Music Hath Charms
This cheerful maze of melody, song, comedy and drama showcases the talents of Henry Hall and His Dance Band.
Arthur B. Woods
Walter Summers
Thomas Bentley
Courtney Terrett
Alexander Esway
Casts & Crew
Henry Hall
W.H. Berry
Carol Goodner
Arthur Margetson
Lorna Hubbard
Antoinette Cellier
Billy Milton
Aubrey Mallalieu
Wallace Douglas
Edith Sharpe
Gus McNaughton
Hugh Dempster
Norma Varden
Also Directed by Arthur B. Woods
Greta Nissen stars as an Italian noblewoman living a dangerous double life as a spy. A remake of the celebrated German thriller Spione am Werk. Co-starring noted German actor Karl Ludwig Diehl and American matinee idol Don Alvarado. The film takes place in Vienna, 1912. When an Austrian staff officer is implicated by association with a known Italian spy he goes on the run. Three years later - as the Great War gets into full swing - he returns and begs the Austrian Secret Service to allow him to clear his name from suspicion.
'Honeymoon wife learns of husband's past and runs away.' (British Film Catalogue)
'Girl's wastrel cousin and his valet go to Timbuctoo.' (British Film Catalogue)
“Shorty” Matthews (Emlyn Williams) having recently been released from prison visits his girlfriend in London only to discover her murdered. Fearing he will be wrongly accused of being the culprit he disappears amongst the long-distance lorry driving community. Meanwhile, the real killer, unassuming ex-schoolteacher Walter Hoover (Ernest Thesiger), continues to prey on London women. As Shorty had feared he has become the main suspect. He returns to London with old flame Molly to prove his innocence
An eccentric Scotland Yard inspector thinks something beamed from a spy ship is dropping planes.
When Lord Peter Wimsey marries Harriet Vane, a crime author, they both promise to give up crime for good. As a wedding present, Peter purchases the old house where Harriet grew up, but when they try to move in the previous owner is nowhere to be found, until they start to clean the house and find his body in the cellar...
Jill Trevor vows revenge on newspaper baron Sir Joshua Morple, who she holds responsible for ruining her father. Her very public antics to draw attention to Morple's despicable conduct come to the notice a rival newspaper, who send journalist Jim Brent to offer to write up Jill's story.....
Don't Get Me Wrong is a 1937 British comedy film co-directed by Arthur B. Woods and Reginald Purdell and starring Max Miller and George E. Stone. It was made at Teddington Studios with sets designed by Peter Proud. Unlike several of Miller's Teddington films which are now lost, this still survives. Miller plays a fairground performer who meets a professor who claims to have invented a cheap substitute for petrol. They team up and persuade a millionaire to finance them to develop and market the product, while unsavoury elements are keen to steal the formula and try all means to get their hands on it, involving slapstick chases and double-crosses. It then turns out that the miracle fluid is diluted coconut oil, and the genius professor is an escaped lunatic. The millionaire finds himself taking the brunt of the disappointment.
Imposing Canadian-born stage actor and playwright Matherson Lang was one of the twentieth century's great Shakespearean players, and became Britain's foremost screen actor during the 1920s; in Drake of England, one of his final films, he takes the title role in Arthur Woods' portrayal of the life and times of the flamboyant piratical adventurer who founded Britain's sea fortunes. From clandestine romance at the court of Elizabeth I to conquests in the newly discovered lands of South America and spectacular victory over the Armada, Drake of England offers a panoramic overview of Drake's life.
One of the first screen outings for Will Hay. Hay plays the Director General of the National Broadcasting Group (NBG) who hides away in his office unaware that the general feeling about his programming is that it is too high-brow and the public are not happy. However, when he discovers this he decides to take action and promotes Jimmy, his Head of the Complaints Department, to Programme Director. Jimmy decides that a series of variety spectaculars are what the public want and sets about hiring the acts. But obstacles are put in his way and he discovers that the NBG has its own cluster of wannabe variety stars.
Also Directed by Walter Summers
The retired British captain forms a gang to rescue his wife and thwart his nemesis, Carl Peterson.
Chided by his boss for a conspicuous lack of sensational stories, Lewis Bevan takes matters into his own hands to revive his flagging career.
