In England, an eccentric police inspector, an earnest test pilot and a spunky female reporter team up to solve the mystery of a series of test aircraft which have disappeared without a trace while over the ocean on their maiden flights; unaware, as they are, that a spy ring has been shooting the planes down with a ray machine hidden aboard a salvage vessel which is on hand to haul the downed aircraft aboard, crews and all.
02-21-1939
1h 22m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Directors:
Tim Whelan, Arthur B. Woods
Writer:
Ian Dalrymple
Production:
Irving Asher Productions
Key Crew
Story:
Brock Williams
Story:
Jack Whittingham
Producer:
Irving Asher
Editor:
Hugh Stewart
Music Director:
Muir Mathieson
Locations and Languages
Country:
GB; US
Filming:
GB
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Ralph Richardson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films.
Richardson first became known for his work on stage in the 1930s. In the 1940s, together with Laurence Olivier, he ran the Old Vic company. He continued on stage and in films into the early 1980s and was especially praised for his comedic roles. In his later years he was celebrated for his theatre work with his old friend John Gielgud. Among his most famous roles were Peer Gynt, Falstaff, John Gabriel Borkman and Hirst in Pinter's No Man's Land.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Ralph Richardson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles.
His family had no theatrical connections, but Olivier's father, a clergyman, decided that his son should become an actor. After attending a drama school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives, and he appeared in his first film. In 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, building it into a highly respected company. There his most celebrated roles included Shakespeare's Richard III and Sophocles's Oedipus. In the 1950s Olivier was an independent actor-manager, but his stage career was in the doldrums until he joined the avant garde English Stage Company in 1957 to play the title role in The Entertainer, a part he later played on film. From 1963 to 1973 he was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre, running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1965) and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970).
Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955). His later films included The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence (1960), Long Day's Journey into Night (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976), Brideshead Revisited (1981) and King Lear (1983).
Olivier's honours included a knighthood (1947), a life peerage (1970) and the Order of Merit (1981). For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatre's largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, and Joan Plowright from 1961 until his death.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Laurence Olivier, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s. She was born Babette Valerie Louise Hobson in Larne, County Antrim, Ireland.
She appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive, taking over the role from Mae Clarke, who had played it in the original Frankenstein (1931). Hobson also played opposite Henry Hull that same year in Werewolf of London, the first Hollywood werewolf movie, predating The Wolf Man by six years.
The latter half of the 1940s saw Hobson in perhaps her two most memorable roles: as the adult Estella in David Lean's 1946 adaptation of Great Expectations, and as the refined and virtuous Edith D'Ascoyne in the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets.
In 1952 she divorced her first husband, film producer Sir Anthony Havelock-Allan (1904–2003), and married MP John Profumo (1915–2006) in 1954, giving up acting shortly afterwards
Valerie Hobson's last starring role was in the original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play The King and I which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on October 8, 1953. She played Mrs. Anna Leonowens opposite Herbert Lom's King.
After Profumo's ministerial career ended in disgrace in 1963, following revelations he had lied to the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler, she stood by him, and they worked together for charity for the remainder of her life.
Hobson's eldest son, Simon Anthony Clerveaux Havelock-Allan was born in May 1944 with Down's Syndrome. Her middle child, Mark Havelock-Allan, was born on 4 April 1951. Her youngest child is author David Profumo, (b. 16 October 1955) wrote Bringing the House Down (2006) about the scandal.
She died of a heart attack in London in 1998 and is buried in Surrey, England.
Description above from the Wikipedia Valerie Hobson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commander Chambré George William Penn Curzon (18 October 1898 – 7 May 1976), known as George Curzon, was a Royal Navy Commander, actor, and father of the present Earl Howe.
Curzon, born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, was the only son of diplomat The Hon. Frederick Curzon-Howe (a son of The 3rd Earl Howe) and his wife, the actress Ellis Jeffreys. Curzon trained for the Navy at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, on the Isle of Wight, and first saw action in the First World War. He retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant-Commander, then served as a King's Messenger before turning to the West End stage in 1930.
