The White Unicorn

Last updated

The White Unicorn
The White Unicorn (1947 film).jpg
Original British trade advertisement
Directed by
Screenplay by Moie Charles
A. R. Rawlinson
Robert Westerby
Based onnovel The Milk-White Unicorn by Flora Sandström [1]
Produced by Harold Huth
Starring Margaret Lockwood
Joan Greenwood
Ian Hunter
Dennis Price
Cinematography Reginald H. Wyer
Edited by Robert Johnson
Music by Bretton Byrd
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors (UK)
Release dates
30 October 1947 (London)(UK)
June 1948 (US)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The White Unicorn is a 1947 British drama film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Margaret Lockwood, Joan Greenwood, Ian Hunter and Dennis Price. [2] Kyra Vayne appeared as the singer. It was made at Walton Studios by the independent producer John Corfield, and released by General Film Distributors. The film's sets were designed by Norman G. Arnold. [2] It was also known as Milkwhite Unicorn and Bad Sister (its title in the US). [3]

Contents

Premise

At a home for delinquent girls, a troublesome girl (Joan Greenwood), swaps reminiscences with the warden (Margaret Lockwood), who recounts her own unhappy marriage, divorce and tragic death of her second husband. [4]

Cast

Production

In December 1946 Phyllis Calvert was scheduled to play the lead. [5]

Filming began in March 1947. [6] The film was made at Nettleford Studios. [7] It was used to help build up Joan Greenwood who Rank were trying to make a star. [8]

Some scenes had to be re-cut for release in the US, notably when Margaret Lockwood and Dennis Prices's characters went on honeymoon together – their twin beds were too close together. [9] Lockwood's daughter had a small role. [10]

Reception

According to trade papers, the film was a "notable box office attraction" at British cinemas in 1947. [11]

AllMovie called it "A "woman's picture" if ever there was one"; [12] but Bosley Crowther in The New York Times was less sympathetic, calling it "...not an especially dramatic or otherwise appetizing serving of entertainment"; [13] whereas Variety wrote "...his romantic melodrama will have rough handling by the highbrows, but should prove a box office winner. Story is on hokey side, but a tearjerker." [14]

It is not among Lockwood's most highly regarded films. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Greenwood</span> British actress

Joan Mary Waller Greenwood was an English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She played Sibella in the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets, and also appeared in The Man in the White Suit (1951), Young Wives' Tale (1951), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), Stage Struck (1958), Tom Jones (1963) and Little Dorrit (1987).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Price</span> English actor (1915–1973)

Dennistoun Franklyn John Rose Price was an English actor, best remembered for his role as Louis Mazzini in the classic Ealing Studios film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and for his portrayal of the omnicompetent valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G. Wodehouse's stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Lockwood</span> British stage and film actress

Margaret Mary Day Lockwood, CBE, was an English actress. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included The Lady Vanishes (1938), Night Train to Munich (1940), The Man in Grey (1943), and The Wicked Lady (1945). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress for the 1955 film Cast a Dark Shadow. She also starred in the television series Justice (1971–74).

<i>The Wicked Lady</i> 1945 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 highwayman for the excitement. The film had one of the top audiences for a film of its period, 18.4 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Kent</span> English actress

Jean Kent was an English film and television actress.

Bernard Knowles was an English film director, producer, cinematographer and screenwriter. Born in Manchester, Knowles worked with Alfred Hitchcock on numerous occasions before the director emigrated to Hollywood.

<i>A Place of Ones Own</i> 1945 film

A Place of One's Own is a 1945 British film directed by Bernard Knowles. An atmospheric ghost story based on the 1940 novel of the same title by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. Mason and Mullen are artificially aged to play the old couple. It was one of the cycle of Gainsborough Melodramas.

<i>Caravan</i> (1946 film) 1946 British drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree

Caravan is a 1946 British black-and-white drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas and is based on the 1942 novel Caravan by Eleanor Smith.

<i>The Bad Lord Byron</i> 1949 film by David MacDonald

The Bad Lord Byron is a 1949 British historical drama film about the life of Lord Byron. It was directed by David MacDonald and starred Dennis Price as Byron with Mai Zetterling, Linden Travers and Joan Greenwood.

