Hindle Wakes | |
---|---|
Directed by | Victor Saville |
Written by | Victor Saville Angus MacPhail Stanley Houghton |
Produced by | Michael Balcon |
Starring | Belle Chrystall John Stuart Norman McKinnel |
Cinematography | Mutz Greenbaum |
Edited by | R. E. Dearing |
Music by | William Trytel |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Gaumont British Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Hindle Wakes is a 1931 British drama film directed by Victor Saville for Gainsborough Pictures and starring Belle Chrystall and John Stuart. The film is adapted from Stanley Houghton's 1912 stage play of the same name, which had previously been filmed twice as a silent in 1918 and 1927. Saville had been the producer on the highly regarded 1927 version directed by Maurice Elvey. Both Stuart and Norman McKinnel returned in 1931 to reprise their roles from the 1927 film. [1]
It was shot at the Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush with sets designed by the art director Andrew Mazzei. Location shooting took place in Preston, Blackpool and North Wales. Saville kept the plot faithful to its source material, making the film essentially a sound retread of the earlier silent versions, with only a small number of minor cosmetic adjustments (for example the name of the lead character is changed from Fanny to Jenny, and the fatal accident here results from a bus crash rather than a drowning).
Lancashire mill-girls Jenny Hawthorne (Chrystall) and Mary Hollins (Ruth Peterson) go on holiday to Blackpool during the annual wakes week in their hometown of Hindle. They run into Alan Jeffcote (Stuart), the son of the owner of the mill in which they work, who has also traveled to Blackpool with a group of friends while his fiancée is detained on business in London. Jenny and Alan hit it off immediately, and he persuades her to leave Blackpool to spend the week with him at Llandudno in North Wales. To cover her tracks, Jenny leaves a postcard with Mary, asking her to send it to her parents (Edmund Gwenn and Sybil Thorndike) later in the week. She and Alan leave their friends and set off for Wales.
Shortly afterwards, Mary is involved in a serious road accident and is killed. Her possessions are returned to Hindle and the unmailed postcard is found in her luggage. Jenny's parents are already suspicious and concerned by the fact that Jenny has not returned to Hindle as they would have expected in view of such a tragic turn to her holiday, and the discovery of the postcard increases their fears. Jenny returns at the end of the week. Her parents ask about her holiday, and allow her to dig a hole for herself as her fictitious account shows she is unaware of Mary's death and has clearly not spent the week in Blackpool. When confronted with the truth, Jenny admits to where she has been, and with whom, and defiantly refuses to be made to feel guilty or immoral.
The Hawthornes decide that they will have to confront the Jeffcotes (McKinnel and Mary Clare) with their son's unacceptable behaviour. Mrs. Hawthorne's anger is tempered by the fact that she believes the situation may be turned to financial advantage. Hawthorne feels some trepidation, as he and Jeffcote have been friends since childhood and have remained on good terms despite Jeffcote's rise to social prominence. To the surprise of the Hawthornes, Jeffcote agrees that in the circumstances Alan must be made to marry Jenny to prevent a scandal. Mrs. Jeffcote is less convinced, anticipating the ruin of Alan's reputation and business prospects. A meeting is convened between all the interested parties. Jenny and Alan remain silent while their parents try to thrash out suitable arrangements, and Mrs. Hawthorne and Mrs. Jeffcote become involved in an undignified shouting match. Jenny and Alan leave to talk alone. She tells him that she has no designs on his money and has no interest in marrying him. She then announces her decision to the incredulous parents, adding that Alan was no more to blame than she was, for both of them it was just a "little fling" about which neither need feel guilty, and that a woman has just as much right as a man to enjoy a brief sexual flirtation with no strings attached. Alan returns to his fiancée, while Jenny confidently leaves home and her mother's fury for an independent life without interference.
Edmund Gwenn was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the corresponding Golden Globe Award. He received a second Golden Globe and another Academy Award nomination for the comedy film Mister 880 (1950). He is also remembered for his appearances in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson, was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969.
Peggy Cartwright was a Canadian silent film actress and for a short time a leading lady of the Our Gang comedy series during the silent film era. She appeared in four short films released in 1922. Cartwright is confirmed as having starred in these first four Our Gang shorts: One Terrible Day premiered on September 10, 1922; Fire Fighters premiered on October 8, 1922; Young Sherlocks premiered on November 26, 1922; and Saturday Morning premiered on December 3, 1922.
Mary Boland was an American stage and film actress.
Mary Clare Absalom was a British actress of stage, film and television.
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.
Hindle Wakes is a stage play by Stanley Houghton written in 1910. It was first performed in 1912.
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.
Dawn is a 1928 British silent war film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Sybil Thorndike, Gordon Craig, and Marie Ault. It was produced by Wilcox for his British & Dominions Film Corporation. The film was made at Cricklewood Studios with sets designed by Clifford Pember.
Beatrice Evelyn Varley was an English actress who appeared in television and film roles between 1936 and 1964. She made her screen debut in the 1936 film Tomorrow We Live and began to portray a variety of character roles in films such as Oh, Mr Porter!, Holiday Camp and The Wicked Lady before moving predominantly into television until she died in 1964.
Belle Chrystall was a British actress who appeared in a number of leading roles in British films during the 1930s. She was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1910. She came to London and after appearing on stage was given a minor part in a film A Warm Corner, directed by Victor Saville but she was given no more work after that. The filming of Hindle Wakes led her to apply for the part of Jenny Hawthorne which led her to become an instant success. She made her last film in 1940.
The Forbidden Street is a 1949 British melodrama film directed by Jean Negulesco and starring Dana Andrews, Maureen O'Hara, Sybil Thorndike, Fay Compton and A. E. Matthews. Set in Victorian London, it tells the story of a wealthy young woman who marries a poor drunken artist and struggles to make ends meet; after his death, she takes in a lodger, with whom she falls in love. The film is based on the 1946 novel Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp.
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.
Kitty is a 1929 sound part-talkie British drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. 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 film was adapted from the 1927 novel of the same name by Warwick Deeping and marked the third co-star billing of Brody and Stuart, who had previously proved a very popular screen pairing in Mademoiselle from Armentieres (1926) and Hindle Wakes (1927).
Hindle Wakes is a 1918 British silent film drama, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Colette O'Niel and Hayford Hobbs. It is the first of four screen versions of the celebrated and controversial 1912 play by Stanley Houghton. It which was a sensation in its time for its daring assertions that a woman could enjoy a sexual fling just as much as a man, without feeling any guilt or obligation to explain herself, and that she was perfectly capable of making her own life decisions without interference from family or the need to bow to social pressures.
Hindle Wakes is a 1952 British drama film, directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Lisa Daniely, Brian Worth, Leslie Dwyer and Sandra Dorne. It was the fourth screen adaptation of the Stanley Houghton play of the same name (1912), dealing with a young woman engaging in a holiday sexual flirtation, regardless of the disapproval of her parents or wider society.
Vivienne Osborne was an American stage and film actress known for her work in Broadway theatre and in silent and sound films.
Margaret Bannerman was a Canadian actress. She is known for her work in the English films The Gay Lord Quex, Lady Audley's Secret and Hindle Wakes. She had a successful career on stage, appearing in revues and light comedy.
Jenny Be Good is a 1920 American silent romance drama film directed by William Desmond Taylor and starring Mary Miles Minter, based on a novel by Wilbur Finley Fauley and adapted for the screen by Julia Crawford Ivers. It is the last of Minter's films to also feature her older sister Margaret Shelby in a supporting role. As with many of Minter's features, it is believed to be a lost film.