Jeanne de Casalis Movies
- 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
A confirmed bachelor and a reclusive movie star tangle in this lively French comedy. The trouble begins when the bachelor vows to disprove the star's Garboesque claim that she wants to be alone. Saying that all women are alike, he sets out to seduce her. First he poses as a Realtor and offers to let her hide out in his lavish country estate. There he and she gradually get to know each other. Much to his surprise, she is quite sincere on wanting to be alone. When the woman discovers the "Realtor's" ruse she decides to teach him a lesson by promptly marrying him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1947
In this comedy drama, a taxi driver finds an abandoned greyhound puppy and takes it home to his daughter who raises it and trains it to race. While at the track, a corrupt dog owner sees the dog as a threat to his champion and tries to buy it from her. She refuses, and so he tries to frame the taxi-driver on fake drunk-driving charges. Fortunately, the dog wins the Big Race and the cabby's good name is eventually cleared. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrew Blackett, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1946
This holiday comedy is set during the Christmas of 1946 and centers upon a fellow who has returned to his native Canada to spend the Yule. When he receives a telegram from "the Fergusons," many memories of the Christmas they spent together come flooding back. The story jumps backward four years when the man was serving in the Canadian army and was stationed in England. This family took him in for the holiday. While there, the soldier finds himself pursued by the Fergusons' daughter and by their maid. The story then jumps to the present where the former maid--now in the military too--is seen preparing the soldier's Christmas dinner in their home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Walls, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1945
In this WWII drama, James Mason plays naval commander Richard Heritage, who is distracted from his duties by a beautiful young woman who is secretly in cahoots with Nazi spies. By accident, Heritage lets her discover the sailing dates of American warships. The mistake costs the U.S. Navy a war ship and costs Heritage his post. After his court-martial, he sets off to find the girl who tripped him up and discovers that she has been killed. With the help of Laura Verity (Joyce Howard), he uncovers the Nazi spy ring, which is being operated under the guise of a British theatrical agency in the seaside town of Blackpool. The head of the outfit is master spy Christopher Child (Tom Walls), a fearsome villain. Heritage hopes to redeem himself and win the heart of Laura by defeating Child and his schemes. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mason, Joyce Howard, (more)
- 1944
A proud but aging WW I war-horse is deeply offended when his offer to lead during WW II is rejected by the government that once lauded his bravery with a series of medals. Embittered and despondent over their callousness, he heads back to his isolated country estate where he plots his permanent escape from the cold cruel world. When the government sends six mischievous cockney youths to stay with him during the bombing of London, the despondent old man must abandon his suicidal musings and attend to the ensuing chaos of the rambunctious rapscallions. This touching British drama follows the tough general's attempts to control and understand the energetic little hellions. As he comes to know them, he reluctantly begins to care and in so doing, finds renewed zest for life ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Godfrey Tearle, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1942
In this British comedy set during WW II, two Cockney lads are taken to the safety of an earl's country estate. Mayhem ensues as the boys try to become accustomed to the earl's sedate life and the earl tries to get used to their boisterousness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1941
Cottage to Let is a taut British wartime spy thriller, laced with moments of genuinely hilarious comedy. The "maguffin" in this instance is a revolutionary new bombsight, designed by inventor John Barrington (Leslie Banks). A group of Nazi spies intend to steal the blueprints for the invention (hence the film's alternate title Bombsight Stolen), and to that end dispatch one of their top agents (John Mills), who parachutes into the story posing as wounded RAF pilot Lt. Perry. Hailed as a war hero by the gullible locals, Perry rents a cottage from the unsuspecting Barrington and his wife (Jeanne de Casalis). The treacherous Nazi meets his match in the unlikely form of oafish Charles Dimble (Alastair Sim), who turns out to be a British undercover agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Banks, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1940
In this British comedy, three sailors accidentally get on a Nazi ship. Mayhem ensues when they commandeer it for the Royal Navy. The story is also known as Three Cockeyed Sailors. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1940