Curzon then went to America and appeared on the New York stage in the play Parnell before entering films. He was given a minor role as a police constable in Basil Dean's Escape (1930). His first major role came in 1935 when he appeared as the title role in Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor. He reprised this role in Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle (1935) and Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror (1938). He appeared in several films directed by Alfred Hitchcock before he moved to the United States and Hollywood, most notably Young and Innocent, where he played a musician and murderer who was caught by his nervous eye-twitch, in a famous long crane shot devised by Hitchcock.
A brief interruption came to Curzon's acting career in 1939 when, after playing a minor role in Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn, he again enlisted in the navy during World War II. He later starred in various other films from 1947 until 1965.
Curzon had two children from his second marriage: Frederick Richard Penn (b. 1951) and Emma Charlotte (b. 1953). His son succeeded to his kinsman's title of Earl Howe in 1984 (long after the death of Curzon himself in 1976) and his daughter was granted the rank of an earl's daughter a year later (i.e. Lady Emma).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
George Butler (born 1944 in London) is an English photographer and documentary filmmaker.
After meeting John Kerry in 1964 he worked with him on the book The New Soldier published in 1971.
On a photo assignment to cover the IFBB Mr. Universe contest in Baghdad in 1972, Butler met Arnold Schwarzenegger. His photographs were used to illustrate Charles Gaines' 1974 essay "Pumping Iron", on which Butler later based his first documentary feature, Pumping Iron (1977). The film showcased Schwarzenegger and other bodybuilders that is credited with starting Schwarzenegger's film career. Butler later directed a sequel, also based on Gaines' writing, called Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985). It featured Bev Francis, Rachel McLish, and several other women.
Butler initially worked sparingly as a documentary filmmaker making 3 films between 1977 and 1999. However, in recent years he has started to work more regularly. In 2000, he made The Endurance a 97 minute documentary about Ernest Shackleton's failed Antarctic expedition in 1914. The film was well received by critics, and was nominated for and won several awards.The following year, Butler released a documentary, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, which recounts the crew's heroism. Narrated by Kevin Spacey, the film is 57 minutes shorter than The Endurance.
In 2004, Butler again collaborated with John Kerry this time to make the documentary Going Upriver. Going Upriver is about Kerry's Vietnam experiences, his activity in the peace movement following his return from Vietnam, and his current political views and theories. It includes footage from the early 1970s of Kerry along with current interviews of Kerry and a host of other veterans.
Butler's most recent documentary is Roving Mars (2006), a 40 min. documentary about the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which were launched by NASA in 2004.
On December 31, 2008, Butler's close friend Charlie Rose included a segment on Butler in his annual New Year's Eve tribute to recently deceased notables on PBS. However, Butler was not deceased; another notable George Butler, a record producer, was the one who had died
Description above from the Wikipedia article George Butler, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
John Longden was a West Indian-born English screen, stage, and television actor. He appeared in dozens of films from 1926 to 1964, including five (Blackmail, Juno and the Paycock, The Skin Game, Young and Innocent, Jamaica Inn) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Longden appeared in numerous television series.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Farrar (21 August 1908 – 31 August 1995) was an English stage and film actor, born in Forest Gate, east London.
Three of his most notable film roles were leads in the Powell and Pressburger films Black Narcissus (1947), The Small Back Room (1949), and Gone to Earth (1950).
He retired in 1962. After the death of his wife Irene in 1976, he moved to South Africa to be with their daughter.
Description above from the Wikipedia article David Farrar (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Herbet Lomas (17 January 1887 – 12 April 1961) was a British actor who appeared in more than forty films in a career lasting between 1931 and 1955. He was born in Burnley, Lancashire and made his first film appearance in an early sound version of Hobson's Choice (1931).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Raymond Lovell (13 April 1900 - 1 October 1953) was a Canadian-born film actor who performed in British produced films. He mainly played supporting roles, and was often seen as slightly pompous characters. After a short marriage to Tamara Desni which ended in a divorce, Lovell found love with Margot Ruddock, an actress, singer and poet and they had a daughter, Simone Lovell.
Lovell initially trained as a Doctor at Cambridge University, but gave up medicine for the stage in the 1920s. Description above from the Wikipedia article Raymond Lovell , licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reginald Purdell (4 November 1895 – 22 April 1953) was an English actor and screenwriter who appeared in over 40 films between 1930 and 1951. During the same period he also contributed to the screenplays of 15 feature films, and had a brief foray into directing with two films in 1937.
