Henry Cornelius Movies
South African-born director Henry Cornelius began his career working in Berlin as an actor and stage director. After the Nazi occupation of Berlin in 1933, Cornelius fled to France and became a student at the Sorbonne. During his time as a student he became an assistant editor, and in 1935 he traveled to England with Rene Clair to film Clair's The Ghost Goes West. He was subsequently promoted to full film editor. Returning to his birthplace of South Africa during the war years, Cornelius wrote documentaries and worked as a produced and director there. After the war he traveled to England and worked as an associate producer and screenwriter, becoming a full-time director after 1949 and making two of British comedies: Passport to Pimlico and Genevieve. ~ MaryAnn Henry, All Movie Guide- 1958
In his all too brief life, director Henry Cornelius became the principal standard-bearer of genteel whimsy in British films. Cornelius' Next to No Time (based on a story by Paul Gallico) stars Kenneth More as a milquetoast engineer who has lost a lot of professional and personal opportunities because of his unwillingness to assert himself. While on a cruise across the Atlantic, More notices that the wall clock in the ship's bar is standing still. The bartender explains that the clock is always halted for an hour each day in order to coordinate with the International Date Line. Emboldened by the notion that anything is possible when time stands still, More sheds his inhibitions, improves his lot in life, and wins the love of an American girl (Betsy Drake). While not as remarkable a comic achievement as Henry Cornelius' Genevieve, Next to No Time is perfect "wish fulfillment" TV fare for a rainy afternoon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth More, Betsy Drake, (more)
- 1955
Julie Harris repeats her stage portrayal of the irrepressible Sally Bowles in John Van Druten's I Am a Camera. Set in pre-Hitler Berlin, the film details the curious, chaste relationship between Sally, an entertainer at a bawdy nightclub, and fledgling writer Christopher Isherwood (Lawrence Harvey). Shelley Winters co-stars as Natalia Landauer, whose impending marriage to a wealthy young Jewish man is imperiled by the anti-Semitism which envelops Berlin as the Nazis gain political power. If all this sounds familiar to you, it is because I Am a Camera is the non-musical precursor to the Broadway musical hit Cabaret. Both properties were based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Those familiar with the film version of Cabaret will notice that certain plot elements have been watered down in Camera. Examples: Isherwood's homosexuality is left unmentioned, save for Lawrence Harvey's opaque opening comment that he is "a confirmed bachelor;" and Sally Bowles' third-act abortion is changed into a false-alarm pregnancy. Also, Julie Harris' dynamic but rather overbaked interpretation of Sally is not nearly as memorable as Liza Minelli's Oscar-winning interpretation of the character in Cabaret. Still, I Am a Camera is well directed and deftly adapted for the screen (by John Collier); and even taking into consideration Ms. Harris' hamminess, she remains one of the most fascinating stage personalities of the mid-20th century. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Harris, Laurence Harvey, (more)
- 1953
The plot of the thoroughly captivating British comedy Genevieve can be summed up in a sentence: Two young couples participate in the Vintage Car Rally, a yearly race from London to Brighton. The title "character" is the 1904 Darracq auto owned by John Gregson and Dinah Sheridan. The couple's friendly rivals are Kenneth More and Kay Kendall, the latter graduating to stardom on the basis of this film. At first treating the race as a lark, the two couples become increasingly--and hilariously--competitive as they near the finishing line. Among the film's plethora of small pleasures are Joyce Grenfell as a wry hotel proprietress and Arthur Wontner as an elderly car fancier. Despite the many technical gaffes and continuity errors overlooked by director Henry Cornelius, Genevieve is a uniquely British delight from beginning to end, its charm enhanced by the uncredited harmonica score of American expatriate Larry Adler. The film was a moneymaker in every country that it played, and a multi-award winner in England and abroad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, (more)
- 1951
Basil Radford is cast superbly to type as The Galloping Major. The story concerns the efforts by retired Major Arthur Hill (Radford) to purchase a valuable race horse. He manages to attain financial backing from 300 fellow racing enthusiasts--and then messes things up for all concerned by buying the wrong horse. Persevering, Major Hill enters the steed in the Grand National, whereupon the horse disappears on the eve of the big event. The comic frustrations faced by the Major and his creditors are played effectively for light chuckles rather than belly laughs. The cast includes such polished farceurs as Hugh Griffith, Joyce Grenfell (a favorite of director Henry Cornelius, as witness Genevieve), Sydney Tafler and Alfie Bass. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Basil Radford, Jimmy Hanley, (more)
