A round-up of the British films released this year and which enthralled millions at cinemas up and down the country.
Cineguild, one of the independent companies founded by director David Lean, Ronald Neame and Noël Coward's is supported by the Rank Organization and have released to films this year based on Coward’s plays.
The first is
Brief Encounter about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love (as opposed to the polite arrangement of her marriage) brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey. The screenplay is by Noël Coward, and is based on his 1936 one-act play Still Life. The soundtrack prominently features the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, played by Eileen Joyce.
The film takes place around the end of 1938. Laura Jesson (Johnson), a suburban housewife in a dull but affectionate marriage, tells her story in the first person while at home with her husband, imagining that she is confessing her affair to him. While on her regular Thursday shopping trip to Milford, while waiting in the railway station, Laura is helped by another passenger to remove a piece of grit from her eye. The passenger is Alec Harvey (Howard), an idealistic doctor who also works one day a week as a consultant at the local hospital. Both are in their later thirties and married with children. Enjoying each other's company, the two arrange to meet again. They are soon troubled to find their innocent and casual relationship quickly developing into love. For a while, they meet furtively, constantly fearing chance meetings with friends. After several meetings, they realise a future together is impossible and, not wishing to hurt their families, they agree to part. Alec has been offered a job overseas. Their final meeting is in the railway station refreshment room, which we see for the second time, now with the poignant perspective of their story. As they await a sad and final parting, Dolly Messiter, a talkative acquaintance of Laura, invites herself to join them and is soon chattering away, oblivious to the couple's inner misery. As they realise that they have been robbed of the chance for a final goodbye, Alec's train arrives and he departs with a last look at Laura but without the passionate farewell for which they both long. As the train is heard pulling away, Laura is traumatised, and, hearing an approaching express train, suddenly dashes out on to the platform. The lights of the train flash across her face as she conquers her impulse to commit suicide. She then returns home to her family.
Much of the film version was shot at Carnforth railway station in Lancashire, on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Noël Coward makes the station announcements in the film. Some of the urban scenes were shot in London or at Denham or Beaconsfield near Denham Studios where the film was made.
The second Cineguild production is
Blithe Spirit, a fantasy-comedy film directed by David Lean. The screenplay by Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and associate producer Anthony Havelock-Allan is based on producer Noël Coward's 1941 play of the same name. The film is in Technicolor and is Lean's first attempt at directing comedy. The film was shot at Denham Studios during the spring of 1944. The film features Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford, in the roles they created in the original production, along with Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings in the lead parts of Charles and Ruth Condomine.
Seeking background material for a mystery he is working on, novelist Charles Condomine invites eccentric medium Madame Arcati to his home in Lympne, Kent, to conduct a séance. Madame Arcati performs peculiar rituals and finally goes into a trance. Charles then hears the voice of his dead first wife, Elviram, who becomes visible, but only to Charles. He becomes both dismayed and amused by the situation. Relations between Charles and Ruth become strained until he convinces Elvira to act as a poltergeist and transport a vase and a chair in front of his current wife. Ruth seeks Madame Arcati's help in sending Elvira back where she came from, but the medium professes that she does not know how. Ruth warns her disbelieving husband that Elvira is seeking to be reunited with him by arranging his demise. However, the spirit miscalculates; Ruth, not Charles, drives off in the car she has tampered with and ends up dead. A vengeful Ruth, now in spirit form, harasses Elvira to the point that she wants to leave. In desperation, Charles seeks Madame Arcati's help. Various incantations fail, until Arcati realizes that it was the Condomines' maid Edith who summoned Elvira. Arcati appears to succeed in sending the spirits away, but it soon becomes clear that both have remained. Charles sets out on a long vacation. However, he has a fatal accident as he is driving away, and he joins Elvira and Ruth as a spirit. As with most of Coward’s work, Blithe Spirit is renowned for its dialogue. During an argument with Ruth, Charles declares, "If you're trying to compile an inventory of my sex life, I feel it only fair to warn you that you've omitted several episodes. I shall consult my diary and give you a complete list after lunch." The line, considered extremely risqué by censors, is deleted from the US release.
A big production released this year (the most expensive film so far made in Britain, costing £1.27 million) is
Caesar and Cleopatra. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction (John Bryan). It is a Technicolor film directed by Gabriel Pascal and starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh. It was adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s 1901 play, Caesar and Cleopatra and was produced by Independent Producers, Pascal Film Productions and Eagle-Lion Distributors. In this philosophical coming-of-age film, an aging Julius Caesar takes possession of the Egyptian capital city of Alexandria, and tries to resolve a feud between young Princess Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy. During the resulting sometimes-murderous court-intrigues, Caesar develops a special relationship with Cleopatra, and teaches her how to use her royal power.
The biggest box-office success of the year is
The Seventh Veil, a melodrama made by Ortus Films, a company established by producer Sydney Box, released through General Film Distributors in Britain and Universal Pictures in the United States. The film score was written by Benjamin Frankel with original piano works by Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven as well as parts of the Grieg and Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concertos.
Francesca Cunningham (Ann Todd) is a suicidal, silent, mental patient under the care of Dr. Larsen (Herbert Lom). Via hypnosis Larsen leads her to describe her life history so he can investigate the events that brought her to attempt suicide. The film largely consists of a series of flashbacks in which Francesca talks about her life, removing successive veils to recover memories. Only her second cousin and guardian Nicholas, a crippled musician (James Mason), is interested in her. Nicholas though is a bitter man, jealous of her talent and very misogynistic because of his relationship with his mother, but a divine music teacher who encourages her to excel but also to avoid all emotional entanglements. While at the Royal College of Music, Peter (Hugh McDermott), an American studying in London, becomes romantically interested in her. Although she is initially unresponsive, Francesca and Peter become engaged, but she has not yet reached her majority, then 21, and Nicholas withholds his consent. He insists they leave for Paris in the morning; she completes her education, and begins her career, on the continent. Years pass. Nicholas and Francesca return to Britain when she is invited to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, but she discovers Peter has married someone else. An artist, Maxwell Leyden (Albert Lieven), is invited to paint her portrait by Nicholas; they soon fall in love and agree to live together. Still apparently her guardian, Nicholas becomes angry at the news and strikes her hands with his cane while she plays. She flees from him, but while with Max, is involved in a serious car accident where she suffers burns to her hands. Francesca becomes convinced she will never play again. After therapy, now cured according to Dr Larsen, Francesca finds Nicholas is her real love rather than Peter (now divorced) or Max. Filmed on a budget of £100,000, the film has the 10th top audience of all films, 17.9 million.
The Agitator is a drama film based on the novel Peter Pettenger by William Riley directed by John Harlow and starring William Hartnell, Mary Morris and John Laurie. A young socialist is forced to question his beliefs when he unexpectedly inherits a large firm.
Johnny Frenchman is a drama produced by Ealing Studios and directed by Charles Frend. The film was produced by Michael Balcon from a screenplay by T.E.B. Clarke, with cinematography by Roy Kellino. The film is set in a small fishing port in Cornwall, whose inhabitants have a historic but largely benign rivalry with their counterparts from another port over the water in Brittany whose men fish the same grounds. Legally the French may not fish within three miles of the British coast, and vice versa, and alleged breaches of this rule are the cause of frequent spats between hot-headed Cornish harbour-master Nat Pomeroy (Tom Walls) and Lanec Florrie (Françoise Rosay), an equally redoubtable widow from the Breton port. Beneath all the bluster and posturing however, there is a mutual understanding and respect between the two communities. Widower Nat's daughter Sue (Patricia Roc) has been friends since childhood with local boy Bob Tremayne (Ralph Michael), and their eventual marriage has been taken as a given. During a visit by the Cornish contingent to Brittany a wrestling match is arranged between Bob and Lanec's son Yan (Paul Dupuis), during which Yan breaks a bone, to the concern of Sue. Yan is attracted to Sue and begins actively to woo her, with great success. Sue is torn between her own attraction to Yan and her unspoken commitment to Bob, a situation which leads to increased friction between the two communities. However when Bob decides to join the Royal Navy, in a showdown conversation with Yan before he leaves the two agree that Sue must be allowed to follow her own heart.