<i>The Magic Bow</i> 1946 film

The Magic Bow is a 1946 British musical film based on the life and loves of the Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini. It was directed by Bernard Knowles. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>Bank Holiday</i> (film) 1938 film by Carol Reed

Bank Holiday is a 1938 British drama film directed by Carol Reed and starring John Lodge, Margaret Lockwood, Hugh Williams and Kathleen Harrison.

<i>Hungry Hill</i> (film) 1947 British film

Hungry Hill is a 1947 British film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price, and Cecil Parker with a screenplay by Terence Young and Daphne du Maurier, from the 1943 novel by Daphne du Maurier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Huth</span> British actor and film producer

Harold Huth was a British actor, film director and producer.

Highly Dangerous is a 1950 British spy film starring Margaret Lockwood. The screenplay was written by Eric Ambler.

<i>A Girl Must Live</i> 1939 film by Carol Reed

A Girl Must Live is a 1939 British romantic comedy film directed by Carol Reed that stars Margaret Lockwood, Renee Houston, Lilli Palmer, Hugh Sinclair, and Naunton Wayne. Based on a 1936 novel by Emery Bonett with the same title, the plot features three chorus line girls competing for the affection of a wealthy bachelor.

<i>Cardboard Cavalier</i> 1949 film by Walter Forde

Cardboard Cavalier is a 1948 British historical comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Sid Field, Margaret Lockwood and Jerry Desmonde.

<i>Look Before You Love</i> 1948 film

Look Before You Love is a 1948 British drama film directed by Harold Huth and starring Margaret Lockwood, Griffith Jones and Maurice Denham.

<i>Bedelia</i> (film) 1946 British film

Bedelia is a 1946 British melodrama film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Margaret Lockwood, Ian Hunter and Barry K. Barnes. It is an adaptation of the 1945 novel Bedelia by Vera Caspary with events relocated from the United States, first to England and then to Monaco.

Kyra Knopmuss; Kyra Vayne was a Russian-born British opera singer.

<i>The Feminine Touch</i> (1956 film) 1956 British film

The Feminine Touch is a 1956 colour British drama film directed by Pat Jackson and starring George Baker, Belinda Lee and Delphi Lawrence. The film is based on the bestselling novel A Lamp Is Heavy by Canadian former nurse Sheila Mackay Russell, and consequently it was released as A Lamp Is Heavy in Canada, while it was given the title The Gentle Touch in the United States, when it was released there in December 1957.

References

  1. ↑ Goble, Alan (1 January 1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN   9783110951943 – via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 "The White Unicorn (1947)".
  3. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (9 March 1947). "British Film Star Irked by Censors: 'Silly,' Says Margaret Lockwood in Trans-Atlantic Phone Chat". Los Angeles Times. p. B1.
  4. ↑ "The White Unicorn". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 16, no. 10. 14 August 1948. p. 26. Retrieved 28 September 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "British Film Briefs". Variety. 4 December 1946. p. 16.
  6. ↑ Tims, Hilton (1989). Once a wicked lady : a biography of Margaret Lockwood. W.H. Allen. p. 145.
  7. ↑ "Old-time players at studio party". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 15, no. 7. 26 July 1947. p. 36. Retrieved 28 September 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "BRITISH FILMS". The Sun . No. 2326. Sydney. 9 November 1947. p. 17. Retrieved 28 September 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "Margaret Lockwood's fame brings problems". The Australian Women's Weekly . Vol. 15, no. 23. 15 November 1947. p. 32. Retrieved 28 September 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ Lockwood, Margaret (1955). Lucky Star: The Autobiography of Margaret Lockwood. Odhams Press Limited. p. 132.
  11. ↑ Robert Murphy (2003). Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939–48. p. 209. ISBN   9781134901500.
  12. ↑ "The White Unicorn (1947) - Bernard Knowles - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie.
  13. ↑ "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 27 August 2021.
  14. ↑ "Variety (November 1947)". Variety. November 1947.
  15. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (29 January 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: Margaret Lockwood". Filmink.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.