The Nursemaid Who Disappeared | |
---|---|
Directed by | Arthur B. Woods |
Screenplay by | Connery Chappell Paul Gangelin |
Based on | novel The Nursemaid Who Disappeared by Philip Macdonald [1] |
Produced by | Jerome Jackson (executive producer) |
Starring | Arthur Margetson Peter Coke Lesley Brook |
Cinematography | Basil Emmott |
Edited by | Leslie Norman (uncredited) |
Production company | Warner Brothers-First National Productions |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Nursemaid Who Disappeared is a 1939 British, black-and-white, crime film, directed by Arthur B. Woods and starring Ronald Shiner as Detective Smith (uncredited), Ian Fleming, Arthur Margetson, Peter Coke and Edward Chapman. [2] Based on a 1938 Philip Macdonald novel, it was produced by Warner Brothers – First National Productions. [3] The 1956 American 20th Century-Fox film, 23 Paces to Baker Street , was based on the same novel. [4]
In this thriller, a playwright overhears a gang of men plotting a kidnapping and enlists the assistance of a detective to investigate them. They soon find the ring is fronted by a bogus employment agency that sends "clients" to check out potential victims. Action ensues as they endeavor to stop them. [5]
Wardell Edwin Bond was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and starred in the NBC television series Wagon Train from 1957 to 1960. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert the cop in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Captain Clayton in John Ford's The Searchers (1956).
George Meeker was an American character film and Broadway actor.
Philip MacDonald was a British-born writer of fiction and screenplays, best known for thrillers.
Ian Hunter was a Cape Colony-born British actor of stage, film and television.
Edward Chapman was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. William Grimsdale", the officious superior and comic foil to Norman Wisdom's character of Pitkin in many of his films from the late 1950s and 1960s.
23 Paces to Baker Street is a 1956 American DeLuxe Color mystery thriller film directed by Henry Hathaway. It was released by 20th Century Fox and filmed in Cinemascope on location in London. The screenplay by Nigel Balchin was based on the 1938 novel Warrant for X, original UK title The Nursemaid Who Disappeared by Philip MacDonald. The film focuses on Philip Hannon, a blind playwright who overhears a partial conversation he believes is related to the planning of a kidnapping. Hannon searches for the child with the help of his butler and ex-fiancée, using his acute sense of hearing to gather evidence and serve as guidance. The plot of the film is similar to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window of 1954, which also features a disabled protagonist witnessing a crime whom the police refuse to take seriously, therefore placing him in danger and culminating in a final standoff with the killer in the protagonist's darkened apartment.
Ronald Alfred Shiner was a British stand-up comedian and comedy actor whose career encompassed film, West End theatre and music hall.
They Drive by Night is a 1938 British black-and-white crime thriller film directed by Arthur B. Woods and starring Emlyn Williams as Shorty, an ex-con, and Ernest Thesiger as Walter Hoover, an ex-schoolmaster. It was produced by Warner Bros. - First National Productions and based on the 1938 novel They Drive by Night by James Curtis.
Sidewalks of London, also known as St Martin's Lane, London After Dark, and Partners of the Night, is a 1938 British black-and-white comedy drama starring Charles Laughton as a busker or street entertainer who teams up with a talented pickpocket, played by Vivien Leigh. The film co-stars Rex Harrison and Tyrone Guthrie in a rare acting appearance. It also features Ronald Shiner as the barman (uncredited). It was produced by Mayflower Pictures Corporation.
Dry Rot is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey, and starring Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix, Peggy Mount, and Sid James.
Ian Fleming was an Australian character actor with credits in over 100 British films. One of his best known roles was playing Dr Watson in a series of Sherlock Holmes films of the 1930s opposite Arthur Wontner's Holmes.
They Flew Alone is a 1942 British biopic about aviator Amy Johnson directed and produced by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Robert Newton and Edward Chapman. It was distributed in the UK and the US by RKO Radio Pictures.
The Butler's Dilemma is a 1943 black-and-white British comedy film, directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring Richard Hearne in a dual role as Rodney Playfair and a Butler called Chapman, Ronald Shiner as Ernie, Ian Fleming, Francis L. Sullivan, Judy Kelly and Hermione Gingold. It was produced by Elisabeth Hiscott, Graham Cutts for Shaftesbury Films, and filmed at British National Studios.
Royal Cavalcade, also known as Regal Cavalcade, is a 1935 British, black-and-white, drama film directed by six separate directors: Thomas Bentley, Herbert Brenon, Norman Lee, Walter Summers, W. P. Kellino and Marcel Varnel. The film features Marie Lohr, Hermione Baddeley, Owen Nares, Robert Hale, Austin Trevor, James Carew, Edward Chapman and Ronald Shiner as the Soldier in Trenches. The film was presented by Associated British Pictures Corporation.
Anthony Ruthven Gethryn is a character depicted in novels by Philip MacDonald and their cinematic counterparts.
Silver Blaze is a 1937 British, black-and-white crime and mystery film, based loosely on Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 short story "The Adventure of Silver Blaze". It was directed by Thomas Bentley, and was produced by Twickenham Film Studios Productions. It stars Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes, and Ian Fleming as Dr. Watson. In the United States, the film was released in 1941 by Astor Pictures, where it was also known as Murder at the Baskervilles, retitled by distributors to capitalize on the success of the Basil Rathbone Holmes film, The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Edward Lexy was a British actor. He was born Edward Little.
The Return of Carol Deane is a 1938 British drama film directed by Arthur B. Woods and starring Bebe Daniels, Arthur Margetson and Peter Coke. The film is adapted from the story The House on 56th Street by Joseph Santley and spans the time period from the 1910s to the 1930s. It was made at Teddington Studios by the British subsidiary of Warner Brothers. The film's sets were designed by the art director Peter Proud.
Arthur Margetson was a British stage and film actor.
Edmon Ryan was an American theater, film, and television actor.