- 1949
Passport to Pimlico is one of the most charmingly whimsical Ealing Studios comedies of the late 1940s-early 1950s. As a result of wartime bombing, an ancient parchment is uncovered, proving that the Pimlico section of London belongs to Burgundy, France. Long taken for granted by other Londoners, the tiny Pimlico populace decides to take advantage of its "foreign" status. Affable oaf Stanley Holloway is made head of the new government, whereupon he merrily begins erecting borders and imposing customs duties. The sweetly satirical script of Passport to Pimlico was written by director Henry Cornelius and Ealing stalwart T.E.B. Clarke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, (more)
- 1947
Alastair Sim is a delight to behold as always in the British Hue and Cry, but the film's true star is approximately 40 years younger and two feet shorter than the estimable Sim. Harry Fowler plays Joe Kirby, an intelligent cockney lad who is addicted to a weekly boys' magazine. He begins to notice a curious pattern emerging in the dialogue of a serialized blood-and-thunder detective story. And well he should: a gang of literate crooks are using that story to transmit information concerning robberies, smuggling, fencing, and the like. When the local constabulary refuse to take Joe's warnings seriously, he rallies his chums together to foil the crooks. Elements of Hue and Cry would later pop up in several American films, including the Bowery Boys' Angels in Disguise (1949) and the Jack Carson vehicle The Good Humor Man (1950). This is only fair, since T.E.B. Clarke's screenplay is inspired in part by the old German perennial Emil and the Detectives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Douglas Barr, (more)
- 1947
After the war, British films began avoiding the heiresses and lordships that had dominated the drama field and began pursuing "realism" -- which often was just as artificial as the earlier white-telephone pictures. John McCallum plays Tommy Swann, a product of the working class who tries to better himself by becoming a criminal. Escaping from prison, Swann hides out in the East London home of his former mistress Rose (Googie Withers), who has since married George Sandigate (Edward Chapman). The film is told from Swann's point-of-view, and a dismal view that is. Nor does Rose seem any happier with her drab lot in life. Swann's return does nothing but further their misery, tearing Rose' family apart and sending Swann back into the arms of the law. Considered a tension-laden slice of life in 1949, It Always Rains on Sunday seems a bit contrived today, though it does full justice to the Arthur La Bern novel on which it is based -- especially when the film leaves the environs of the house and zeroes in on its colorful roster of bit actors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Googie Withers, Edward Chapman, (more)
- 1945
In this drama, set during World War II, two rival boat families battle it out for supremacy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1940
The semidocumentary war film The Lion Has Wings states its case in broad strokes, juxtaposing images of rampaging German-dictator Adolf Hitler and appeasing British prime minister Neville Chamberlain with stock shots of bleating sheep. The film then depicts Great Britain as a great lion, willing and able to sprout "wings" in the form of waves of planes to hurl back the Luftwaffe. The dramatic portion of the film, lensed in ten days to assure timeliness (and, incidentally, a low budget) features an all-star British cast reflecting their native country's many reactions to the inevitability of war. All the on-camera talent involved (including Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson and June Duprez) donated their salaries to the war effort. Produced by Alexander Korda (who also directed a few bridging sequences, sans credit), The Lion Has Wings was distributed in the US by United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson, (more)
This was the first sound production of A.E.W. Mason's classic adventure novel, which was brought to the screen three times in the silent era. Harry Faversham (John Clements) is the son of a military man who expects his son to follow in his footsteps on the fields of battle. Gen. Burroughs (C. Aubrey Smith), the father of Faversham's sweetheart, Ethne (June Duprez), was also a hero in the Crimean War, and he often regales Harry with tales of his exploits under fire. However, Harry is not so sure he believes in the family's tradition of military service and resigns his commission in 1898, shortly before his company is scheduled to head into the Sudan. Three of Faversham's comrades in arms, Capt. John Durrance (Ralph Richardson), Lt. Peter Burroughs (Donald Gray), and Lt. Arthur Willoughby (Jack Allen), each present Harry with a white feather, symbolizing their belief that he is a coward; Ethne shares their belief, and gives him one as well. Disgusted with himself, Faversham disguises himself as a Sangali tribesman and travels to the Sudan so that he might be able to move behind enemy lines and serve the British forces as a scout and reconnaissance agent. When his former regiment is attacked, Faversham is able to lead Burroughs and Willoughby to safety, with the wounded Durrance not realizing that the Arab who saved his life was in fact the man that he accused of cowardice. The Four Feathers was a great critical and commercial success and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Clements, Ralph Richardson, (more)
