Peter Gawthorne

Moving family drama of the life of a working-class Hackney couple over 40 years, inspired by the famous music hall song This moving family drama - with time for some laughs - portrays the life and hardships of a working class Hackney couple over a span of 40 years. Our intrepid couple (wonderfully played by Betty Balfour and Michael Hogan) have to face everything life throws at them with fortitude, from the Great War (a son in the RAF and zeppelin raids) to a raging oil fire during the Great Strike. The inimitable Gordon Harker provides sterling support. The film the couple watch at the cinema is the 1915 version of My Old Dutch, starring Albert Chevalier (writer of the original music hall song) and Florence Turner. As the complete silent film is now believed to be lost, this 1934 version contains the only surviving footage.

A man pays a hitman to kill him. Circumstances change and he tries to call off the hit but he has trouble getting the deal killed.

Unsuccessful writer Aylmer Franklyn takes the chance to change identities after he discovers a corpse. However, he soon finds himself accused of the murder of a maid at a near-by boarding house.

A bored millionaire wagers his doctor that he can support himself at a working class job for a year without touching his inheritance.

A young Scotland Yard police academy recruit tries to break up a gang of thieves.

The mirthful adventures of Police-Sergeant Samuel Dudfoot and his two constables, Albert Brown and Jeremias Harbottle, who stage a fabricated crime-wave to save their jobs---and then find themselves involved in the real thing.

A disgraced school master, Benjamin Twist, is mistaken for a tough prison governor and assigned the charge of a prison for particularly hardened criminals. Believing he is being sent to a school rather than a prison, he celebrates accordingly only to find that his drunkenness accidently lands him on the wrong side of the prison bars. The Governorship is eventually restored to him, and he sets about popularising himself amongst the convicts by turning a blind eye to their shady dealings.

Dr. Benjamin Twist (Hay) and his pupils become involved with art thieves on a trip to Paris. Hay’s seamy schoolmaster act is supported by a fine cast including Charles Hawtrey and Lilli Palmer.

Capt Viking and his incompetent fire crew accidentally foil a plot to steal the crown jewels.

A compilation of 3 stories, "The Wedding Gift", "The Thief of London" and "The Final Twist". Originally part of the Danziger Brothers series "Calling Scotland Yard"

A serial killer terrorizes London. Each victim is found with a telegram signed "The Marquis." There seems to be no other common thread between the victims, and Scotland Yard is baffled. Novelist and amateur sleuth, Paul Temple, is warned to stay away from the case, but he and his glamorous wife Steve can never refuse a good mystery.

Love blossoms after a young man rescues a pretty girl who attempted to drown herself.

A young couple decide to marry under the condition that they agree never to disagree. That agreement is soon put to the test when the husband finds himself attracted to a beautiful young woman.

Third and final film in the 'Inspector Hornleigh’ series of comedy-thrillers. Inspector Hornleigh (Gordon Harker), disappointed at not being handed an important spy case, is assigned by Scotland Yard to an army barracks to investigate the mundane thefts of supplies from the stores. This accidentally leads Hornleigh and Sergeant Bingham (Alastair Sim) to a nest of fifth columnists when his dim-witted assistant carelessly talks to a girl in the cafeteria – and that night, news of Hornleigh and Bingham’s arrival is embarrassingly transmitted back to Germany.

An out-of-work comedian persuades a drunken nobleman to join a protest against the closing of a village hall.

Bill Urquhart, a young wastrel disinherited by his father, tries to get a job as a jockey – just about the only thing he’s really good at. His name and position work against him, however, so he adopts an alias and prevails upon the charity of a drunken friend Charles Barrington, through whom he meets Stella Barrington - who has not only inherited her father’s racing stables but also his debts. Still incognito, he takes on the job of stable lad for Stella but little does she realise that he could be the man to finally put an end to her money worries forever.

Staff in a jewellery store hatch a plan to catch a thief.

Being engaged against her will with a wealthy man, Princess Orsolini (Catherine Dale Owen) is in love with Captain Kovacs (John Gilbert), a cavalry officer she is secretly meeting. Her mother Eugenie (Nance O'Neil), who has found out about the affair forces her to dump Kovacs and take part in the arranged marriage. Though not believing her own words, Orsolini reluctantly tells Kovacs she cannot ever fall in love with a man with his social position. Feeling deeply hurt, Kovacs decides to take revenge by indulging in blackmail, spreading a rumor that he is an imposter and a swindler.

Tom Masterick, a dock worker, is wrongfully convicted of a murder charge. His death sentence is commuted to a long prison term. When released as an old man, he vows to find the real killer.

A man is accused of a series of murders that were actually committed by a crazed killer called "The Tiger." He must prove his innocence and catch the murderer.

A woman disguises herself in men's clothes in order to follow her husband to the wars.

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.

Molly and Bee, sweet young 'working girls,' live in a cheap room over a New York grocery store. Molly's idol, wealthy Jack Cromwell, lives in a Long Island mansion but is markedly less happy, since his fiancée Jane won't discourage her other admirers. Fleeing in his car, Jack ends up in an urban block party where he meets you-know-who.

A remarkable story of love lost and found, as a young couple are separated by circumstance, and plunged into emotional turmoil by a reunion...

Newspaper reporter becomes involved with gang of crooks who take her for a tough American gangster.

A British officer in the Camel Corps in Egypt goes undercover to investigate a gang of drug smugglers. He enlists the aid of a female pilot to help break up the gang.

A shy British teacher looks back nostalgically at his long career, taking note of the people who touched his life.

With a title like Jack's the Boy, is it any surprise that the star of this breezy quota quickie is British music-hall favorite Jack Hulbert? The star plays the son of a celebrated Scotland Yard detective, who joins the force in hopes of following his father's footsteps. Unfortunately, Jack is something of a screw-up, and before long he has become the laughing stock of the force.

When a landlady finds one of her tenants murdered, Inspector Hornleigh is sent to investigate. Inspector Hornleigh's assistant, Sergeant Bingham, soon finds an attaché case that had been stolen from the murdered man. When Hornleigh examines the case, inside it he finds a bag that was used to carry important government documents. The documents have been taken, and to make things even more confusing, a duplicate of the stolen bag soon turns up.

Charlie steps in to solve the murder of a wealthy American found dead in a London hotel. Settings include London, Nice, San Remo, Honolulu and Hong Kong. Fast-paced with lots of wisecracking. The first film to star Warner Oland as Charlie Chan.

A recruit at Sandhurst initially makes a poor impression, but goes on to prove himself by riding in the Grand National.

One wartime Christmas the well-to-do Ferguson family extends a festive welcome to various strays, with comic results.

An unjustly condemned corporal flees to Africa, chased by the captain blamed for his escape.

A retired Scotland Yard detective, Patrick Fitzpatrick (Tom Walls) comes back to take one final case, tracking down a missing vase which has been stolen by a gang of thieves specialising in taking art treasures. His investigation takes him to the home of the innocent Mr Pye (Robertson Hare), whose house has been used by the crooks to hide their proceeds.

A gang of spies held up in a haunted castle gives this team of celebrated British wireless comedians plenty of scope for laughs.

A young couple attend a masked ball before their planned (but secret) elopement. Suddenly everything goes wrong when the young woman is attacked and held hostage by a crazed attacker.

The film depicts the character of Bulldog Drummond, a British adventurer and is based on the novel Temple Tower by Herman Cyril McNeile. Bulldog Drummond goes up against a group of jewel thieves led by Blackton and a Masked Strangler they double-crossed who wants revenge.

The plans of a publicity agent to put on a charity concert are nearly wrecked by a lawyer who wants to take over a restaurant, but the situation is saved by local co-operation.

It follows a doctor who faces both a scandal and a moral dilemma when a patient of his dies while he is making love to a press magnate's daughter.

When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.

An addled Englishman's efforts to save three young women from eviction land them all in jail and leads to other adventures and mischief.

A spoiled carefree rich kid gets into too much trouble for his father who sends him out on his own to prove himself capable of making a respectable man of himself.

In 1915 during the First World War, a British secret agent is killed while stealing secret Turkish plans for the Gallipoli Campaign but manages to pass his information to an American journalist.

James Martin and Carol Wall have plans to elope, but a fight with her father's solicitor ends in murder committed by an unknown third-party, and Martin is hunted for the crime, knowing the solicitor was alive when he left him. Carol refuses to speak to him, and he escapes on a ship to South Africa. There, he is the victim of an accident that disfigures his face, and he returns to England to clear his name, believing he won't be recognized. Other than by everybody who knew him, it turns out.

The life and times of the Duke of Wellington

A pair of con men in Monte Carlo attach themselves to a nouveau rich American snob with a weakness for titles...

Eccentric Cambridge archaeologist Horatio Smith takes a group of British and American archaeology students to pre-war Nazi Germany to help in his excavations. His research is supported by the Nazis, since he professes to be looking for evidence of the Aryan origins of German civilisation. However, he has a secret agenda: to free inmates of the concentration camps.

A quota quickie directed by Maclean Rogers in 1938, "Easy Riches" featured character players George Carney & Gus McNaughton as a couple of rival builders competing for the award of a big contract.

It's war time London and the Crazy Gang (Flanagan & Allen, Nervo & Knox, Naughton & Gold) are doing their bit for the war effort by running a fish and chip stall using their platoon's barrage balloon for advertising. Their Sgt Major is not happy about this and orders them to take the balloon down, but a freak heavy wind accidentally carries the gang away to Nazi Germany. They are captured and placed in a detention camp where they meet an elderly prisoner named Jerry, who possess a map for the location of a secret weapon which will win the war! Fortunately Teddy Knox's impersonation of Hitler lands him the spot of pretending to be the Fuhrer at a gala dinner and the gang are allowed out of the camp. However the Nazis have other ideas for their substitute leader.

Classic comedy starring Arthur Askey. The perils, humiliations and humour of trying to run a second-rate theatrical company are further compounded when financial aid, given by the former famous music-hall star Lady Randall (Lily Morris), is withdrawn. Not to be defeated, the stars decide the show must go on and devise a plan to persuade her to reinvest

Charters and Caldicott are touring the Middle East. After visiting Saudi Arabia they find themselves in Bagdad where they are mistaken by a group of German spies for the messengers who are to carry a song record by beautiful singer La Palermo which contains secret instructions of the German Intelligence. Realizing their error, the German spies follow Charters and Caldicott to Istanbul and Budapest, trying to eliminate them and retrieve the record.

Depressing and realistic family drama about the struggles of unemployment and poverty in 1930s Lancashire. The 20-year-old Kerr gives an emotionally charged performance as Hardcastle, one of the cotton workers trying to make life better. Interlaced with humour that brings a ray of sunshine to the pervasive bleakness, this remains a powerful social study of life between the wars, and was a rare problem picture to come out of Britain at the time.

Allied spies and Nazi Agents insinuate themselves at a Scottish cottage (converted to a wartime hospital) with interests on an inventor's nearly perfected bomb sight.

The film features 17 year old Dinah Sheridan as the daughter of the owner of a cheese factory (veteran actor Goerge Carney), who helps save her father from the action of a couple of swindlers.

A man is blackmailed into taking his brother's place in a gang for a jewellery heist.

George is an unwilling civilian during the war. When an enlisted friend switches clothes with him in order to go to a party, George finds himself mistakenly pressed into the navy, where he gets involved with pretty Ann Firth and caught up in a subplot involving German spies.

The scheming aunt and uncle of William Judd, heir to the family fortune, persuade him to pose as Napoleon at a fancy masquerade ball, but they are actually having him committed to an insane asylum. Since all the other inmates/attendees think they are historical figures such as Robin Hood, the Duke of Wellington, Paul Revere, William Tell, Salome, Robinson Crusoe, Sherlock Holmes and others, it takes a while for Judd to separate the wheat from the chaff and prove he is not deranged. His quest becomes more urgent when he falls in love with a nurse named Josephine, who does not think she is Napoleon's "Josephine" but is convinced Judd thinks he is Napoleaon.

A man assists a woman to dispose of the body of her stepfather....

A Lieutenant is wrongly accused of cowardice

The commoner is a happy cockney plumber by the name of Bert Gibbs. Bert comes into contact with the celebrated Russian movie star Ilya Myona. Desperate for publicity and aware that nobility make for good copy, Ilya persuades Bert to pose as her fiancé (with the possibility of persuading him to go through with the marriage if need be). Things are complicated by a pair of anarchic Bolsheviks, one of whom has a daughter named Lenina who knows Bert from his plumber days and is quite in love with him.

An elderly couple's lodger, a British musician (Ivor Novello), becomes the suspect in a series of killings.

Jimmy Forbes returns to England after being on the run in Australia for 20 years. He finds that his wife has gone up in the world and become wealthy. Their children know little about him but as he observes them he realises they have problems and his cunning might come to their aid.

With the police on their tail, a gang of New York criminals decided to relocate to London where they plan a major robbery on a department store.

A British man is hunted by British and German spies when he tries to sell blueprints.

A simple handyman, who also is an amateur artist, gets into trouble when the head and shoulders portraits of some prominent local females are sold without his knowledge to an advertising agency and are published with nude bodies added to them.

Old Mother Riley gets involved in a plot to steal an invention

George Shuttleworth is convinced that he has the talent to win the Isle of Man TT races, despite what his neighbours back home in Wigan may think. During the trials, the brakes go on George's bike, 'The Shuttleworth Snap', which he made himself. As a result, he breaks the TT lap record, becoming an instant motor-cycling star. As the big race approaches, George soon realises that other jealous riders will stop at nothing to make sure he does not take part in the race. An early George Formby film and probably his best.

Will Hay plays a bragging sea captain whose maritime experience actually extends to navigating a coal barge down inland waterways. His tall tales catch him out when he is co-erced into commanding an unseaworthy ship by an unscrupulous shipping agent who means to have it wrecked. This was the first film to couple Will Hay with both Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt.

Unemployed car salesman Peter is encouraged by his girlfriend Cynthia to approach the head of a petrol company with his plan for making petrol stations more attractive to customers. When the man rejects the idea Peter joins a rival company and becomes a great success.

The Toff solves the mystery of a missing employer. One of the BFi's most wanted films.

After foiling a robbery, Ben, a window cleaner is hired by Lady Barr-Nunn to guard her valuables. A comedy based on class divisions and snobbery.

Sir Duncan Craggs retires from the Colonial Service and returns to London with his new French wife. The couple are devoted to each other, but continually flirt with other people. Sir Duncan is appointed to the board of clothing retail chain. On his tour of inspection, he encounters a successful store run by the efficient Mr. Bullock. By contrast, a neighbouring shop is filled with unhelpful staff overseen by an incompetent and lazy manager, Raymond Penny, who is more interested in horseracing than running his shop. Craggs is unimpressed by Penny and summons him to a meeting in London. Both Bullock and his domineering wife travel up to London as well, fearing that Penny will tell Craggs malicious stories about them.

The story of flyer Amy Johnson the girl from Yorkshire who won the hearts of the British public in the 1930s with her record-breaking solo flights around the world. Her marriage to fellow aviator Jim Mallison was less noteworthy.