Cedric Hardwicke Movies
British actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke's physician father was resistant to his son's chosen profession; nonetheless, the elder Hardwicke paid Cedric's way through the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. The actor was fortunate enough to form a lasting friendship with playwright George Bernard Shaw, who felt that Hardwicke was the finest actor in the world (Shaw's other favorites were the Four Marx Brothers). Working in Shavian plays like Heartbreak House, Major Barbara and The Apple Cart throughout most of the 1920s and 1930s in England, Hardwicke proved that he was no one-writer actor with such roles as Captain Andy in the London production of the American musical Show Boat. After making his first film The Dreyfus Case in 1931, Hardwicke worked with distinction in both British and American films, though his earliest attempts at becoming a Broadway favorite were disappointments. Knighted for his acting in 1934, Hardwicke's Hollywood career ran the gamut from prestige items like Wilson (1944), in which he played Henry Cabot Lodge, to low-budget gangster epics like Baby Face Nelson (1957), where he brought a certain degree of tattered dignity to the role of a drunken gangland doctor. As proficient at directing as he was at acting, Hardwicke unfortunately was less successful as a businessman. Always a step away from his creditors, he found himself taking more and more journeyman assignments as he got older. Better things came his way with a successful run in the 1960 Broadway play A Majority of One and several tours with Charles Laughton, Agnes Moorehead and Charles Boyer in the "reader's theatre" staging of Shaw's Don Juan in Hell. A talented writer, Hardwicke wrote two autobiographies, the last of these published in 1961 as A Victorian in Orbit. It was here that he wittily but ruefully observed that "God felt sorry for actors, so he gave them a place in the sun and a swimming pool. The price they had to pay was to surrender their talent." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Now famous as the first feature film produced in the three-strip Technicolor process, Becky Sharp is also an enjoyable effort in its own right. Adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair, the film stars Miriam Hopkins as Becky Sharp, a resourceful, totally self-involved young lady who manages to survive any number of setbacks and deprivations in the years following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. In her efforts to advance herself, she manages to link up with a number of not altogether attractive gentlemen, including the Marquis of Steyne (Cedric Hardwicke), Joseph Sedley (Nigel Bruce), Rawdon Crawley (Alan Mowbray), and George Osborne (G. P. Huntley Jr.) She rises to the pinnacle of British society, only to tumble and fall into the humiliation of singing for her supper in a cheap back-alley beer hall, but, like her spiritual sister Scarlet O'Hara, Becky never stays down for long. The film ends on an ambiguous note, never hinting that Becky will eventually drop her current beau and settle down to a life of smug piety, as she does in the novel. Begun in 1934 with Lowell Sherman in the director's chair, Becky Sharp was forced to shut down production when Sherman died; he was replaced by Rouben Mamoulien, whose unerring eye for cinematic splendor exploited the new color process to the utmost, especially during the opening Brussels Ball sequence. Until its recent archival restoration, Becky Sharp was available only in a shortened, two-color version, which had the negative effect of diminishing the film's strong points and overemphasizing its weaknesses (This version is still available on the public-domain market). Becky Sharp is an enormous improvement over the low-budget 1932 version of Vanity Fair, which updated the story to the 20th century and cast dumb-blonde specialist Joyce Compton in the role of Becky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Cedric Hardwicke, (more)
- 1934
Hollywood movie-making is satirized in this comedy. The trouble begins when an American filmmaker decides to us a British army barracks and soldiers to add a realistic touch to his newest Foreign Legion film. The trouble is, the director is neither very good, nor well informed about military life, something that the brigadier general that helps the filmmaker is quick to point out. But this does not stop the director from trying to get the whole British army into the act. The real kicker is that the American film crew does not have permission to use the soldiers or the facilities. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Greenwood, James Gleason, (more)
- 1934
In this comedy-mystery, a private detective helps three businessmen get even with the man who misused their investments. The detective plans to kidnap the man's wife so he can get her signature and reclaim the money. The detective didn't plan on falling in love with the wife, but he does, and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Howard, Cedric Hardwicke, (more)
- 1934
That old theatrical war-horse Bella Donna (previously filmed in America by Alla Nazimova) was resurrected by Britain's Twickenham Studios in 1934. Conrad Veidt stars as sinister Egyptian Mahmoud Baroundi, who even before the film gets under way has left a long trail of ruined women behind him. His latest victim is American girl Mona Chepstow (Mary Ellis), whom Baroundi treats like dirt and makes her like it. The plot centers around a murder by poison, as evidenced by the film's deliberately exotic title. Critics in 1934 praised newcomer Mary Ellis for underplaying her role, but many film fans preferred Nazimova's arm-waving histrionics in the earlier version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt, Mary Ellis, (more)
- 1934
This lush historical drama chronicles the brief reign of the late Henry VIII's successor, Lady Jane Grey. After only nine days on the throne, she was beheaded at the behest of the treacherous Mary Tudor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cedric Hardwicke, John Mills, (more)
