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Betty Balfour was an English screen actress, popular during the silent era, and known as the "British Mary Pickford" and "Britain's Queen of Happiness". She was best known to audiences for her Squibs series of films.
The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955, its name became the National Film Archive, and, in 1992, the National Film and Television Archive. It was renamed BFI National Archive in 2006.
Adelqui Migliar, also known as Adelqui Millar, was a Chilean film actor, director, writer and producer. He appeared in 31 silent films between 1916 and 1928. He also directed 24 films between 1922 and 1954. He was born in Concepción, Chile, and lived and worked in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. He died in Santiago, Chile.
A Study in Scarlet is a 1914 British silent drama film directed by George Pearson and starring James Bragington, making him the first English actor to portray Holmes on film. It is based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 novel of the same name and is considered to be lost. An American film of the same name was released in the U.S. on the following day, 29 December 1914. As of 2014, the film is missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films.
Anna Karenina is a 1915 American silent drama film directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starring Betty Nansen. It was the first American adaptation of the 1878 novel by Leo Tolstoy. The film is considered to be lost. Some scenes were shot on location at a ski resort near Montreal.
Walter Summers (1892–1973) was a British film director and screenwriter.
My Old Dutch is a 1934 British drama film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Betty Balfour, Gordon Harker, Michael Hogan and Florrie Forde. The film portrays the lives of Londoners during the First World War. The film was made at Islington Studios by Gainsborough Pictures. The film's sets were designed by Peter Proud. Bryan Edgar Wallace contributed to the screenplay, adapted from the stage play written by Arthur Shirley and also based on Albert Chevalier's famous song.
The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick is a 1921 British silent comedy film directed by Thomas Bentley based on the 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. As of August 2010, the film is missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films.
Reveille is a 1924 British silent drama film directed by George Pearson. It follows some British soldiers during and after the First World War, though Pearson wrote in a January 1924 letter to his cast and crew:
There is no story, as such. I hate the well-made Story with its Exposition, Denouement, Crisis, etc., as material for my elusive Screen. I confess I cannot write one.
Squibs is a 1935 British musical romantic comedy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Betty Balfour, Gordon Harker and Stanley Holloway.
The White Shadow, also known as White Shadows in the United States, is a 1923 British drama film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Betty Compson, Clive Brook, and Henry Victor.
Paradise is a 1928 British silent drama film directed by Denison Clift and starring Betty Balfour, Joseph Striker and Alexander D'Arcy. The screenplay concerns a clergyman's daughter who wins £500, and decides to take a holiday on the French Riviera. There she became ensnared by a foreign fortune hunter, but her true love comes and rescues her.
Imperial Studios were the studios of the British and Dominions Film Corporation, a short-lived British film production company located at Imperial Place, Elstree Way, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The studios were active from 1929 to 1936, when they were destroyed by fire.
The Diamond is a 1954 British film noir crime film starring Dennis O'Keefe, Margaret Sheridan and Philip Friend. It is based on the 1952 novel Rich Is the Treasure by Maurice Procter. It was released by United Artists in both Britain and America where it was known as The Diamond Wizard. It has the distinction of being Britain's first 3D film, though according to the British Film Institute, it was shown in 3D only once, on 13 September 2006 in Hollywood. Despite the 2006 showing the film was listed on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list of lost films. The 2D film, however, is not lost and can be viewed on Amazon Prime while the restored 3D version was released on Blu-Ray November 2022.
The Welsh-Pearson Company was a British film production and distribution company active during the silent and early sound eras. It was founded in 1918 by two pioneering film figures, George Pearson and Thomas Welsh, with the single-stage Craven Park Studios as their base. Because of the cramped conditions there, Welsh-Pearson had to use other studios such as Islington for larger scenes.
Squibs M.P. is a 1923 British silent comedy film directed by George Pearson and starring Betty Balfour, Hugh E. Wright and Fred Groves.
Squibs' Honeymoon is a 1923 British silent comedy film directed by George Pearson and starring Betty Balfour, Hugh E. Wright and Fred Groves. It was the last of the silent film series featuring the character, although Balfour returned to play her in the 1935 sound film Squibs. Both Pearson and Balfour were particular favourites of the British film critic, and later leading screenwriter, Roger Burford. In his first article for the magazine Close Up Burford would write "Not long ago a film of the Squibbs series was reported to be on at a small cinema in a slum district. It was a rare chance, and we went at once. We were not disappointed: the film was English, with proper tang; the tang of Fielding or Sterne.' Burford's comments help place the Squibbs films perfectly in British culture between the wars. They were very much working-class comedy, drawing on a vernacular, performative tradition, but at the same time their "Englishness" is characteristic of the kinds of satirical comedies found in the novels of Henry Fielding and Laurence Sterne. That earthy satire, based on everyday life, made these comedies unpalatable to middle class audiences but the Squibbs films were amongst the most interesting, and well shot, films in Britain in the 1920s.
References
- ↑ "Love, Life and Laughter / BFI Most Wanted". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 9 July 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
- ↑ Macdonald, Fiona (4 April 2014). "Six of the greatest 'lost' movies". BBC News. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
- ↑ Filmmuseum ontdekt meesterwerk. www.NOS.nl
- ↑ "Silent Betty Balfour film 'masterpiece' found in Holland". BBC News.
