Sara Allgood Movies
Born to a middle-class Irish family and educated at the Marlborough Street Training College, 19-year-old Sara Allgood joined the Irish National Theatre Society, obtaining her first speaking role in a 1903 production of W.B. Yeats' The King's Threshold. She became a member of Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1904; within a few years she was lauded as Ireland's foremost actress. While touring Australia in 1918, she made her film bow in Just Peggy. She didn't like the experience, and it would be eleven years before she would face the cameras again, this time in the role of Anna Ondra's mother in Blackmail (1929), Alfred Hitchcock's (and the British film industry's) first talkie. One year later, Hitchcock cast Sara in the demanding title role in the cinematic adaptation of Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, a role she had created on stage with the Abbey Players in 1924. After a decade of worthwhile stage assignments and forgettable film roles, Sara came to Hollywood in 1940, where she was cast by John Ford in a strong role in the Oscar-winning How Green Was My Valley (1941). This led to a long-term contract with 20th Century-Fox, which was financially satisfying but dramatically unrewarding; after years of incisive, commanding stage roles, Sara was compelled to play cliched Irish mothers and servants. Sara Allgood's final screen appearance was in Fox's Cheaper By the Dozen (1950), in which she received prominent billing--and approximately five lines of dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1942
In this WW II propaganda piece a wealthy American society matron refuses to sacrifice her material comforts to aid the war effort until she realizes that her selfishness is cheating the boys overseas who are fighting for her freedom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, (more)
- 1942
In this drama, a has-been stage thespian finds that his alcoholism is ruining his life. When his daughter, a cripple, attempts to show her concern, he rebuffs her with his cruel, razor sharp witticism. His drinking and cynicism continue to increase, but, through it all, his daughter stands steadfastly beside him until her heart is stolen away by a handsome composer. He begins helping her to convince the theatrical community that her father is still a talented actor. Meanwhile, the father, thinking the composer will take his daughter away, remains suspicious of the young man's motives. Finally, after working in a series of odd jobs, the old man lands the lead in King Lear where he is a smash. He then renews a relationship with a wealthy old girlfriend. Meanwhile, the young couple also begin their relationship in earnest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monty Woolley, Ida Lupino, (more)
Acting spouses Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh star in Alexander Korda's tragic tale of the adulterous love affair between Emma Lady Hamilton and Lord Horatio Nelson. The story begins in 1786, as the young and vivacious Emma Hart (Vivien Leigh) marries Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray), the British ambassador to the court of Naples. Seven years pass and British naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson (Laurence Olivier) arrives at court to gain the king's assent in the war against Napoleon. Lady Emma and Lord Nelson fall in love. When they return to England, Emma and Nelson unashamedly begin to live together, although Nelson's wife refuses to divorce him. When the war takes a bad turn, Emma convinces Nelson to resume command and Nelson goes off to lead the victory at Trafalgar, where he is mortally wounded. After Nelson's death, Emma falls into depression and despair. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, (more)
- 1941
Adapted from a French movie entitled Un Carnet de Bal, this is a story of love unrequited. In one of her best performances, Merle Oberon portrays an elderly woman who has spent her life waiting for a man whom she had a brief liaison with but who never returned for her as he had promised. Casting aside three suitors over a forty year period, she has spent her life in solitude. When a party is arranged and all three of her spurned suitors show up, a surprise fourth is also present--her original true love. Denouement is somewhat of a surprise in this romantic love story. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Edna May Oliver, (more)
- 1941
- G
1941's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the second sound version of the Robert Louis Stevenson "doppelganger" tale. This time Spencer Tracy plays the benevolent Dr. Jekyll, whose experiments in releasing the evil impulses within himself transform him into the bestial Mr. Hyde. The problem here is that while Tracy is convincing enough as Hyde, we have trouble accepting him as the kindly Jekyll--exactly the opposite of the 1931 version, in which Fredric March was credible as both Jekyll and Hyde (in fairness to Tracy, it must be noted that he didn't want to play the role and had to be forced into it). MGM decreed that no publicity pictures be released showing Tracy in his Hyde makeup, thereby building up audience anticipation. It's just as well that MGM kept these pictures under wraps: Tracy's Hyde looks less like the Living Personification of Evil than like a man who's been on a three-day bender. The most fascinating aspect of this version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the casting of the two leading ladies. Ever since the 1920 John Barrymore version of this story, it has been de rigeur to symbolize the schism between Jekyll and Hyde by giving him both a "good" and "evil" girlfriend. Originally, MGM adhered to typecasting by assigning the good girl to Ingrid Bergman and the bad one to Lana Turner. But Bergman begged the studio to be allowed to play the more wicked of the two ladies; as a result, hers is by far the best performance in the picture. Neither as lively as the 1920 version nor as innovative as the 1931 remake, MGM's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is weighted down with tiresome dialogue and over-obvious symbolism (catch that dream sequence in which Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner make like racehorses!) Despite its shortcomings, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was infinitely preferable to the next remake, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
Spanning 50 years, director John Ford's How Green Was My Valley revolves around the life of the Morgans, a Welsh mining family, as told through the eyes of its youngest child Huw (Roddy McDowall). Over the years, the family struggles to survive through unionization, strikes, and child abuse. As they do so, their hometown and its culture begins to slowly decline. Donald Crisp portrays Gwilym, the patriarch of the Morgan household, who dreams of a better life for young Huw. Based on the novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley won five Academy Awards in 1941, including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Crisp), Best Art Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Picture (beating Citizen Kane). The book was later adapted into a 1975 BBC miniseries. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, (more)
- 1939
In this British thriller, a barber must steal to fund his wife's addiction to spending money. She uses the cash he took to pay off a drape maker. The stolen bills are traced back to him. The unscrupulous seamster then begins blackmailing the couple and the barber kills him. He then has his wife leave town until the trouble blows over. Just as he hears that his wife was killed in a collision, police surround him and shoot him down. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Richardson, Diana Wynyard, (more)
- 1937
Directed by Ian Dalrymple, this comedy of manners is based on a German play, and is one of the lesser known pieces of Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison's filmographies. Set in an old-fashioned Scottish town, Storm in a Teacup features Rex Harrison as an English newpaper reporter who has traveled north in order to take a job. Once there, he meets Victoria (Leigh), the daughter of Provost Gow (Cecil Parker), who happens to be one of the wealthiest legal figures in town. It isn't until he come across an an impoverished woman and her beloved dog, however, that life becomes truly complicated. When Mrs. Hegarty (Sara Allgood) can't afford to pay her annual dog licensing fee, Leigh's father orders the dog be destroyed. Frank (Harrison) turns this into a human interest story, which rapidly travels across Scotland. With his political career in shambles, Gow (Parker) retaliates by suing Frank for slander. Victoria, however, has fallen in love with the young journalist, and gives both Frank and her father quite a surprise when she lies for him in her testimony. In doing so, Victoria unwittingly determines the fate for both her lover and the dog, Scruffy.
~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, (more)
- 1937
Filmed in Ireland, Kathleen is a fanciful bit of blarney predicated on the ballad "Kathleen Mavourneen". American actress Sally O'Neill stars as Kathleen O'Moore, the romantic bone of contention between Michael Rooney (Tom Burke) and Dennis O'Dwyer (Jack Daly). The two rivals team up to rescue Kathleen from her nasty aunt Hannah (Ethel Gryffies), who has arranged a loveless but profitable marriage for the girl. Several prominent Irish stage actors, notably Sarry Allgood and Denis O'Neal, are cast in pivotal roles. The story of "Kathleen Mavourneen" had previously been filmed several times, once with movie vamp Theda Bara in the lead! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally O'Neil
- 1937
Star Jack Buchanan shared directorial credit with cinematographer Lee Garmes for the breezy British musical comedy The Sky's the Limit. Buchanan and opera star Mara Loseff star as bankrupt couturier Dave Harber and his equally cash-less partner Mme. Isobella. With the spring season approaching, our hero and heroine desperately search for a dress designer who will save their business from ruin. Their prize catch is Teddy Carson (David Hutcheson), who turns out to be more trouble than he's worth. Though the plot is as thin as gossamer, Jack Buchanan carries the picture on sheer charm power. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Buchanan
- 1936
The Passing of the Third Floor Back, Jerome K. Jerome's mystical 1908 stage play, was given perfunctory treatment in this 1935 film version. Conrad Veidt assumes the old J. Forbes Robertson role as the Mysterious Stranger who moves into a cheap boarding house run by despicable landlord Wright (Frank Cellier). The other tenants are selfish, lecherous, mercenary, envious and overall not very good company. One by one, the tenants are rechanneled into more positive pursuits by the Stranger -- but being mere mortals, they soon forget the lessons learned and revert to their old ways. That the Stranger is meant to be Jesus Christ is rather obvious from the outset, but such were the censorial restrictions of the era that the character's true identity is effectively clouded. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt, Renee Ray, (more)
- 1936
Another of the delightful Aldwych Theater farces, Pot Luck once again teams those flawless farceurs Tom Walls (who also directed) and Ralph Lynn. Walls is cast as retired Scotland Yard detective Patrick Fitzpatrick, who harbors a deep resentment for his pompous successor Reggie Bathbrick (Ralph Lynn). When a rash of art thefts breaks out in London, Fitzpatrick takes on the investigation himself, for the sole purpose of humiliating Bathbrick. As usual, Ben Travers' dialogue is chock full of familiar catch phrases, cleaned-up expletives and hilariously atrocious puns. Cast as Lynn's pretty daughter is Diana Churchill, in one of her first important screen roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, (more)
Oskar Homolka plays a London movie-theatre owner who maintains a secret life as a paid terrorist. Homolka's wife Sylvia Sidney doesn't suspect Homolka of any wrongdoing, but she's picked up enough second-hand information about her husband's activities to arouse the interest of government agent (John Loder). Posing as a grocer, Loder moves next door to the Homolkas, befriending Sidney and her precocious young brother Desmond Tester. Sensing that he's being watched, Homolka sends Tester out to deliver a reel of film. The reel contains a time bomb, but Homolka is certain that the boy will deliver his package on time and will be safely away by the time the bomb explodes. Thus begins one of Hitchcock's most electrifying suspense sequences, as the unsuspecting boy is delayed en route to his destination. Sabotage was based on Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent; the film was retitled A Woman Alone in the US. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, (more)
- 1936
This period drama is based on the relationship between 18th-century British stage stars Peg Woffington and David Garrick. The story begins as Woffington leaves Dublin to be with her lover who is an aspiring actor. Unfortunately, by the time she arrives, he has found another, causing her to try her hand at acting which in turn gives her the chance to meet Garrick, a popular actor who becomes her mentor. Under his expert tutelage, she becomes a famous actress at the Drury Lane Theatre where they eventually fall in love. Unfortunately, Woffington has a weak heart and during a performance of Shakespeare's As You Like It collapses and dies soon afterward. Actually, Peg Woffington lived three years beyond the attack, but that isn't nearly as dramatic. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Cedric Hardwicke, (more)
- 1936
Robert Young decides to create a "scoop" by fabricating the impending arrival of a female big-game hunter named Mrs. Smythe-Smythe. Jessie Matthews decides to pose as the fictitious woman, the better to embarrass Young. The comic complications are obliged to share screen time with Matthews' inevitable songs, the best of which is the title tune. Not all of Jessie Matthews' films played as well in America as they did in Britain: It's Love Again is a delightful exception. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessie Matthews, Robert Young, (more)
- 1936
In this musical comedy, a wandering troupe of English actors wend their way toward Spain. En route they toy with the father of one actor to prevent him from finding out that his boy has gone ahead and married the woman his father told him not to. To keep the daddy in the dark, the woman pretends to be married to her husband's best friend. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Robey, Neil Hamilton, (more)
- 1935
Adapted from a play by Ernest Denny, this was one of director Michael Powell's "quota quickies" that lived up to the name, being filmed in a scant thirteen nights. (The stars were appearing in West End plays and couldn't film during the day, a not-uncommon practice at the time.) The lazybones of the title is Sir Reginald Ford, a baronet who has made indolence into an art form and sees no reason to change his ways -- until discovering that his means of support has dried up. With no recourse but to make an appropriate marriage, Ford pursues Kitty McCarthy, an American heiress, with considerable success. Just as things seem to be going along smoothly, Ford discovers that Kitty has lost her fortune. In the midst of all this, Ford discovers he has fallen in love with Kitty, not her money; further complications ensue as Kitty's conniving cousin Mike comes on the scene and tries to involve her in a wicked scheme. Shaking off his accustomed lethargy, Ford springs into high gear and rids Kitty of her cousin, while at the same time coming up with a clever business proposition that enables him to care for his new wife in the style to which they both have long been accustomed. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- 1934
In this melodrama set within an Irish hospital, a handsome young physicician is pursued by two women. He is attracted to one of them, but as she has expensive taste he does not feel he can afford to be with her. The other woman is a manipulator and tricks him into an engagement with a kiss. The poor physician is utterly confused and so heads into the country to help with a typhoid epidemic. As soon as it is halted, he finds that he himself has the dread disease. All his colleagues believe he is a goner, but true love prevails and the first one takes care of him until his health is restored. Often cited as the first "talkie" to feature a primarily Irish cast. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lester Matthews, Nancy Burne, (more)
- 1933
Lily of Kilarney stars John Garrick as Sir Patrick Cregeen, an heir who must raise a great deal of money in a hurry, lest he lose his family's ancestral castle and his intended, Eileen O'Connor (Gina Malo), to the vile Sir James Corrigan (Stanley Perrins).
Cregeen enters a steeplechase race, but in order to win the big prize he'll have to beat Corrigan's steed. Veteran music hall favorite Stanley Holloway is in fine fettle as a singing priest, while Sara Allgood of the Abbey Players contributes another of her well-rounded characterizations. Bride of the Lake was based on the popular Dion Boucicault theatrical barnstormer Colleen Bawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Cregeen enters a steeplechase race, but in order to win the big prize he'll have to beat Corrigan's steed. Veteran music hall favorite Stanley Holloway is in fine fettle as a singing priest, while Sara Allgood of the Abbey Players contributes another of her well-rounded characterizations. Bride of the Lake was based on the popular Dion Boucicault theatrical barnstormer Colleen Bawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Malo, John Garrick, (more)
- 1932
In this drama, a power-mad attorney, the bastard son of a baronet, plots the demise of the rightful heir so he can inherit the title himself. Fortunately he is caught. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Alfred Hitchcock's second talkie was a surprisingly static adaptation of the Sean O'Casey stage drama Juno and the Paycock. Set during the Irish "troubles" of the early 1920s, the film focuses on the trials and tribulations of a typical Dublin tenement family. Sara Allgood is brilliant as family matriarch Juno Boyle, who must contend with her bibulous, braggadocio husband, Captain Jack Boyle (Edward Chapman), known as the "paycock" because he always struts around like he owns the world. As Captain Jack carouses with his drinking buddy Joxer Daly (Sydney Morgan), Juno tries to keep her family together, a task that proves harder with each passing day, especially when daughter Mary (Kathleen O'Regan) is impregnated by her irresponsible boyfriend. Things take a tragic turn when Juno's weakling son Johnny (John Laurie), a member of the IRA, is shot as an informer by his own comrades. Sara Allgood's scenes after the death of her son are absolutely heart-wrenching, offering ample compensation for Hitchcock's plodding direction and the hopelessly hammy performance by Edward Chapman. Many of the supporting actors were drawn from the ranks of Dublin's Abbey Players, notably Barry Fitzgerald, making his film debut as The Orator. Juno and the Paycock was adapted for the screen by Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sara Allgood, Edward Chapman, (more)
Alfred Hitchcock's first sound film utilized the new sound technology in a rather creative way off-camera. Hitchcock's lead actress, Anny Ondra, had a strong Eastern European accent that was difficult for English audiences to understand, so Hitchcock's solution was to have British actress Joan Barry speak Ondra's lines of dialogue off-camera. The film concerns a woman who kills a man who tries to assault her. Ondra plays Alice White who, while having dinner in a fancy English nightspot with her husband-to-be Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (John Longden), begins to flirt with an artist (Cyril Richard) seated at the next table. The artist invites her up to see his studio, and she goes but balks when the artist asks her to pose in the nude. When the request becomes a demand, Alice stabs him to death. She rejoins her fiance and tries to forget the murder, but her conscience keeps bothering her. To make matters worse, sniveling rat Tracy (Donald Calthrop) materializes to blackmail Alice for the crime. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood, (more)
- 1929
In this gritty drama, an epileptic john has a seizure and kills a hooker. His mother hides her distraught son. Meanwhile, the prostitute's boyfriend is accused and convicted for the crime. Just before he is to hang, the real killer confesses his crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