Madonna of the Seven Moons is a drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. The film was produced by R.J. Minney, with cinematography from Jack Cox and the screenplay was written by Roland Pertwee from the novel The Madonna of Seven Moons by Margery Lawrence, published in 1931. The film is the first to be directed by Arthur Crabtree, who has spent many years previously working for Gainsborough as a cinematographer. A buried trauma from the past holds the key to the disappearance of a respectable married woman. Maddalena has a dual personality which leads her to forsake her husband and daughter, to flee to the house of the Seven Moons in Florence as the mistress of a jewel thief.
Painted Boats is directed by Charles Crichton and released by Ealing Studios. The film focuses on two families living and working on cargo-carrying canal boats, the traditional Smiths on their horse-drawn boat and the modern Stoners on their motorised vessel. Despite some differences of opinion (Mr. Smith disapproves of motorised boats as he claims they churn up mud and damage canal banks) relations between the families are generally harmonious. The main plot deals with the tentative attraction between Mary Smith and Ted Stoner, despite their differing viewpoints. Mary appreciates the gentle rhythm of traditional canal life whereas Ted's ambition is to get off the canals and into mainstream life at the earliest opportunity.
Perfect Strangers is a big-production drama made by London Films. It stars Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr and the supporting cast includes Glynis Johns, Ann Todd and Roland Culver. It was produced and directed by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Clemence Dane and Anthony Pelissier based on a story by Clemence Dane. Dane won the Academy Award for Best Story. The music score was by Clifton Parker and the cinematography by Georges Périnal.
Pink String and Sealing Wax is a period drama released by Ealing Studios, directed by Robert Hamer and starring Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers and Gordon Jackson.
Strawberry Roan drama directed by Maurice Elvey and starring William Hartnell and Carol Raye. The screenplay is developed from the well-known and widely-admired 1932 novel of the same name by A. G. Street. Farmer Chris Lowe (Hartnell) meets and falls in love with Molly (Raye), a chorus-girl. Despite the fact that she is a city girl through and through, she accepts his proposal of marriage and after the wedding goes to live on the farm. Chris realises that the transition for Molly will be difficult, and in an attempt to ease her into farm life, buys her a strawberry roan calf to look after. Unfortunately Molly finds the adjustment to rural life extremely difficult and does not settle down. She fails to integrate into the local community and starts to feel she has made a big mistake. She tries to quell her unhappiness by spending her husband's money, but goes to excess and eventually leaves Chris facing financial ruin. In despair she takes off on her horse and suffers a fatal fall, leaving Chris destitute and overcome with guilt.
Waterloo Road is Gainsborough Pictures film directed by Sidney Gilliat. The film is shot in the streets around Waterloo Station. Lorry driver Jim Colter (John Mills) fights to save his wife from the advances of a philandering petty-gangster Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger). Dr. Montgomery (Alastair Sim) is a friend of the family who also narrates the tale.
They Were Sisters is a melodrama directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring James Mason and Phyllis Calvert. The film was produced by Harold Huth, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay was developed by Roland Pertwee from a popular novel of the same name by Dorothy Whipple. The film spans the years from the immediate aftermath of the Great War through to the late 1930s. The film features the spouses of both Mason and Calvert; Pamela Mason (billed under her maiden name Pamela Kellino) and Peter Murray-Hill. They Were Sisters is another big hit for Gainsborough, becoming one of the top grossing films of 1945.
