wishes to return to the theater. Extremely stagy and garrulous, the film also incorporates a great deal of humor to offset the prospective melodramatic pitfalls of the material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Chatterton, Basil Rathbone, (more)
- 1929
This is RKO's first sound musical. It centers on a pair of vaudevillians who are quite close on and off the stage until a dashing millionaire comes around and begins wooing the female partner. She too is smitten and begins to pick and needle her partner about his faults. Eventually she dumps him, but it is not too long before the two are reunited and continue to make beautiful music together. Songs include: "Jericho" (Leo Robin, Richard Myers), "Mine Alone" (Herman Ruby, Myers), "Do Something," and "I'll Always Be in Love with You" (Bud Green, Sammy Stept, Ruby). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Bennett, Bobby Watson, (more)
- 1929
In this musical, a singing Yankee stable boy works for a rich Irishman. When he meets his boss's granddaughter and they soon fall for each other until he must head back to the States where he becomes a singing clerk at the music counter of a major department store. Back in Ireland, the girl he loves finds that an evil villain is about to foreclose on her estate. Songs include: "Love is a Dreamer," "For the Likes O' You and Me," and "When They Sing 'The Wearing of the Green' in Syncopated Blues." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Morton Downey, Sr., Betty Lawford, (more)
