The Man from Blankley's | |
---|---|
Directed by | Alfred E. Green |
Written by | Harvey F. Thew |
Screenplay by | Joseph Jackson (and titles) |
Based on | The Man from Blankley's (1903 play) by "F. Anstey" (Thomas Anstey Guthrie) |
Starring | John Barrymore Loretta Young William Austin Albert Gran |
Cinematography | James Van Trees |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 67 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $422,000 [1] |
Box office | $358,000 [1] |
The Man from Blankley's is a lost 1930 American pre-Code comedy film, directed by Alfred E. Green. It starred John Barrymore and Loretta Young. The film was based on the 1903 play by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, writing under the pseudonym "F. Anstey". The film was Barrymore's second feature length all-talking film. A previous silent film version of Anstey's play by Paramount Pictures appeared in 1920 as The Fourteenth Man starring Robert Warwick. That version is also lost.
The trouble begins when Lord Strathpeffer (John Barrymore), who is on his way to visit an Egyptologist with a case of instruments used by entomologists, loses his way in the fog and wanders into the home (who lives next door to the Egyptologist) of a woman who is hosting a fancy dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Tidmarsh (Dick Henderson and Emily Fitzroy), a middle-class English couple, are giving a dinner party in honor of their wealthy uncle, Gabriel Gilwattle (Albert Gran), hoping to receive his financial aid in their struggle to keep up appearances.
As a result of many of the invitees informing Mrs. Tidmarsh that they could not attend her party, she believes that only 13 guests will show up. As Gilwattle is a superstitious man, Mrs. Tidmarsh sends to the Blankley Employment Agency to send them a distinguished looking man to serve as a guest. In the meantime some other guests inform Fitzroy that they won't be able to come and the hired man is no longer needed. She informs the agency that the man is no longer needed. Nevertheless, when Barrymore arrives at the door, they automatically assume that he was sent by the agency and invite him in to dinner.
Mayhem ensues. Margery Seaton (Loretta Young), one of the dinner guests, recognizes Barrymore as a former lover, and therefore assumes him to be an impostor. Sobering, Strathpeffer realizes he has come to the wrong party and asserts his right to his title; but Gwennie (Angella Mawby) hides her father's watch in Strathpeffer's pocket as he is renewing his romance with Margery. A police inspector arrives hunting for the missing lord, establishing his authenticity and the fact that he is not, after all, the hired guest.
The play premiered in London in 1903 at the Prince of Wales Theatre and was revived in 1906 at the Haymarket Theatre to much success. [2] It played on Broadway at the Criterion Theatre, from September 16 to November 1903, for 79 performances, before playing in Washington DC, Detroit and Chicago. It starred the British actors Sir Charles Hawtrey, Arthur Playfair and Faith Stone. [3]
According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $311,000 in the U.S. and $47,000 in other markets. [1]
The Outlook and Independent praised the film, stating that Barrymore had "reverted to type" and contributed in making a film that was a "highly entertaining and fantastic farse" and "one of the strangest and most delightfully insane comedies to reach the screen in years". [4]
The film is now considered to be a lost film. It was not available for television in the 1950s when Warners prepared many of their early talkies for 16mm acquisition by Associated Artists Productions. The soundtrack survives on Vitaphone discs, but all visual elements (print, negative, trailers and outtakes) are believed to be lost, with the exception of photographs (or stills) taken on the set during production. In December 1967, this film was included to AFI's "rescue list". [5]
John Barrymore was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly attempted a career as an artist, but appeared on stage together with his father Maurice in 1900, and then his sister Ethel the following year. He began his career in 1903 and first gained attention as a stage actor in light comedy, then high drama, culminating in productions of Justice (1916), Richard III (1920) and Hamlet (1922); his portrayal of Hamlet led to him being called the "greatest living American tragedian".
The Farmer's Daughter is a 1947 American comedy film directed by H.C. Potter that tells the story of a farmgirl who ends up working as a maid for a Congressman and his politically powerful mother. It stars Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, and Charles Bickford, and was adapted by Allen Rivkin and Laura Kerr from the 1937 Finnish play Juurakon Hulda by Hella Wuolijoki, using the pen name Juhani Tervapää.
Alice Brady was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked until six months before her death from cancer in 1939. Her films include My Man Godfrey (1936), in which she plays the flighty mother of Carole Lombard's character, and In Old Chicago (1937) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Scrooge is a 1951 British Christmas fantasy drama film and an adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843). It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and was produced and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.
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Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The bomb party (1980) is a novel by the English novelist Graham Greene. The eponymous party has been examined as an example of a statistical search problem.
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 American silent horror film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and released through Paramount/Artcraft. The film, which stars John Barrymore, is an adaptation of the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. John S. Robertson directed the production, and Clara Beranger wrote the screenplay, based on the 1887 stage play by Thomas Russell Sullivan that in turn was based on the novel.
Emily Fitzroy was an English theatre and film actress who eventually became an American citizen. She was at one time a leading lady in London for Sir Charles Wyndham.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 horror film directed and written by J. Charles Haydon, starring Sheldon Lewis, based on the 1886 novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The Sheldon Lewis version was somewhat overshadowed by the 1920 Paramount Pictures version starring John Barrymore, which had been released just the month before.
Cluny Brown is a 1946 American romantic comedy film made by Twentieth Century-Fox starring Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones. It was directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch following a screenplay written by Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt based on the 1944 novel by Margery Sharp. The music score is by Cyril J. Mockridge. The film is a satire on the smugness of British high society and the last film Lubitsch completed before his death in 1947.
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a 1942 American screwball comedy film directed by William Keighley, and starring Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan and, as the titular character, Monty Woolley. The screenplay by Julius and Philip G. Epstein is based on the 1939 play The Man Who Came to Dinner by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. The supporting cast features Jimmy Durante and Billie Burke.
Guest of Honour is a 1934 British comedy film directed by George King and starring Henry Kendall, Miki Hood, Edward Chapman and Joan Playfair. In the film, an aristocrat unmasks a blackmailer. It is based on F. Anstey's 1903 play The Man from Blankley's which had been made as a 1920 Paramount silent The Fourteenth Man and the 1930 John Barrymore talkie The Man from Blankley's.
Beau Brummel is a 1924 American silent historical drama film starring John Barrymore and Mary Astor. The film was directed by Harry Beaumont and based upon Clyde Fitch's 1890 play, which had been performed by Richard Mansfield, and depicts the life of the British Regency dandy Beau Brummell.
The Lost Bridegroom a 1916 American silent comedy film produced by Adolph Zukor starring John Barrymore. Appearing alongside Barrymore in this film is his first wife Katherine Corri Harris. It was based on the short story titled "The Man Who Was Lost" by Willard Mack with James Kirkwood as its director. The film had the alternative title His Lost Self and was rereleased by Paramount on April 17, 1919 as part of their "Success Series", a celebration of some of the company's early screen triumphs. Though it obviously still existed by 1919, it is a lost silent film today.
The Red Widow is a lost 1916 American silent romantic comedy film directed by James Durkin, produced by Famous Players–Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was based on a 1911 Broadway musical play The Red Widow by Channing Pollock and Rennold Wolf and starring comedian Raymond Hitchcock. John Barrymore stars in this film in the Hitchcock part of Cicero Butts. Hitchcock's wife, Flora Zabelle, is the leading lady in this film.
The Mawby Triplets were three English child actors who starred in several films in Hollywood and in England during the 1920s and 1930s. While the three girls were sisters, they were not actually triplets. Angella Mawby was born on 20 August 1921 and her younger twin sisters Claudine and Claudette on 10 August 1922. The close resemblance of the three sisters, however, caused Hollywood to market them as triplets. The first film the girls starred in was The Baby Cyclone opposite actor Lew Cody, in 1928. In 1929, they appeared in two more films, Dance of the Paper Dolls and Broadway Melody with Bessie Love. In 1930, they appeared with Gloria Swanson in What a Widow!
The Fourteenth Man is a lost 1920 American silent comedy film starring Robert Warwick and Bebe Daniels. It was directed by Joseph Henabery and produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Florence Wix was an English-born American character actress who worked from the 1920s in silent films through sound films of the 1950s.
Faith Nona, Lady Mackenzie, known as Faith Compton Mackenzie, was an author known for memoirs of her travels around Europe.
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