Jack Hulbert Movies

This humorous video is a compilation of a multitude of comedic clips from various British films spanning from 1930 to 1970. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This mystery is based on a 1954 play by Agatha Christie. It tells the story of an ambassador's wife who must hide the corpse of her husband from his daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister, Magic Box contends that Friese-Greene was the true father of motion pictures, and not such upstarts as W. K. L. Dickson and Thomas Edison. Told in flashback, the film details Friese-Greene's tireless experiments with the "moving image," leading inexorably to a series of failures and disappoints, as others hog the credit for the protagonist's discoveries. The huge cast includes such British film luminaries as Joyce Grenfell, Miles Malleson, Michael Redgrave, Eric Portman, Emlyn Williams, Richard Attenborough, Peter Ustinov, Cecil Parker, Kay Walsh, and, best of all, Laurence Olivier as the confused bobby who witnesses Friese-Greene's first motion picture demonstration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this lively spy caper, the male half of a married song-and-dance duo moonlights as a government spy. The trouble begins when he is assigned to monitor a sexy foreign spy, something he must keep from his wife, who soon gets jealous when she sees the two constantly together. To monitor her own husband, the wife gets herself hired as a maid to the seductive secret agent. Her husband, impressed by her natural surveillance skills, finally gives in and allows her to help. Using their special talents, the two investigate and expose a master-spy who has fitted a new kind of carburetor on his airplane. To get at it, the couple dresses up like mechanics and hides upon the plane. Once airborne, they force the pilot out and head back for England. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, an impoverished bumbler becomes a waiter at a fancy party and finds himself mistaken for one of the wealthy guests by another drunken guest. Soon he is mingling with the elite and meets a beautiful girl. He decides to make the illusion real and after the party goes to his banker and blackmails him into hiring him. Soon he is promoted to a higher position until he is transferred the Paris branch where he begins living a happy, financially secure existence with the beautiful girl in his arms. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

British musical-comedy star Jack Hulbert and Hollywood ingenue Patricia Ellis share top billing in Gaiety Girls (aka Paradise for Two). Hulbert plays Martin, a straight-laced Parisian millionaire who falls in love with saucy chorus girl Jeannette (Ellis). The plot requires that Martin pose as a reporter who is called upon by Jeannette to pose as her wealthy benefactor: in other words, he's hired to impersonate himself! With all this going on, it's a wonder that our hero has time to offer a few song-and-dance numbers of his own, but Jack Hulbert does not disappoint his fans. Billed fourth in Gaiety Girls is Googie Withers, whose name would mean a lot more at the box-office within a few short years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

British comedy favorite Jack Hulbert is the sole raison d'etre for the existence of the raucous comedy Jack Ahoy. Hulbert plays lowly seaman Jack Ponsonby, who harbors an apparently hopeless love for admiral's daughter Patricia Frazer (Nancy O'Neil). Anxious to prove himself a hero in Patricia's eyes, Jack gets his chance when he does battle against a whole pack of Chinese river bandits. This slapstick climax is matched in silliness only by Hulbert's musical solo "My Hat's on the Side of My Head". Jack Ahoy was scripted by Sidney Gilliat and Leslie Arliss, both of whom quickly went on to bigger and better things. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British comedy an officer in the Camel Corps pretends to be an Egyptian sheik so he can catch drug smugglers in action. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, two rival reporters vie for the scoop on the whereabouts of a missing heiress. They find her in Switzerland. One of the journalists falls in love with her and saves her from marrying an aristocrat. His rival gets to write the story as a consolation prize. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this British musical, a shop assistant attempts to impress a girl by telling her that he is actually the manager. Unfortunately, when he is fired, he is also alone. Later he catches robbers trying to pillage the place. He is then rehired as the store manager for real. The girl comes back and he puts her in charge of the music department. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

With a title like Jack's the Boy, is it any surprise that the star of this breezy quota quickie is British music-hall favorite Jack Hulbert? The star plays the son of a celebrated Scotland Yard detective, who joins the force in hopes of following his father's footsteps. Unfortunately, Jack is something of a screw-up, and before long he has become the laughing stock of the force. All this changes when our hero captures the head of an auto-theft ring, whom he'd previously let slip through his fingers during a nocturnal episode at Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Matching Jack Hulbert laugh for laugh is his wife and longtime stage partner Cicely Courteneidge in the supporting role of a Scottish haggis peddler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released in the U.S. as The Office Girl, Sunshine Susie is the English-language version of the German comedy hit Die Privatsekretarian. The charming Renate Muller repeats her role from the German version as Susie, the perky new stenographer for a stuffy Viennese banking firm. Here she falls in love with Arvay (Owen Nares), whom she assumes is a lowly clerk. In fact, Arvay is the bank's managing director, but he doesn't let on, fearful that Susie has a prejudice against wealthy men. Reviewers in 1931 were most impressed by the breezy comic performance of Jack Hulbert, who was hailed as a "new find," even though he'd been a stage favorite since 1916! Enlivening the proceedings are four songs, carried over from Die Privatesekretarian but "English-ized" by Paul Abraham and Desmond Carter. Sunshine Susie was distributed in the U.S. by RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide