This is an overview of 1929 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard. Based on the 1928 play of the same name by Charles Bennett, the film is about a London woman who is blackmailed after killing a man who tries to rape her.
The Mysterious Island is a 1929 American sound part-talkie science fiction film directed by Lucien Hubbard, based on Jules Verne's 1874 novel L'Île mystérieuse. The film was photographed largely in two-color Technicolor. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The sound was recorded via the Western Electric sound-on-film process. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
John Stuart was born to Scottish parents, and was a very popular leading man in British silent films in the 1920s. He successfully made the transition to talking pictures in the 1930s and his film career went on to span almost six decades. He appeared in 172 films, 123 stage plays, and 103 television plays and series.
Maurice Elvey was one of the most prolific film directors in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year. He also produced more than fifty films – his own as well as films directed by others.
Benita Hume was an English theatre and film actress. She appeared in more than 40 films from 1925 to 1955.
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government.
The Tunnel is a 1935 British science fiction film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Richard Dix, Leslie Banks, Madge Evans, Helen Vinson, C. Aubrey Smith and Basil Sydney. It is based on the 1913 novel Der Tunnel by Bernhard Kellermann, about the building of a transatlantic tunnel between New York and London. The script was written by Curt Siodmak, L. du Garde Peach and Clemence Dane. The film, produced at a time when the threat of war loomed in Europe, emphasized international cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom.
At the Villa Rose is a 1920 British silent detective film based on the 1910 novel At the Villa Rose by British politician and author A.E.W. Mason. The feature was directed by Maurice Elvey and stars Manora Thew and Langhorn Burton. A print of the film survives at the British Film Institute archives.
Walter Forde was a British actor, screenwriter and director. Born in Lambeth, South London in 1898, he directed over fifty films between 1919 from the silent era through to 1949 in the sound era. He died in Los Angeles, California in 1984.
Les Misérables is a 1925 French silent drama film directed by Henri Fescourt, based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo.
Hayford Hobbs was a leading British film actor of the silent era and later became a film director. He was born in London, England, in 1891. He made his first screen appearance in the 1915 film The Third Generation and appeared in his last film High Treason in 1929. The following year he directed his first film, a documentary about London.
The Face at the Window is a 1939 British horror film directed by George King. It was the second sound film adaptation of the 1897 stage melodrama by F. Brooke Warren after the 1932 version.
Balaclava is a 1928 British silent and sound war film directed by Maurice Elvey and Milton Rosmer and starring Cyril McLaglen, Benita Hume, Alf Goddard, Harold Huth, and Wally Patch. It was made by Gainsborough Pictures with David Lean working as a production assistant. The charge sequences were filmed on the Long Valley in Aldershot in Hampshire. Although the sound version had no audible dialogue, it featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects. The sound version was released in the United States under the title Jaws Of Hell.
Estelle Brody was an American actress who became one of the biggest female stars of British silent film in the latter half of the 1920s. Her career was then derailed by a series of ill-advised decisions and she disappeared from sight for many years before re-emerging between the late 1940s and the 1960s in smaller supporting film and television roles.
Hindle Wakes is a 1927 British silent film drama, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. The film is adapted from Stanley Houghton's 1912 stage play of the same name, and reunites Brody and Stuart following their hugely popular pairing in the previous year's Mademoiselle from Armentieres. The film was also released under the title Fanny Hawthorne.
Henry Vibart was a Scottish stage and film actor, active from the 1880s until the early 1930s. He appeared in many theatrical roles in the UK and overseas, and featured in over 70 films of the silent era.
When Knights Were Bold is a comedy play by the British writer Harriett Jay writing under the pseudonym of Charles Marlowe which was first performed in 1906. A British officer Guy De Vere returns home from service in India after inheriting an estate and a baronetcy in the village of Little Twittering where he encounters a number of eccentrics. His cousin Rowena, meanwhile, falls madly in love with him. It should not be confused with the 1898 novel When Knighthood Was in Flower by Charles Major which is sometimes known by this title.
Verdun: Visions of History is a 1928 French docudrama film directed by Léon Poirier. It portrays the battle of Verdun, primarily by recreating the battle on its location, but also with the use of newsreel footage and dramatic scenes. Most of the people in the film are actual French and German World War I veterans, including Marshal Philippe Pétain who portrays himself. The film has a pacifist message.
The year 1929 was marked, in science fiction, by the following events.
