You Will Remember | |
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Directed by | Jack Raymond |
Written by | |
Produced by | Charles Q. Steel |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Henry Harris |
Edited by | Peggy Hennessey |
Music by | Percival Mackey |
Production company | Jack Raymond Productions |
Distributed by | British Lion |
Release date |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
You Will Remember is a 1941 British musical drama film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Robert Morley, Emlyn Williams and Dorothy Hyson. [1] [2] It portrays the life of the composer Leslie Stuart. Featured songs include "Tell Me Pretty Maiden", "Sue", "Florodora", "Lily of Laguna", "Soldiers of the King" and "Dolly Daydream". [3]
The title stems from the master of ceremonies in the British music halls who would say "You will remember (this song)" when introducing old favourites.[ citation needed ]
The film is a biography of popular English composer Tom Barrett known by his stage name Leslie Stuart, who rose to fame through performances of his songs by the tenor Ellaline Terriss. The story is told in flashback with an elderly Barrett listening to a band playing his tunes played by a band on a pier. The women next to him confidently tells him that the composer is dead.
We then go to his childhood, Manchester in 1870, where his relatively poor parents buy him a piano. He proves to be a prodigy. His first break comes in a small hall/bar where the regular piano player falls ill and he is asked to play Stephen Foster tunes. In later life he earns money teaching piano but is not satisfied. He goes to a concert by Signor Foli (actually an Irishman called Foley) and they become friends. Foley convinces him to start writing songs full time but under a new name.
Despite growing success he is not good with money. Others are also printing his work without permission. This is partly addressed by the Copyright Act but is not enough to save him from debtors prison. Leaving prison a day late (so he can finish reading a book on Beethoven) he descends to obscurity with the arrival of the Jazz Age.
Through good times and bad his childhood friend Bob Slater stands by him, and encourages him back into society. He has a comeback in British music halls shortly before his death.
The film was made at Isleworth Studios, with art direction was by James A. Carter. [4]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "If the film is based on fact it is to be commended for its courageous presentation of the less praiseworthy aspects of the composer's life. Robert Morley makes of Barrett, later known as Leslie Stuart, a likeable figure, though the part calls for little dramatic ability. Emlyn Williams makes the most of a small but ultimately significant part, and there is a delicious study of a peer-hunting chorus girl of the period by Gertrude Musgrove." [5]
Kine Weekly wrote: "The complete impression, quietly amplified by sensitive and accurate acting on the part of Robert Morley, is agreeable popular entertainment. ... In short, biography is handled with showmanlike regard for immediate box oftice needs." [6]
Allmovie wrote, "Jack Raymond's perfunctory direction does not always do full justice to his subject." [3]
TV Guide noted, "production numbers featuring the singing of music-hall performer Finglass are well done, overcoming the weaknesses of the sentimental screenplay." [7]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Well-acted but low-key biopic." [8]
George Emlyn Williams, CBE was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor.
Leslie Stuart born Thomas Augustine Barrett was an English composer of Edwardian musical comedy, best known for the hit show Florodora (1899) and many popular songs.
Dorothy Hyson, Lady Quayle was an American-born film and stage actress who worked largely in England. During World War II, she worked as a cryptographer at Bletchley Park.
The Limping Man is a 1953 British second feature ('B') film noir directed by Cy Endfield and starring Lloyd Bridges, Moira Lister and Leslie Phillips. The film was made at Merton Park Studios and was written by Ian Stuart Black and Reginald Long based on Anthony Verney's novel Death on the Tideway. Endfield directed it under the pseudonym Charles de Lautour due to his blacklisting in Hollywood. Location shooting took place around London including The Mayflower pub in Rotherhithe.
Sir Edward Seymour Hicks, better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, actor-manager and producer. He became known, early in his career, for writing, starring in and producing Edwardian musical comedy, often together with his famous wife, Ellaline Terriss. His most famous acting role was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
"Lily of Laguna" is a British coon song written in eye dialect. It was written in 1896 by English composer Leslie Stuart. It was a music hall favourite, performed notably by blackface performers such as Eugene Stratton and G. H. Elliott. In the early 1940s Ted Fio Rito wrote the tune of a new verse and Paul Francis Webster wrote fresh lyrics and it was stripped of its overtly racist lyrics to become a pure love song which continued to be popular into the 1950s.
Mary Ellaline Terriss, Lady Hicks, known professionally as Ellaline Terriss, was a popular British actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies. She met and married the actor-producer Seymour Hicks in 1893, and the two collaborated on many projects for the stage and screen.
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years overlooking the British Museum.
Edwardian musical comedy is a genre of British musical theatre that thrived from 1892 into the 1920s, extending beyond the reign of King Edward VII in both directions. It began to dominate the English musical stage, and even the American musical theatre, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following the First World War.
Curtain Up is a 1952 British comedy film directed by Ralph Smart and starring Robert Morley, Margaret Rutherford and Kay Kendall. Written by Jack Davies and Michael Pertwee it was based on the 1949 play On Monday Next by Philip King.
Train of Events is a 1949 British portmanteau film made by Ealing Studios, directed by Sidney Cole, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner, Peter Finch and Valerie Hobson. The film premiered on 18 August 1949 at the Gaumont Haymarket in London. In the film, as a train is heading for a crash into a stalled petrol tanker at a level crossing, four different stories are told in flashback.
It's a Great Day is a 1955 British comedy film directed by John Warrington and starring Ruth Dunning, Edward Evans and Sid James. It was written by Roland Pertwee and Michael Pertwee. It is a spin-off from the BBC TV soap The Grove Family.
Once a Sinner is a 1950 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Pat Kirkwood, Jack Watling and Joy Shelton. It was written by David Evans.
The High Terrace, also known as High Terrace, is a 1956 black and white British second feature ('B') mystery film directed by Henry Cass and starring Dale Robertson, Lois Maxwell, Derek Bond, Eric Pohlmann and Lionel Jeffries. It was written by Norman Hudis, Alfred Shaughnessy and Brock Williams from an original story by A. T. Weisman.
Invisible Strangler is a 1984 American horror film directed by John Florea, an alternate cut of the 1978 film The Astral Factor, also known as The Astral Fiend, made in 1976.
Revenge is a 1971 British thriller film directed by Sidney Hayers and starring Joan Collins, James Booth and Sinéad Cusack. The screenplay was by John Kruse. It was released in the United States in May 1976 as Inn of the Frightened People.
Thomas Herbert F. Lewin, known professionally as Tom Terriss, was a British actor, screenwriter, and film director. After trying various occupations, he became an actor playing a variety of roles, beginning in 1890, in plays, pantomime and Edwardian musical comedy. After the First World War, he left the stage and pursued a decade-long film career. He was the brother of the musical comedy star Ellaline Terriss and son of leading man actor William Terriss.
Thomas Patrick Finglass was an Irish blackface tenor who had a successful career in British music hall. He was sometimes billed as The Ideal Coon. He played the legendary blackface performer Eugene Stratton (1861–1918) in the 1940 film You Will Remember which tells the story of songwriter Leslie Stuart's (1863–1928) life.
Five Days is a 1954 British second feature ('B') film noir directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Dane Clark, Paul Carpenter and Thea Gregory. It was written by Paul Tabori and produced by Anthony Hinds for Hammer Film Productions. It was released in the United States by Lippert Pictures.
May Leslie Stuart was an English actress and singer in operetta and Edwardian musical comedy from 1909 to 1915. She also sang on the music hall circuit, performing with her father, the composer Leslie Stuart.