'Famous fliers land in field, take children for flight, and are stopped by policeman in an autogyro.' (British Film Catalogue)
Hessian officers' flirtations with an artist's daughter accidentally give signals to the attacking English.
A rich woman refuses to bear her husband a child, but adopts a son by his mistress after his death.
In 1925, with the cooperation of the War Office, British Instructional Films set out to make a dramatic, feature-length reconstruction of the five Ypres battles in which 1.7 million soldiers lost their lives. Directed by William Summers, the result is a silent classic. Unlike the famous 1916 documentary The Battle of the Somme, the Ypres footage is entirely ”faked” and the film shares some of Somme‘s propagandist approach. Regardless, the film is no less fascinating as an artistic endeavour of its time and it features some stunning images. A degree of authenticity is provided by real soldiers taking part and by the filming having taken place in the actual Ypres trenches.
Insurance agent-physician collects on policies of men murdered by a disfigured resident of the home for the blind where he acts as doctor-on-call.
A film directed by Walter Summers.
A man spends the night in the Chamber of Horrors of Madame Tussauds.
A British submarine on patrol is accidentally rammed by a merchant ship, that tears a big hole in in sub which sinks trapping the crew.
Also Directed by Thomas Bentley
A farce based on Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'The Magistrate' in which the son (John Mills) of a stern magistrate (Will Hay) visits a music hall against the wishes of his father. In true farcical style, the magistrate too ends up at the music hall, and before long all the characters are trying not to avoid each other... Mainly notable (a) because of its depiction of the music hall as seen by a generation which knew it intimately (b) because of its use of music hall acts of the time and (c) because it gave Will Hay his first film role.
Through a series of unforeseen events, two glamorous young ladies find that they are obliged to spend the night on board the battleship HMS Falcon, where they have been attending a 'bon voyage' reception. At first it seems that Captain Randall will be able to keep them concealed, but then the Admiral unexpectedly arrives on board and orders the ship to sea.
Lucky to Me is a 1939 British musical comedy film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Stanley Lupino, Phyllis Brooks and Barbara Blair. It was based on Lupino's own 1928 stage show So This is Love which he had co-written with Arthur Rigby. The film was made by ABPC at its Elstree Studios. It was the last film of Lupino who had made a string of successful musical comedies during the Thirties.
An amnesia victim is a well liked and respected member of his community--until one day someone from his past shows up with evidence that in "the old days" he had been a notorious criminal, and threatens to expose him unless he pays off.
A doctor uses his unique medical knowledge to mastermind a lucrative life-insurance scam; in a rare film role, legendary thespian Gerald du Maurier stars as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner who sets out to uncover the secret of five empty coffins and catch the villainous swine responsible for such depravities.
Sir Douglas Rolls is a highly respected defence lawyer of many years experience. Now in rapidly failing health, he is advised to retreat from the courtroom and pursue more pleasurable activities. But it is just at this point in his life that his great lost love a woman his own strong sense of duty led him to give up twenty years ago, and whom he still loves deeply walks into his chambers to ask that he defend her adulterous husband, now to stand trial for murder. Reluctantly agreeing to take on the case, Sir Douglas soon finds there is more to the story than meets the eye.
A doctor inherits a fortune, his wife leaves him and he becomes a miser.
A soldier serving in the trenches during the First World War falls asleep and travels through time, encountering a number of historical figures.
British silent comedy film directed by Thomas Bentley...
An inventor of a deadly weapon to be used against the allies is injured in a crash. Surgeon, Sir James (Sebastian Shaw) saves his life but learns of the inventors plot.
Also Directed by Alexander Esway
This early docudrama uses dramatic re-enactment, working models of early flying machines, and archival footage to trace man's attempts to fly from ancient times through the 1930's.
No overview found
A casual date at a high-class hotel leads Binnie, an aspiring showgirl, to be mistaken for model and actress Lia de Marita – landing her an audition for the producer of a new musical stage show. Marvelling at her good fortune, what Binnie doesn't know is that Lia is also the wife of a notorious jewel thief and that she's already fled the country in possession of a valuable, ill-gotten necklace!
In this crime comedy, a prominent judge's vacation is interrupted during a sudden storm that forces him to seek refuge in a shady nightclub where he is mistaken by the mobsters for a highly esteemed racketeer.
A young reporter bets a wealthy newspaperman that he can disappear for a month.