Valentine Dyall was an English character actor. He worked regularly as a voice actor, and was known for many years as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series Appointment with Fear.
Val Guest was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he directed 14 films, and for his science fiction films. He enjoyed a long career in the film industry from the early 1930s until the early 1980s.
Seth Holt was a Palestinian-born British film director, producer and editor. His films are characterized by their tense atmosphere and suspense, as well as their striking visual style. In the 1960s, Movie magazine championed Holt as one of the finest talents working in the British film industry, although his output was notably sparse.
Mary Janice Rule was an American actress and psychotherapist, earning her PhD while still acting, then acting occasionally while working in her new profession.
Miss Pilgrim's Progress is a 1949 black-and-white British comedy film by producer Nat Cohen and director Val Guest.
Patricia Molly Owens was a Canadian actress, working in Hollywood. She appeared in about 40 films and 10 television episodes in a career lasting from 1943 to 1968.
Much Too Shy is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring George Formby, Kathleen Harrison, Hilda Bayley and Eileen Bennett. The cast includes radio star Jimmy Clitheroe, later "Carry On'" star Charles Hawtrey, Peter Gawthorne and Joss Ambler.
For Them That Trespass is a 1949 British crime film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and starring Richard Todd, Patricia Plunkett and Stephen Murray. It is an adaptation of the 1944 novel of the same name by Ernest Raymond.
Women Without Men is a 1956 British second feature drama film directed by Elmo Williams and Herbert Glazer and starring Beverly Michaels, Joan Rice, Thora Hird and Hermione Baddeley. A woman escapes from prison to keep a date with her boyfriend.
Black Widow, also referred to as The Black Widow, is a 1951 British second feature thriller film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Christine Norden and Robert Ayres. It was a Hammer Film production written by Allan MacKinnon and Lester Powell based on the 1948 radio serial Return from Darkness by Powell.
Hammer the Toff is a 1952 British second feature crime film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring John Bentley and Patricia Dainton. The film was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by John Creasey, the 17th in the series featuring upper-class sleuth Richard Rollinson, also known as "The Toff".
Eve is a 1968 thriller film directed by Jeremy Summers and starring Robert Walker, Fred Clark, Herbert Lom, Christopher Lee and Celeste Yarnall.
Betty Ann Davies was a British stage and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1950s. Davies made her first stage appearance at the Palladium in a revue in 1924. The following year she joined Cochran's Young Ladies in revues such as One Dam Thing After Another and This Year of Grace. Davies enjoyed a long and distinguished West End career which included The Good Companions (1934), The Morning Star (1942), Blithe Spirit (1943) and Four Winds (1953). Her outstanding stage triumph was in the role of Blanche du Bois, which she took over from Vivien Leigh, in the original West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Davies appeared in 38 films, most notably as the future Mrs Polly in The History of Mr. Polly and in the first of the St Trinian's films The Belles of St. Trinian's, and was active in TV at the time of her death. She went into hospital on May 14, 1955, to have an operation for appendicitis, but suffered from complications following surgery and died the same day. She was 44. She left one son, Brook Blackford.
Not to be confused with Someone at the Door.
Doctor Morelle is a 1949 British second feature ('B') mystery film directed by Godfrey Grayson and starring Valentine Dyall, Peter Drury and Hugh Griffith. Made by Hammer Films, it was written by Ambrose Grayson and Roy Plomley, based on the popular long-running BBC radio series by Ernest Dudley and starring Cecil Parker. Dudley also wrote many novels and short stories featuring the character of Morelle.
Colonel March Investigates is a 1953 British film directed by Cy Endfield. The film comprises the three pilot episodes of the TV series Colonel March of Scotland Yard that were filmed in 1952, starring Boris Karloff. These episodes were "Hot Money", "Death in the Dressing Room" and "The New Invisible Man".
House of Mortal Sin is a 1976 British horror slasher film directed and produced by Pete Walker. It was scripted by David McGillivray from a story by Walker. Its plot concerns a deranged priest who takes it upon himself to punish his parishioners for their moral transgressions.
Appointment with Fear was a horror drama series originally broadcast on BBC Radio in the 1940s and 1950s, and revived on a number of occasions since. The format comprised a dramatised horror story of approximately half an hour in length, introduced by a character known as "The Man in Black". The plays themselves were a mixture of classic horror stories by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, M. R. James and W. W. Jacobs, and commissioned stories by new or established writers. Many of the stories in the early series were written or adapted by John Dickson Carr.
Room to Let is a 1950 British second feature ('B') historical thriller film directed by Godfrey Grayson and starring Jimmy Hanley, Valentine Dyall and Constance Smith. It was adapted by John Gilling and Grayson from the BBC radio play by Margery Allingham, broadcast in 1947.
Vengeance Is Mine is a 1949 British second feature crime drama film directed by Alan Cullimore and starring Valentine Dyall, Anne Firth and Richard Goolden.