Purdell was born in Clapham, London. As a young man he served in the British Army with the South Wales Borderers regiment for the duration of the First World War. On returning to civilian life after the war, he decided to try his luck as an actor and gained experience on the stage through the 1920s. His move into films in 1930 coincided with the advent of the talkie era in British cinema.
Purdell's first screen appearance was in the 1930 comedy The Middle Watch, in a role he would later reprise in a 1940 remake. He next travelled to Germany to feature in historical drama Congress Dances, an ambitious and lavishly budgeted project by the UFA film company, involving the simultaneous filming of three versions of the same story in German, English and French in an attempt to prove that a European company could challenge the dominance of American studios in the new era of sound by delivering a continent-wide hit.
Purdell soon began to accumulate screen credits in a wide variety of films ranging from cheaply made quota quickies to more sophisticated productions. He showed a knack for playing comedy, and his 1930s films fell mainly into this genre, with occasional ventures into straight drama and thrillers. Purdell's screenwriting career began in 1932 and he was most productive in this field during the late 1930s, with only occasional ventures later in his career. He tried his hand at film directing in 1937 with two comedies Don't Get Me Wrong, a Max Miller vehicle co-directed with Arthur B. Woods, and Patricia Gets Her Man. Both films were reasonably well-received, but Purdell appears to have decided that directing was not for him, as there would be no more ventures in this area.
In the 1940s Purdell's acting career diversified, with fewer throwaway comedies and more appearances in high-quality dramatic vehicles. His credits included war dramas We Dive at Dawn and Two Thousand Women, Gainsborough melodrama Love Story, notorious box-office flop musical London Town and the classic Brighton Rock. Purdell's last screen appearance was in 1951 and he died on 22 April 1953, aged 57.
John Harold Singer was an English actor. He began as a child actor, popular in the 1930s, and known for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In later years he continued to act in numerous films, including In Which We Serve and The Cruel Sea. He died on 7 July 1987 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. His son, Steven Singer, became a TV scriptwriter.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Morland Graham was a British film actor, with a career on stage and screen spanning over 35 years.
He died on 8 April 1949 after taking an overdose of aspirin while suffering from ill health and "nervous depression".
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constance Vera Browne, Baroness Oranmore and Browne (14 February 1916 – 24 September 2006), commonly known as Sally Gray, was an English movie actress of the 1930s and 1940s.
Born Constance Vera Stevens in Holloway, London, Gray trained at Fay Compton’s School of Dramatic Art and became well established in the theatre before embarking on a series of light comedies, musicals and thrillers in the 1930s.
Gray began in films in her teens with a bit part in School for Scandal (1930) and returned in 1935, making nearly twenty films, culminating in her sensitive role in Brian Desmond Hurst’s romantic melodrama Dangerous Moonlight (1941). She was off the screen for several years owing to an alleged nervous breakdown and then returned in 1946 to make her strongest bid for stardom.
This latter involved a series of melodramas. They include the hospital thriller Green for Danger (1946), Carnival (1946), and The Mark of Cain (1948). She made two films that, in different ways, capture some of the essence of postwar Britain: Alberto Cavalcanti's They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) (as a gangster's moll) and the stagebound Silent Dust (1948). She also appeared in Edward Dmytryk's film noir piece Obsession (1949), in which she plays Robert Newton’s faithless wife. Her final film was the spy yarn Escape Route (1952).
RKO Executives, impressed with Gray, authorized producer William Sistrom to offer her a long-term contract if she would move to the United States. John Paddy Carstairs, director of The Saint in London, also thought she could be a star. However, she declined the offer and instead retired in 1952 after secretly marrying Dominick Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne and lived in County Mayo, Ireland. In the early 1960s, they returned to England and settled in a flat in Eaton Place, Belgravia, in London. They had no children.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Sally Gray, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
William Miles Malleson (25 May 1888 – 15 March 1969) was an English actor and dramatist, particularly remembered for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the hypochondriac and fee-hungry local doctor. Malleson was also a writer on many films, including some of those in which he had small parts, such as Nell Gwyn (1934) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940). He also translated and adapted several of Molière's plays (The Misanthrope, which he titled The Slave of Truth, Tartuffe and The Imaginary Invalid).
