The Man Who Made Diamonds is a 1937 British crime film directed by Ralph Ince and starring Noel Madison, James Stephenson and Lesley Brook. [1]
A professor invents a way of manufacturing diamonds.
David Curtis "Steve" Stephenson was an American Ku Klux Klan leader, convicted rapist and murderer. In 1923 he was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and head of Klan recruiting for seven other states. Later that year, he led those groups to independence from the national KKK organization. Amassing wealth and political power in Indiana politics, he was one of the most prominent national Klan leaders. He had close relationships with numerous Indiana politicians, especially Governor Edward L. Jackson.
James Albert Stephenson was a British stage and film actor. He took up film acting at 49 and after a typically slow start delivered an Academy Award-nominated performance in the William Wyler-directed melodrama, The Letter in 1940. The roles offered to Stephenson dramatically improved following this performance, but he died just a year later at 52.
Edward L. Jackson was an American attorney, judge and politician, elected the 32nd governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from January 12, 1925, to January 14, 1929. He had also been elected as Secretary of State of Indiana.
Joyce Carey, OBE was an English actress, best known for her long professional and personal relationship with Noël Coward. Her stage career lasted from 1916 until 1987, and she was performing on television in her 90s. Although never a star, she was a familiar face both on stage and screen. In addition to light comedy, she had a large repertory of Shakespearean roles.
Donald Esme Clayton Calthrop was an English stage and film actor.
Everard Richard Calthrop was a British railway engineer and inventor. Calthrop was a notable promoter and builder of narrow-gauge railways, especially of 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge, and was especially prominent in India. His most notable achievement was the Barsi Light Railway, but he is best known in his home country for the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway. Calthrop has been described as a "railway genius". Later in life he took an interest in aviation, patenting some early designs for parachutes.
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
Pacific 1860 is a musical written by Noël Coward. The story is set in a fictional Pacific British colony during the reign of Queen Victoria. It involves a romantic and sentimental story about a visiting prima donna and her conflict between love and career. There is also the theme of snobbishness from the island's establishment.
The Vortex is a play in three acts by the English writer and actor Noël Coward. The play depicts the sexual vanity of a rich, ageing beauty, her troubled relationship with her adult son, and drug abuse in British society circles after the First World War. The son's cocaine habit is seen by many critics as a metaphor for homosexuality, then taboo in Britain. Despite, or because of, its scandalous content for the time, the play was Coward's first great commercial success.
Shooting Stars is a 1927 British drama film directed by Anthony Asquith and A. V. Bramble and starring Annette Benson, Brian Aherne and Wally Patch. The screenplay concerns a starlet who plots an escape to Hollywood.
Noel Madison was an American character actor in the 1930s and 1940s and appeared in 75 films, often as a gangster.
Lesley Brook was a British stage, film and television actress. Married to an RAF pilot, Terry Spencer, she moved after the war to South Africa for 15 years before returning to the UK. They had three children. Cara, born in 1949 and Raina, born in 1958. They had a third child, a boy, but he died in a tragic accident, drowning in an unfenced swimming pool. She died just short of her 92nd birthday in 2009, her husband dying within 24 hours of her at the age of 90. On stage she appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-on-Avon, including as Olivia in Twelfth Night in 1939.
Almost a Honeymoon is a 1930 British comedy film directed by Monty Banks and starring Clifford Mollison, Dodo Watts and Donald Calthrop. It was based on the play Almost a Honeymoon by Walter Ellis. A second adaptation was made in 1938. It was made by British International Pictures at their Elstree Studios.
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.
Gladys Edith Mabel Calthrop was an artist and leading British stage designer. She is best known as the set and costume designer for many of Noël Coward's plays and musicals.
Out to Win is a 1923 British silent drama film directed by Denison Clift and starring Catherine Calvert, Clive Brook and Irene Norman. It was based on the 1921 play Out to Win by Dion Clayton Calthrop and Roland Pertwee.
South of Suez is a 1940 American drama film directed by Lewis Seiler and starring George Brent, Brenda Marshall and George Tobias. An alleged murder in an African diamond mine haunts a man many years later after he has returned to Britain. The film was made as a programmer by Warner Brothers. It was part of a cycle of British-themed films made by Hollywood studios during the era.
It's in the Blood is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Gene Gerrard and starring Claude Hulbert, Lesley Brook and Max Leeds. It was made at Teddington Studios by the British subsidiary of Warner Brothers.
Nine Forty-Five is a 1934 British crime film directed by George King and starring Binnie Barnes, Donald Calthrop and Violet Farebrother. It was made at Teddington Studios by the British subsidiary of Warner Brothers. A quota quickie, it is based on a play by Sewell Collins.
House of Darkness is a 1948 British film. It was directed by Oswald Mitchell.