I have been talking enough about some (mostly) newly discovered British Films from Before I Was Born that it makes sense to do a page on all of them for Handy Future Reference.
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
I first saw this film on television in high school (I think we must have taped it on the VCR!) and fell it love with for many different reasons: the use of Mozart’s A Little Night Music, Merle Oberon, Leslie Howard in soft focus, Mabel Terry-Lewis as the Comtesse de Tournay, and especially the scene in the prison when the day’s roll call for the guillotine takes place. Raymond Massey as the snarling Chauvelin is very much an added attraction! And Joan Gardner is gently delightful as Suzanne de Tournay, the flower of French girlhood.
Fire Over England (1937)
This is the first time Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier appeared together on screen, young, beautiful, and magnetic. And let’s face it, Flora Robson is Elizabeth I, whereas my beloved Bette Davis plays Elizabeth I as Bette Davis. Look for her speech on horseback! Raymond Massey shows up again as Philip of Spain.
Dark Journey (1937)
Vivien Leigh stars with Hollywood’s Future Favorite Nazi Conrad Veidt in an espionage thriller set during World War I but costumed in 1937. And fashion plays a big role in the espionage; Vivien runs a fashion house in Stockholm, selling gowns with coded messages sewn into them from the French that she shares with the Germans. Ursula Jeans and Margery Pickard appear as Vivien’s shop assistants, Gertrude (Austrian) and Colette (French), who get off some snappy dialogue. Gertrude: “Madame! Is it a crime to be German?” Colette: “Worse, it’s a vulgarity!”
Conrad Veidt has some wonderful scenes with “professional beauties” in a hotel bar, especially Joan Gardner as the Brazilian good time girl Lupita. Quite a contrast from her good girl role in Scarlet Pimpernel!
The Man in Grey (1943)
I just randomly looked this up on a whim a month or so ago, remembering that it was mentioned as one of James Mason’s early films in Ron Haver’s book about the restoration of George Cukor’s A Star Is Born. And it became an obsession for a couple weeks! Turns out this Regency-era romantic melodrama made stars of its four principals, especially James Mason and Stewart Granger. But I especially love Phyllis Calvert as Clarissa, and dashingly evil Margaret Lockwood. Look also for redoubtable Martita Hunt as the schoolmistress!
This was, I gather, one of the first of the Gainsborough melodramas made by Gainsborough Pictures that defined an era of popular British cinema. One important scene, a fistfight between James Mason and Stewart Granger, takes place at Vauxhall Gardens, an actual pleasure garden in London; it began life as Spring Gardens, to which Linda Darnell refers in Forever Amber.
Unfortunately, there is a white boy in blackface playing a servant - a theatrical convention that has not aged well for obvious reasons. Otherwise it’s a dashing delight.
OK, and one more: The Wicked Lady (1945)
The Man in Grey led me to another Gainsborough picture, The Wicked Lady, which I don’t actually like as much, but adds a lot of dash and brio to the screen. And Margaret Lockwood in man-drag as a highwayman is compellingly elegant!
So, enjoy!