- 1934
Jew Suss was a well-worn stage drama based on an old novel by Lionel Feuchtwanger. The story involves an enterprising Jewish businessman (Conrad Veidt) who gains power and influence in the European community of Wurttemburg. He does this to help his people, who have suffered persecution under the Gentile burgomeisters. To his horror, Suss discovers that he is actually not Jewish at all. The question: Was his own suffering on behalf of the community's genuine Jews worth it, and will he continue to act in their best interest? Filmed as a protest against the rising tide of Anti-Semitism in Germany, Jew Suss (released in the U.S. as Power) was far from subtle, but its heart was in the right place. There would be a reprehensible 1940 German remake of Jew Suss, this time filmed under the aegis of Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels, wherein the story was perverted into an anti-Jewish tract and Suss was portrayed as a drooling rapist! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt, Benita Hume, (more)
- 1934
In this drama, a prominent playwright and thespian prides himself on his ability to take any woman and turn them into excellent actresses. He discovers a Russian girl whom he falls in love with. He convinces her to marry him, but when she meets his friend, she falls for him instead and leaves the marriage. It has been suggested that the film was based on the career of French playwright Sacha Guitry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cedric Hardwicke, Marie Glory, (more)
The Ghoul was Boris Karloff's first British horror film. Karloff is cast as Egyptologist Professor Morant, who on his deathbed insists that he be buried with a rare jewel that was once part of an Oriental idol. It is Morant's belief that the gem will one day restore him to life, a contingency which terrifies the Professor's weaselly assistant Laing (Ernst Thesiger), who hopes to get his mitts on the jewel himself. In due time, Morant dies and is buried -- minus the jewel, which has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. All of this leads to a spooky denouement in Morant's cemetery crypt, designed in the manner of the ancient Egyptians. The romantic subplot is handled by Anthony Bushell as Morlant's nephew Ralph and Dorothy Hyson as Betty, while comedy relief is ladled on by Kathleen Harrison (Kaney) as a man-chasing spinster. Long believed lost (all prints were supposed to have been destroyed when the film was remade as the 1962 horror comedy No Place Like Homicide), The Ghoul resurfaced in Europe in the early 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, (more)
- 1933
Rome Express is a fast-moving British imitation of Hollywood's Grand Hotel formula. The film concentrates on the various passengers of a European express train. On this particular run, the train is a veritable hotbed of intrigue, with crooks and blackmail victims seemingly in every coach. Among the naughty and nice characters are continental favorites Conrad Veidt, Cedric Hardwicke and Finlay Currie, as well as American silent film star Esther Ralston. Rome Express enabled director Walter Forde to graduate from inexpensive regional comedies to prestige British productions. The film was also an obvious inspiration for such later intrigue-on-the-rails epics as The Lady Vanishes (38) and Night Train (39). Rome Express was remade in 1948 as Sleeping Car to Trieste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt, Esther Ralston, (more)
- 1931
The notorious Dreyfus case that sent tremors throughout France in the late 1800s is the subject of this early British sound film, performed in a low-key style by an excellent cast. Cedric Hardwicke is Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jew on the French army's general staff. When treason is discovered within the general staff, Dreyfus is unjustly declared a traitor and sent to Devil's Island. Dreyfus languishes there, until one of France's greatest writers, Emile Zola (George Merritt), takes up Dreyfus's case, declaring him innocent of the charges. Zola attracts the interest of Georges Clemenceau, and a new trial for Dreyfus is granted. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cedric Hardwicke, Beatrix Thomson, (more)
- 1931
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
- Starring:
- Cedric Hardwicke, Beatrix Thomson, (more)
- 1931
Actor Robert Montgomery would serve as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve during WWII, but he was just a lowly seaman in the 1931 MGM programmer Shipmates. When he's not being pushed around by chief petty officer Ernest Torrence, naval recruit Jonesy (Montgomery) is busily wooing Kit (Dorothy Jordan) the daughter of Admiral Corbin (Hobart Bosworth). After several reels of irresponsibility, Jonesy proves his worth by preventing an arsenal ship from being destroyed by a burning oil tanker. Cliff Edwards provides the requisite comic relief as a goofy gob named Bilge. Though Shipmates could hardly qualify as Robert Montgomery's best film, it was the picture in which he was finally afforded top billing, thereby increasing his salary to a daunting $2100 per week. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cedric Hardwicke, Robert Montgomery, (more)
- 1926
This 1926 British film was the second full-length biopic of naval hero Horatio Nelson. Cedric Hardwycke is superb in the title role, allowing American viewers to see why George Bernard Shaw listed Hardwycke as his fifth favorite actor (after the Four Marx Brothers!) Plenty of screen space is afforded Nelson's notorious romance with Lady Hamilton, here portrayed by Gertrude McCoy. The Battle of Trafalgar is convincingly if economically staged, while Nelson's death scene is a paticularly effective vignette. Nelson was based on that cornucopia of inside information, Robert Southey's The Life of Nelson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cedric Hardwicke, Gertrude McCoy, (more)
