Arthur Young Movies
- 1981
When a man who specializes in putting on multi-media events is hired to enhance a fashion show, he decides to go to a puppeteer and use Chinese puppets as accents to the models and the clothes. His interest in the show becomes a personal one when he meets one of the models and romance blossoms. An old woman loans him her antique puppets on the condition that he not keep them in the house with him, or grave misfortunes will result. As one might expect, he ignores the warning and then starts to experience a few accidents and unusual occurrences -- including being knocked out by what he thought was a puppet, and seeing flashes of a murder while he was unconscious. Intrigued and compelled to find out if his rising suspicions are correct, he discovers from old newspaper articles that a puppet master and his wife had been murdered many years earlier. Could this have put a curse on the puppets themselves? As the story slowly wanders to its final denouement, director Peter Yung takes the viewers through an ever-widening circle of reincarnation, predestined patterns of events, and Chinese folk religion and astrology. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1956
His career as a western star having recently come to an end in the US, Wayne Morris is the star of the British The Dynamiters. Morris plays an American insurance investigator, trying to get the goods on an elusive gang of London thieves. The crooks invariably wipe out all evidence by dynamiting the places they've plundered. While snooping around, Morris takes a break in a nightclub, where a musical number called "Soho Mambo" is thrust upon us. One nice side effect of The Dynamiters was that, by working in London, Wayne Morris was available to co-star in Stanley Kubrick's prestigious antiwar drama Paths of Glory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Sandra Dorne, (more)
- 1955
In this comedy, a clever chemist develops a pill that cures smokers of nicotine addiction. Realizing the marketing potential, he makes his discovery public, but encounters strong resistance from the international tobacco industry, which does its best to stop him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this thriller, a nearly bankrupt businessman blackmails a buddy into to murdering him within a week so that his wife can collect on his hefty insurance policy. Unfortunately, his business takes a sudden upswing, and he no longer has to die. Too bad his friend doesn't know that. The hero suffers several near misses before learning that it is partner and another who really want to kill him, not his friend whom they have kidnapped and framed. In the end, the villains shoot each other. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
The life of the founder of modern Methodism is dramatized in John Wesley. Originally intended for church assembly showings, the film stars Leonard Sachs in the title role. The screenplay charts the Methodist Movement from its inception in 18th century England to the present day. Produced by the Radio and Film Commission of the Methodist church, the film was financed by the contributions of some 500 churches. Unfortunately, the budget didn't allow for a professional cast, thus many potentially worthwhile scenes are laid low by amateurish acting. On the other hand, the film is quite slick and accomplished on a technical level, thanks to the first-rate cinematography of Hone Glendenning and the assured direction of Norman Walker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonard Sachs
In this sci-fi film, a Venusian emissary and an earth woman become friends. The alien tells her that he has come to warn her of the dangers of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately very few earthlings listen to his message. The film is basically a cheap knock-off of The Day the Earth Stood Still. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
The comfortable complacency of the British Birling family is upset when Inspector Poole (Alastair Sim) comes calling. An impoverished young working girl named Eva Smith (Jane Wenham) has committed suicide, and Poole hopes that the Birlings will help him find out why. As the evening progresses, a series of flashbacks reveal that each member of the Birling family has in some small way been responsible for Eva's demise. A twist ending adds a mystical, thought-provoking touch to the proceedings. Bryan Forbes, who plays the Birling son, matriculated into the noted director of such films as The L-Shaped Room, King Rat and The Whisperers. An Inspector Calls was based on a play by J.B. Priestley, which recently scored a huge hit when it was revived in London and New York. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Arthur Young, (more)
- 1953
No relation to the 1924 D. W. Griffith film of the same name, Isn't Life Wonderful! is a bucolic British comedy which goes for quiet chuckles rather than bellylaughs. Set in a sleepy rural village in the early 1900s, the film centers around the efforts to transform sorry old sot Uncle Willie (Donald Wolfit) into a gentleman of prestige and property. It is all for the benefit of young Virginia (Dianne Foster), the American fiancee of Willie's prim-and-proper nephew Frank (Robert Urquardt). Set up by friends and relatives in the bicycle business, Uncle Willie continues his wastrelly ways, but somehow manages to make a success of his little shop. Somehow all this leads to a hectic finale at a health spa, replete with an amusing car chase. As a novelty, Isn't Life Wonderful! is told from the point of view of the film's youngest character, played by 6-year-old Peter Asher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cecil Parker, Eileen Herlie, (more)
- 1952
In this British drama set in the 18th-century, a 14-year-old boy works in a carnival medicine booth. He believes the man he works for is his father, but he finds himself mistaken when his abducted by an avaricious uncle who informs him that he has inherited an important title. The uncle himself desires the title and plans to kill the lad who fortunately escapes. For vengeance the uncle starts a fire and immolates the boy's mentor. The carnies, lead by the strongman, attempt to exact their own revenge against the evil uncle. The whole mess goes to court where the boy's true lineage is revealed. He receives his rightful title. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 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)
- 1950
This mystery is based upon the popular radio quiz show, Twenty Questions and chronicles the endeavors of panelists to solve a real murder. The killer sends the four players clues which are read on the air. Fortunately, two clever reporters solve the mystery and then use the players to catch the killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1949