The film focuses on the lives of three sisters; Lucy (Phyllis Calvert), Charlotte (Dulcie Gray) and Vera (Anne Crawford). The film opens at a dance in 1919, establishing the personalities of the four main protagonists and following them through courtship and marriage. While the sisters have remained close to one another over the years, both their characters and the paths down which their lives have travelled are very different. Lucy is the most stable of the three, a sensible and practical woman in a happy marriage, whose greatest sadness in life is her inability to have children which she sublimates by lavishing affection on her nephews and nieces. Vera is married with a child but the relationship is humdrum and loveless and she is restless and bored with her dreary home life, indulging her appetite for adventure and excitement through a series of flirtations with other men which sometimes go beyond the bounds of the socially acceptable towards the promiscuous. Charlotte is a cowed, fearful and flinching drudge, suffering severe physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her manipulative, brutal husband Geoffrey (James Mason), who constantly belittles and humiliates her in front of their three children. The action of the film shifts between the three households, but its main focus is the way in which Lucy and Vera have to look on impotently, unable to do anything to help matters despite their best attempts as Charlotte's treatment by her husband becomes ever more shocking and she spirals into alcoholism in an attempt to blur her despair. A final attempt by Charlotte to flee Geoffrey ends in tragedy as she is struck and killed by a car. Vera's marriage too crumbles, as her husband finds out about a serious extra-marital relationship in which she is involved, and petitions for divorce. The film ends by showing the four children of Charlotte and Vera being cared for by the childless Lucy.
The Way to the Stars was made by Two Cities Films. It was produced by Anatole de Grunwald and directed by Anthony Asquith. The screenplay was written by Terence Rattigan. The film stars Michael Redgrave, John Mills, Rosamund John and Stanley Holloway.
The setting of the film is an airfield called Halfpenny Field (pronounced hay penny) during the Great War. Pilot Peter Penrose (John Mills) is posted in the Summer of 1915 as a pilot to (the fictional) No 720 Squadron at Halfpenny Field, as a very green pilot who is assigned to B Flight, under David Archdale (Michael Redgrave). When the squadron’s commanding officer (Trevor Howard), is killed Archdale takes over. While Penrose develops into a first-class pilot, he meets Iris Winterton (Renee Asherson), a young woman staying with her domineering aunt at the Golden Lion pub in the nearby village. Archdale marries Miss Todd (Rosamund John), the popular manageress of the hotel, who is known to everyone as Toddy. The Archdales later have a son, Peter. The action flashes forward to May 1916 when Archdale is shot down and killed over France. Penrose had been courting Iris, despite her aunt's disapproval, but Archdale's fate weighs heavily on his mind. Not wanting Iris to suffer if the same happened to him, he stops seeing her. In 1917 Penrose, now posted to a new squadron, makes an emergency landing at Halfpenny Field, where he meets Iris again. Iris had decided to leave her aunt for good. Toddy persuades a still-reluctant Penrose to propose to Iris, saying that she did not regret her own marriage in spite of her husband's death.
The Wicked Lady is a film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement. The film has one of the top audiences ever for a film, 18.4 million. It was made by Gainsborough Pictures. The story was based on the novel The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall, which in turn, was based upon the (disputed) events surrounding the life of Lady Katherine Ferrers, the wife of the major landowner in Markyate on the main London - Birmingham road. Also starring are James Mason, Griffith Jones, Michael Rennie, Enid Stamp-Taylor, Francis Lister and Emrys Jones.
The World Owes Me a Living is film drama directed by Vernon Sewell and starring David Farrar and Judy Campbell. The film is based on a novel by John Llewellyn Rhys, the credits acknowledge the assistance and co-operation of the Air Ministry and the de Havilland Aircraft Company. In June 1944, Paul Collyer (Farrar) crash lands his plane. He appears to be suffering from amnesia, the surgeon diagnoses no actual injury to the brain, but states that the memory loss is most likely attributable to shock, and in such cases memory is most often recovered through some mental jolt from the past. His wife Moira Barrett (Campbell) is summoned to his bedside. Paul seems to recognise her and his mind starts to go into flashback mode. Paul is seen as part of a flying circus display at which Moira is a spectator. A serious accident to one of the planes brings them together. That evening he meets old flame Eve Heatherley (Sonia Dresdel), who is now engaged to Paul's friend, Jack Graves (Jack Livesey). He runs into Moira again and they talk of her passion for flying. The display accident causes the flying circus to fold and Paul is out of a job. He drifts from job to job for a time, before running into Chuck Rockley (Eric Barker), a fellow performer in the old flying circus, who informs him that he and Jack are starting a new flying circus to be financed by Eve, now