Amateur Gentleman

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - John Beverley aka Barnabas Barty
Elissa Landi - Lady Cleone Meredith
Gordon Harker -Natty Bell
Basil Sydney - Louis Chichester
Hugh Williams - Lord Ronald Meredith
Irene Browne - Lady Huntstanton
Athole Stewart - Marquess of Comberhurst
Coral Browne - Pauline Darville
Margaret Lockwood - Georgina Huntstanton
Esme Percy - John Townsend
Gilbert Davis - Prince Regent
Frank Pettingell - John Barty

Period adventure piece of an innkeeper’s son who masquerades as a London gentlemen during the Regency period to unmask a thief. The film was amongst a trio Douglas Fairbanks Jr. made in England during the mid 30s, co-producing two including Amateur Gentlemen.

Set in 1810, idealistic young gentlemen Barnabas Barty (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), the son of an innkeeper, angers many with his liberal views on corporal punishment. When his father John (Frank Pettingell) is accused of robbing one of his most loyal patrons, the Marquess of Comberhurst, he faces the prospect of public hanging if found guilty. Young Barney, aided by his father’s closest friend Natty Bell (Gordon Harker), vow to go to London disguised as a gentlemen, and using the pseudonym John Beverley, mix in high society and uncover the real thief.

Barney wows the wealthy elite, and to win a thousand guineas, triumphs in a boxing match under then moniker ‘Amateur Gentleman’. His only clue as to the real perpetrators identity is an IOU note left at his father’s inn, after bankrupting and eliminating one of the suspects, Lord Ronald Meredith ( Hugh Williams), suspicion falls on the shifty Louis Chichester (Basil Sydney) and his calculating female companion Pauline Darville (Coral Browne).

With only hours before his father’s hanging, Barney and Natty spring him from gaol before returning to London. When Barney is unmasked by Chichester, he kidnaps the Marquess and returns to his father’s inn to denounce the real criminal.