Ben Webster Movies
- 2006
- Add Play Your Own Thing: A Story of Jazz in Europe to QueueAdd Play Your Own Thing: A Story of Jazz in Europe to top of Queue
Take a voyage through the history of European jazz in this musical meditation on the origins, growth, and exciting shifts in direction that came to define the endless search for that ever-elusive "voice of one's own." As musicians from both sides of the Atlantic began working in unison, jazz lovers around the world would bear witness to a fascinating form of evolution in their favorite freeform musical style. Rare footage of Ben Webster, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and en entire host of jazz legends make this a musical journey that is sure to fascinate and educate. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan Garbarek, Django Bates, (more)
Female dogs tend to shed while in heat; this is why all the collies who've played doggy heroine Lassie in the movies have actually been well-disguised males. A magnificent animal named Pal was the screen's first Lassie in 1943's Lassie Come Home. Set in Yorkshire during the first World War, the film gets under way when the poverty-stricken parents (Donald Crisp, Elsa Lanchester) of young Joe Carraclough (Roddy McDowall) are forced to sell his beloved Lassie. While her new master, the duke of Rudling (Nigel Bruce), is pleasant enough, Lassie prefers the company of Joe and repeatedly escapes. Even when cared for by the duke's affectionate granddaughter, Priscilla (Elizabeth Taylor), Lassie insists upon heading back to her original home. This time, however, the trip is much longer, and Lassie must depend upon the kindness of strangers, notably farmers Dally (Dame May Whitty) and Dan'l Fadden (Ben Webster) and handyman Rowlie (Edmund Gwenn). Based on the novel by Eric Knight (originally serialized in The Saturday Evening Post), Lassie Come Home was released quite some time after Knight's death. Like all the Lassie sequels turned out by MGM between 1943 and 1951, Lassie Come Home was lensed in Technicolor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, (more)
- 1943
The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen narrator. The true star of the film is a stately old manor house in London, built in 1804 by a British admiral (C. Aubrey Smith) and blitzed in 1940 by one Adolf Hitler. Through the portals of this house pass a vast array of Britons, from high-born to low. The earliest scenes involve gay blade Lt. William Trimble (Ray Milland), wronged country-girl Susan (Anna Neagle), and wicked landowner Ambrose Pomfret (Claude Rains). We move on to a comic interlude involving dotty Mr. Simpson (Reginald Owen), eternally drunken butler Bellamy (Charles Laughton), and cockney plumbers Mr. Dabb (Cedric Hardwicke) and Wilkins (Buster Keaton). Maidservant Jenny (Ida Lupino) takes over the plot during the Boer War era, while the World War I sequence finds the house converted into a way-station for soldiers (including Robert Cummings) and anxious families (including Roland Young and Gladys Cooper). Finally we arrive in 1940, with American Gates Pomfret (Kent Smith) and lady-of-the-house Lesley Trimble (Ruth Warrick) surveying the bombed-out manor, and exulting over the fact that the portrait of the home's founder, Adm. Eustace Trimble (Smith), has remained intact -- symbolic proof of England's durability in its darkest hours. The huge cast includes Dame May Whitty, Edward Everett Horton, Wendy Barrie, Merle Oberon, Nigel Bruce, Richard Haydn, Donald Crisp, and a host of others -- some appearing in sizeable roles, others (like Arthur Treacher and Patric Knowles) willingly accepting one-scene bits, simply to participate in the undertaking. Seven directors and 21 writers were also swept up in the project. Forever and a Day was supposed to have been withdrawn from circulation after the war and its prints destroyed so that no one could profit from what was supposed to have been an act of industry charity. Happily for future generations, prints have survived and are now safely preserved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, (more)
As Academy Award-winning films go, Mrs. Miniver has not weathered the years all that well. This prettified, idealized view of the upper-class British home front during World War II sometimes seems over-calculated and contrived when seen today. In particular, Greer Garson's Oscar-winning performance in the title role often comes off as artificial, especially when she nobly tends her rose garden while her stalwart husband (Walter Pidgeon) participates in the evacuation at Dunkirk. However, even if the film has lost a good portion of its ability to move and inspire audiences, it is easy to see why it was so popular in 1942-and why Winston Churchill was moved to comment that its propaganda value was worth a dozen battleships. Everyone in the audience-even English audiences, closer to the events depicted in the film than American filmgoers-liked to believe that he or she was capable of behaving with as much grace under pressure as the Miniver family. The film's setpieces-the Minivers huddling in their bomb shelter during a Luftwaffe attack, Mrs. Miniver confronting a downed Nazi paratrooper in her kitchen, an annual flower show being staged despite the exigencies of bombing raids, cleric Henry Wilcoxon's climactic call to arms from the pulpit of his ruined church-are masterfully staged and acted, allowing one to ever so briefly forget that this is, after all, slick propagandizing. In addition to Best Picture and Best Actress, Mrs. Miniver garnered Oscars for best supporting actress (Teresa Wright), best director (William Wyler), best script (Arthur Wimperis, George Froschel, James Hilton, Claudine West), best cinematography (Joseph Ruttenberg) and best producer (Sidney Franklin). Sidebar: Richard Ney, who plays Greer Garson's son, later married the actress-and still later became a successful Wall Street financier. Mrs. Miniver was followed by a 1951 sequel, The Miniver Story, but without the wartime setting the bloom was off the rose. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, (more)
