H.F. Maltby
Encyclopedia
Henry Francis Maltby was a prolific writer for the London stage and British cinema from after the First World War, until the 1950s. He also appeared in many films.
, South Africa
. He was married twice, to Billie Joyce and Norah M. Pickering. Maltby served in France, as a bombardier
.
, some achieving success and transferring to Broadway
. He wrote The Rotters in 1915, but it took nearly a year to get it to the provincial stage. The play was a success and transferred to the Garrick Theatre
in the West End
, playing for 86 performances and toured for the next decade, also being made into a film. The theme is satirical, dealing with a dysfunctional family
and their minor 'sins' revolving around the father's obsessive respectability. The play received a drubbing from The Times
but was popular with audiences. He also wrote an all-woman farce, Petticoats with women taking over the state (with the men away at war).
By 1919, Maltby was working on collaborations in musical theatre
, adapting the libretto of a French piece for Maggie (1919), with Fred Thompson. He began to turn out comedies at a rate of two a year, with his own works, such as For the Love of Mike being adapted by Clifford Grey
and Sonny Miller into a musical.
and Pressburger
's 1944 A Canterbury Tale
and the 1934 Freedom of the Seas. As a character actor of pompous individuals, he appeared in many of the Will Hay
and Alfred Hitchcock
films of the 1930s for Gainsborough Studios. He is listed in the cast of nearly sixty films, but rarely as the principal player. He is listed as scriptwriter on nearly 50 films, and in the 1930s, he also wrote screenplays for the Todd Slaughter series of melodramas.
In 1950, Maltby published his autobiography, Ring Up the Curtain. he died in Hove
, Sussex
, England at the age of 82.
As an actor
Life and career
Maltby was born in CeresCeres, Western Cape
Ceres is a town with 46,251 inhabitants in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It is the administrative centre and largest town of the Witzenberg Local Municipality. Ceres serves as a regional centre for the surrounding towns of Wolseley, Tulbagh, Op-die-Berg and Prince Alfred Hamlet...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. He was married twice, to Billie Joyce and Norah M. Pickering. Maltby served in France, as a bombardier
Bombardier (air force)
A bombardier , in the United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force, or a bomb aimer, in the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, was the crewman of a bomber responsible for assisting the navigator in guiding the plane to a bombing target and releasing the aircraft's bomb...
.
Playwriting career
On his return to Britain, Maltby wrote and performed in many plays for the West End theatreWest 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...
, some achieving success and transferring to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. He wrote The Rotters in 1915, but it took nearly a year to get it to the provincial stage. The play was a success and transferred to the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
in the West End
West 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...
, playing for 86 performances and toured for the next decade, also being made into a film. The theme is satirical, dealing with a dysfunctional family
Dysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...
and their minor 'sins' revolving around the father's obsessive respectability. The play received a drubbing from The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
but was popular with audiences. He also wrote an all-woman farce, Petticoats with women taking over the state (with the men away at war).
By 1919, Maltby was working on collaborations in musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, adapting the libretto of a French piece for Maggie (1919), with Fred Thompson. He began to turn out comedies at a rate of two a year, with his own works, such as For the Love of Mike being adapted by Clifford Grey
Clifford Grey
Clifford Grey was an English songwriter, actor, librettist and Olympic medalist. His birth name was Percival Davis, and he was also known as Clifford Gray, Tippi Gray, Tippi Grey, Tippy Gray and Tippy Grey.As a writer, Grey contributed prolifically to West End and Broadway shows, as librettist and...
and Sonny Miller into a musical.
Film career
Maltby's film career began with the silent Profit and the Loss in 1917. He also appeared in many films after 1933, including PowellMichael Powell (director)
Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
and Pressburger
Emeric Pressburger
Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a multiple-award-winning partnership known as The Archers and produced a series of classic British films, notably 49th Parallel , The...
's 1944 A Canterbury Tale
A Canterbury Tale
A Canterbury Tale is a 1944 British film by the film-making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price and Sgt. John Sweet; Esmond Knight provided narration and played several small roles. For the postwar American release, Raymond Massey narrated...
and the 1934 Freedom of the Seas. As a character actor of pompous individuals, he appeared in many of the Will Hay
Will Hay
William Thomson "Will" Hay was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer.-Early life:He was born in Stockton-on-Tees, in north east England, to William R...
and Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
films of the 1930s for Gainsborough Studios. He is listed in the cast of nearly sixty films, but rarely as the principal player. He is listed as scriptwriter on nearly 50 films, and in the 1930s, he also wrote screenplays for the Todd Slaughter series of melodramas.
In 1950, Maltby published his autobiography, Ring Up the Curtain. he died in Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, England at the age of 82.
Plays and musicals
- The Rotters (1916; 1922)
- Petticoats (1917)
- Maggie (1919)
- Such a Nice Young Man (1920)
- The Right Age to Marry (1926)
- Dear Old England (1930)
- Just My Luck (1933)
- For the Love of Mike (1933)
- Grand Guignol Horror Plays - Something More Important (1935)
- Lilac Domino (1953 revision)
Films
As a screenwriter:- Profit and the Loss (1917)
- The Love Nest (1933)
- Those Were the DaysThose Were the Days (1934 film)Those were the Days is a film primarily remembered as Will Hay's first major film role. It was based on the farce The Magistrate written by playwright Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, and was the first of two Hay movies that were based Pinero's plays, the other being Dandy Dick...
(1934) - Over the Garden Wall (1934)
- Old Faithful (1935)
- It Happened in Paris (1935)
- The Right Age to Marry (1935)
- Queen of Hearts (1936)
- Nothing Like Publicity (1936)
- Not So Dusty (1936)
- The Crimes of Stephen Hawkes (aka Strangler's Morgue (1936)
- Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936)
- Where There's a Will (1936)
- The Crimes of Stephen HawkeThe Crimes of Stephen HawkeThe Crimes of Stephen Hawke is a British period film melodrama directed by George King and starring Tod Slaughter as the nefarious Stephen Hawke - who masquerades as the 'Spine-Breaker'. It also features Marjorie Taylor, D. J. Williams and Eric Portman.This is the third of Tod Slaughter's film...
(1936) - Boys Will Be Girls (1937)
- Young and InnocentYoung and InnocentYoung and Innocent is a 1937 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney and John Longden...
(1937) - Never Too Late to Mend (1937)
- The Ticket of Leave Man (1937)
- The Strange Adventures of Mr. Smith (1937)
- Wanted (1937)
- PygmalionPygmalion (1938 film)Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the George Bernard Shaw play of the same title, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller....
(1938) - Darts Are Trumps (1938)
- Crimes at the Dark HouseCrimes at the Dark HouseCrimes at the Dark House is a British film directed by George King starring Tod Slaughter, Sylvia Marriott and Hilary Eaves. It is loosely based on the novel The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.-Plot summary:...
(1939) - Old Mother Riley Joins UpOld Mother RileyOld Mother Riley was a music hall act which originally ran from about 1934 to 1954 played by Arthur Lucan, then from 1954 to 1977 by Roy Rolland....
(1939) - Something in the City (1950)
- It's a Grand LifeIt's a Grand LifeIt's a Grand Life is a 1953 British comedy film starring Frank Randle and Diana Dors. Music hall comedian Frank Randle stars as an accident-prone Private in his final film appearance. The film also features the professional wrestler Jack Pye and the popular pianist Winifred Atwell...
(1953) - Not So Dusty (1956; author of short story)
As an actor
- VanityVanity (film)Vanity is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Jane Cain and Percy Marmont. The film was a quota quickie production, concerning a conceited actress, convinced of the general adoration in which she is held, faking her own death in order to gratify herself by observing...
(1935) - Jack of All TradesJack of All Trades (film)Jack of All Trades is a 1936 comedy film British directed by Robert Stevenson and Jack Hulbert. It stars Jack Hulbert and Gina Malo.-Cast:*Jack Hulbert as Jack Warrender*Gina Malo as Frances Wilson*Robertson Hare as Lionel Fitch...
(1936) - Take My TipTake My TipTake My Tip is a 1937 British musical comedy film directed by Herbert Mason and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Harold Huth and Frank Cellier...
(1937) - Captain's OrdersCaptain's OrdersCaptain's Orders is a 1937 British drama film directed by Ivar Campbell and starring Henry Edwards, Jane Carr, Marie La Varre, Wally Patch and Basil Radford.-Cast:* Henry Edwards - Captain Trent* Jane Carr - Belle Mandeville...
(1937) - Everything Happens to MeEverything Happens to Me (1938 film)Everything Happens to Me is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Roy William Neill and starring Max Miller, Chili Bouchier and H.F. Maltby....
(1938) - Return to YesterdayReturn to YesterdayReturn to Yesterday is a 1940 British drama film directed by Robert Stevenson. It stars Clive Brook and Anna Lee. It was based on the play Goodness How Sad! by Robert Morley.-Cast:* Clive Brook as Robert Maine* Anna Lee as Carol Sands...
(1940) - Bob's Your UncleBob's Your Uncle (film)Bob's Your Uncle is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Oswald Mitchell and starring Albert Modley, Jean Colin, George Bolton, Wally Patch and H.F. Maltby. It depicts the enthusiastic members of a Home Guard unit.-Cast:* Albert Modley - Albert Smith...
(1942) - A Canterbury TaleA Canterbury TaleA Canterbury Tale is a 1944 British film by the film-making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price and Sgt. John Sweet; Esmond Knight provided narration and played several small roles. For the postwar American release, Raymond Massey narrated...
(1944) - A Medal for the General (1944)
- Home, Sweet Home (1945)
- The Trojan Brothers (1946)
- Caesar and Cleopatra (1946)
Further reading
- Ring Up the Curtain: Being the stage and film memoirs of H.F. Maltby (autobiography) (Hutchinson, 1950)