Hella This Navigation

home/movie/1948/the guinea pig

The Guinea Pig

Not Rated
Drama
7/10(12 ratings)

A working-class boy wins a scholarship to a public school, as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together.

10-26-1948
1h 37m
The Guinea Pig
Backdrop for The Guinea Pig

Main Cast

Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, Kt, CBE (29 August 1923 – 24 August 2014) was an English actor, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and politician. He was the President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Attenborough joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and served in the film unit. He went on several bombing raids over Europe and filmed action from the rear gunner's position. As a film director and producer, Attenborough won two Academy Awards for Gandhi in 1983. He also won four BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his roles in Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, 10 Rillington Place, Miracle on 34th Street (1994) and Jurassic Park. He was the older brother of David Attenborough, a naturalist and broadcaster, and John Attenborough, an executive at Alfa Romeo. He was married to actress Sheila Sim from 1945 until his death.

Known For

Bernard Miles

Bernard Miles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 1907–14 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre opened in the City of London since the 17th century. Miles was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex and attended Bishopshalt School in Hillingdon. While his parents were respectively a farm labourer and a cook, he was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He entered the theatre in the 1930s, soon appearing in films. Like many actors, he featured prominently in the patriotic cinema during the Second World War, including classics of the genre such as In Which We Serve and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing. He also had an uncredited role in the WWII classic The First of the Few, released in the US as Spitfire. His typical persona as an actor was as a countryman, with a strong accent typical of the Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire counties. He was also, after Robert Newton, the actor most associated with the part of Long John Silver, which he played in a British TV version of Treasure Island, and in an annual performance at the Mermaid commencing in the winter of 1961-62. Actors in the annual theatrical productions included Spike Milligan as Ben Gunn, and, in the 1968 production, Barry Humphries as Long John Silver. It was Miles who, impressed by the talent of John Antrobus originally commissioned him to write a play of some sort. This led to Antrobus collaborating with Milligan to produce a one-act play called The Bed Sitting Room, which was later adapted to a longer play, and staged by Miles at The Mermaid on 31 January 1963, with both critical and commercial success. He had a pleasant rolling bass-baritone voice that worked well in theatre and film, as well as being much in demand for voice-overs. As a performer, he was most well known for a series of comic monologues, often given in a rural dialect. These were recorded and sold as record albums, which were quite popular. Some of his comic monologues are currently available on youtube.com. Miles was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1953, was knighted in 1969, and was granted a life peerage as Baron Miles, of Blackfriars in the City of London in 1979. He was only the second British actor ever to be given a peerage (the first was Laurence Olivier). Miles's written works include "The British Theatre" (1947), "God's Brainwave" (1972), and "Favorite Tales from Shakespeare" (1972). In 1981, he co-authored the book Curtain Calls with J.C. Trewin. He died in Yorkshire. His daughters are the actress Sally Miles and the artist Bridget Miles. His son John Miles was a Grand Prix Driver in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the Lotus team. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bernard Miles, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Joan Hickson

Joan Hickson

Joan Bogle Hickson, OBE (5 August 1906 – 17 October 1998) was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple. As well as portraying Miss Marple on television, Hickson also narrated a number of Miss Marple stories on audio books. Born in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, Hickson was a daughter of Edith Mary (née Bogle) and Alfred Harold Hickson, a shoe manufacturer. Boarding at Oldfield School at Swanage in Dorset she went on to train at RADA in London. Making her stage debut in 1927, she worked for several years throughout the United Kingdom and achieved success playing comedic, often eccentric characters in London's West End, including the role of the cockney maid Ida in the original production of See How They Run, at the Q Theatre in 1944, and then at the Comedy Theatre in January 1945. She made her first film appearance in 1934. The numerous supporting roles of her career included several Carry On films including Sister in Carry On Nurse and Mrs May in Carry On Constable. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Known For

Robert Flemyng

Robert Flemyng

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Robert Flemyng OBE, MC (3 January 1912 – 22 May 1995) was a British film and stage actor. Flemyng was born in Liverpool, the son of a doctor, and was educated at Haileybury. He began his career as a medical student before abandoning medicine to become an actor. Flemyng made his stage debut in the early 1930s, and worked steadily in both London and Broadway. His first film appearance was in 1937, but he didn't appear steadily in films until after he served in World War II. During the war he was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps and served with great distinction, reaching the rank of full colonel at the age of 33. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1941, mentioned in despatches, and was appointed OBE in 1944. He played the idealistic schoolmaster in the 1948 Roy Boulting film, The Guinea Pig, starring Richard Attenborough, and the key role of Detective Sergeant Roberts in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp. One memorable role was as a necrophiliac in the film The Horrible Dr. Hichcock in 1962. He ably played a sardonic British Secret Intelligence Service chief (his boss being George Sanders) in the 1966 film The Quiller Memorandum. The character actor worked in films and television until his death in 1995. Some of his later films include Kafka (1991) and Shadowlands (1993). Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Flemyng, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.​

Known For

Herbert Lomas

Herbert Lomas

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).

Known For

Kynaston Reeves

Kynaston Reeves

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kynaston Reeves (29 May 1893, London, England - 5 December 1971, London, England) was christened Philip Arthur Reeves, and was an English character actor who appeared in numerous films and many television plays and series. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kynaston Reeves, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Anthony Nicholls

Anthony Nicholls

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Anthony Nicholls  (16 October 1902 – 22 February 1977) was an English film, television, and stage actor. Description above from the Wikipedia article Anthony Nicholls, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Known For

Anthony Newley

Anthony Newley

Anthony Newley was born in Hackney, London, England, to Frances Grace Newley and George Kirby, a shipping clerk. He was attracted to acting, after seeing an ad for a child actor in a Fleet Street window. He attended the Italia Conti Stage School from the age of 14 and, two years later, played the Artful Dodger in David Lean's film, Oliver Twist (1948). Newley was called up to the Army for his National Service and, by the late 1950s, had a hit song Idol on Parade (1959), while in the movie of the same name. He married his first wife, Tiller Girl Ann Lynn in 1956 but it was a rocky marriage and they divorced in 1963. He was in the pop charts seven times in 1960, twice at Number One with "Why?" and "Do You Mind?" written by Lionel Bart. In 1961, he collaborated with Leslie Bricusse on the hit stage show, Stop the World: I Want to Get Off (1966). After long runs in London and on Broadway, it was made into a film, starring Millicent Martin, with the hit song "What Kind of Fool Am I?".

Known For

Unknown Actor

Unknown Actor

Unknown Character

Known For

Robert Desmond

Robert Desmond

Robert Desmond (16 December 1922 – 2002) was a British film and television actor of the 1950s and 1960s. He started out in juvenile roles, making his film debut in 1948's The Guinea Pig opposite Richard Attenborough. He appeared in a number of early television films such Boys in Brown, recreating the role of Spud Parker in the theatrical film version of 1949, again with Attenborough. He would appear opposite Attenborough one more time in The Great Escape (1963), as Griffith the Tailor. Other films include The Cockleshell Heroes (1955), Indiscreet (1958), The Ugly Duckling (1959), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), The Bulldog Breed (1960) and The Best of Enemies (1961). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Known For

James Kenney

James Kenney

Unknown Character

James Kenney was an English actor whose boyish charm found him regular film and stage roles throughout the 1950's Named after his father, music hall comedian Horace Kenney, he chose to use his middle name James to avoid any confusion. By the late 1960's acting work had almost dried up and James Kenney committed suicide on 13th January 1987.

Known For

Movie Details

Production Info

Director:
Roy Boulting
Production:
Pilgrim Pictures, Boulting Brothers

Key Crew

Associate Producer:
Peter De Sarigny
Screenplay:
Roy Boulting
Producer:
John Boulting
Director of Photography:
Gilbert Taylor
Screenplay:
Bernard Miles

Locations and Languages

Country:
GB; US
Filming:
GB
Languages:
en