Wealthy, sheltered Joan Fontaine is swept off her feet by charming ne'er-do-well Cary Grant. Though warned that Grant is little more than a fortune-hunter, Fontaine marries him anyway. She remains loyal to her irresponsible husband as he plows his way from one disreputable business scheme to another. Gradually, Fontaine comes to the conclusion that Grant intends to do away with her in order to collect her inheritance...a suspicion confirmed when Grant's likeable business partner Nigel Bruce dies under mysterious circumstances. To his dying day, Hitchcock insisted that he wanted to retain the novelist Francis Iles' original ending, but that the RKO executives intervened. Fontaine won an Academy Award for her work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, (more)
- 1940
The schizophrenic screenplay of The Earl of Chicago is rendered even more bizarre by the uneven performance by Robert Montgomery. He plays Silky Kilmont, a Runyonesque American gangster who inherits a British title (Earl of Gorley) and mansion. Taking charge of his new estate, Silky has an amusing time trying to acclimate himself to the customs of the "landed gentry". Things take a sinister turn when Silky discovers that his trusted attorney Doc Ramsey (Edward Arnold) is actually a bigger crook than he is. In a rage, Silky murders Ramsey, then goes into what appears to be a catatonic shock, refusing to defend himself at his murder trial. Blood finally tells at the climax when Silky Kilmont, aka the Earl of Gorley, meets his fate with a dignity and decorum worthy of his aristocratic forebears. The queasy atmosphere of the film is heightened by its utter lack of romance; outside of character actress Norma Varden, there are barely any women in the film at all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Montgomery, Edward Arnold, (more)
- 1937
- NR
Ronald Colman stars in David O. Selznick's classic production of Anthony Hope's swashbuckling adventure. The film takes place in a mythical Central European kingdom with Colman in a dual role as King Rudolf V and Rudolph Rassendyl, a visitor from England who's a distant cousin to the prince. Arriving in the city of Strelsau, the inhabitants are startled by Rudolph's resemblance to the prince. Spotted by two of the prince's aides, Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim (David Niven) and Colonel Zapt (C. Aubrey Smith), the Englishman is taken to meet the prince at his hunting lodge. The two lookalikes have dinner together as the prince tells Rudolph of the preparations for his upcoming coronation as king. The next morning, Zapt wakes Rudolph and informs him the prince had been drugged the night before and is now in a coma. Because of their similar appearance, Zapt prevails upon Rudolph to impersonate the prince at the coronation, otherwise the prince's evil brother Black Michael (Raymond Massey) will be crowned in his place. With the assistant of Zapt and von Tarlenheim, Rudolph bluffs his way through the coronation, successfully fooling Michael, who is shocked to see his brother alive. Crowned king, Rudolph then meets Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll), the prince's fiancee. As they proceed to the reception, Princess Flavia is amazed how kindly the prince is now treating her. Rudolph is falling in love with her, but Michael suspects something foul and dispatches Rupert of Hentzau (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) to investigate the matter further, preparing to gain control of the throne at any cost. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, (more)
- 1936
The old H. V. Esmond stage play Eliza Comes to Stay proved a perfect vehicle for British screen sweetheart Betty Balfour. Wearing huge, owlish glasses, Balfour plays orphaned Eliza Vandan, who finds herself the ward of wealthy Sandy Verrall (Seymour Hicks). This comes as quite a jolt to old man Verrall, who'd been led to believe that Eliza was a little baby. Once the two protagonists have adjusted to one another, Eliza and Verrall find that they can't live without each other. Originally set during WWI, Eliza Comes to Stay has been updated to the 1930s, allowing for a brief nightclub number featuring popular entertainers Diana Ward and Nelson Keys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Balfour, Seymour Hicks, (more)
- 1936
This interesting early docu-drama offers a complete chronicle of the history of aviation from prehistoric times through the mid 1930s. Though the film was finished by 1935, it was not released until much later. H.G. Wells assisted on the first drafts of the script. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Hay Petrie ingests the scenery as the demonic, hunchbacked Mr. Quilp in this 1935 British adaptation of Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop. Quilp is the wicked landlord who dominates and later ruins the lives of shopkeeper Trent (Ben Webster) and his resourceful granddaughter Little Nell (Elaine Benson). The death of the heroine, which created quite a brouhaha when the book was first published, is here handled with discretion and taste. Scenarists Margaret Kennedy and Ralph Neale successfully tackle the challenge of whittling Dickens' massive novel into a playable 90 minutes. The Old Curiosity Shop would be remade three times, once as a musical with Anthony Newley as Quilp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Webster, Elaine Benson, (more)
