Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaboration partnership known as the Archers, and produced a series of films, including 49th Parallel (1941), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).
Francis Lederer was an Austro-Hungarian Empire-born American film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States. His original name was František (Franz) Lederer.
Contraband (1940) is a wartime spy film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which reunited stars Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson after their earlier appearance in The Spy in Black the previous year. On this occasion, Veidt plays a hero, something he did not do very often, and there is also an early (uncredited) performance by Leo Genn.
The Elusive Pimpernel is a 1950 British period adventure film by the British-based director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. It was released in the United States under the title The Fighting Pimpernel. The picture stars David Niven as Sir Percy Blakeney, Margaret Leighton as Marguerite Blakeney and features Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack and Robert Coote. Originally intended to be a musical, the film was re-worked as a light-hearted drama.
Gone to Earth is a 1950 British Technicolor film created by the director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack and Esmond Knight. The film was significantly changed for the American market by David O. Selznick and retitled The Wild Heart in 1952.
Ill Met by Moonlight (1957), released in the USA as Night Ambush, is a film by the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and the last movie they made together through their production company "The Archers". The film, which stars Dirk Bogarde and features Marius Goring, David Oxley, and Cyril Cusack, is based on the 1950 book Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe by W. Stanley Moss, which is an account of events during the author's service on Crete during World War II as an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The title is a quotation from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the book features the young agents' capture and evacuation of the German general Heinrich Kreipe.
The Milky Way is a 1936 American comedy film starring Harold Lloyd. Directed by comedy veteran Leo McCarey, the film was written by Grover Jones, Frank Butler and Richard Connell based on a play of the same name by Lynn Root and Harry Clork that was presented on Broadway in 1934.
One Touch of Venus is a 1948 American black-and-white romantic musical comedy film directed by William A. Seiter starring Robert Walker, Ava Gardner, Dick Haymes, and Eve Arden. released by Universal-International, and based on the 1943 Broadway musical of the same name, book written by S. J. Perelman and Ogden Nash, with music composed by Kurt Weill. However, the film omits most of Weill's music. The actors did their own singing, except for Ava Gardner (Venus) whose singing was dubbed by Eileen Wilson. The plot is from an original 1885 novella by Thomas Anstey Guthrie.
Devotion is a 1946 American biographical film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, Olivia de Havilland, and Sydney Greenstreet. Based on a story by Theodore Reeves, the film is a highly fictionalized account of the lives of the Brontë sisters. The movie features Montagu Love's last role; he died almost three years before the film's delayed release.
The Guv'nor is a 1935 British comedy film starring George Arliss, Gene Gerrard and Viola Keats, and directed by Milton Rosmer. Arliss in the title role is a tramp who rides a series of misunderstandings and becomes the president of a bank. It was a remake of the 1934 French film Rothchild. The film was re-released in England in 1944 and 1949. It was released in the US as Mr. Hobo.
The Gay Desperado is a 1936 American comedy film starring Ida Lupino, Leo Carrillo, and Nino Martini and directed by Rouben Mamoulian, produced by Mary Pickford, and originally released by United Artists. The film was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Mary Pickford Foundation, and released on DVD in 2006 by Milestone Pictures after being out of distribution for many years.
Too Many Kisses is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by Paul Sloane that is based on the John Monk Saunders story "A Maker of Gestures."
Jánošík is a 1935 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Martin Frič.
Joseph Bridger Cawthorn was an American stage and film comic actor.
Bed and Board is a 1970 French comedy-drama film directed by François Truffaut, and starring Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade. It is the fourth in Truffaut's series of five films about Antoine Doinel, and directly follows Stolen Kisses, depicting the married life of Antoine (Léaud) and Christine (Jade). Love on the Run finished the story in 1979.
Monsieur Sans-Gêne is a 1935 French romantic comedy film directed by Karl Anton and starring Fernand Gravey, Josseline Gaël and Ginette Gaubert. The following year it was remade as an American comedy One Rainy Afternoon, released by United Artists.
Josseline Gaël was a French actress who specialised in comedy roles. She is best remembered for her portrayal of Cosette in the 1934 film adaptation of Les Misérables. Her daughter with Jules Berry, Michèle, became a renowned art dealer.
The Phantom Gondola is a 1936 French-Italian drama film directed by Augusto Genina and starring Marcelle Chantal, Henri Rollan and Paul Bernard. The film was a co-production between the two countries shot at the Cines Studios in Rome and based on a 1926 novel by Maurice Dekobra.
Sons O' Guns is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Jerry Wald and Julius J. Epstein. It stars Joe E. Brown, and features Joan Blondell, with Beverly Roberts, Eric Blore, Craig Reynolds and Wini Shaw. It was released by Warner Bros. on May 30, 1936.
The Blue Mouse is a 1936 French romantic comedy film directed by Pierre-Jean Ducis and starring Henri Garat, Félix Oudart and Jeanne Aubert. It was produced and distributed by the French subsidiary of Germany's UFA. Shooting took place at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art director Carl Ludwig Kirmse.
