James Robertson Justice was a British actor. He is best remembered for portraying pompous authority figures in comedies including each of the seven films in the Doctor series. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in several adventure movies, notably The Guns of Navarone. Born in south east London, he exaggerated his Scottish roots but was prominent in Scottish public life, helping to launch Scottish Television and serving as Rector of the University of Edinburgh.
Sir John Hare, born John Joseph Fairs, was an English actor and theatre manager of the later 19th– and early 20th centuries.
One Wild Oat is a 1951 British comedy film directed by Charles Saunders and starring Stanley Holloway, Robertson Hare and Sam Costa with a notable appearance by a pre-stardom Audrey Hepburn as an extra.
Thomas Kirby Walls, known as Tom Walls, was an English stage and film actor, producer and director, best known for presenting and co-starring in the Aldwych farces in the 1920s and for starring in and directing the film adaptations of those plays in the 1930s.
A Spot of Bother is a 1938 British comedy film directed by David MacDonald and starring Robertson Hare, Alfred Drayton, Sandra Storme and Kathleen Joyce. The film is a farce in which a bishop unwisely decides to loan the cathedral funds to a dubious businessman. Meanwhile, his secretary is involved with smuggled goods. It was shot at Pinewood Studios and adapted from a play by Vernon Sylvaine. The film's sets were designed by Wilfred Arnold.
Alfred Drayton was a British stage and film actor.
Women Aren't Angels is a 1943 black and white British comedy film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Aldwych Theatre farceurs Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton, with Polly Ward and Joyce Heron. It was made at Welwyn Studios and based on a 1941 play of the same title by Vernon Sylvaine.
Things Happen at Night is a 1947 British supernatural ghost comedy film directed by Francis Searle and starring Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton, Robertson Hare and Garry Marsh. The film is based upon a stage play, The Poltergeist, by Frank Harvey. It was shot at Twickenham Studios. Despite the film's comparatively large budget it ended up being released as a second feature.
Madame Louise, is a 1951 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and produced by Ernest G. Roy and starring Richard Hearne, Petula Clark, Garry Marsh and Richard Gale. It is loosely based on the 1945 play Madame Louise by Vernon Sylvaine, which had featured Alfred Drayton and Robertson Hare, but was extensively reworked to suit the different stars of the film production.
So This Is London is a 1939 British comedy film directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Robertson Hare, Alfred Drayton and George Sanders. It is adapted from the 1922 play So This Is London by Arthur Goodrich which had previously been adapted into a 1930 film. An American clashes with an Englishman over the merits of their respective countries, only to find that their children have fallen in love. It was made at Pinewood Studios by 20th Century Fox's British subsidiary.
Frederick Piper was an English actor of stage and screen who appeared in over 80 films and many television productions in a career spanning over 40 years. Piper studied drama under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Aren't Men Beasts! is a 1937 British comedy film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Robertson Hare, Alfred Drayton and Billy Milton.
Banana Ridge is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Walter C. Mycroft and starring Robertson Hare, Alfred Drayton and Isabel Jeans. The film is based on a 1938 stage play of the same name by Ben Travers. It was made at Welwyn Studios. Michael Denison accompanied his wife Dulcie Gray for her screen test for the film, which led some years later to his casting in his breakthrough role in My Brother Jonathan. The film was a success at the box office. Hare and Drayton appeared together in another comedy Women Aren't Angels the following year.
Banana Ridge is a farce by Ben Travers. It opened at the Strand Theatre on 27 April 1938 and ran for 291 performances.
Thelma Grigg was an Australian actress. She was first hired as an extra for Cinesound Productions in 1937. She made her stage debut in a 1939 production of The Women by Clare Boothe Luce at the Minerva Theatre, Sydney. She subsequently appeared in over 25 plays. Her first significant film role was in That Certain Something, directed by Clarence G. Badger in 1941. After playing the lead in the Minerva Theatre production of Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th in 1944, she moved to radio, starring in radio plays for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1947 she appeared in her last Australian film, the popular children's comedy Bush Christmas.
Vernon Sylvaine (1896–1957) was a British playwright and screenwriter. He is known for writing several popular stage farces. He began working in film in 1937 when his stage hit Aren't Men Beasts! was turned into a film of the same title starring Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton. Hare and Drayton starred in two further adaptations of his plays A Spot of Bother (1938) and Women Aren't Angels (1943). He adapted his own play for the 1943 comedy-thriller Warn That Man starring Gordon Harker, Basil Radford and Judy Kelly. His 1948 play One Wild Oat was turned into a 1951 film of the same title.
Madame Louise is a 1945 comedy play by the British writer Vernon Sylvaine.
Women Aren't Angels is a 1941 play by the British writer Vernon Sylvaine and featured Robertson Hare, Alfred Drayton and Judy Kelly in its original cast.
Warn That Man! is a 1941 comedy thriller play by the British writer Vernon Sylvaine. A comedy-thriller, its plot concerns an attempt to kidnap wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill from an English country house.
Will Any Gentleman? is a 1950 stage farce by the British writer Vernon Sylvaine. The play was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool in July 1950. It then went on to the West End, running for 364 performances at the Stand Theatre between September 1950 and July 1951. It starred Robertson Hare, who appeared in several plays by Sylvaine. Hare plays a mild-mannered bank clerk who, after a night out, is hypnotized into a much more assertive lifestyle.
