Ray Milland Movies
Welsh actor Ray Milland spent the 1930s and early 1940s playing light romantic leads in such films as Next Time We Love (1936); Three Smart Girls (1936); Easy Living (1937), in which he is especially charming opposite Jean Arthur in an early Preston Sturges script; Everything Happens at Night (1939); The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940); and the major in Billy Wilder's The Major and the Minor opposite Ginger Rogers. Others worth watching are Reap the Wild Wind (1942); Forever and a Day (1943), and Lady in the Dark (1944). He made The Uninvited in 1944 and won an Oscar for his intense and realistic portrait of an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend (1945). Unfortunately, it was one of his last good films or performances. With the exception of Dial M for Murder (1954), X, The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1953), Love Story (1970), and Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), his later career was made up of mediocre parts in mostly bad films. One of the worst and most laughable was the horror film The Thing with Two Heads (1972), which paired him with football player Rosie Grier as the two-headed monster. Milland was also an uninspired director in A Man Alone (1955), Lisbon (1956), The Safecracker (1958), and Panic in Year Zero (1962). ~ All Movie Guide- 1929
Originally released as a silent film, this movie follows engineer Bob White (Moore Marriott) in his last run with the train known as the "Flying Scotsman." However it seems that Bob has made some enemies during his long career and it is up to his daughter Joan (Pauline Johnson) and her beau Jim (Ray Milland) to avert disaster. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Just before making his talkie directorial debut with Atlantic, director E.A. DuPont dashed off the silent "backstage" drama Piccadilly. By the time the film was released in 1929, talking pictures had taken a firm hold of the British film industry, obliging DuPont to reshoot much of the picture with dialogue. American screen favorites Anna May Wong and Gilda Gray (the girl who popularized the "shimmy dance") head the cast, the former as Shosho, a dishwasher in the London nightclub where the latter, cast as dancer Mabel Greenfield, performs nightly. Jealous of Mabel's dancing partner Victor Smiles (Cyril Ritchard), club owner Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) fires Victor, whereupon business drops off dramatically. In desperation, Wilmot takes Shosho out of the kitchen and puts her on stage, where she scores a big success. Feeling threatened by Shosho, Mabel heads to her rival's apartment with blood in her eye. A shot rings out, Shosho falls dead, and Mabel is accused of murder. But during the trial, it turns out that Shosho was done in by her Chinese sweetheart Jim (Kim Ho Chang). In his first feature film appearance, Charles Laughton performs an outrageous bit as a rowdy night club patron; also seen in a minuscule role is young Ray Milland. The talkie version of Piccadilly wasn't released in the U.S. until 1932. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gilda Gray, Jameson Thomas, (more)
- 1929
In this romance, a Scotsman, dull as cold oatmeal, attempts to become a suave and witty rake to impress an effervescent, sophisticated lady with expensive tastes. But despite his best efforts, the fellow simply cannot sparkle. Finally he sees that he was only attracted to her gaudy exterior and decides that he would rather be his dour old self than someone else. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1929
In this drama, an impoverished Irishman decides to turn an IRA colleague into the cops to receive a desperately needed reward that will allow him to escape to America with his mistress. Unfortunately his plans go awry and the young man is filled with guilt by his friends who once held his high ideals. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