married to Jack. Paul accepts the offer to join them, and together they open the Pegasus Flying Field. The venture is a success, but Eve soon loses interest and starts to take an interest in Jerry Frazer, a local ex-pilot. One afternoon an aircraft makes an emergency landing at Pegasus, and it turns out that the pilot is Moira, who is training for a record-breaking long-distance flight. She says she is looking for a co-pilot and asks Jack, who is talked out of it by Eve and he eventually refuses on the grounds the plan is too risky but he gives Moira instruction in blind flying. The Pegasus pilots are offered the opportunity to earn extra money by flying at night to give the local RAF station the opportunity to practice searchlight operations. Moira accompanies Paul on one flight, but the plane develops engine trouble and they have to land away from base. They check into a local hotel for the night and realise that they are in love. Meanwhile Jerry, encouraged by Eve, is working on an idea he has for freight-carrying gliders. When Eve dies suddenly and unexpectedly, Jack steps in to help Jerry with his ideas. Initially there is little commercial interest in the glider idea, until finally an aviation company offers to build a prototype if Pegasus will agree to finance a transatlantic test flight. Moira agrees to front up the cash as long as she is allowed to join the flight. The glider is built and preparations are finalised for its inaugural flight when an inspection by the Air Ministry calls a halt, as the prototype is too close in design to a craft secretly being worked on by their own designers. In recompense, the Air Ministry offers to buy out the Pegasus concern and provide the Pegasus men with RAF piloting jobs. Everyone is happy apart from Moira, who is bitterly disappointed about losing the chance of a transatlantic flight. Paul asks her to marry him. The action returns to the present, where Paul's memory is obviously returning. He starts to question Moira but she tells him that he is over-tired and they will discuss things the following day. She leaves his bedside and goes into an ante-room, where she is met by two small children asking Can we see Daddy now?
Other dramas released this year are;
Give Me the Stars directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Leni Lynn, Will Fyffe, Jackie Hunter and Olga Lindo.
Great Day is directed by Lance Comfort and starring Eric Portman, Flora Robson and Sheila Sim. In the film, the small English village of Denley is thrown into excitement by the impending visit of the Prince of Wales. However, the impoverished local squire is threatened with disgrace and ruin as the day approaches. Meet Sexton Blake is directed by John Harlow and starring David Farrar, Manning Whiley, Dennis Arundell and John Varley
For You Alone is a romance melodrama directed by cinematographer Geoffrey Faithfull, starring Lesley Brook, Dinah Sheridan and Jimmy Hanley. The film was produced by Butcher's Films, more known for turning out quick and cheap B-movies, but this film is a relatively sophisticated and well-financed production. The film is promoted as a musical, in crucial concert scenes the film features singers Heddle Nash and Helen Hill with accompaniment from the London Symphony Orchestra; however, none of the film's actors sing. John Bradshaw (Robert Griffith), a young naval officer, attends a concert at Westminster Central Hall where he meets Reverend Peter Britton (G.H. Mulcaster) and his daughter Katherine (Brook). After the concert the three share a taxi, and after seeing her father off on the train to a conference Katherine agrees to have tea with John. They enjoy each other's company and later go to see a film, followed by dinner and a stroll along the Thames Embankment. John impulsively tells Katherine that he has fallen in love with her, but she reminds him that they hardly know one another. The couple finally part, agreeing to meet again the following day. However Katherine receives a telegram at her hotel, stating that her brother Dennis (Hanley) will be arriving home the next day. She returns home early the next morning, leaving a note of explanation for John. Unfortunately John forgets the name of Katherine's hotel and does not receive the note and is distraught when she fails to turn up for their rendezvous. Meanwhile back at home, Katherine finds that Dennis is accompanied by Max Borrow (Manning Whiley), an old admirer who still wants to marry her. He has sustained serious eye injuries while saving Dennis' life and Katherine as a result feels she must accept him. John remembers that Katherine's father is due to return to London from the conference and waits at the station until he arrives. They learn from the hotel why Katherine departed so hurriedly, and Rev. Britton invites John back to their village. John is deeply upset to discover Katherine is engaged. Katherine admits to John the reason she and Max are engaged, and John agrees to not pursue matters unless Max can be cured. Max goes off for a medical examination, and John is recalled to his ship. As he is about to leave, a fire breaks out in a storage shed where children are playing. Max, having been told that his sight is safe, arrives back while the drama is in progress. John is injured as he rescues the children. Katherine's reaction leaves Max in no doubt as to her feelings and that evening he releases her from her obligation to him so that she may marry John.
I Know Where I'm Going! is a romance film by the filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey, and features Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie and Petula Clark in her fourth film appearance. Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) is a young middle class Englishwoman with an ambitious, independent spirit. She knows where she's going, or at least she thinks she does. She travels from her home in Manchester to the Hebrides to marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a very wealthy, much older industrialist, on the (fictitious) Isle of Kiloran. When bad weather postpones the final leg of her journey, a boat trip to Kiloran, she is forced to wait it out on the Isle of Mull. There she meets Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey). They are sheltered for the night in the nearby home of Torquil's friend, Catriona Potts (Pamela Brown). The next day, on their way to catch a bus into town, they come upon the ruins of Moy Castle. Joan wants to take a look inside, but Torquil refuses to go in. When she reminds him that the terrible curse only applies to the Laird of Kiloran, Torquil introduces himself: he is the laird, and Bellinger has only leased his island. As the bad weather worsens into a full-scale gale, Torquil takes advantage of the delay to woo Joan, who becomes increasingly torn between her ambition and her growing attraction to him. Desperate to salvage her carefully laid plans, Joan tries to persuade Ruairidh Mhór (Finlay Currie) to take her across to the island immediately, but the experienced sailor knows conditions are far too dangerous. Joan manages to bribe young Kenny (Murdo Morrison) into attempting it by offering him enough money to buy a half share in Ruairidh's boat and marry Ruairidh's daughter Bridie (Margot Fitzsimons). Torquil learns of the scheme and tries to talk Joan out of it, but she proves adamant and they have a blazing row. As Joan leaves for the boat Catriona points out Joan has fallen in love with him. Armed with this knowledge, he races to the quayside and invites himself aboard. The boat's engine gets flooded and they are caught in the Corryvreckan whirlpool, but Torquil is able to restart the motor just in time and they return safely to Mull. At last, the weather clears. Joan asks Torquil for a parting kiss before they go their separate ways. Torquil enters Moy Castle, and the curse takes effect almost immediately. A narrator relates that, centuries earlier, Torquil's ancestor had stormed the castle to capture his unfaithful wife and her lover. He had them bound together and cast into a water-filled dungeon with only a small stone to stand upon. When their strength gave out, they dragged each other into the water, but not before she placed a curse on the Lairds of Kiloran. Any who dared to step over the threshold would be chained to a woman to the end of his days. From the battlements, Torquil sees Joan marching resolutely toward him. They embrace.
I Live in Grosvenor Square is a romance film directed and produced by Herbert Wilcox. In the summer of 1943, an American businessman, John Patterson (Dean Jagger), is staying in the London home of the Duke of Exmoor (Robert Morley) in London's Grosvenor Square. He is befriended by the Duke and an MP, David Bruce (Rex Harrison), who is contesting a parliamentary by-election. On a weekend visit to the Duke's estate near Exmoor in Devon, Patterson meets the Duke's granddaughter, Lady Patricia Fairfax (Anna Neagle), who is David's childhood sweetheart. After a cool beginning based on cultural misunderstandings, they fall in love. David is unaware of what is happening until the final night before the election, when it becomes clear to him during a party on the estate. David loses the election. When Patterson realizes that Pat and David have long expected to marry, he contrives to return to London. David and Pat have an ugly showdown over Patterson, only to learn that he has left. David realizes that Pat still loves Patterson and arranges for them to reunite.
