Roland Young Movies
Trained at the London Academy for Dramatic Art, Roland Young made his London stage debut at the age of 21 and his Broadway bow four years later. Following World War I service in the American military, Young established a solid reputation as a droll, understated stage farceur. His first film was the John Barrymore version of William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes, in which he played... (read more) Dr. Watson. He flourished in Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s, most often playing a befuddled, whimsical British gentleman. He starred in all three of Hal Roach's Topper films and played the likeable, impecunious British peer in Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). Only rarely was Young cast as a villain, but on those occasions he proved as adept at skullduggery as comedy: his most memorable unsympathetic portrayal was as the "'umble" Uriah Heep in David Copperfield (1935). A frequent radio performer, Roland Young starred in a mid-'40s audio version of Topper and was cast opposite Cornelia Otis Skinner in the 1945 sitcom William and Mary. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
That Man from Tangier
1953
Venerable Scandinavian leading-man Nils Asther tops the cast of That Man from Tangier. The story concerns foolhardy American heiress Mary Ellen, played by Nancy Coleman,...
Studio One: Mr. Mummery's Suspicion
1951
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St. Benny the Dip
1951
Filmed very cheaply in New York, St. Benny the Dip (British title: Escape Me If You Can) has a charm and appeal that transcends its modest production trappings. Dick...
Let's Dance
1950
Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton make a surprisingly copacetic screen team in Let's Dance. Hutton plays a more sedate role than usual as war widow Kitty McNeil. Not...
The Great Lover
1949
In The Great Lover, Bob Hope plays "Boy Rangers" scoutmaster Freddie Hunter, who accompanies his young charges on a European tour. During the ocean voyage to the continent,...
Bond Street
1948
This multistoried drama purports to detail the events occurring in a single 24-hour period on Bond Street, a "typical" British thoroughfare. The Grand Hotel-like construction...
You Gotta Stay Happy
1948
In this romantic comedy, a wealthy heiress marries hastily and realizes her mistake on her honeymoon in New York. Though it is her wedding night, she decides not to consummate the...
And Then There Were None
1945
Based on the classic novel by mystery author Agatha Christie that was later adapted as the Broadway hit Ten Little Indians , And Then There Were None begins with ten...
Standing Room Only
1944
The overcrowding in WWII-era Washington, D.C., provided the concept for this comedy, as well as another film from the previous year, The More the Merrier (1943). Lee Stevens...
Forever and a Day
1943
The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief...
Tales of Manhattan
1942
Tales of Manhattan is a sumptuous multipart film centered around a formal tailcoat. The coat is specially designed for stage actor Charles Boyer, who wears it during a...
They All Kissed the Bride
1942
Joan Crawford is the kissable bride of the title--but when the film opens, matrimony is the farthest thing from her mind. Crawford becomes a big-time executive upon inheriting...
The Lady Has Plans
1942
Long underappreciated by film buffs, The Lady Has Plans is a screwball comedy disguised as an espionage melodrama. The title character is not star Paulette Goddard, as one...
The Flame of New Orleans
1941
Acclaimed French filmmaker Rene Clair made his American debut with this period comedy/drama. Claire Ledeux (Marlene Dietrich) leaves her native France and arrives in New...
Topper Returns
NR 1941
The third of producer Hal Roach's Topper films, Topper Returns eschews the frothy "screwball" format of the first two in favor of an "old dark house"...
Two-Faced Woman
1941
This George Cukor romantic comedy casts Greta Garbo as ski instructor Karin Borg Blake. She gives lessons to wealthy American playboy Larry Blake (Melvyn Douglas), and...
The Philadelphia Story
NR 1940
We open on Philadelphia socialite C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) as he's being tossed out of his palatial home by his wife, Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn). Adding...
He Married His Wife
1940
This slick marital farce features Joel McCrea as T. H. Randall, a race horse owner whose devotion to his work causes a strain in his relationship with wife Valerie (Nancy Kelly)....
Irene
1940
In this remake of the 1926 silent hit (which was in turn based on a hit musical from 1919), Anna Neagle stars as Irene O'Dare, an Irish girl of humble beginnings who comes to...
Star Dust
1940
Seventeen-year-old Linda Darnell received her first big break in the appropriately titled 20th Century Fox production Star Dust. Discovered by talent scout {%Thomas...