In this WW II comedy, three British sailors get roaring drunk in a South American port, accidentally mistake a German battleship for their own and stagger aboard. Boozy mayhem ensues until the tipsy trio manages to capture the ship and its entire crew on behalf of the Royal Navy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This film is an adaptation of the Brandon Thomas stage perennial Charley's Aunt, starring bespectacled British radio comedian Arthur Askey. Since Askey's professional nickname was "Big-Hearted Arthur", and since another Charley's Aunt starring Jack Benny went before the cameras in 1941, the title was slightly altered for its limited American release. Otherwise, the story is the same as ever. Dizzy Oxford student Lord Fancourt Babberly (Askey) is persuaded to pose as his pal Charley Wyckham's elderly aunt, in order that Charley's and Jack Chesney's girlfriends will have a proper female escort when they come to visit. The charade is complicated by the presence of Jack's father and of one of the girl's guardians, Stephen Spettigue, both of whom are required by the plotline to "romance" the phoney aunt. Further gumming up the works is the arrival of the genuine Aunt, with Lord Fancourt Babberly's erstwhile lady love in tow. Charley's Big-Hearted Aunt was updated and expanded to allow for the characteristic verbal patter of the then-popular Arthur Askey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1939
American leading lady Gertrude Michael tops the cast of the British Just Like a Woman. Reprising her misbehavior in Hollywood's The Notorious Sophie Lang, Michael plays jewel thief Ann Heston, who purloins a string of valuable pearls right from under the long noses of the law. She is then pursued halfway around the world by insurance investigator Tony Walsh (John Lodge), who doesn't know what the audience does-that Ann is actually the daughter of his boss. Predictably, Ann is revealed to be operating with the best of intentions, allowing for a satisfying romantic finale. Perhaps inspired by the film's "Yankee" leads, the British cast members of Just Like a Women adopt mid-Atlantic accents throughout most of the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gertrude Michael, John Lodge, (more)
Alfred Hitchcock directed this disappointing misfire, memorable solely for the fact is that it is the final film from Hitchcock's early British period before he left for the Hollywood studio system and David O. Selznick. In the England of the 1800s, a group of ruthless smugglers, led by Sir Humphrey Pengallon (Charles Laughton), prey on ships by blacking out warning signals. When the ships crash on the rocks, the nefarious group loots the remains and kills the sailors. The plot kicks in when the beautiful orphan Mary Yelland (Maureen O'Hara) goes to visit her uncle Joss Merlyn (Leslie Banks) at a creepy hotel called the Jamaica Inn, the home of the gang of smugglers. Mary doesn't realize that Uncle Joss is one of them. Meanwhile, Lloyd's of London sends one of their ablest men, Jem Trahearne (Robert Newton), to investigate the recurring shipwrecks. Jem checks in to the Jamaica Inn, and when the coven of smugglers finds out who he is, they capture him and attempt to kill him. But Mary comes to his rescue and saves him. Through the inn, the smugglers try to recapture Jem -- along with Mary. Thrown together by dire circumstances, the two fall in love. Meanwhile, all the shenanigans occurring at the Jamaica Inn appear to be driving Pengallon insane. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, (more)
- 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)
- 1933
In this domestic comedy, a married couple gets a divorce and goes their separate ways. Several years pass and they run into each other. It doesn't take long before their love rekindles and they decide to marry again. It's about that time they discover that their divorce was never finalized. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
In this romance, the love lives of several London dress shop employees are chronicled. Much of the story centers upon the head dressmaker who gets into trouble by borrowing one of her own designs to attend a gala with a rich fellow and finds herself accused of stealing it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Romance novelist and self-styled moral arbiter Elinor Glyn was credited for both the screenplay and direction of the bodice-ripping Knowing Men. A graduate of convent school, wealthy Korah (Elissa Landi) has been promised in marriage to wealthier George Vere (Carl Brisson), whom she's never met. Exercising his male-chauvinist prerogative, George has already had an affair with Delphine (Jean de Casalis). To learn the truth about the man she's supposed to marry, Korah sneaks away from her Aunt (Helen Hay) to visit George. She learns more than she bargained for when George anxiously tries to retrieve several incriminating love letters from Delphine. Though critics never took Elinor Glyn seriously, her over-heated novels were devoured by her public; one might call her the Barbara Cartland of her day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elissa Landi, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1927
This silent British comedy features at least seven vaudeville acts and was adapted from a popular stage musical that tells the tale of a shady nightclub proprietor who heads for Arcadia because he believes the jig's up and the cops are out to get him for running an illegal operation after closing time. Eventually he returns to re-create his club and win his wife back from a dishonest jockey. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Blue, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1925
This Selig "human interest" drama begins as a married couple head to Reno to get a divorce. Lost in the shuffle is the couple's young son, who can't understand why mommy and daddy are so mad at each other. On his own volition, the boy makes the arduous cross-country journey to Reno, hoping to bring about a reconciliation. His parents are so touched by his diligence and devotion that they agree to give their marriage one more chance. Already a tad unbelievable to begin with, Settled Out of Court was further hampered by an outrageous finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