Kiss the Bride Goodbye is a romantic comedy drama, directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Patricia Medina and Jimmy Hanley. Factory girl Joan Dodd (Medina) and Jack Fowler (Hanley) are in love and expect to marry in due course. When Jack is transferred away however, Joan's socially-ambitious mother (Ellen Pollock) seizes the chance to meddle in her daughter's life by encouraging the attentions of Joan's older boss Adolphus Pickering (Claud Allister), who is infatuated with her. Pickering proposes marriage, and under pressure from her mother, Joan accepts. The preparations for the marriage are under way when Jack returns unexpectedly. He is appalled to find Joan in her wedding finery, and persuades her to run away with him. The pair decide to visit Joan's aunt and uncle and make their way there by train, while Joan's parents are horrified by her disappearance with Jack and fears the worst. When Joan arrives in her bridal gown, her aunt and uncle assume that she and Jack are just married, and prepare a bridal chamber for the couple, much to their embarrassment. Comic misunderstandings ensue all round, until Joan finally demands the right to marry the man of her choice.
The Echo Murders is a thriller film directed by John Harlow and starring David Farrar, Dennis Price, Pamela Stirling and Julien Mitchell.
Latin Quarter is a thriller directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Derrick De Marney, Joan Greenwood and Beresford Egan. The film is an adaptation of the play L'Angoisse by Pierre Mills and C. Vylars. It is Sewell's second film version of the story, following The Medium in 1934. It was made by British National Films at Elstree Studios. In the Paris of 1893, sculptor Charles Garrie (De Marney) enters into an illicit relationship with the married Christine Minetti (Greenwood). Christine's husband Anton (Egan) is also a sculptor, and mentally unstable. Anton finds out about Christine's affair and soon after she vanishes without trace. Although the police consider Anton the prime suspect in being involved in his wife's disappearance, they can find no incriminating evidence, nor any lead as to her whereabouts, alive or dead. Anton's mental deterioration gathers pace, and in due course he is arrested for the murder of his mistress and in this case there is no doubt of his guilt. He still refuses however to give any indication of what happened to Christine. Charles remains desperate to discover Christine's fate, and relates the whole story to a criminologist (Frederick Valk). A psychic is called in and a séance is held in Anton's studio, revealing that Christine has always been much closer to home than anyone could have realised.
The Man from Morocco is an action adventure film directed by Mutz Greenbaum and produced by Welwyn Studios. One of a group of prisoners who have spent two years building a railway in the Sahara escapes and returns to Paris to find his lover believes him to be dead and that she is being pursued by his deadliest enemy.
Dead of Night is a chilling portmanteau horror film made by Ealing Studios. The individual stories were directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. The film stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers and Michael Redgrave. Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) arrives at a country house party where he reveals to the assembled guests that he has seen them all in a dream. He appears to have no prior personal knowledge of them but he is able to predict spontaneous events in the house before they unfold. The other guests attempt to test Craig's foresight, while entertaining each other with various tales of uncanny or supernatural events that they experienced or were told about. These include a racing car driver's premonition of a fatal bus crash; a light hearted tale of two obsessed golfers, one of whom becomes haunted by the other's ghost; a ghostly encounter during a children's Christmas party (cut from the American release); a haunted antique mirror; and the story of an unbalanced ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) who believes his amoral dummy is truly alive. The framing story is then capped by a twist ending.
A Place of One's Own directed by Bernard Knowles is an atmospheric ghost story based on the novel by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. Mason and Mullen are artificially aged to play the old couple. Mr and Mrs Smedhurst (James Mason and Barbara Mullen) are a business couple wanting to retire. They find a mansion in the country, Bellingham House, at a bargain price. They move in along with their servants and soon learn the house is supposedly haunted. They invite a young companion, Annette (Margaret Lockwood), to join them but within days of arriving she steadily begins hearing strange voices. The new owners learn that a young invalid girl was believed to have been murdered 40 years previously in the house – and their preconceptions of the supernatural are challenged. When the spirit of the murdered girl possesses Annette, her health declines drastically and soon she’s at death's door. A young doctor, Dr Selbie (Dennis Price), has fallen deeply in love with Annette and attempts to cure her but to no avail. In a state of delirium, Annette calls for old Dr Marsham (Ernest Thesiger), the GP who had attended to the dead girl 40 years earlier.
29 Acacia Avenue is a comedy film adaptation of a play directed by Henry Cass. Peter Robinson (Gordon Harker) falls in love with the naïve country girl Fay (Betty Balfour) and the worldly, wealthy and already-married Joan, and lives with them both (and Joan's husband) at his parents' house. However, one day Peter's parents unexpectedly return from holiday, and all hell breaks loose.
Don Chicago is a comedy directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Jackie Hunter, Joyce Heron and Claud Allister. It is based on a novel by C. E. Bechhofer Roberts. An aspiring, but timid, gangster is forced to leave the United States after crossing the wrong people, but on arriving in Britain he is treated as a dangerous criminal.
Dreaming is a comedy directed by John Baxter and starring Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen and Hazel Court. Its plot concerns a soldier who is knocked unconscious during a battle and has a series of bizarre dreams.
Flight from Folly is a musical comedy directed by Herbert Mason (in his last directorial credit before moving into production) and starring Patricia Kirkwood and Hugh Sinclair, with music from Edmundo Ros and his famous Rumba Band. The film was designed to give Kirkwood her first starring screen role, previously she had appeared in minor roles in four films before focussing her career on the West End stage, where she is a major star.
When his muse and girlfriend Nina (Tamara Desni) takes off with a continental lothario, composer and playwright Clinton Clay (Sinclair) is devastated and turns to drink for solace. His doctor (Sydney Howard) tries, with the help of Clinton's butler Neville (A. E. Matthews), to get him to pull himself together but all attempts fail as Clinton's behaviour becomes ever more unbalanced and every nurse they engage is sent on her way by him in quick order. Showgirl Sue Brown (Kirkwood) is currently out of work, hears of Clinton's problems and poses as a nurse. She is taken on to be his keeper, and manages to placate him to the extent that he does not dismiss her. When Clinton decides to travel to Majorca in pursuit of Nina, Sue is included in the party along with Neville and Clinton's sculptor sister Millicent (Jean Gillie). Harriet (Marian Spencer), a devious widow with designs on Clinton, follows them to Majorca. Once on the island, Clinton tracks Nina down and asks her to star in a tryout of a new musical he has written. She agrees, and Clinton makes arrangements to stage the musical there. On opening night however, the jealous Harriet locks Nina in her dressing room and disappears with the key. Sue offers to take Nina's place on stage, and proves to be a huge success with the audience. Clinton realises that he has fallen in love with her and is instantly cured of his malaise, happy now to let Nina go with her playboy lover.
Home Sweet Home is a musical comedy directed by John E. Blakeley and starring Frank Randle, Nicolette Roeg and Tony Pendrell.
I Didn't Do It is a comedy crime film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring George Formby, Dennis Wyndham and Carl Jaffe. The story concerns an actor (Formby) staying at a theatrical boarding house who is framed for a murder.
I'll Be Your Sweetheart directed by Val Guest and starring Margaret Lockwood and Vic Oliver is another musical released this year.
Old Mother Riley at Home is a comedy directed by Oswald Mitchell and starring Arthur Lucan, Kitty McShane and Freddie Forbes.
The Rake's Progress is a comedy-drama film. The plot follows the career of upper-class cad Vivian Kenway (Rex Harrison). He is sent down from Oxford University for placing a chamber pot on the Martyrs' Memorial. Sent to South America, he rebels against plantation life, eventually becoming a car racing driver. He descends to a life of woman-chasing and drunkenness, which causes the death of his father, Colonel Kenway (Godfrey Tearle). The plot diverges from the theme of the Rake's Progress paintings by having him redeem himself by a hero's death in the Great War.
Handling Ships is a 70-minute stop motion animated film made by Halas and Batchelor, made at the request of the Admiralty as a training aid for new navigators joining the Royal Navy. It is the first feature length work, and the first work in Technicolor, in British animation history. After independent careers in animation, John Halas and Joy Batchelor began working together in 1938, and founded Halas and Batchelor in 1940 to create information films. For Handling Ships, Halas and Batchelor used stop motion animation of three-dimensional ship models, along with schematic designs, to simplify the intricacies and vagaries of ship movement and educate the viewer. The film was shot in 35 mm and Technicolor.