- 1938
The Drum is an opulent Technicolor "British India" epic, based on a story by A.E.W. Mason (of Four Feathers fame). Teenaged actor Sabu stars as a young East Indian prince educated in England. By rights, his loyalties should lie with his countrymen, but in typical "Sun Never Sets" fashion most of the other Indian characters are as evil and untrustworthy as Prince Guhl (Raymond Massey). Guhl plans a revolt against the British, intending to wipe out the Royal troops as the English officers enjoy the hospitality of Guhl's spacious palace. It's up to Sabu to warn the troops of Guhl's treachery by means of tapping out a message on the drum of the title. In the US, The Drum was released as Drums, on the theory (according to film historian Alan Barbour) that Americans must have more of everything. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sabu, Raymond Massey, (more)
- 1937
A turbulent triangle of love is the focus of this romantic drama that centers around a widowed operatic tenor. The trouble begins when the lonely fellow marries a British office clerk. She married him on the rebound from a fizzled romance with a dashing ship's officer. At first the singer and the clerk are quite happy, but then she and her ex-lover have a chance encounter while the singer is on tour. Their unresolved relationship is soon rekindled. When the tenor learns of this, he becomes so upset that he is unable to sing. Later the clerk awakens to the fact that the tenor is indeed her true love. She quickly returns to him and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
Something of a precursor to 1947's A Double Life, Men Are Not Gods takes its title from a line in Othello -- aptly so, as that play figures prominently in the film. Actress Barbara Halford (Gertrude Lawrence) is married to Edmond Davey (Sebastian Shaw), a classical actor whose new production of Othello is about to open. Aware that influential critic Skeates has written a vociferously negative review, Barbara pleads with his secretary Ann (Miriam Hopkins) to rewrite the notice. She does so, and the production becomes a hit - and Ann becomes a hit with Davey, which fact sits well with neither Barbara nor Ann's boy friend Rex Harrison. Barbara, who is also playing Desdemona in the production, warns Ann to keep her hands off of her husband. But that night, as Othello chokes Desdemona, it seems suspiciously real, prompting Ann to scream out in horror from the audience. Afterward, Barbara reveals that she is pregnant; as she and Davey embrace, Ann quietly exits from the scene. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Gertrude Lawrence, (more)
- 1936
The Alexander and Zoltan Korda production Forget Me Not serves as a splendid showcase for that matchless Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli. The star is cast in the strangely unsympathetic role of opera star Enzo Curti, who falls in love with impressionable tourist Helen (Joan Gardner). After their marriage, disillusionment quickly sets in for Helen, who can't cope with sharing her new husband with his thousands of fans. When seductress Irene (Jeanne Stuart) moves in on Enzo, Helen leaves him, returning to her former sweetheart. Now contrite, Enzo spends the rest of the film desperately trying to win his young wife back. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beniamino Gigli, Joan Gardner, (more)
- 1935
Wealthy American Joe Martin (Eugene Pallette) purchases an ancient Scottish castle and then has it dismantled and transferred to his Florida estate where he plans to reconstruct the castle brick by brick. Martin is unaware that his new acquisition comes equipped with an 18th-century ghost, played by Robert Donat. As the spectre, who feels as though his honor has been besmirched, flits around haunting one and all, Martin's daughter Peggy (Jean Parker) carries on a romance with the ghost's descendant, also played by Donat. It is only natural that the "live" and "dead" Donat will become mixed up, and this comedy of errors dominates the final scenes of The Ghost Goes West. The film was the first English-language production of French director René Clair -- and almost the last, due to producer Alexander Korda's insistence upon tampering with the original concept as laid down by Clair and screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Donat, Jean Parker, (more)
