Reginald Berkeley Movies

Many of the "preparedness" films of the years just prior to World War II sidestepped censorship by depicting past outrages of the Germans. Such a film was British producer Herbert Wilcox's Hollywood production Nurse Edith Cavell, in which Wilcox's future wife Anna Neagle portrayed the titular martyred Englishwoman. Ms. Neagle plays the legendary Ms. Cavell as a candidate for Canonization. Her selfless efforts to rescue refugee soldiers from World War I Belgium results in her being arrested on charges of espionage. Despite international pleas for clemency, the dastardly Deutschlanders sentence Edith to death. She faces the firing squad with a courageous serenity that makes Joan of Arc look like a hysterical schoolgirl. An earlier, silent version of Nurse Edith Cavell had caused turmoil in England due to its unadorned depiction of war's horrors. In 1939, however, audiences inundated by reports of Hitler's latest outrages were more receptive. Ironically, the film opened in the US a scant few days before war broke out in Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carolina, a melodrama directed by Henry King, follows a young woman's attempt to restore a southern plantation back to its pre-Civil War glory. Joanna Tate (Janet Gaynor), originally travels from her home in Pennsylvania to the plantation in order to collect her deceased father's belongings. Though he didn't own the plantation himself, he had worked there as a farmer for a number of years. Once she arrives, Joanna (Gaynor) finds that the actual plantation owner, Bob Connelly (Lionel Barrymore), is a Civil War veteran who, despite his dogged determination to return his farmland to what it was before the war, has fallen to alcoholism. Least expected, however, was the love that would develop between Joanna and the plantation's handsome young heir, Will Connelly (Robert Young). Joanna and Connelly (Young) eventually marry, and the farm is successfully restored through their dedication and hard work. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Movie newcomer Ketti Gallian plays Marie Gallante, who is abducted by a most ungallant drunken sea captain. He leaves her stranded in Yucatan, where she gets a job as a cafe singer in hopes of paying her way to the Panama Canal zone. While en route, she meets the two-fisted Crawbett (Spencer Tracy), who unlike most of the other men she's encountered believes the kidnapping story. Crawbett, a secret agent, comes to Marie's rescue when she gets inadvertently mixed up in a plot to sabotage the Canal. His job done, Crawbett decides to stick around in Panama for a while when he falls in love with Marie. Based on a novel by Jacques Devel, Marie Gallante was intended to make a star out of Ketti Gallian, but it was the reliable Spencer Tracy who attracted the crowds and earned the critical plaudits. Elements of the film's plotline would later resurface in the 1940 programmer Charlie Chan in Panama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While at a duke's party, disguised Ruritanian king Gerrard and chancellor McNaughton are accused of jewel thievery, but find assistance from the duke's daughter, Lamont. ~ All Movie Guide

Filmed in England, the French-language 77 Rue Chalgrin was based on a stage melodrama by British playwright Walter Hackett. While the owner of a London townhouse is on a tour of Africa, a crook moves in and transforms the house into a seamy gambling den. One evening, a gorgeous young lady enters the establishment, escorted by a "man of mystery" whom we know to be the actual owner of the house. Rather than reveal his identity, he joins in the crooked revelry, all for the purpose of saving the girl's brother from a life of crime. But things don't quite work out that way, and before the story has ended there have been two murders -- one faked to fool the cops, the other all too real. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British-filmed The Dreyfus Case has long been overshadowed by the more elaborate The Life of Emile Zola (1937), but, judged on its own merits, the earlier film weaves a pretty lucid account of an unfortunate chapter in French history. In 1894, army captain Alfred Dreyfus (Cedric Hardwicke) is accused of spying on behalf of foreign powers. He is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment at Devil's Island penal colony. Author Emile Zola (George Merritt) is apprised by relatives of Dreyfus that the condemned man may have been framed. He publishes his famous condemnation of military justice, and is eventually hounded out of France for his efforts to exonerate Dreyfus. But the case is reopened, and after several false stops and starts it is revealed that Dreyfus had been set up to cover for the crimes of another officer--simply because as a Jew, Dreyfus was considered expendable by the antisemitic higher-ups. He is released and fully restored to rank, but the debate rages on in France as to whether or not justice has truly been served. At the time The Dreyfus Case was filmed, the events depicted were only some thirty to forty years in the past, and there were those who still believed Dreyfus guilty; thus, the film, despite its care not to trod on toes, was not widely distributed in France--and not shown at all in countries where anti-Jewish sentiments prevailed. When originally released, the film bore the simpler title Dreyfus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British crime drama, a Yankee crook uses a garage owner's son as his alibi after he robs a bank and shoots a cop. A Scotland Yard investigator is behind him. He is just about to catch the crook, when the crook shoots him. The police then close in on the killer, but then his girl friend threatens to kill a policeman and the murderer escapes. In the end, just desserts are served when his girl runs him over with her car. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This grim and gripping British melodrama was originally released in 1931 under the title Wolves. The scene is a Labrador whaling camp, where everyone is a fugitive from justice, and not a few are murderers. Dorothy Gish plays Leila, an unconscious survivor of a shipwreck who drifts into the camp in a rowboat. She is rescued by the lust-driven whalers, who then draw lots to see who will "win" her. Stacking the deck, a big lout named Job (Charles Laughton) claims Leila as his, but it turns out that he's an honorable sort who wishes only to rescue the girl from the other men. Wolves didn't make it to the U.S. until 1936, by which time its title was changed to Wanted Men and its running time was hacked down to 35 minutes by the censors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide