| Ambassador Bill | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Sam Taylor |
| Written by | Guy Bolton |
| Starring | Will Rogers Marguerite Churchill Greta Nissen Ray Milland |
| Cinematography | John J. Mescall |
| Edited by | Harold D. Schuster |
| Music by | Arthur Kay |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Ambassador Bill is a 1931 American Pre-Code comedy film directed by Sam Taylor and starring Will Rogers and Marguerite Churchill. The film also features Greta Nissen and Ray Milland. [1]
Bill Harper is an American ambassador. After his arrival in a small country that is besieged by civil unrest, he befriends the young boy who is to be the country's king. King Lothar is in exile due to the Prince De Polikoff spreading false rumors about his maritial infidelity so Polikoff can eventually seize control.
Harper teaches the young boy King how to play baseball, holding up Babe Ruth as an example of good American sportsmanship. He also teaches the local diplomats how to play poker, winning concessions at the gaming table that he couldn't obtain officially. Harper is not fazed by the sight of ex-Ambassador Littleton, a nervous wreck in a wheelchair who has a nervous collapse at the slightest unfamiliar sound.
Things get tricky when stuffed shirt United States Senator Pillsbury arrives to check on diplomatic progress. Thanks to a fake tryst from Countess Ilka, Pillsbury is prepared to ask for Harper's recall. But things change when the two men, handcuffed together, find themselves on the run from Polikoff's secret police. Entering a disreputable tavern, they ask for someone to chop off their handcuffs. Cross-eyed Ben Turpin appears, wielding an axe. They decide they'd rather stay handcuffed.
King Lothar eventually leads a counter-revolution that deposes Polikoff, and Harper earns the delayed gratitude of the Queen when he rescues The Boy King from the line of fire.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from 1922 to 1924, he was a member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
The Lion in Winter is a 1966 play by James Goldman, depicting the personal and political conflicts of Henry II of England, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, their children and their guests during Christmas 1183. It premiered on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre on March 3, 1966, starring Robert Preston and Rosemary Harris, who won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Eleanor. It was adapted by Goldman into an Academy Award-winning 1968 film of the same name, starring Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn. The play has been produced numerous times, including Broadway and West End revivals.
Greta Garbo was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's silent and early golden eras. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, she was known for her melancholic and somber screen persona, her film portrayals of tragic characters, and her subtle and understated performances. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on its list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title enjoyed a long run in London, having opened in Nottingham in 1903.
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh is a member of the British royal family. She is married to Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, the youngest sibling of King Charles III.
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in Grand Hotel (1932), as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934), and his title role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.
William Penn Adair Rogers was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory, and is known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son". As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films, and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was hugely popular in the United States for his leading political wit and was the highest paid of Hollywood film stars. He died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post when their small airplane crashed in northern Alaska.
The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney films Pinocchio and Fantasia.
Quicksilver is a historical novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2003. It is the first volume of The Baroque Cycle, his late Baroque historical fiction series, succeeded by The Confusion and The System of the World. Quicksilver won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was nominated for the Locus Award in 2004. Stephenson organized the structure of Quicksilver such that chapters have been incorporated into three internal books titled "Quicksilver", "The King of the Vagabonds", and "Odalisque". In 2006, each internal book was released in separate paperback editions, to make the 900 pages more approachable for readers. These internal books were originally independent novels within the greater cycle during composition.
The Lion King 1½ is a 2004 American animated direct-to-video musical comedy film directed by Bradley Raymond, produced by DisneyToon Studios and released on February 10, 2004. The third installment in the Lion King franchise, the film is both a prequel and a sidequel to The Lion King, focusing on the supporting characters Timon and Pumbaa. A majority of the voice cast from the first film returns to reprise their roles, including Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella as the voices of Timon and Pumbaa, respectively. The film's structure is inspired by Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a tragicomedy that tells the story of Hamlet from the point of view of two minor characters. The Lion King 1½ received generally positive reviews from critics.
George Montgomery was an American actor, best known for his work in Western films and television. He was also a painter, director, producer, writer, sculptor, furniture craftsman, and stuntman. He was engaged to Hedy Lamarr in 1941, and married Dinah Shore in 1943.
Passenger to Frankfurt: An Extravaganza is a spy novel by Agatha Christie first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in September 1970 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at twenty-five shillings. In preparation for decimalisation on 15 February 1971, it was concurrently priced on the dustjacket at £1.25. The US edition retailed at $5.95.
Greta Nissen was a Norwegian-American film and stage actress.
Anne Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon was an English memoirist and the second wife of Anthony Eden, who served as British prime minister from 1955 to 1957. She married Eden in 1952, becoming Lady Eden in 1954 when he was made a Knight of the Garter, before becoming Countess of Avon in 1961 when her husband was created Earl of Avon. She was also Winston Churchill's niece. In 2007, at 87, she released her memoir subtitled From Churchill to Eden.
Richard Cœur-de-lion is an opéra comique, described as a comédie mise en musique, by the Belgian composer André Grétry. The French text was by Michel-Jean Sedaine. The work is generally recognised as Grétry's masterpiece and one of the most important French opéras comiques. It is based on a legend about King Richard I of England's captivity in Austria and his rescue by the troubadour Blondel de Nesle.
Alan Marshal was an Australian-born actor who performed on stage in the United States and in Hollywood films. He was sometimes billed as Alan Marshall or Alan Willey.
Georgiana Caine was an American actress who performed both on Broadway and in more than 80 films in her 51-year career.
Elsbeth Ruth Juda and known professionally as Jay, was a British photographer most notable for her pioneering fashion photographs and work as associate editor and photographer for The Ambassador magazine between 1940 and 1965.
The wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling took place on 19 June 2010 in Stockholm Cathedral. It had been described as "Europe's biggest royal wedding since the Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981". Westling thereby acquired Victoria's ducal title, becoming a Swedish prince and Duke of Västergötland. In time for the wedding, a joint monogram of their initials was created.
Bill Nagy (1921–1973) was a Canadian-born film and television actor who settled and worked in Britain. He began working on the London stage, appearing in the West End production of South Pacific.
 | This 1930s comedy film–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |