Anna Neagle
Encyclopedia
Forming a professional alliance with Wilcox, Neagle played her first starring film role in the musical
Goodnight Vienna (1932
), again with Jack Buchanan. With this film Neagle became an overnight favourite. Although the film cost a mere £23,000 to a produce, it was a huge hit at the box office, profits from its Australian release alone being £150,000.
After her starring role in The Flag Lieutenant that same year, directed by and co-starring Henry Edwards, she worked exclusively under Wilcox's direction for all but one of her subsequent films, becoming one of Britain's biggest stars.
She continued in the musical genre, co-starring with Fernand Graavey (later known as Fernand Gravet) in Bitter Sweet
(1933). This first version of Noel Coward's tale of ill-fated lovers was later obscured by the more famous Jeanette MacDonald
-Nelson Eddy
remake from 1940
.
Neagle had her first major success with in Nell Gwyn (1934), which Wilcox had also shot in 1926 as a silent
starring Dorothy Gish
. Neagle's performance as the woman
who became the mistress of Charles II
(Sir Cedric Hardwicke) prompted some censorship in the United States. The Hays Office had Wilcox add a (historically false) scene featuring the two leads getting married and also a "framing" story resulting in an entirely different ending. Noted writer Graham Greene
said of Nell Gwynn: "I have seen few things more attractive than Miss Neagle in breeches".
Two years after Nell Gwynn, she followed up with another true-life figure, portraying Irish actress Peg Woffington
in Peg of Old Drury (1936). That same year she appeared in Limelight, a backstage musical in which she played a chorus girl. Her co-star was Arthur Tracy
, who had gained fame in the United States as a radio performer known as 'The Street Singer'. The film also featured Jack Buchanan in an unbilled cameo. performing "Goodnight Vienna".
Neagle and Wilcox followed with a circus
trapeze
fable The Three Maxims (1937), which was released in the United States as The Show Goes On. The film, with a script featuring a contribution from Herman J. Mankiewicz
(who later co-wrote Citizen Kane
with Orson Welles
), had Neagle performing her own high-wire acrobatics. Although now highly successful in films, Neagle continued acting on stage. In 1934, while working under director Robert Atkins, she performed as Rosalind in As You Like It
and Olivia in Twelfth Night. Both productions earned her critical accolades, despite the fact that she had never performed Shakespearean
roles before.
In 1937 Neagle gave her most prestigious performance so far – as Queen Victoria in the successful historical drama Victoria the Great
(1937), co-starring Anton Walbrook
as Prince Albert
. The script by Robert Vansittart
and Miles Malleson
(from Laurence Housman
’s play Victoria Regina) alternated between the political and the personal lives of the royal couple. The Diamond Jubilee sequence that climaxed the film was shot in Technicolor
. Victoria the Great was such an international success that it resulted in Neagle and Walbrook essaying their roles again in an all-Technicolor sequel entitled Sixty Glorious Years (1938), co-starring C. Aubrey Smith as the Duke of Wellington
. While the first of these films was in release, Neagle returned to the London stage and entertained audiences with her portrayal of the title role in Peter Pan
.
. Their first American film was Nurse Edith Cavell (1939), a remake of Dawn, a Wilcox silent
that starred Sybil Thorndike
. In this, still another Neagle performance of a true-life British heroine, she essayed the role of the nurse
who was shot by the Germans
in World War I
for alleged spying. The resulting effort had a significant impact for audiences on the eve of war
.
In a turnabout from this serious drama, they followed with three musical comedies, all based on once-popular stage plays. The first of these was Irene (1940), co-starring Ray Milland
. RKO probably gave the film bigger production values than England could have afforded. It included a Technicolor sequence, which featured Neagle singing the play's most famous song, "Alice Blue Gown". She followed this film with No, No, Nanette (1940) with Victor Mature
, in which she sang "Tea For Two
". She then made Sunny
(1941) with Ray Bolger
.
Neagle and Wilcox's final American film was Forever and a Day (1943), a tale of a London family house from 1804 to the 1940 blitz. This film boasts 80 performers (mostly British), including Ray Milland, C. Aubrey Smith, Claude Rains
, Charles Laughton
, and – among the few North Americans – Canadian Buster Keaton
. Wilcox directed the sequence featuring Neagle, Milland, Smith, and Rains, while other directors who worked on the film included René Clair
, Edmund Goulding
, Frank Lloyd
, Victor Saville and Robert Stevenson
. During the war the profits and salaries were given to war relief. After the war, prints were slated to be destroyed, so that no one could profit from them. However, this never occurred.
. Robert Newton
’s co-starred as Johnson's husband, Jim Mollison. The film, which was released a year after the aviatrix’s death, was noted for inter-cutting the action with newsreel footage.
After making this film, Neagle and Wilcox made their professional relationship a personal one as well when they married on 9 August 1943.
They returned to filmmaking with The Yellow Canary (1943), co-starring Richard Greene
and Margaret Rutherford
. In this spy story, Neagle plays a German-sympathiser (or at least that is what she seems to be at first) who is forced to go to Canada for her own safety. In reality, of course, she's working as an undercover agent
out to expose a plot to blow up Halifax harbour. The Yellow Canary was noted for its atmospheric recreation of wartime conditions.
In 1945 Neagle appeared on stage in Emma, a dramatization of Jane Austen
's novel
. That same year she was seen in the film I Live in Grosvenor Square
, co-starring Rex Harrison
. She wanted Harrison for the lead in her next film, Piccadilly Incident (1946). However, he (as well as John Mills
) proved to be unavailable at the time, so Wilcox cast Michael Wilding
in the lead. Thus was born what film critic Godfrey Winn called "the greatest team in British films". The story – of a wife, presumed dead, returning to her (remarried) husband – bears a resemblance to the Irene Dunne
-Cary Grant
comedy My Favorite Wife
and its remake, Move Over Darling with Doris Day
. Piccadilly Incident was chosen as Picturegoer
’s Best Film of 1947.
Neagle and Wilding were reunited in The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947), a period drama that became the year's top box-office attraction. The film featured Wilding as an upper-class dandy and Neagle as the maid he marries, only to have the two of them driven apart by Victorian
society.
The third pairing of Neagle and Wilding in the "London films", as the series of films came to be called, was in Spring in Park Lane
(1948). A drama, this depicted the romance between a millionaire’s niece and a footman (rather than valet, originally claimed here. He is frequently referred to as a footman in the photoplay) valet (actually a nobleman who has seen better days). The script was written by Nicholas Phipps, who also played Wilding’s brother. Although not a musical, it contains a dream sequence featuring the song "The Moment I Saw You". The song's orchestrator was Robert Farnon
, who would later work with Frank Sinatra
. Spring in Park Lane was the 1949 Picturegoer winner for Best Film, Actor and Actress. Neagle and Wilding were together for a fourth time in the Technicolor romance Maytime in Mayfair (1949
). The plot is reminiscent of Roberta
, as it had Wilding inheriting a dress shop owned by Neagle.
By 1950, Neagle was at her zenith as Britain’s top box-office actress, and in that year she made what reputedly became her own favorite film, Odette, co-starring Trevor Howard
, Peter Ustinov
, and Marius Goring
. As Odette Sansom
, she was the Anglo
-French resistance fighter who was pushed to the edge of betrayal by the Nazis.
Going from this real-life British heroine, she went straight on to playing Florence Nightingale
in The Lady with the Lamp (1951); Kay Francis
had previously portrayed Nightingale in a 1936 American film, The White Angel).
Returning to the stage in 1953, she scored a major success with The Glorious Days, which had a run of 476 performances. Neagle and Wilcox brought the play to the screen under the title Lilacs in the Spring (1954), co-starring Errol Flynn
. In the film she plays an actress knocked out by a bomb, who dreams she is Queen Victoria and Nell Gwyn
– as well as her own mother. As she begins dreaming, the film switches from black and white to color. In England, where Neagle had top billing, the film was reasonably successful. In the United States, however, where Flynn had top billing, the title was changed to Let's Make Up, and it flopped, with limited bookings.
musical
and also starring Patrice Wymore (Flynn's wife at the time). Although Neagle performed several musical numbers for the film, most of them were cut from the final release, leaving her with essentially a supporting role. Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope
with location work near Barcelona
, Spain, King's Rhapsody was a major flop everywhere. Neagle's (and Flynn's) box-office appeal, it seemed, was beginning to fade.
Neagle's last box-office hit was My Teenage Daughter (1956), which featured her as a mother trying to prevent her daughter (Sylvia Syms
) from lapsing into juvenile delinquency.
Neagle and Syms worked together again on No Time For Tears (1957), also starring Anthony Quayle
and Flora Robson
. As directed by Cyril Frankel
, this was the first film for over 20 years where Neagle was directed by someone other than Herbert Wilcox. Set in a children's hospital, the film features Neagle as a Matron dealing with the problems of the patients and the staff, notably a nurse (Syms) infatuated with one of the doctors (George Baker
).
With her husband, Neagle began producing films starring Frankie Vaughan
, but these were out of touch with changing tastes, and lost money, resulting in Wilcox going heavily into debt. Neagle herself made her final film appearance in The Lady is a Square (1957).
musical Charlie Girl
. In it she played the role of a former "Cochran Young Lady" who marries a peer of the realm. Charlie Girl was a phenomenal success that ran for a staggering six years and 2,047 performances. It earned Neagle an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for her enduring popularity.
Two years after Charlie Girl – which she also performed in Australia and New Zealand – Neagle was asked to appear in a revival of No, No, Nanette
, which she had done onscreen three decades earlier. Later, in 1975, she replaced Celia Johnson
in The Dame of Sark and, in 1978 (the year after her husband's death), she was acting in Most Gracious Lady, which was written for the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
Although plagued by Parkinson's disease
in her later years, Neagle continued to be active. In 1985 she appeared as the Fairy Godmother in a production of Cinderella
at the London Palladium
.
Neagle died in 1986, aged 81. (Some sources state that Neagle was suffering from cancer at the time of her death). She was interred alongside her husband in the City of London Cemetery.
(CBE) in 1952 and, for her contributions to the theatre, a Dame of the Order of the British Empire
(DBE) in 1969.
All of her films were directed by Herbert Wilcox
and produced in the United Kingdom unless otherwise noted.
In addition, Neagle also appeared briefly as herself in a documentary short entitled The Volunteer (1943), and served as narrator for the films The Prams Break Through (1945) and Princess's Wedding Day (1947). Neagle also produced, but did not appear in, three films starring Frankie Vaughan
: These Dangerous Years (1957), Wonderful Things (1957), and The Heart of a Man (1959).
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
Goodnight Vienna (1932
1932 in film
-Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....
), again with Jack Buchanan. With this film Neagle became an overnight favourite. Although the film cost a mere £23,000 to a produce, it was a huge hit at the box office, profits from its Australian release alone being £150,000.
After her starring role in The Flag Lieutenant that same year, directed by and co-starring Henry Edwards, she worked exclusively under Wilcox's direction for all but one of her subsequent films, becoming one of Britain's biggest stars.
She continued in the musical genre, co-starring with Fernand Graavey (later known as Fernand Gravet) in Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet (1933 film)
Bitter Sweet is a musical romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and released by United Artists in 1933. It was the first film adaptation of Noel Coward's 1929 operetta Bitter Sweet. It starred Anna Neagle and Fernand Gravey, with Ivy St. Helier reviving her stage role as Manon.It tells the story...
(1933). This first version of Noel Coward's tale of ill-fated lovers was later obscured by the more famous Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
-Nelson Eddy
Nelson Eddy
Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...
remake from 1940
1940 in film
The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....
.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
starring Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress, and the younger sister of actress Lillian Gish.-Early life:...
. Neagle's performance as the woman
Nell Gwyn
Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn was a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England. Called "pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel Pepys, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of...
who became the mistress of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
(Sir Cedric Hardwicke) prompted some censorship in the United States. The Hays Office had Wilcox add a (historically false) scene featuring the two leads getting married and also a "framing" story resulting in an entirely different ending. Noted writer Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
said of Nell Gwynn: "I have seen few things more attractive than Miss Neagle in breeches".
Two years after Nell Gwynn, she followed up with another true-life figure, portraying Irish actress Peg Woffington
Margaret Woffington
Margaret "Peg" Woffington was a well-known Irish actress in Georgian London.- Early life :Woffington was born of humble origins in Dublin. Her father is thought to have been a bricklayer, and after his death, the family became impoverished...
in Peg of Old Drury (1936). That same year she appeared in Limelight, a backstage musical in which she played a chorus girl. Her co-star was Arthur Tracy
Arthur Tracy
Arthur Tracy was an American vocalist, billed as The Street Singer. His performances in theatre, films and radio, along with his recordings, brought him international fame in the 1930s...
, who had gained fame in the United States as a radio performer known as 'The Street Singer'. The film also featured Jack Buchanan in an unbilled cameo. performing "Goodnight Vienna".
Neagle and Wilcox followed with a circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
trapeze
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
fable The Three Maxims (1937), which was released in the United States as The Show Goes On. The film, with a script featuring a contribution from Herman J. Mankiewicz
Herman J. Mankiewicz
Herman Jacob Mankiewicz was an American screenwriter, who, with Orson Welles, wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane . Earlier, he was the Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the drama critic for The New York Times and The New Yorker. Alexander Woollcott, said that Herman Mankiewicz was...
(who later co-wrote Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
with Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
), had Neagle performing her own high-wire acrobatics. Although now highly successful in films, Neagle continued acting on stage. In 1934, while working under director Robert Atkins, she performed as Rosalind in As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
and Olivia in Twelfth Night. Both productions earned her critical accolades, despite the fact that she had never performed Shakespearean
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
roles before.
Victoria the Great
Victoria the Great is a 1937 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Anton Walbrook and Walter Rilla. The film biography of Queen Victoria concentrating initially on the early years of her reign with her marriage to Prince Albert and her subsequent rule after...
(1937), co-starring Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook, born was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom.- Life :...
as Prince Albert
Prince Albert
Prince Albert was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria.Prince Albert may also refer to:-Royalty:*Prince Albert Edward or Edward VII of the United Kingdom , son of Albert and Victoria...
. The script by Robert Vansittart
Robert Vansittart, 1st Baron Vansittart
Robert Gilbert Vansittart, 1st Baron Vansittart GCB, GCMG, PC, MVO was a senior British diplomat in the period before and during the Second World War...
and Miles Malleson
Miles Malleson
William Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, particularly known for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the...
(from Laurence Housman
Laurence Housman
Laurence Housman was an English playwright, writer and illustrator.-Early life:Laurence Housman was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, one of seven children who included the poet A. E. Housman and writer Clemence Housman. In 1871 his mother died, and his father remarried, to a cousin...
’s play Victoria Regina) alternated between the political and the personal lives of the royal couple. The Diamond Jubilee sequence that climaxed the film was shot in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
. Victoria the Great was such an international success that it resulted in Neagle and Walbrook essaying their roles again in an all-Technicolor sequel entitled Sixty Glorious Years (1938), co-starring C. Aubrey Smith as the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
. While the first of these films was in release, Neagle returned to the London stage and entertained audiences with her portrayal of the title role in Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
.
An American excursion
The success of Victoria the Great and Sixty Glorious Years caused Hollywood studios to take notice. Neagle and Wilcox began an association with RKO Radio PicturesRKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
. Their first American film was Nurse Edith Cavell (1939), a remake of Dawn, a Wilcox silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
that starred Sybil Thorndike
Sybil Thorndike
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike CH DBE was a British actress.-Early life:She was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to Arthur Thorndike and Agnes Macdonald. Her father was a Canon of Rochester Cathedral...
. In this, still another Neagle performance of a true-life British heroine, she essayed the role of the nurse
Edith Cavell
Edith Louisa Cavell was a British nurse and spy. She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from all sides without distinction and in helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I, for which she was arrested...
who was shot by the Germans
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
for alleged spying. The resulting effort had a significant impact for audiences on the eve of war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Ray Milland
Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...
. RKO probably gave the film bigger production values than England could have afforded. It included a Technicolor sequence, which featured Neagle singing the play's most famous song, "Alice Blue Gown". She followed this film with No, No, Nanette (1940) with Victor Mature
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature was an American stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky to an Italian-speaking father from the town Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol , Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, a cutler,...
, in which she sang "Tea For Two
Tea for Two
Tea for Two can refer to:*Tea for Two , a 1925 popular song by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar, introduced in the musical, No, No, Nanette*Tea for Two , a movie starring Doris Day which reintroduced the song...
". She then made Sunny
Sunny (1941 film)
Sunny is a 1941 film American film directed by Herbert Wilcox. It was adapted by Sig Herzig from the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical play Sunny...
(1941) with Ray Bolger
Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
.
Neagle and Wilcox's final American film was Forever and a Day (1943), a tale of a London family house from 1804 to the 1940 blitz. This film boasts 80 performers (mostly British), including Ray Milland, C. Aubrey Smith, Claude Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
, Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
, and – among the few North Americans – Canadian Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
. Wilcox directed the sequence featuring Neagle, Milland, Smith, and Rains, while other directors who worked on the film included René Clair
René Clair
René Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...
, Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding was a British film writer and director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 British made Paramount silent Three Live Ghosts alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. Also in the early 20s he wrote several screenplays for star Mae Murray and...
, Frank Lloyd
Frank Lloyd
Frank Lloyd was a film director, scriptwriter and producer...
, Victor Saville and Robert Stevenson
Robert Stevenson (director)
Robert Stevenson was an English film writer and director. He was educated at Cambridge University where he became the president of both the Liberal Club and the Cambridge Union Society....
. During the war the profits and salaries were given to war relief. After the war, prints were slated to be destroyed, so that no one could profit from them. However, this never occurred.
Back to Britain
Returning to Britain, Neagle and Wilcox commenced with They Flew Alone (1942; shot after but released before Forever and a Day). Neagle added another real-life British heroines to her gallery, this time as aviatrix Amy JohnsonAmy Johnson
Amy Johnson CBE, was a pioneering English aviator. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s...
. Robert Newton
Robert Newton
Robert Newton was an English stage and film actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the most popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys...
’s co-starred as Johnson's husband, Jim Mollison. The film, which was released a year after the aviatrix’s death, was noted for inter-cutting the action with newsreel footage.
They returned to filmmaking with The Yellow Canary (1943), co-starring Richard Greene
Richard Greene
Richard Marius Joseph Greene was a noted English film and television actor. A matinee idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran for 143 episodes from 1955 to 1960.It has been...
and Margaret Rutherford
Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest...
. In this spy story, Neagle plays a German-sympathiser (or at least that is what she seems to be at first) who is forced to go to Canada for her own safety. In reality, of course, she's working as an undercover agent
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
out to expose a plot to blow up Halifax harbour. The Yellow Canary was noted for its atmospheric recreation of wartime conditions.
In 1945 Neagle appeared on stage in Emma, a dramatization of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
's novel
Emma
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively 'comedy of manners' among...
. That same year she was seen in the film I Live in Grosvenor Square
I Live in Grosvenor Square
I Live in Grosvenor Square is a British war film, directed and produced by Herbert Wilcox—a forerunner of his "London films" collaboration with his wife, actress Anna Neagle. The film deploys a tragi-comic plot in a context of US-British wartime co-operation, and displays icons of popular music...
, co-starring Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
. She wanted Harrison for the lead in her next film, Piccadilly Incident (1946). However, he (as well as John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
) proved to be unavailable at the time, so Wilcox cast Michael Wilding
Michael Wilding (actor)
-Early life:Born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, Wilding was a successful commercial artist when he joined the art department of a London film studio in 1933. He soon embarked on an acting career.-Career:...
in the lead. Thus was born what film critic Godfrey Winn called "the greatest team in British films". The story – of a wife, presumed dead, returning to her (remarried) husband – bears a resemblance to the Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
-Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
comedy My Favorite Wife
My Favorite Wife
My Favorite Wife is a 1940 screwball comedy produced and co-written by Leo McCarey and directed by Garson Kanin. The movie stars Irene Dunne as a woman who returns to her husband and children after being shipwrecked on a tropical island for several years, and Cary Grant as her husband...
and its remake, Move Over Darling with Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
. Piccadilly Incident was chosen as Picturegoer
Picturegoer
Picturegoer was a magazine published in the United Kingdom between 1913 and 1960. Its primary focus was contemporary films and the performers who appeared in them....
’s Best Film of 1947.
Neagle and Wilding were reunited in The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947), a period drama that became the year's top box-office attraction. The film featured Wilding as an upper-class dandy and Neagle as the maid he marries, only to have the two of them driven apart by Victorian
Victorian morality
Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria's reign and of the moral climate of the United Kingdom throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period...
society.
The third pairing of Neagle and Wilding in the "London films", as the series of films came to be called, was in Spring in Park Lane
Spring in Park Lane
Spring in Park Lane is a 1948 British romantic comedy film directed by Herbert Wilcox.-Plot:The film tells the story of a footman, Richard, played by Michael Wilding, who is employed by Joshua Howard , an eccentric art collector. His niece and secretary, Judy , has her doubts that Richard is the...
(1948). A drama, this depicted the romance between a millionaire’s niece and a footman (rather than valet, originally claimed here. He is frequently referred to as a footman in the photoplay) valet (actually a nobleman who has seen better days). The script was written by Nicholas Phipps, who also played Wilding’s brother. Although not a musical, it contains a dream sequence featuring the song "The Moment I Saw You". The song's orchestrator was Robert Farnon
Robert Farnon
Robert Joseph Farnon was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a famous composer of original works , he was recognised as one of the finest arrangers of his generation...
, who would later work with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
. Spring in Park Lane was the 1949 Picturegoer winner for Best Film, Actor and Actress. Neagle and Wilding were together for a fourth time in the Technicolor romance Maytime in Mayfair (1949
1949 in film
The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...
). The plot is reminiscent of Roberta
Roberta
Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller...
, as it had Wilding inheriting a dress shop owned by Neagle.
By 1950, Neagle was at her zenith as Britain’s top box-office actress, and in that year she made what reputedly became her own favorite film, Odette, co-starring Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
, Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
, and Marius Goring
Marius Goring
Marius Goring CBE was an English stage and cinema actor. He is most often remembered for the four films he did with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life and Death and as Julian Craster in The Red Shoes...
. As Odette Sansom
Odette Sansom
Odette Sansom Hallowes GC, MBE, Chevalier de la légion d'honneur was an Allied heroine of the Second World War.-Early years:...
, she was the Anglo
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-French resistance fighter who was pushed to the edge of betrayal by the Nazis.
Going from this real-life British heroine, she went straight on to playing Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
in The Lady with the Lamp (1951); Kay Francis
Kay Francis
Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
had previously portrayed Nightingale in a 1936 American film, The White Angel).
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
. In the film she plays an actress knocked out by a bomb, who dreams she is Queen Victoria and Nell Gwyn
Nell Gwyn
Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn was a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England. Called "pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel Pepys, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of...
– as well as her own mother. As she begins dreaming, the film switches from black and white to color. In England, where Neagle had top billing, the film was reasonably successful. In the United States, however, where Flynn had top billing, the title was changed to Let's Make Up, and it flopped, with limited bookings.
On the wane
Neagle and Flynn reteamed for a second flm together, King's Rhapsody (1955), based on an Ivor NovelloIvor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
musical
King's Rhapsody
King's Rhapsody is a musical with book and music by Ivor Novello and lyrics by Christopher Hassall.The musical was first produced at the Palace Theatre, London, on 15 September 1949 and ran for 841 performances, surviving its author, who died in 1951...
and also starring Patrice Wymore (Flynn's wife at the time). Although Neagle performed several musical numbers for the film, most of them were cut from the final release, leaving her with essentially a supporting role. Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
with location work near Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain, King's Rhapsody was a major flop everywhere. Neagle's (and Flynn's) box-office appeal, it seemed, was beginning to fade.
Neagle's last box-office hit was My Teenage Daughter (1956), which featured her as a mother trying to prevent her daughter (Sylvia Syms
Sylvia Syms
Sylvia M. L. Syms OBE is a British actress. She is probably best known for her roles in the films Woman in a Dressing Gown , Ice-Cold in Alex , No Trees in the Street , Victim and The Tamarind Seed...
) from lapsing into juvenile delinquency.
Neagle and Syms worked together again on No Time For Tears (1957), also starring Anthony Quayle
Anthony Quayle
Sir John Anthony Quayle, CBE was an English actor and director.-Early life:Quayle was born in Ainsdale, Southport, in Lancashire to a Manx family....
and Flora Robson
Flora Robson
Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.-Early life:...
. As directed by Cyril Frankel
Cyril Frankel
Cyril Frankel is a British film and television director, now retired. His career in television began in 1953 and he directed for over 30 TV programmes until 1990....
, this was the first film for over 20 years where Neagle was directed by someone other than Herbert Wilcox. Set in a children's hospital, the film features Neagle as a Matron dealing with the problems of the patients and the staff, notably a nurse (Syms) infatuated with one of the doctors (George Baker
George Baker (actor)
George Baker, MBE was an English actor and writer. He was best-known for portraying Tiberius in I, Claudius, and Inspector Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.-Personal life:...
).
With her husband, Neagle began producing films starring Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan, CBE, DL was an English singer of traditional pop music, who issued more than 80 recordings in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after one of his early hits.-Life and career:...
, but these were out of touch with changing tastes, and lost money, resulting in Wilcox going heavily into debt. Neagle herself made her final film appearance in The Lady is a Square (1957).
Final years
Herbert Wilcox was bankrupt by 1964, but his wife soon revived his fortunes. She returned to the stage the following year and made a spectacular comeback in the West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
musical Charlie Girl
Charlie Girl
Charlie Girl is a musical comedy which premiered in the West End of London at the Adelphi Theatre on December 15, 1965 and played for 2,202 performances, closing on March 27, 1971...
. In it she played the role of a former "Cochran Young Lady" who marries a peer of the realm. Charlie Girl was a phenomenal success that ran for a staggering six years and 2,047 performances. It earned Neagle an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for her enduring popularity.
Two years after Charlie Girl – which she also performed in Australia and New Zealand – Neagle was asked to appear in a revival of No, No, Nanette
No, No, Nanette
No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...
, which she had done onscreen three decades earlier. Later, in 1975, she replaced Celia Johnson
Celia Johnson
Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE was an English actress.She began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in West End and Broadway productions. She also appeared in several films, including the romantic drama Brief Encounter , for which she received a nomination for the...
in The Dame of Sark and, in 1978 (the year after her husband's death), she was acting in Most Gracious Lady, which was written for the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
Although plagued by Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
in her later years, Neagle continued to be active. In 1985 she appeared as the Fairy Godmother in a production of Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
at the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
.
Neagle died in 1986, aged 81. (Some sources state that Neagle was suffering from cancer at the time of her death). She was interred alongside her husband in the City of London Cemetery.
Awards
Neagle was created a Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) in 1952 and, for her contributions to the theatre, a Dame of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(DBE) in 1969.
Filmography
The following list contains all of Neagle's acting credits in feature-length motion pictures with the exception of Queen Victoria (1942), which is actually a compilation of two earlier films, Victoria the Great and Sixty Glorious Years.All of her films were directed by Herbert Wilcox
Herbert Wilcox
Herbert Sydney Wilcox was a British film producer and director.-Early life:Wilcox's mother was from County Cork, Ireland, but he was born in Norwood and attended school in Brighton...
and produced in the United Kingdom unless otherwise noted.
In addition, Neagle also appeared briefly as herself in a documentary short entitled The Volunteer (1943), and served as narrator for the films The Prams Break Through (1945) and Princess's Wedding Day (1947). Neagle also produced, but did not appear in, three films starring Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan, CBE, DL was an English singer of traditional pop music, who issued more than 80 recordings in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after one of his early hits.-Life and career:...
: These Dangerous Years (1957), Wonderful Things (1957), and The Heart of a Man (1959).
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 1929 in film -Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.... |
Those Who Love Those Who Love (film) Those Who Love is a 1929 British drama film directed by H. Manning Haynes and starring Adele Blanche, William Freshman and Carol Goodner. It was based on the novel Mary Was Love by Guy Fletcher. Anna Neagle made her debut in the film, playing a small part.-Cast:* Adele Blanche ... Mary / Lorna*... |
Bit part (uncredited) | Directed by H. Manning Haynes |
| 1930 1930 in film -Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism... |
The Chinese Bungalow The Chinese Bungalow (1930 film) The Chinese Bungalow is a 1930 British drama film directed by Arthur Barnes and J.B. Williams and starring Matheson Lang, Jill Esmond and Anna Neagle. It was based on the play The Chinese Bungalow. While working on the film J.B... |
Charlotte | Directed by Arthur Barnes and J.B. Williams |
| School For Scandal School for Scandal (film) School for Scandal is a 1930 British comedy film directed by Thorold Dickinson and Maurice Elvey and starring Basil Gill, Madeleine Carroll and Ian Fleming. It is based on the play School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.-Cast:... |
Flower Seller (uncredited) | Directed by Thorold Dickinson and Maurice Elvey; Filmed in Raycolor | |
| Should A Doctor Tell? Should a Doctor Tell? Should a Doctor Tell? is a 1930 British drama film directed by H. Manning Haynes and starring Basil Gill, Norah Baring and Maurice Evans. A Doctor agonises over whether to tell his son that the woman he is marrying is pregnant by another man , although this would mean breaking the hypocratic... |
Muriel Ashton | Directed by H. Manning Haynes | |
| 1932 1932 in film -Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released.... |
Good Night, Vienna Good Night, Vienna Goodnight, Vienna is a 1932 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Jack Buchanan and Anna Neagle and Gina Malo. Two lovers in Vienna are separated by the First World War, but are later reunited.... |
Viki | Neagle's first collaboration with director Herbert Wilcox Herbert Wilcox Herbert Sydney Wilcox was a British film producer and director.-Early life:Wilcox's mother was from County Cork, Ireland, but he was born in Norwood and attended school in Brighton... |
| The Flag Lieutenant The Flag Lieutenant (1932 film) The Flag Lieutenant is a 1932 British war film based on the play by William Price Drury and directed by and starring Henry Edwards. It also featured Anna Neagle, Joyce Bland and Peter Gawthorne... |
Hermione Wynne | Directed by Henry Edwards Henry Edwards (actor) Henry Edwards was an English actor and film director. He appeared in 81 films between 1915 and 1952. He also directed 67 films between 1915 and 1937... . |
|
| 1933 1933 in film -Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded.... |
Bitter Sweet Bitter Sweet (1933 film) Bitter Sweet is a musical romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and released by United Artists in 1933. It was the first film adaptation of Noel Coward's 1929 operetta Bitter Sweet. It starred Anna Neagle and Fernand Gravey, with Ivy St. Helier reviving her stage role as Manon.It tells the story... |
Sarah Millick and Sari Lind | |
| The Little Damozel | Julie Alardy | ||
| 1934 1934 in film -Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade... |
Nell Gwyn | Nell Gwyn Nell Gwyn Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn was a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England. Called "pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel Pepys, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of... |
Neagle's first major hit |
| The Queen's Affair The Queen's Affair The Queen's Affair is a 1934 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Fernand Gravey, Muriel Aked and Edward Chapman. An Eastern European President falls in love with the Queen whom he had previously deposed. It was also released as Queen's Affair.... |
Queen Nadia | ||
| 1935 1935 in film -Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:... |
Peg of Old Drury Peg of Old Drury Peg of Old Drury is a 1935 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Cedric Hardwicke and Margaretta Scott. The film is a biopic of eighteenth century Irish actress Peg Woffington. It was based on the play Masks and Faces by Charles Reade and Tom Taylor.-Cast:*... |
Peg Woffington Margaret Woffington Margaret "Peg" Woffington was a well-known Irish actress in Georgian London.- Early life :Woffington was born of humble origins in Dublin. Her father is thought to have been a bricklayer, and after his death, the family became impoverished... |
|
| 1936 1936 in film The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon... |
Limelight Limelight (1936 film) Limelight is a 1936 British, black-and-white, drama, musical, romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox starring Anna Neagle, Arthur Tracy, Jean Winton, and Ronald Shiner as the Assistant State Manager. It was produced by Herbert Wilcox Productions and British and Dominions Film Corporation.... |
Marjorie Kaye | |
| The Three Maxims | Pat | French British production. | |
| 1937 1937 in film The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.... |
Victoria the Great Victoria the Great Victoria the Great is a 1937 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Anton Walbrook and Walter Rilla. The film biography of Queen Victoria concentrating initially on the early years of her reign with her marriage to Prince Albert and her subsequent rule after... |
Queen Victoria | Finale filmed in Technicolor Technicolor Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952... |
| London Melody London Melody London Melody is a 1937 British, black-and-white, musical film, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Tullio Carminati, Robert Douglas, Horace Hodges and Ronald Shiner as the Pickpocket On Trial . It was produced by Herbert Wilcox Productions. Unfortunately, Allmovie list the film... |
Jacqueline | ||
| 1938 1938 in film The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,... |
Sixty Glorious Years Sixty Glorious Years Sixty Glorious Years is a 1938 British film directed by Herbert Wilcox. The film is a sequel to the 1937 film Victoria the Great.The film is also known as Queen of Destiny in the US.- Cast :*Anna Neagle as Queen Victoria... |
Queen Victoria | Filmed in Technicolor |
| 1939 1939 in film The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate... |
Nurse Edith Cavell Nurse Edith Cavell Nurse Edith Cavell is a 1939 American film directed by Herbert Wilcox.The film was nominated at the 1939 Oscars for Best Original Score.- Cast :*Anna Neagle as Nurse Edith Cavell*Edna May Oliver as Countess de Mavon*George Sanders as Capt. Heinrichs... |
Edith Cavell Edith Cavell Edith Louisa Cavell was a British nurse and spy. She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from all sides without distinction and in helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I, for which she was arrested... |
Neagle's first American film |
| 1940 1940 in film The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released.... |
Irene | Irene O'Dare | Features one sequence in Technicolor; Produced in the U.S. |
| No, No, Nanette No, No, Nanette (1940 film) No, No, Nanette is a 1940 American film directed by Herbert Wilcox and based on the musical of the same name.- Cast :*Anna Neagle as Nanette*Richard Carlson as Tom Gillespie*Victor Mature as William Trainor*Roland Young as Mr. "Happy" Jimmy Smith... |
Nanette | U.S. production | |
| 1941 1941 in film The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:... |
Sunny Sunny (1941 film) Sunny is a 1941 film American film directed by Herbert Wilcox. It was adapted by Sig Herzig from the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical play Sunny... |
Sunny O'Sullivan | U.S. production |
| 1942 1942 in film The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:... |
They Flew Alone They Flew Alone They Flew Alone is a 1942 British, black-and-white, biopic, drama, propaganda, war film, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Robert Newton and Edward Chapman... |
Amy Johnson Amy Johnson Amy Johnson CBE, was a pioneering English aviator. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s... |
|
| 1943 1943 in film The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films.... |
The Yellow Canary | Sally Maitland | |
| Forever and a Day | Susan Trenchard | U.S. production | |
| 1945 1945 in film The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins.... |
I Live in Grosvenor Square I Live in Grosvenor Square I Live in Grosvenor Square is a British war film, directed and produced by Herbert Wilcox—a forerunner of his "London films" collaboration with his wife, actress Anna Neagle. The film deploys a tragi-comic plot in a context of US-British wartime co-operation, and displays icons of popular music... |
Lady Patricia Fairfax | |
| 1946 1946 in film The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a... |
Piccadilly Incident | Diana Fraser | |
| 1947 1947 in film The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25... |
The Courtneys of Curzon Street The Courtneys of Curzon Street The Courtneys of Curzon Street is a 1947 British drama film starring Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding.... |
Katherine O'Halloran | |
| 1948 1948 in film The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :... |
Elizabeth of Ladymead Elizabeth of Ladymead Elizabeth of Ladymead is a 1948 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Hugh Williams, Isabel Jeans and Bernard Lee... |
Elizabeth | Filmed in Technicolor |
| Spring in Park Lane Spring in Park Lane Spring in Park Lane is a 1948 British romantic comedy film directed by Herbert Wilcox.-Plot:The film tells the story of a footman, Richard, played by Michael Wilding, who is employed by Joshua Howard , an eccentric art collector. His niece and secretary, Judy , has her doubts that Richard is the... |
Judy Howard | ||
| 1949 1949 in film The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello... |
Maytime in Mayfair Maytime in Mayfair Maytime in Mayfair is a 1949 British musical comedy film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Nicholas Phipps, and Tom Walls... |
Eileen Grahame | Filmed in Technicolor |
| 1950 1950 in film The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush... |
Odette Odette (film) Odette is a 1950 film that was directed by Herbert Wilcox and used a screenplay by Warren Chetham-Strode. The film starred Anna Neagle as Odette Sansom, an Allied French-born heroine of World War II who joined the Special Operations Executive and was sent to France to work with the resistance... |
Odette Sansom Odette Sansom Odette Sansom Hallowes GC, MBE, Chevalier de la légion d'honneur was an Allied heroine of the Second World War.-Early years:... |
|
| 1950 1951 in film The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:... |
The Lady With the Lamp The Lady with the Lamp (film) The Lady With The Lamp is a 1951 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding and Felix Aylmer... |
Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night... |
|
| 1952 1952 in film The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.... |
Derby Day Derby Day (1952 film) Derby Day is a 1952 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Googie Withers, John McCallum and Alfie Bass. An ensemble piece, it portrays several characters on their way to the Derby Day races at Epsom Downs Racecourse... |
Lady Helen Forbes | |
| 1954 1954 in film The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda... |
Lilacs in the Spring | Carole Beaumont / Lillian Grey / Nell Gwynne / Queen Victoria |
Filmed in Eastmancolor (aside from a black and white prologue) |
| 1955 1955 in film The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released.... |
King's Rhapsody King's Rhapsody (film) King's Rhapsody is a 1955 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Errol Flynn and Patrice Wymore. It was based on the musical King's Rhapsody by Ivor Novello.-Cast:* Anna Neagle - Marta Karillos... |
Marta Karillos | Filmed in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor |
| 1956 1956 in film The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by... |
My Teenage Daughter My Teenage Daughter My Teenage Daughter is a 1956 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Sylvia Syms and Norman Wooland. A mother tries to deal with her teenage daughter's descent into delinquency. It was intended as a British response to Rebel Without a Cause... |
Valerie Carr | |
| 1957 1957 in film The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:... |
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk The Man Who Wouldn't Talk The Man Who Wouldn't Talk is a 1958 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox. It starred Anna Neagle, Anthony Quayle, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dora Bryan, John Le Mesurier and Lloyd Lamble.-Synopsis:... |
Mary Randall, Q.C. | |
| No Time for Tears No Time for Tears (film) No Time for Tears is a 1957 British drama film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Anna Neagle, George Baker and Sylvia Syms. The staff at a children's hospital struggle with their workload.-Cast:* Anna Neagle ... Matron Eleanor Hammond... |
Matron Eleanor Hammond | Directed by Cyril Frankel; Filmed in Eastmancolor | |
| 1958 1958 in film The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946.... |
The Lady is a Square The Lady Is a Square The Lady Is a Square is a 1959 British comedy musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and featuring Anna Neagle, Frankie Vaughan and Janette Scott. An aspiring singer goes to work as a butler in the house of a classical music patron... |
Frances Baring |
Recordings by Anna Neagle
- What More Can I Ask?What More Can I Ask?What More Can I Ask? is a popular song written in 1932 with lyrics by A. E. Wilkins and music by Ray Noble.-Recordings:...
, with orchestra conducted by Ray NobleRay Noble (musician)Ray Noble was an English bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day...
- HMV B 4365 (matrix: 0B 4586-3)
- Recorded London 4 January 1933
- The Dream Is Over, with orchestra conducted by Ray NobleRay Noble (musician)Ray Noble was an English bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day...
- The Dream Is Over, with orchestra conducted by Ray Noble
- HMV B 4365 (matrix: 4587-4)
- Recorded London 4 January 1933
- Tonight, duet with Trefor Jones with Geraldo and his Orchestra
- Columbia(England) DB 1316 (matrix: CA 14314-1)
- Recorded London 30 January 1934
- Kiss Me Goodnight
- Decca(England) F 5649 (matrix: TB 1869)
- Recorded London 9 August 1935
- A Little Dash Of Dublin
- Decca(England) F 5649 (matrix: TB 1870)
- Recorded London 9 August 1935