Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC was an Anglo-South African actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films.
George Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals, adventure tales, war films, and a few horror and fantasy films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances over 60 were in Westerns. According to editor Edward Boscombe, "...Of all the major stars whose name was associated with the Western, Scott [was] most closely identified with it."
The year 1939 in film is widely considered the greatest year in film history. The ten Best Picture-nominated films that year include classics in multiple genres.
Elisabeth Bergner was an Austrian-British actress. Primarily a stage actress, her career flourished in Berlin and Paris before she moved to London to work in films. Her signature role was Gemma Jones in Escape Me Never, a play written for her by Margaret Kennedy. She played Gemma, first in London and then in the Broadway debut, and in a film version for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1943, Bergner returned to Broadway in the play The Two Mrs. Carrolls, for which she won the Distinguished Performance Medal from the Drama League.
Billy Lee was a child actor who appeared in many films from the mid-1930s through the early 1940s. He is probably best remembered for his performance in The Biscuit Eater.
49th Parallel is a 1941 British and Canadian war drama film. It was the third film made by the British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It was released in the United States as The Invaders. The British Ministry of Information approached Michael Powell to make a propaganda film for them, suggesting he make "a film about mine-sweeping". Instead, Powell decided to make a film to help sway opinion in the then-neutral United States. Said Powell, "I hoped it might scare the pants off the Americans" and thus bring them into the war. Screenwriter Emeric Pressburger remarked, "Goebbels considered himself an expert on propaganda, but I thought I'd show him a thing or two". Powell persuaded the British and Canadian governments and started location filming in 1940, but by the time the film appeared, in March 1942, the United States, which had been trying to stay out of the war in Europe, had been drawn into taking sides against Germany.
The Black Cat is a 1941 American comedy horror and mystery film directed by Albert S. Rogell and starring Basil Rathbone. The film was a hybrid of style: being inspired by comedy "Old Dark House" films of the era as well as the 1843 short story "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe. It stars Basil Rathbone as Montague Hartley, the head of a greedy family who await the death of Henrietta Winslow so that they can inherit her fortune. When she is found murdered, an investigation begins into who might be the culprit. Alongside Rathbone and Loftus, the film's cast includes Hugh Herbert, Broderick Crawford, and Bela Lugosi.
We're No Angels is a 1955 Christmas comedy film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone, Leo G. Carroll, and Gloria Talbott. Shot in both VistaVision and Technicolor, the film was a Paramount Pictures release.
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) is the fifth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes movies. The plot is an original story not based on any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes tales.
Edwin L. Marin was an American film director who directed 58 films between 1932 and 1951, working with Randolph Scott, Anna May Wong, John Wayne, Peter Lorre, George Raft, Bela Lugosi, Judy Garland, Eddie Cantor, and Hoagy Carmichael, among many others.
Roy Paul Harvey was an American character actor who appeared in at least 177 films.
The Mad Doctor is a 1941 American crime thriller film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Basil Rathbone as a physician whose successive wealthy wives die. Ellen Drew plays his latest bride. John Howard plays her ex-fiancé, who grows increasingly suspicious of her new husband. It was produced and distributed by Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures.
Basil Cedric Langton was an English actor, director and photographer, who made a career on both sides of the Atlantic. He was an authority on the plays of George Bernard Shaw and compiled an archive of more than 400,000 words of interviews with people who had known and worked with Shaw. He was also a teacher, working at colleges in New York and California.
Dreaming Lips is a 1937 British drama film directed by Paul Czinner and starring Elisabeth Bergner, Romney Brent and Raymond Massey.
International Lady is a 1941 American spy-drama film directed by Tim Whelan and starring George Brent, Ilona Massey and Basil Rathbone.
A Woman Commands is a 1932 American pre-Code film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Pola Negri, Roland Young, and Basil Rathbone. Some additional scenes were directed by an uncredited Harry Joe Brown.
Rio is a 1939 American crime film directed by John Brahm and starring Basil Rathbone and Victor McLaglen.
Fingers at the Window is a 1942 mystery film directed by Charles Lederer and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
John Melvin Bleifer was an American actor whose career began at the end of the silent film era, and lasted through the mid-1980s. He appeared in feature films and film serials, and in a number of television series and miniseries. Bleifer also acted on stage, and appeared in several Broadway productions.
The Sun Never Sets is a 1939 American drama film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Basil Rathbone and Barbara O'Neil.
