Walter John Buchanan was a Scottish theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts." He is best known in America for his role in the classic Hollywood musical The Band Wagon in 1953.
Albert R.N. is a 1953 British war film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Jack Warner, Anthony Steel and Robert Beatty.
Will Fyffe, CBE was a Scottish music hall and performing artist on stage and screen during the 1930s and 1940s.
Ronald Stevens was an English revue artist, character actor and voice artist credited professionally as Ronnie Stevens.
An Airman's Letter to His Mother (1941) is a documentary-style British propaganda short film based on an actual letter from a British bomber pilot to his mother published in The Times in June 1940. Subsequently, the letter was published as a pamphlet and received wide distribution in the UK. "The letter in question had touched a nation's heart and made a popular film subject." In 1941, Michael Powell directed An Airman's Letter to His Mother, based on a dramatization of the letter, and narrated by John Gielgud.
Guy Middleton Powell, better known as Guy Middleton, was an English film character actor.
Arthur Crabtree was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthur Askey and several of the Gainsborough Melodramas.
The Mouse on the Moon is a 1963 British comedy film, the sequel to The Mouse That Roared. It is an adaptation of the 1962 novel The Mouse on the Moon by Irish author Leonard Wibberley, and was directed by Richard Lester. In it, the people of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, a microstate in Europe, attempt space flight using wine as a propellant. It satirises the space race, Cold War and politics.
Night Boat to Dublin is a 1946 British thriller film directed and co-written by Lawrence Huntington. It stars Robert Newton, Raymond Lovell, Guy Middleton, Muriel Pavlow and Herbert Lom.
Neutral Port is a 1940 British war film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Will Fyffe, Leslie Banks, Yvonne Arnaud, and Phyllis Calvert, with a supporting role for Wally Patch. It was produced and distributed by Gainsborough Pictures and shot at the company's Lime Grove Studios in West London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky.
The Middle Watch is a 1940 British comedy film, directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Jack Buchanan, Greta Gynt, Fred Emney and Kay Walsh. It was produced by Associated British Picture Corporation at their Welwyn Studios. It was based on a play of the same title by Ian Hay and Stephen King-Hall which had previously been adapted as a film in 1930, and which was adapted again in 1958.
The Little Savage is a 1959 American adventure film directed by Byron Haskin. It stars Pedro Armendáriz and Christiane Martel. It is loosely based on an 1848 novel of the same name by Frederick Marryat.
The Mind of Mr. Reeder is a 1939 British mystery crime film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Will Fyffe as Mr. Reeder, with Kay Walsh, George Curzon, and supporting roles for Chili Bouchier, John Warwick and Ronald Shiner.
The Missing People is a 1940 British mystery film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Will Fyffe, Kay Walsh and Lyn Harding. Fyfe appears as J. G. Reeder, a character created by Edgar Wallace who works as an investigator for the Department of Public Prosecutions. The film is based on a novel by Edgar Wallace. Fyffe, Walsh and Raymond were involved in another Mr. Reeder film The Mind of Mr. Reeder released the previous year. It was shot at Highbury Studios in London.
The Harassed Hero is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Guy Middleton, Joan Winmill Brown and Elwyn Brook-Jones. It was based on a novel of the same name by Ernest Dudley. The film was produced as a second feature and shot at Walton Studios and on location in London. The film's sets were designed by the art director John Stoll.
Rulers of the Sea is a 1939 American historical drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Margaret Lockwood and Will Fyffe. The film's story is based on the voyage of the SS Savannah, the first steamship to cross the North Atlantic, from Britain to the United States. The film was made by Paramount Pictures, but featured Lockwood and Fyffe who were two of the leading stars of the British Gainsborough Pictures studios. The supporting cast features Alan Ladd.
Men of the Lightship is a short propaganda film produced by the Crown Film Unit for the British Ministry of Information in 1940, the year after the beginning of the Second World War. It dramatises the bombing of the East Dudgeon lightship by the Luftwaffe on 29 January 1940 and was designed to portray Germany as a barbaric enemy. An opening narration explains the traditional understanding of lightships as neutral vessels during war.
Victory and Peace is a 1918 British silent war film directed by Herbert Brenon and starring Matheson Lang, Marie Lohr, and James Carew. The film was produced by the National War Aims Committee that was set up in 1917 to focus on domestic propaganda during the First World War. The novelist Hall Caine was recruited for the committee by the Prime Minister David Lloyd George to write the screenplay. Lloyd George chose Caine due to his experience in the field of cinema and his "reputation as a man of letters". The film was designed to show what would happen in a German invasion. It was mostly shot in Chester with some scenes filmed at Chirk Castle. Most of the negative of the newly finished film was destroyed in a fire at the offices of the London Film Company in June 1918. It was re-filmed over four months, just as the war ended, and so never went on general release. It is a partially lost film, with only around 1,000 feet of film still surviving. Edward Elgar was to have composed the score. Originally entitled The National Film, its alternative title is The Invasion of Britain.
Rolling Home is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Ralph Ince and starring Will Fyffe and Molly Lamont. It was made at Shepperton Studios.
The Department of the Director of Underwater Weapons Materials originally known as the Torpedo Department was a former department of the British Department of Admiralty from 1917 to 1958 when it became the Underwater Weapons Division of the Weapons Department.