In this drama, a young Englishman wants to become a surgeon, but after medical school, his father dies, leaving him the responsibility of supporting his mother and paying for his brother's education. He becomes a partner in a small practice and watches the woman he wanted to marry go off with his brother. The brother is killed in WWI, after which his illegitimate son is born. The doctor marries the woman, but she dies in childbirth, leaving him to raise his brother's child. Eventually, he finds a new wife. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilda Bayley, Beatrice Campbell, (more)
- 1947
Based on a novel by J. S. Fletcher, The Root of All Evil casts Phyllis Calvert as a grimly ambitious woman scorned. Jilted by wealthy Albert Grice (Hubert Gregg), farmer's daughter Jeckie Farnish (Calvert) vows to accumulate enough money so as to never again be dependent on any man's attentions. Suing Grice for breach of promise, Jeckie parlays her generous settlement into a sizeable fortune. She increases her riches by linking up with philandering mining-engineer Charles Mortimer (Michael Rennie). Though she and Mortimer accrue millions from oil wells, it simply isn't enough: the hard-hearted Jeckie has decided that she craves true romance after all. The moral of Root of All Evil is obvious from the first scene onward: it is up to Phyllis Calvert and her talented co-stars to wade through a sea of cliches and come up with something worth watching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phyllis Calvert, John McCallum, (more)
- 1944
The San Demetrio is a British Merchant Marine vessel, traversing the Atlantic shipping channels in early 1940. The ship is disabled at sea, and thus left at the mercy of marauding Axis U-boats. The courageous crew manages to keep the San Demetrio afloat and guide it out of harm's way. San Demetrio, London is stylistically linked to the jingoistic "England Can Take It!" efforts of the wartime years. Despite its most ludicrous passages, the film is firmly based on fact (or at least the facts as related by author F. Tennyson Jesse). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Fitzgerald, Mervyn Johns, (more)
Stars-on-the-downslide Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh briefly rallied in the above-average Monogram melodrama Murder by Invitation. Ford is cast as usual as a wisecracking reporter, this time christened Bob White. Our hero is one of several acquaintances and relatives invited to an old dark house to attend the reading of a will. At the stroke of midnight, one of the guests is murdered?and then another. The most obvious suspect is Aunt Cassie (Sarah Padden), the slightly daft owner of the mansion, but Bob suspects that she's being framed, and with the help of heroine Nora O'Brien (Marsh) he sets about to prove it. Some of the film's best moments are suppled by beetle-browed Herb Vigran, a busy supporting actor whose best professional days were still to come.Murder by Invitation closes with one of those "It's only a movie, folks" gags indigenous to the Monogram product of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Ford, Marian Marsh, (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)
- 1937
Laurence Housman's 1935 stage play Victoria Regina, which has served as a showcase for actresses as varied as Helen Hayes and Julie Harris, was adapted for the screen in 1937 as Victoria the Great. Herbert Wilcox was the producer, so no one was surprised and everyone was satisfied when Wilcox cast his actress wife, the beloved Anna Neagle, as Queen Victoria. The film repeats the play's episodic approach, tracing Victoria from her 1837 coronation to her Jubilee celebration sixty years later. Ms. Neagle is faultless, if perhaps a bit too self satisfied in this actor-proof role; her best scenes are with Prince Albert, played with finesse by Anton Walbrook. The Jubilee finale was originally filmed in resplendent Technicolor (derided in 1937 as vulgar) though some scattered prints are still processed in black and white. Victoria the Great was also released as Sixty Glorious Years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Anton Walbrook, (more)
- 1936
In this mid-19th century costume romance, a Scottish minister's daughter falls in love with an army officer. Their love is destroyed by the woman's jealous sister. During the Crimean War, the woman joins Florence Nightingale on the front and serves as an army nurse. There she again sees her beloved. This time she saves his life and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Movie star-turned-bandleader Buddy Rogers heads the cast of the British tunefest Dance Band. The star is appropriately cast as singing orchestra leader Buddy Morgan, whose great rival is female bandmaster -- or bandmistress -- Pat Shelley (June Clyde). That hero and heroine will forget their differences and fall in love is a "given," but there's many a complication along the way thanks in great part to crooked business-manager Lewes (Fred Duprez). The plot is merely a peg upon which to hang a variety of toe-tapping musical numbers, delivered with gusto by a gaggle of talented specialty artists. In addition to its entertainment obligations, Dance Band helped to introduce Austrian actor Steve Geray to English-speaking audiences; within the next few years, Geray would develop into one of Hollywood's most dependable character players. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buddy" Rogers, June Clyde, (more)
- 1935
Will Hay heads a cast of nearly 40 popular British variety artists in Radio Parade of 1935. The magnificent supercilious Mr. Hay is cast as William Garland, a radio-station manager whose operation is in big financial trouble. Our hero is baled out by Jimmie Clare (Clifford Mollison), head of the station's complaints department, who enlists the aid of his fellow employees to stage a big-time variety show. So grateful is Garland that he consents to the marriage of his daughter Joan (Helen Chandler) and the enterprising Mr. Clare. The film's guest stars may have not meant much to American audiences, but British filmgoers were delighted to see their favorites in action. Filmed in a primitive but eye-pleasing color process, Radio Parade of 1935 represents one of the first directorial efforts of Arthur B. Woods, whose promising career was tragically cut short in the early stage of WW II. In America, the film was released as Radio Follies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Hay, Clifford Mollison, (more)
- 1935
No Limit is purely and simply a vehicle for chipmunk-cheeked British comic George Formby. He plays a provincial auto mechanic who dreams of the Main Chance. He gets it when he decides to soup up an old dirt-bike and enter the vehicle in an upcoming championship race. The climactic road sequences were picturesquely filmed on the Isle of Man. Supporting George is Florence Desmond, one of the foremost celebrity impressionists of her time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Formby, Florence Desmond, (more)
