A.V. Bramble Movies
British director and actor A.V. Bramble started out on stage in the early 1900s. By 1913 he'd begun acting in British silent films; a year later he became a director whose career continued through 1933. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1952
Partially filmed on location in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Outcast of the Islands is a reasonably faithful adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel. Trevor Howard plays a degenerate British expatriate who wanders aimlessly around a Malayan island. Most of the film involves the search for Howard by those on whom he's turned his back. None of the characters is particularly likable; even Howard loses audience sympathy for his plight by betraying one of his closest friends (Ralph Richardson), a ship's captain who'd raised Howard from boyhood. The unrelenting pessimism of Outcast of the Islands was such that the American distributors felt the need to ease the characters' pain by editing the picture down from 102 minutes to 94. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Richardson, Trevor Howard, (more)
- 1933
A young woman comes to England to escape her checkered past and assumes the name of her late cousin. This melodrama chronicles what happens when she falls in love with the son of a disapproving judge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Written by Anthony Asquith, Shooting Stars is motivated by the sexual misconduct of unprincipled movie star Mae Feather, played by Annette Benson. Though married to her leading man Julian Gordon (Brian Aherne), Mae develops a craving for charismatic slapstick comedian Andy Wilks (Donald Calthrop). The heroine gives the comic the key to her apartment, informing him that her husband will be away for the weekend. But when Andy comes calling, Julian is still on the premises, and it doesn't take Julian long to size up the situation. He announces his intention to divorce his wife, an action which, thanks to a morals clause in Mae's contract, will ruin the actress' career. At Mae's urging, Andy schemes to kill Julian before papers can be filed, loading a prop gun on the set of Julian's latest picture with a "live" cartridge. Through a series of devilishly clever plot twists, Julian survives the murder attempt, but Andy himself is killed by the booby-trapped gun. Five years pass: Free of his deceitful wife, Julian has become a top director, while poor Mae has been demoted to an extra. Greeted with mixed reviews in 1928, Shooting Stars seems somewhat better today than it did then, primarily because of the detailed authenticity of the movie-studio scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annette Benson, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1921
A comic novel by Israel Zangwill resulted in 6 reels' worth of nonsense titled The Bachelor's Club. The hero is a henpecked husband whose worm turns when he inherits a fortune. Emboldened by his riches, hubby establishes a club for men who, like himself, have been browbeaten by their wives. This seminal version of Our Gang's He-Man Woman Haters' Club is doomed to failure thanks to a variety of humorous complications. The Bachelors' Club served as an early sampling of the comic expertise of Ernst Thesiger (Bride of Frankenstein). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Writer-director Henry Edwards does "triple duty" as star of The Hanging Judge. Edwards plays Dick Veasey, the son of stern, unforgiving jurist Sir John Veasey (Hamilton Stewart). Disowned by his father, Dick becomes a newspaperman and a staunch advocate of British legal reform. One of his first acts is to marry Molly (Chrissie White, Edwards' real-life wife), the daughter of a man whom Sir John had sent to prison. Proving that Molly's dad was innocent, Dick is able to orchestrate a reconciliation with his repentant father. The Hanging Judge was based on a play by Leon M. Lion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Co-director Elliot Stannard also wrote this chop-licking melodrama. Chauvinistic in the extreme, Fatal Fingers' villain is an Italian nobleman who campaigns for unrestricted immigration. When a Member of Parliament presents an anti-immigration bill, the Italian murders him. The hero, the Earl of Ellersdale (George Bellamy), fakes his own death so he can be free to expose the murderer. Gad, sir! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
A typical drama from war-torn England, A Soldier and a Man starred handsome George Keene as the son of a famous general (Charles Vane) who is framed for crime by an insidious spy. With the law closing in on him, our hero enlists under an assumed name and in time proves himself a hero by not only saving the life of his father but also that of his girlfriend (Minna Grey). Eliot Stannard's screenplay was based on a rather sensationalistic play by Ben Landeck. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