- 1935
Sir Francis Drake (Lang), first English circumnavigator of the globe, is featured in this exciting adventure with his amazing defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and a romance between the dashing sailor and a lady-in-waiting for Queen Elizabeth (Baxter). ~ All Movie Guide
- 1933
A classy woman has an affair with a rake after she learns that she has a terminal disease in this British melodrama. When the cad dumps her, the woman's husband soon learns of her shenanigans, but he forgives her. She then gets even better news when her doctor tells her that they have finally found a cure for her disease. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1931
When an infamous French highwayman commits a murder, a look alike French silversmith is convicted of the crime. Fortunately, the truth is reveal before the innocent man is executed. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1927
Downhill is an apt title for this disappointing Alfred Hitchcock silent feature. Ivor Novello plays the black sheep of a prosperous family, whose life begins its downward spiral when he is expelled from school after shielding a friend from punishment. Following several desultory adventures, Novello weds faithless actress Isabel Jeans, who divests him of what little money he has and runs off with another man. Only when he is at his lowest is Novello forgiven by his family. Downhill has in recent years gained a negative fame thanks to one of its most treacly dialogue subtitles: after being cashiered from school, the hero asks "Does that mean, sir, that I shall not be able to play with the Old Boys?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1926
This British-made production was based on the "celebrated" (circa 1906) stage play by Freeman Wills, which was based on the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities. Sydney Carton (Sir John Martin Harvey) is a brilliant barrister who has a drinking problem. He loves Lucy Manette (Betty Faire), but she marries Charles Darnay (Frederick Cooper). The French Revolution endangers Darnay, who is really royalist St. Evremonde. He is arrested and condemned to death. Carton, ever loyal to Lucy, overcomes his faults to rescue her husband. But the revolutionaries capture Darnay once again and it looks like he will not be able to escape. Carton, however, looks quite a bit like Darnay, and he makes the ultimate sacrifice by switching places with him. As a result, it is Carton who goes to the guillotine, while Darnay is able to reunite with Lucy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Famous Players-Lasky brought American director Hugh Ford and cinematographer Hal Young to Great Britain to make this drama. Betty Overton (Mary Glynne) is in love with Hubert Richmond (Jack Hobbs), but fate intervenes when her uncle is ruined during a panic. The middle-aged James Agar (Malcolm Cherry), who has always loved Betty from afar, offers to help the uncle out if Betty agrees to marry him. Although she gives her assent, it becomes clear to Agar that Richmond loves Betty, too. To get him out of the way, Agar offers him a position in Africa. Because he is broke, he accepts. On the eve of her wedding, Betty is repelled by Agar's passionate kisses. He realizes that he will never win her, and that she belongs to Richmond. He goes to Africa to bring him back just in time -- he has nearly died of fever. Back in England, the young couple are happily reunited. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
After building his reputation on Hollywood "spectaculars," director Herbert Brenon returned to his native British Isles, where he made several modest, intimate silent dramas. 12.10 was a bit faster-paced than most of these, but the subject matter called for a quicker approach. The story involves a British lord (Ben Webster) who takes a life-suspending drug to save the life of a child. The lord's feigned death somehow foils the wicked schemes of a Spanish secretary. Stage and film favorite Marie Doro is atypically cast as the villainess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
British stage luminary Ben Webster plays the lead in Gay Lord Quex. Based on a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, the film finds Lord Quex on the verge of matrimony. Unfortunately, a woman from his past threatens to disrupt his future. Lord Quex arranges for his nemesis to be compromised by a cardboard lover. But things don't quite work out as planned, and what started as a light comedy threatens to veer into heavy drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1917
As a novel, Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield may have been good literature, but books often don't translate well into film. This especially applies to period stories, and this one takes place in the mid-1700s. An old vicar (Frederick Warde, father of the film's director, Ernest C. Warde) undergoes some financial misfortunes and his grown children add to his woes. His son, George (Boyd Marshall) goes to the city to get work, but he winds up running around with a bad crowd. Meanwhile, Olivia, one of the vicar's daughters (Kathryn Adams) marries a squire who has passed himself off as a nobleman (Robert Vaughn). The squire deserts Olivia, who turns up missing. She eventually is found, and Mr. Burchell (Thomas A. Curran), a man of higher rank, comes around and forces the squire to be accountable for his actions. Burchell marries the vicar's other daughter (Gladys Leslie), and the son returns home. As motion picture material, this story was not exactly scintillating. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
