Ivan Kouznetsoff, a Russian engineer, recounts during World War II his stay in England prior to the war working on a new propeller for ice-breaking ships. Naïve about British people and convinced by hearsay that they are shallow and hypocritical, Ivan is both bemused and amused by them. He is blunt in his opinions about Britons and at first this puts off his hosts, including the lovely Ann Tisdall, whose grandfather runs the shipbuilding firm that will make use of Ivan's propeller. The longer Ivan stays, however, the more he comes to understand the humor, warmth, strength, and conviction of the British people, and the more they come to see him as a friend rather than merely a suspicious Russian. As a romantic bond grows between Ivan and Ann, a cultural bond begins to grow as well, particularly as the war begins and Russia is attacked by Germany.
11-18-1943
1h 54m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Anthony Asquith
Writer:
Anatole de Grunwald
Production:
The Rank Organisation
Key Crew
Producer:
Anatole de Grunwald
Director of Photography:
Bernard Knowles
Locations and Languages
Country:
GB; US
Filming:
GB
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Laurence Olivier
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.
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. She is best-known for her 1960s performances as Miss Marple in several films based loosely on Agatha Christie's novels.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Margaret Rutherford, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia
Leslie Lincoln Henson (3 August 1891 – 2 December 1957) was an English comedian, actor, producer for films and theatre, and film director. He initially worked in silent films and Edwardian musical comedy and became a popular music hall comedian who enjoyed a long stage career. He was famous for his bulging eyes, malleable face and raspy voice and helped to form the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) during the Second World War.
Henson's post war stage success continued in revues, musicals and plays, including a West End adaptation of The Diary of a Nobody in 1955. Henson's film career was intermittent, and he made 14 films from 1916 to 1956. The most notable of these was Tons of Money in 1924, which introduced the popular Aldwych farces to British cinema audiences for the first time. In 1956.
Henson died at his home in Harrow Weald, Middlesex, in 1957. He was 66.
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He is the father of the actress Deborah Watling.
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).
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Marie Ault (2 September 1870 – 9 May 1951) was a British character actress of stage and film.
She was a star in many British films of the silent era, but is most remembered for her role as Daisy Bunting's mother in The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Other notable film work includes the role of Rummy Mitchens in the film of Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1941).
On stage from 1891, Ault's theatre work included the original production of Love on the Dole in 1935, as well as the 1941 film version.
George Edward Cole, OBE (22 April 1925 - 5 August 2015) was an English film and television actor with a career which ran from the 1940s to the first decade of the twenty first century.
Best known in the role of Arthur Daley in the long-running ITV hit drama show 'Minder', Cole's career began in the role of the young evacuee in the wartime thriller 'Cottage to Let', alongside long-time friend, Alastair Sim, and went onto to encompass over 40 movies, including the popular St Trinian's films, and a host of television roles.
Gladys Henson was an Irish actress whose career lasted from 1932 to 1976 and included roles on stage, radio, films (ofetn alongside Jack Warner) and television series.
Wilfrid Hyde-White (12 May 1903 – 6 May 1991) was a British character actor of stage, film and television. He achieved international recognition for his role as Colonel Pickering in the film version of the musical My Fair Lady (1964).
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Ian Wilson was born on July 2, 1901 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Wicker Man (1973), The Good Companions (1957) and The Day of the Triffids (1963). He died in December 1987 in Exeter, Devon, England, UK.