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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.
Love, Life and Laughter is a 1923 British silent film, written and directed by George Pearson. For many years the film was thought lost, and was listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films. On 2 April 2014, Dutch film institute Eye announced it had discovered a copy.
The Truth about Spring is a 1965 American-British Technicolor adventure film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Hayley Mills, John Mills and James MacArthur. It is a romantic comedy adventure. It was released by Universal. According to Filmink "it tried to be a Disney-style adventure-romance, complete with another Disney alumni as lead and location filming (Spain), but did not work."
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.
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.
Potiphar's Wife is a 1931 British romance film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Nora Swinburne, Laurence Olivier and Guy Newall. It is also known as Her Strange Desire. It was based on a play by Edgar C. Middleton.
Hard Steel is a 1942 British drama film directed by Norman Walker and starring Wilfrid Lawson, Betty Stockfeld and John Stuart. It was based on the novel Steel Saraband by Roger Dataller. The film was one of four made by G.H.W. Productions backed by the Rank Organisation. The film follows the rise of an ambitious steel worker as he is appointed to run his local steel mill. He soon outrages the employees with his ruthless behaviour - and his negligence leads to the accidental death of one of the workers. As the Second World War breaks out he realises what he has become, and seeks a chance of redemption.
The Conspirators is a 1924 British silent crime film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Betty Faire, David Hawthorne and Moore Marriott.
The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown is a 1921 British silent mystery film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Ruby Miller, Annie Esmond and Clifford Heatherley. It was made by Stoll Pictures, and based on an 1896 novel The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown by E. Phillips Oppenheim.
A Sister of Six is a 1926 silent romantic comedy film directed by Ragnar Hyltén-Cavallius and starring Willy Fritsch, Betty Balfour and Lydia Potechina. It was a co-production between Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the Swedish art director Vilhelm Bryde.
Mary-Find-the-Gold is a 1921 British silent drama film directed by George Pearson and starring Betty Balfour, Tom Coventry and Hugh E. Wright.
Monte Carlo is a 1925 French silent drama film directed by Louis Mercanton and starring Carlyle Blackwell, Betty Balfour and Rachel Devirys. The film is based on the novel Prodigals of Monte Carlo by E. Phillips Oppenheim. The casting of Blackwell and Balfour in leading roles was intended to give the film appeal in the British market.
Eliza Comes to Stay is a 1936 British comedy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Betty Balfour, Seymour Hicks and Oscar Asche. It was made at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.
Ten Minute Alibi is a 1935 British crime film directed by Bernard Vorhaus and starring Phillips Holmes, Aileen Marson and Theo Shall. It was made at Beaconsfield Studios.
Blinkeyes is a 1926 British silent drama film directed by George Pearson and starring Betty Balfour, Tom Douglas, and Frank Stanmore.
Mord Em'ly is a 1922 British silent drama film directed by George Pearson and starring Betty Balfour, Rex Davis and Elsie Craven. It was based on the 1898 novel of the same title by William Pett Ridge.
Wee MacGregor's Sweetheart is a 1922 British silent romance film directed by George Pearson and starring Betty Balfour, Donald Macardle and Nora Swinburne.
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.
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- ↑ Low p.443
