J.B. Priestley Movies

This seven-part British miniseries was based on J.B. Priestley's autobiographical novel, originally published in 1965. Colin Firth starred as Richard Herncastle, a young and impressionable Yorkshire lad who in 1913 signed on as assistant to his Uncle Nick (John Castle), a professional magician. During the next year or so, Richard toured with Nick throughout the provinces as part of an Empire Music Hall circuit performing troupe. His delightful and sometimes shocking experiences with his fellow vaudevillians (among them such long-forgotten acts as Dunffield's Dogs and the Musical Tiplows) came to an abrupt end when WWI was declared and Richard was called to the colors. Largely filmed at the old Burton Opera House, which actually did serve as a music hall in years gone by, Lost Empires was telecast by ITV in 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sophisticated black comedy sex romp is based on the novel by Iris Murdoch, which she also turned into a stage play (with J.B. Priestley). Ian Holm, is hapless wine-taster Martin Lynch-Gibbon who has both a mistress (Jennie Linden) and a nymphomaniac wife, Antonia Lynch-Gibbon (Lee Remick). His best friend, psychiatrist Palmer Anderson (Richard Attenborough), is having an affair with Antonia. Palmer's half-sister Honor Klein (Clair Bloom) is having sexual relations with him also, which he is slightly apologetic about. The wine taster has had a lifelong antagonism for his friend's half-sister, but after his wife and mistress leave him, he takes up with Honor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

An adaptation of John B. Priestley's play, ~Time and the Conways~, this standard drama focuses on the Thorwald family through several years and is distinguished by an excellent comeback performance by Elsabeth Bergner as Frau Thorwald. The family is well-off and contented when a tragedy strikes -- the father is killed in an accident. Frau Thorwald takes over the raising of her children, four girls and two boys with the youngest already fifteen years old. She manages to keep them together in spite of the fact that their economic situation deteriorates after World War I. Never one to look too critically upon her brood, the woman undergoes a moving and gradual transformation as the adult activities of her children bring home the fact that none of them are what she had once imagined. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

1957's The Good Companions was the second film version of the well-known J. B. Priestly play. The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth. Eric Portman, Celia Johnson and John Fraser are three Britons from various classes and walks of life who become involved in the fortunes of the Dinky Doos. Pooling their resources, the diverse "good companions" save the troupe from disbanding. Good-natured and high-spirited, Good Companions might have even been better had the director adopted a more intimate and less showbizzy approach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Informed that he has only a short time to live, salesman Alec Guinness decides to enjoy his last months to the fullest. He withdraws all his savings from the bank and heads to a posh hotel. Here he makes more contacts and opens more professional doors than he'd ever done before, thanks to his willingness--at long last--to take risks. He also spends every penny that he's earned in life. Then he discovers that the doctor's diagnosis was in error, and that he's in no danger of imminent death. An ironic ending caps this fast-paced black comedy. Last Holiday was co-written and co-produced by J. B. Priestly, author of many other "if I had to do it all over again" pieces, notably An Inspector Calls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This fascinating, fact-based docudrama chronicles the patriotic efforts of the London Philharmonic to overcome numerous obstacles and continue staging concerts while the Germans bombed London during WW II. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set near the beginning of WW II, this exciting war drama follows a courageous British factory foreman as he makes a dangerous foray into occupied France to recover three machine parts that will be vital to the Allies. He is accompanied by a pair of tough British soldiers and an American girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Alfred Hitchcock directed this disappointing misfire, memorable solely for the fact is that it is the final film from Hitchcock's early British period before he left for the Hollywood studio system and David O. Selznick. In the England of the 1800s, a group of ruthless smugglers, led by Sir Humphrey Pengallon (Charles Laughton), prey on ships by blacking out warning signals. When the ships crash on the rocks, the nefarious group loots the remains and kills the sailors. The plot kicks in when the beautiful orphan Mary Yelland (Maureen O'Hara) goes to visit her uncle Joss Merlyn (Leslie Banks) at a creepy hotel called the Jamaica Inn, the home of the gang of smugglers. Mary doesn't realize that Uncle Joss is one of them. Meanwhile, Lloyd's of London sends one of their ablest men, Jem Trahearne (Robert Newton), to investigate the recurring shipwrecks. Jem checks in to the Jamaica Inn, and when the coven of smugglers finds out who he is, they capture him and attempt to kill him. But Mary comes to his rescue and saves him. Through the inn, the smugglers try to recapture Jem -- along with Mary. Thrown together by dire circumstances, the two fall in love. Meanwhile, all the shenanigans occurring at the Jamaica Inn appear to be driving Pengallon insane. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The inimitable Gracie Fields illuminates the screen in her sole 1935 vehicle Look Up and Laugh. The Lancashire-born comedienne is cast as Gracie Pearson, one of several clerks in a small-town market. When Gracie and her co-workers are threatened with dismissal by a chain-store takeover, they manage to save their jobs by digging up a Royal Charter, declaring their store an autonomous nation. The film was based on a story by J. B. Priestley, who undoubtedly didn't include Gracie's traditional cheer-up songs in his original synopsis. Billed 15th in Look Up and Laugh is 22-year-old Vivien Leigh, whose third film this was. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British comedy, a plucky Lancashire millworker is out of a job when her mill is forced to close for the summer. She decides to make the best of it by taking a series of summer jobs in Blackpool that eventually lead her to meet a business magnate. With all her charm, the girl convinces him to invest in the financially strapped mill and the jobs of her colleagues are saved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

It's a wildly varied group that takes shelter from a raging English storm in the forbidding mansion of the Femm family. Among the reluctant guests are stuffed-shirt Philip Waverton (Raymond Massey): Philip's sensitive wife Margaret (Gloria Stuart); their mutual friend, disillusioned war veteran Roger Penderell (Melvyn Douglas); vulgar self-made millionaire Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton); and Porterhouse's no-better-than-she-ought-to-be lady friend Gladys DuCane (Lillian Bond). Under the baleful eyes of ungracious, atheistic host Horace Femm (Ernst Thesiger) and Horace's religious-zealot sister Rebecca (Eva Moore), the group sits around conversing, slowly coming to the realization that first impressions are most deceiving. Normally, that would be the whole story-except that the old dark house houses a deep dark secret involving 101-year-old Sir Roderick Femm (played by "John Dudgeon", actually an actress named Elspeth Dudgeon) and pyromaniac Saul Femm (Brember Wills). Lumbering ominously throughout the proceedings is top-billed Boris Karloff, playing Morgan, the mute, alcoholic family butler (the opening credits felt obligated to tell 1932 filmgoers that yes, this was the same Karloff who'd portrayed the Monster in the previous season's Frankenstein). Directed with sinister verve by James Whale and brimming with unforgettable dialogue, The Old Dark House is one of the most enjoyable and least formularized of the Universal "scare" pictures of the early 1930s. The film was based on J. B. Priestly's Benighted, though Priestly's hero dies in the book and does not in the film (this appears to have been a last-minute decision--and a wise one). Long thought lost, The Old Dark House was rediscovered in the early 1970s; copyright problems with the lukewarm 1963 remake kept it off television until 1994, at which time a sparkling new print was struck, replacing the washed-out dupes with which film buffs were all too familiar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide