penfold

I couldn't put a face to Mickey Brantford without going to imdb...Phantom Light would have been one guess, Hitchcock alumni would be another...true of the other three, but not Mickey... (Hunter and Harker in The Ring, Calthrop in Blackmail)
I know Brantford better from 'Suspense', a very early British talkie, a psychological thriller take on Journey's End....with a film-stealing role for one of my all time favourites, Hay Petrie, as a prototype for the Baldrick of Blackadder Goes Forth...anyone here seen it?? Or have a copy ?????

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

theuofc

Hi, Mark,

I couldn't put a face to them either. PnP had been discussing 'Phantom Light' which I checked at IMDB and then spotted the four names, which were also on Ken's lists. I thought it was an interesting coincidence.

Are you asking about Suspense (or Blackadder Goes Forth)? I haven't seen either but info on them might pop up during research meanderings.

Best,

Barbara

theuofc

Oh, more fun! I know it will be a burden for you to check every name to see if he/she has died. If you need any help, let me know. At any rate, thanks for posting these. I had a quick look at my copy of Raymond Massey's autobiography to see what he was doing in 1933. Apparently he was in his "feast" period, as he called it, with plenty of work on his acting plate: The Scarlet Pimpernel with Leslie Howard and several stage plays.

In my mind's eye, like Steve, it's hard not to see Massey as Farlan in A Matter of Life and Death.

penfold

Suspense I'm after...great film, saw an archive print at the BFI a couple of years ago, Blackadder Goes Forth is still shown quite frequently on British TV...and quite rightly too....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Steve Crook

Especially the last episode - a real stunner of an ending to a great series.

Steve

David Brent

Seeing Jessie Matthews name reminded me of how once famous stars can be forgotten.
Jessie was a star on stage from the age of 10 and in the 1930's was Britain's most popular film star.
She later recaptured that fame on radio as Mrs.Dale.
Yet she died nearly unnoticed in a quiet nursing home. She was later buried in an unmarked grave.

Dave.

JamesM

I suspect that the Roy Douglas example is unique. Of all the names that have appeared, I only recognize Dorothy Boyd as being still alive, though I doubt she still resides at her 1933 address.

penfold

Breathtaking.
As there doesn't seem to be a synopsis on IMDB (yet - I'll see to it), I'll explain 'Suspense'....a First World War platoon are delighted to be assigned to a quiet spot in the trenches...front line, but quiet. Their first indications of a problem are when meeting the platoon they're relieving coming the other way...tensed, nervous, and delighted to be away...and unusually, having left behind all their accumulated goodies for the new men...but the trench seems fine, there's no activity from the other side; they go into the dug-out...and in the quiet of the night, they hear it. The sounds of digging, from the German miners working below...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

theuofc

Hi, Mark,

This is what is called misery. I'm fascinated by your synopsis of Walter Summers' "Suspense"(1930)! But a search through all my video sources turns up zero. Now I ask you, is that fair of them not to have it! Hmmm, well I like a challenge.

I'll let you know if I find it.

Best,

Barbara

penfold

I know, it really deserves to be better known...some of the acting tends towards the theatrical, as with many early sound films , but all PnP fans should see it if only to see what Hay Petrie could do with a meaty part...part Bairnsfather's Old Bill, part Private Baldrick....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

foha80

Hello David
Yes I read that about Jessie Mathews,It is such a shame that such a bright shining talent can be forgotten,I regularly watch what films I have of her on dvd-r,I have a real soft spot for her.

Cheers

Terry

theuofc

Hello, Dave,

It takes your breath away, doesn't it, an ending like that for someone with Jessie Matthews' talent and fame? Freddie Young in 'Seventy Light Years' calls Matthews a close friend who attended the parties he and his wife gave in the 1940s. I had a look at IMDB and MacFarlane's An Autobio of British Cinema (1996), which has a segment on her. Like many vulnerable female stars then and now, she fell prey to several unhappy marriages, one of which was to "the charmless Sonnie Hale" who began directing Jessie's films in a way that made her "fragile, art deco charms" seem thin.

Matthews' autobiography "Over My Shoulder" (I haven't read it) came out in 1976, unfortunately long before her being ill in a nursing home. How lonely she must have felt. I was glad to see she had a small role in 1981, a year before her death. Also, with great, great relief that her unmarked grave was finally "rectified after a BBC doc "Catch A Falling Star' brought this travesty to light. It makes one shudder.

I note that at one time there was 'The Jessie Matthews Bar' in the Adelphi theatre, London, nice but hardly the only epitaph I would want were I the lovely Jessie Matthews.

Best,

Barbara

Bob M.

Also, the heat from the sun travels 93,000,000 miles and when it gets here its still warm.
Go round the corner to the local take away and by the time you get home...

(Compo, Last of the Summer Wine)

"How about dat, a? How about dat?

julian_craster

<<It takes your breath away, doesn't it, an ending like that for someone with Jessie Matthews' talent and fame? Freddie Young in 'Seventy Light Years' calls Matthews a close friend who attended the parties he and his wife gave in the 1940s. I had a look at IMDB and MacFarlane's An Autobio of British Cinema (1996), which has a segment on her. Like many vulnerable female stars then and now, she fell prey to several unhappy marriages, one of which was to "the charmless Sonnie Hale" who began directing Jessie's films in a way that made her "fragile, art deco charms" seem thin.

Matthews' autobiography "Over My Shoulder" (I haven't read it) came out in 1976, unfortunately long before her being ill in a nursing home. How lonely she must have felt. I was glad to see she had a small role in 1981, a year before her death. Also, with great, great relief that her unmarked grave was finally "rectified after a BBC doc "Catch A Falling Star' brought this travesty to light. It makes one shudder.

I note that at one time there was 'The Jessie Matthews Bar' in the Adelphi theatre, London, nice but hardly the only epitaph I would want were I the lovely Jessie Matthews>>


Barbara will be interested to note that Dirk Bogarde was a Jessie Matthews fan. He prefaced the BBC2 '40 Minutes' profile of Jessie
which was broadcast about 20 years ago. The BBC on-line catalogue should give a precise date of transmission.

Due for a repeat on BBC4, I think !

mysteriesofedgarwallace

Fred Emney (circa 50's/60's)
New Church Road, Hove.

Laurence Olivier (circa 50's/60's)
6/7 (I think; he had two houses knocked together) Royal Crescent, Brighton.