Reginald Purdell Movies

A trilogy of short stories based on true Scotland Yard cases entitled "The Lady's Companion," "The Telephone" and "The Interrogation." ~ All Movie Guide

Set in early 19th-century Ireland, this fact-based drama chronicles the peasant uprising of peasants who finally tire of the brutality of Captain Boycott, the rent collector for the Earl of Erne. The impoverished farmers conspire to banish him from the area. When Boycott learns of this, he tries to change his image by spending his entire fortune launching a newspaper promotion of his good points. It doesn't work and in desperation, he squanders the rest of his fortune on buying a race horse. He enters it in a big race and bets the rest of his fortune upon it. Unfortunately, just before it wins, the peasants spring to action, start a riot and successfully oust the cruel captain from their lands. It is from this situation that the English word "boycott" is derived. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by J. S. Fletcher, The Root of All Evil casts Phyllis Calvert as a grimly ambitious woman scorned. Jilted by wealthy Albert Grice (Hubert Gregg), farmer's daughter Jeckie Farnish (Calvert) vows to accumulate enough money so as to never again be dependent on any man's attentions. Suing Grice for breach of promise, Jeckie parlays her generous settlement into a sizeable fortune. She increases her riches by linking up with philandering mining-engineer Charles Mortimer (Michael Rennie). Though she and Mortimer accrue millions from oil wells, it simply isn't enough: the hard-hearted Jeckie has decided that she craves true romance after all. The moral of Root of All Evil is obvious from the first scene onward: it is up to Phyllis Calvert and her talented co-stars to wade through a sea of cliches and come up with something worth watching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

London Town was painstakingly planned as a huge box-office smash--even unto hiring several Hollywood leading lights to work on the film, including producer/director/writer Wesley Ruggles, Technicolor cinematographer Ernest Hiller, costume designer Orry-Kelly and songsmiths Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. Veteran music-hall entertainer Sid Field plays a washed-up comedian who hopes to stage a comeback in a glittering new revue. Alas, Field is hired as merely an understudy and bit player. His faithful daughter Petula Clark (yes, Petula Clark) pulls a few fast ones in order to get her dad back on stage in a starring role. Making her film debut in a supporting part is Kay Kendall, who'd have to wait a decade or so for full stardom. Far from a hit, London Town was one of the most notorious flops in the history of the British cinema. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This domestic melodrama chronicles three generations of a family of music-hall owners. The place was founded by two stage stars in the early 1900s and soon became a success until WW I erupted and one of the partner's sons is killed in a dog fight. Following the war, the popularity of music halls declined and their hall falls into disrepair. Fortunately, a partner's grandson decides to save the hall. He does so until he joins the RAF to fight in WW II. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The "2000 Women" of the film's title are the female inmates in a WW II German concentration camp in France. Though many of the women don't get along, they are united in their hatred for their Nazi captors. The story takes a truly melodramatic turn when three English airmen parachute into the camp, offering a ray of hope for those inmates planning an escape. Some of the humor is "black" indeed, involving a card-playing corpse and other questionable sources of laughter, but this was the sort of material that wartime audiences wanted. Heading the cast of 2000 Women are Phyllis Calvert, Flora Robson and Patricia Roc, fine British actresses all who overcome an abundance of script deficiencies. The film was the first production of Individual Pictures, formed by the producer-director-writer team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

British stage star Jessie Matthews, who lit up the silver screen in England during the '30s, returned to the screen for her first starring vehicle in five years in Candles at Nine. Adapted from Anthony Gilbert's novel Mouse Who Couldn't Play Ball, it's a haunted house/mystery film along lines that intersect with Gaslight, Rebecca, and a dozen lesser influences from the same genre. Matthews plays Dorothea Capper, a plucky, unpretentious chorus girl who suddenly inherits 100,000 pounds (easily the equivalent of several million dollars in the British economy of the early '40s) from an eccentric great-uncle whom she never even knew. The problem is the disappointed would-be heirs, who would like her out of the way -- one of whom tries to take care of that matter before she even goes to claim her inheritance. The estate itself, called Brakes, is a pretty forbidding place, especially as maintained under the housekeeper Miss Carberry (Beatrix Lehmann), who likes shadows (as opposed to Dorothea, who loves the sunlight). So not only must she contend with the rivals, but with Miss Carberry as her diametrical opposite in just about every way possible, hating the fact that Dorothea is now the mistress of Brakes. And neither the heroine nor the audience can be certain that detective Bill Gordon (John Stuart), who is trying to protect her, is quite up to the job. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Beneath the gay billows of the big-top seethes a veritable stewpot of illicit romance, false friends, rivalry and murder in this crime drama that contains the feature film debut of distinguished character actor Herbert Lom who plays a recently hired hypnotist who falls in love with a female trapeze artist, whose jealous partner is the brother of the circus owner. Desperately wanting the woman for himself, the new fellow mesmerizes the girl and suggests that she drop her partner during the next performance. She does, but the wicked hypnotist gets his comeuppance at the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After several months' heavy war duty, the crew of the British submarine Sea Tiger is enjoying a much-deserved leave, when suddenly they're called back to active duty. Sub commander John Mills has been ordered to pursue and sink the formidable German battleship Brandenburg. A series of nailbiting seaborne perils, each one more life-threatening than the last, awaits the Sea Tiger as Mills endeavors to carry out his orders. Setting the British We Dive at Dawn apart from the usual Hollywood submarine epic is the fact that all the characters-include the senior officers-are between the ages of 19 and 23; There's no room for an "old sea dog" Alan Hale or Charles Bickford in this one. Though modestly produced, We Dive at Dawn offers a million dollars (or a million pounds)' worth of pulse-pounding excitement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A London jeweler who fences stolen goods so that he too might become wealthy and therefore respectable, learns the value of true love in this drama. His first foray into l'amour leads him into the arms of a socialite. She convinces him to abandon the criminal world and start anew, but still he is never really happy until he realizes that his true love is living a simple existence in the East End slums. ~ All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a battleship captain has a large party to celebrate their next voyage and is dismayed to find that two glamorous women are still aboard after they set sail and cannot turn back. To protect them, and himself, he hides the unwilling stowaways in his quarters. Unfortunately, they are too soon discovered and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a performing crack-shot and a blues singer fall in love. When he abandons her, his brother, the target in their act, is there to woo her, even though she is after a wealthy man. The lovesick brother is heartbroken; during a performance he makes a wrong move and is accidently shot by his brother. The crack-shot, thinking he killed his brother, takes aim and kills the singer, and then himself. Unfortunately, his brother was only wounded so it was all for naught. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Long after the company went out of business in the US, Grand National Pictures thrived in England, turning out such bread-and-butter features as The Missing People. Scottish comedian Will Fyffe once again plays Mr. Reeder, the seemingly bucolic Scotland Yard detective who's a lot shrewder than he appears. In this one, Mr. Reeder tackles the case of 27 missing persons, all of whom had been receiving remittance checks from their wealthy families. With beefy, bushy-eyebrowed Lyn Harding in the cast, it doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out who's behind the disappearances. Future star Patricia Roc has a key supporting role in this easygoing who- and why-dunit. The Missing People was based on a story by Edgar Wallace, who despite the fact that he died in 1932 was well represented on the British screen for the next four decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide