Edward Knoblock Movies

Cecil Parker is the whole show in Dear Mr. Prohack, just as he'd been in the stage version by Edward Knoblock. The eponymous Prohack is a Royal Treasury official who is an expert at managing other people's money. Alas, when he himself inherits a fortune, Prohack is as financially naïve as a kid with a piggy bank. Denholm Elliot makes his film debut in the role of Ozzie Morfrey; others in the high-powered cast include Glynis Johns, Dirk Bogarde, Hermione Baddely, Ian Carmichael, future director Bryan Forbes, and Jon "Dr. Who" Pertwee. Both the play and film versions of Dear Mr. Prohack were based on a novel by Arnold Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British wartime propaganda film, a Nazi spy creeps into England and is taken in by a kindly family who have no idea who he really is. He repays their kindness by using their home as a radio base for his communiqués to other Nazis regarding the location of British targets for German planes and paratroopers. The plot really thickens when the Nazi falls in love with the daughter. When the Nazis attack, the Nazi houseguest kills one of his own officers. He is then dragged out and shot just before the British bombers fly over and destroy the home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Amateur Gentleman takes place in England during the Regency era. The hero is Barnaby Barty (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), an innkeeper's son. To prove his dad innocent of a crime, Barnaby poses as a famous bare-knuckle gentleman prizefighter. In this guise he gains access to the Royal court, and in short order falls in love with aristocratic Lady Cleone (Elissa Landi). He also discovers that Cleone's fiancé (Basil Sydney) is the man responsible for the crime for which his dad was blamed. Produced by Douglas Fairbanks Jr's own company in England, The Amateur Gentleman was based on a popular novel by Jeffrey Farnol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Evensong is based on the teary novel by Beverly Nichols, which had previously spawned a lachrymose (and enormously successful) stage play (Kismet) by Nichols and Edward Knoblock. The stunning Evelyn Laye stars as Irela, an Irish prima donna who rises to success sans a lover to share it with. Her domineering manager Kober (Fritz Kortner) has spent his entire career forbidding Irela to seek out romance, and as a result she loses the one true love of her life, handsome Archduke Theodore (Carl Esmond). The drama reaches an emotional high tide when the elderly, washed-up Irela sits alone in her dingy dressing room, with only the scratchy recordings of her old songs to keep her company. Evelyn Laye made only a handful of film appearances, of which Evensong was arguably her finest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hollywood's Charles Bickford and Mexican leading lady Raquel Torres top the cast of the British circus melodrama Red Wagon. Bickford plays Joe, an expert trick rider, while Torres is his fiery gypsy dancer Sheba. Though in love with tiger trainer Zara (Greta Nissen), Joe breaks up with her over a foolish misunderstanding and marries Sheba as consolation. A climactic confrontation with a rival circus man forces Joe to confront the mistakes he's made in his life. Red Wagon was adapted from a novel by Edward Knoblock, of Kismet fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the space of 74 minutes, Helen Hayes goes from naïve French country lass to elderly harridan in Sin of Madelon Claudet. Is it any wonder that she won an Academy Award? (She truly deserved this Oscar; the jury is still out concerning her cutesy supporting turn in 1969's Airport, which also copped her the gold statuette). Betrayed by artist Neil Hamilton, Hayes moves on to jewel thief Lewis Stone, who commits suicide to avoid arrest, leaving Hayes to her fate. After ten years in jail for her complicity in Stone's crimes, Hayes turns to the only profession open to her. She walks the streets to raise enough money to support her illegitimate son, who grows up to be Robert Young and who has no idea that Hayes is his mother. Thanks to his mother's anonymous financial support, Young is able to attend medical school, eventually becoming a wealthy doctor. Even allowing for the illogical nature of the plotline and the lachrymose dialogue, the heartrending final scenes of Sin of Madelon Claudet can still raise a lump in the throat after 65 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Romance novelist and self-styled moral arbiter Elinor Glyn was credited for both the screenplay and direction of the bodice-ripping Knowing Men. A graduate of convent school, wealthy Korah (Elissa Landi) has been promised in marriage to wealthier George Vere (Carl Brisson), whom she's never met. Exercising his male-chauvinist prerogative, George has already had an affair with Delphine (Jean de Casalis). To learn the truth about the man she's supposed to marry, Korah sneaks away from her Aunt (Helen Hay) to visit George. She learns more than she bargained for when George anxiously tries to retrieve several incriminating love letters from Delphine. Though critics never took Elinor Glyn seriously, her over-heated novels were devoured by her public; one might call her the Barbara Cartland of her day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Much of this drama is comprised of newsreel footage. It chronicles the exploits of a luckless college prize-fighter attempting to go professional. Unfortunately he is exploited by his dishonest manager. The innocent pugilist is eventually befriended and assisted by a pretty reporter who helps free him from his wicked manager. During the big fight, the fighter takes a real lickin' when he discovers that the reporter has not come to the fight. This is a very early talkie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Douglas Fairbanks' longest and most elaborate production up to 1921, The Three Musketeers was Fairbanks' first full-blown costume adventure (his modestly produced 1920 The Mark of Zorro was regarded as an extension of his breezy contemporary comedies). Fairbanks assumes the leading role of D'Artagnan, who after challenging musketeers Athos (Leon Barry), Porthos (George Siegmann) and Aramis (Eugene Pallette--yes, Eugene Pallette) to a duel, joins forces with them in opposition of the scheming Cardinal Richelieu(Nigel De Brulier). Plotting to discredit Queen Anne (Mary McLaren) in the eyes of her husband King Louis XIII (Adolphe Menjou) Richelieu dispatches Milady de Winter (Barbara La Marr) to pilfer the diamond brooch given by Anne to her British lover, the Duke of Buckingham (Thomas Holding). With the help of the lovely Constance (Marguerite de la Motte) D'Artagnan and the Musketeers race against time to retrieve the brooch and save their Queen. The film ends with D'Artagnan emerging victorious, a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips; the actual, darker denouement of Dumas' original Three Musketeers would be dramatized in the opening reels of Douglas Fairbanks' valedictory silent film, The Iron Mask (1929). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charlie Chaplin's eighth film under his million dollar contract with First National is a return to the two reel form, and to the lightness of the Mutual style. Chaplin plays dual role, that of a vacationing Tramp, and a high society inebriate husband.

