James Neville Mason was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films included The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945). He starred in Odd Man Out (1947), the first recipient of the BAFTA Award for Best British Film.
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 British costume drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who becomes a highwaywoman for the excitement. It had one of the largest audiences for a film of its period, with an estimated British attendance of 18.4 million seeing it in cinemas, according to a 2004 ranking of the most popular sound films in Britain. In the list, compiled by the British Film Institute for Channel 4, it was placed ninth overall, and was the second-most successful British film, behind only Spring in Park Lane (1948).
Frank Sydney Box was a British film producer and screenwriter, and brother of British film producer Betty Box. In 1940, he founded the documentary film company Verity Films with Jay Lewis.
Odd Man Out is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade police in the aftermath of a robbery. It is based on the 1945 novel of the same name by F. L. Green.
Dorothy Ann Todd was an English film, television and stage actress who achieved international fame when she starred in The Seventh Veil (1945). From 1949 to 1957 she was married to David Lean who directed her in The Passionate Friends (1949), Madeleine (1950), and The Sound Barrier (1952). She was a member of The Old Vic theatre company and in 1957 starred in a Broadway play. In her later years she wrote, produced and directed travel documentaries.
The Seventh Veil is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Compton Bennett and starring James Mason and Ann Todd. It was made by Ortus Films and released through General Film Distributors in the UK and Universal Pictures in the United States. The screenplay concerns Francesca (Todd), a brilliant concert pianist who attempts suicide while she is being treated for a disabling delusional disorder centred on her hands that makes it impossible for her to play. A psychiatrist uses hypnosis to uncover the source of her crippling fear and to reveal, one by one, the relationships that have enriched and troubled her life. When the last "veil" is removed, her mind is clear. She regains the ability to play and knows whom she loves best. The film's title comes from the metaphor, attributed to the fictional psychiatrist, that while Salome removed all her veils willingly, human beings fiercely protect the seventh and last veil that hides their deepest secrets, and will only reveal themselves completely under narcosis.
Rosamund John, born Nora Rosamund Jones, was an English film and stage actress.
Fanny by Gaslight is a 1944 British drama film, directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a 1940 novel by Michael Sadleir.
Edward Black was a British film producer, best known for being head of production at Gainsborough Studios in the late 1930s and early 1940s, during which time he oversaw production of the Gainsborough melodramas. He also produced such classic films as The Lady Vanishes (1938).
The Brothers is a 1947 British film melodrama directed by David MacDonald and starring Patricia Roc, Will Fyffe and Maxwell Reed. It was adapted from the novel of the same title by L. A. G. Strong.
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 that conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films that had similar themes that were usually developed by the same film crew and frequently recurring actors who played similar characters in each. They were mostly based on popular books by female novelists and they encompassed costume dramas, such as The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945), and modern-dress dramas, such as Love Story (1944) and They Were Sisters (1945). The popularity of the films with audiences peaked mid-1940s when cinema audiences consisted primarily of women. The influence of the films led to other British producers releasing similarly themed works, such as The Seventh Veil (1945), Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945), Hungry Hill (1947), The White Unicorn (1947), Idol of Paris (1948), and The Reluctant Widow (1950) and often with the talent that made Gainsborough melodramas successful.
The Courtneys of Curzon Street is a 1947 British drama film starring Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding. It is a postwar, reconstruction-era movie following a family through four generations and their sacrifices in wars and accompanying social changes. It is a study of class division and snobbery in Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with a message that the sacrifices of war have been worthwhile and have been accompanied by social change and that people are now freer to make their own choices about their lives.
Lawrence Huntington was a British film director, screenwriter and producer.
Pamela Mason, also known as Pamela Kellino, was an English actress, author, and screenwriter, known for being the creative partner and first wife of English actor James Mason.
I Met a Murderer is a 1939 British thriller film directed by Roy Kellino and starring James Mason, Pamela Mason, Sylvia Coleridge and William Devlin. A man murders his oppressive wife and flees from the police. He meets a young woman who suspects his identity as the murderer, but conceals this because she wants to use the story for a book. The film was shot on the Isle of Wight in 1939.
Roy Kellino was an English film director, producer and cinematographer.
Charade is a 1953 black and white American anthology film directed by Roy Kellino. It consists of a trio of short stories introduced by and starring James Mason and his wife Pamela.
They Were Sisters is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring Phyllis Calvert and James Mason. The film was produced by Harold Huth, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee. They Were Sisters is noted for its frank, unsparing depiction of marital abuse at a time when the subject was rarely discussed openly. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas.
Hollywood and the United Kingdom are connected via the American industry's use of British source material, an exchange of talent, and Hollywood's financial investment in British facilities and productions. The American studios have had their own bases in the UK in the past, such as MGM-British, and Warner Bros. owned shares in the now long disestablished British distributor Warner-Pathé, once part of the Associated British Pictures Corporation. The U.K. has had major production studios in the United States such as Trilith Studios.
Lady Possessed is a 1952 American film noir mystery film directed by William Spier and Roy Kellino and starring James Mason and June Havoc. Mason and his wife Pamela produced and wrote the film themselves, based on Pamela's novel Del Palma. They chose Pamela's ex-husband Roy Kellino, with whom she remained close, to direct the film. It was a critical and commercial failure, losing the Masons much of the money they had invested in it.
