Evensong | |
---|---|
Directed by | Victor Saville |
Written by | Dorothy Farnum |
Based on | play Evensong by Edward Knoblock and Beverley Nichols novel Evensong by Beverley Nichols |
Produced by | Graham Cutts |
Starring | Evelyn Laye |
Cinematography | Mutz Greenbaum |
Edited by | Otto Ludwig |
Music by | Hubert Bath (uncredited) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Gaumont British |
Release date |
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Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Evensong is a 1934 British musical film directed by Victor Saville and starring Evelyn Laye, Fritz Kortner and Emlyn Williams. [1] It is loosely based on the story of the singer Nellie Melba. It was shot the Lime Grove Studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alfred Junge.
This movie was the first film of Alec Guinness, who appears as an uncredited extra. [2]
The New York Times found the film "politely dull in its reverent examination of a songbird's career. But in its sober way it emerges as a superior musical entertainment...Victor Saville tells the story with tenderness, intelligence and skill and his method is technically invigorating in one lengthy sequence which he develops through the use of musical pantomime" ; [3] while Allmovie noted "Evelyn Laye made only a handful of film appearances, of which Evensong was arguably her finest" ; [4] and Time Out found it "a touch more sophisticated than the usual run of homegrown '30s musicals, genre specialist Saville's film benefits no end from the commanding and courageous central performance." [5]
George Emlyn Williams, CBE was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor.
Fritz Kortner was an Austrian stage and film actor and theatre director.
Evelyn Laye was an English actress and singer.
Marius Re Goring was an English stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life and Death and as Julian Craster in The Red Shoes. He is also known for playing the title role in the long-running TV drama series, The Expert. He regularly performed French and German roles, and was frequently cast in the latter because of his name, coupled with his red-gold hair and blue eyes. However, in a 1965 interview, he explained that he was not of German descent, stating that "Goring is a completely English name."
Madame DuBarry is a 1934 American historical film directed by William Dieterle and starring Dolores del Río, Reginald Owen, Victor Jory and Osgood Perkins. The film portrays the life of Madame Du Barry, the last mistress of King Louis XV of France. While this film does not serve accuracy to Madame Du Barry, it does feature antiques and jewelry that came from the actual days when Madame Du Barry lived. This film was being edited just as the Hollywood Production Code was gaining real power, and faced many problems with censors of the time. A May 27, 1934, New York Times column, “Studio Activities on the Western Front”, focusing on the “cracking down” of censors noted that a reel and a half had already been cut from the film, including a bedroom scene.
Arthur Basil Radford was an English character actor who featured in many British films of the 1930s and 1940s.
Ziegfeld Follies is a 1945 American musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, primarily directed by Vincente Minnelli, with segments directed by Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, and George Sidney, the film's original director before Minnelli took over. Other directors that are claimed to have made uncredited contributions to the film are Merrill Pye, Norman Taurog, and Charles Walters. It stars many MGM leading talents, including Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, James Melton, Victor Moore, William Powell, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams.
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Evergreen is a 1934 British musical film directed by Victor Saville starring Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Barry MacKay. The film is based on the 1930 musical Ever Green, also starring Matthews, who plays a dual role as mother and daughter.
The Good Companions is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Victor Saville starring Jessie Matthews, John Gielgud and Edmund Gwenn. It is based on the 1929 novel of the same name by J.B. Priestley.
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Princess Charming is an operetta with music composed by Albert Szirmai. The English libretto by Arthur Wimperis and Lauri Wylie is based on the Hungarian libretto by Franz Martos. The operetta is set in the Palace of the Elyrian Embassy in the fictional European country of Novia and the Sigman Castle adjoining the Royal Palace. The story concerns a young princess who accepts a proposal of marriage from the elderly king of a neighboring country as protection against an uprising by her own subjects. Captain Torrelli, a military officer sent by the king, fears imminent danger to the princess and marries her himself. The officer then escorts her to his king for an annulment, but the couple fall in love and elope.
The Iron Duke is a 1934 British historical film directed by Victor Saville and starring George Arliss, Ellaline Terriss and Gladys Cooper. Arliss plays Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington in the events leading up to the Battle of Waterloo and beyond.
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Chu Chin Chow is a 1934 British musical film directed by Walter Forde and starring George Robey, Fritz Kortner and Anna May Wong. It was an adaptation of the hit musical Chu Chin Chow by Oscar Asche and Frederick Norton. It was shot at the Islington Studios of Gainsborough Pictures in London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Ernö Metzner.
Abdul the Damned is a 1935 British drama film directed by Karl Grune and starring Fritz Kortner, Nils Asther and John Stuart. It was made at the British International Pictures studios by Alliance-Capitol Productions. It is set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the constitutionalist Young Turks who dethroned him.
The King Steps Out is a 1936 American musical comedy film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Grace Moore, Franchot Tone and Walter Connolly. It is based on the early years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as "Sisi" or "Sissi", and her courtship and marriage to Franz Joseph I of Austria, after he was initially engaged to her older sister Duchess Helene in Bavaria. The film is set from 1852 to 1854.
Evensong is a 1932 novel by the British writer Beverley Nichols. It was inspired by the life of the opera singer Nellie Melba, whom Nichols had known during her later years. The same year Nichols collaborated with Edward Knoblock on a play version which was a major hit in the West End.
Evensong is a 1932 British play by the writers Beverley Nichols and Edward Knoblock. It is based on the novel of the same name by Nichols, based on the life of opera singer Nellie Melba.