Arriving in Miami on the same train are Edna Purviance, a neglected and lonely wife, who descends from the coach, and Chaplin, who emerges from the baggage compartment under a train car, complete with baggage and golf clubs. Chaplin hitches a ride on the back of Purviance's limousine. Purviance's forgetful,
alcoholic husband is a natty double for Chaplin. A telegram tells us he was supposed to meet Purviance at the train. Already late, he leaves the hotel room without his pants. Escaping notice of the other guests in the lobby causes him to delay his departure, to the point where newly arrived Purviance finds him hiding in bed.

That afternoon he receives a note telling him that his wife has moved to other lodgings until he stops drinking. He gazes longingly at Purviance's picture and, his back turned to the camera, appears to be sobbing. As he turns, however, we see the cocktail shaker he is expertly manipulating.

Purviance, meanwhile, is out for a horseback ride, and Chaplin has found the nearby golf links. His hilarious golf game, highlighted by his run-ins with Mack Swain and John Rand pauses when he sees Purviance pass by on horseback. After looking longingly at her, he fantasizes rescuing her from her runaway horse (in another of Chaplin's dream sequences), imagining their lives all the way through marriage and children. But the dream ends and Chaplin returns to his golf game, in which his drive breaks Swain's whisky bottle causing him to burst into tears, and in which he again runs afoul of Rand.

The inebriate husband has received a note from his wife, saying that she will forgive him if he attends her costume ball. Dressed in a suit of armor, his visor jams closed, preventing him from taking a drink, and he spends great effort trying to open it.

Meanwhile Chaplin has got himself in trouble with the law - while sitting on a park bench his neighbor has been pickpocketed and Chaplin is the suspect. Pursued by a cop, he sneaks his way through an arriving limo and into Purviance's costume ball. Purviance, naturally mistaking him for her husband, makes moves toward reconciliation, which Chaplin welcomes as affection. When greeted by Swain, who turns out to be Purviance's father, Chaplin expects trouble from their golfing encounter, but is amazed that Swain thinks he's Purviance's husband. Chaplin denies that thy are married, which gets him knocked down several times. Caught together by the still visored husband, Chaplin is attacked but the unknown assailant is subdued by the other guests. Eventually he frees himself and identifies himself to Swain, who tries to remove the helmet. Eventually Chaplin uses a can opener to peel back the visor (revealing an unknown actor double), and the confusion is explained. Told unceremoniously to leave, Chaplin departs, but Purviance decides they've treated him shabbily and sends Swain after him to apologize. Chaplin accepts his hand, but points to Swain's shoelace. When Swain bends over to tie it,
Chaplin delivers a swift kick to the derriere, before sprinting off into the distance.

The golf sequences in The Idle Class were inspired by an earlier, unfinished Mutual called The Golf Links, featuring Eric Campbell and Albert Austin, portions of which were included in Chaplin's 1918, How to Make Movies. A still, showing Campbell and Chaplin teeing off on the same ball made its way into Chaplin's autobiography, labeled as being from The Idle Class (made four years after Campbell's death) and was a source of confusion to Chaplin aficiandos, until How to Make Movies was assembled by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. Chaplin's lovely score for The Idle Class was composed for its reissue in 1971. ~ Phil Posner, All Movie Guide