Irene Handl
Also Known As: not available
Biography: Irene Handl (27 December 1901 – 29 November 1987) was a British character actress who appeared in more than 100 British films; she also wrote novels. Irene Handl was born in Maida Vale, London, the younger of two daughters of an Austrian-born father—Friedrich (later Frederick) Handl (1874–1961) and German mother, Marie (née Schiepp or Schuepp; 1875 – before 1924). Both of Handl's parents became naturalised British citizens. Her father came to England via Switzerland and started as a bank clerk, before becoming a stockbroker, then became a private banker. The Handls lived a comfortable middle-class life, with a German cook and housekeeper living in the family home. From 1907 to 1915, Handl attended the Paddington and Maida Vale High School. In the 1920s Handl travelled several times to New York with her father, with the ship's log listing her on each occasion as having no occupation and residing in the family home. Handl studied at an acting school run by a sister of Dame Sybil Thorndike, and then made her stage debut in London in February 1937, at the relatively advanced age of 36. In 1939, and by now an actress, she was living with her widower father in London. She continued to live with her father until his death in 1961. Her elder sister Liane (1898–1977) had married Russian electrical engineer and photographer Victor Kraminsky (born Viktor Azar'evich Kraminskii; later known as Victor Kennett; 1894–1980) in 1920 in Marylebone, Middlesex (now London). They had at least one child, a son, Charles Kennett. Handl appeared in supporting roles in more than 100 British films, mostly comedy character parts such as slightly eccentric mothers, grannies, landladies and servants. She was a passionate lover of rock and roll, especially the work of Elvis Presley, and was president of the Lewisham branch of the Elvis Presley fan club. She was also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and one of Britain's most avid champions of Chihuahuas, being inseparable from the pair that she owned. Handl had minor roles in such landmark films as Night Train to Munich and Brief Encounter. Her other notable roles included the wife of the union activist Fred Kite (played by Peter Sellers) in I'm All Right Jack (1959); Mrs Gammon, the formidable cook, opposite Gordon Harker in Small Hotel (1957); Tony Hancock's landlady in The Rebel (1961); Sherlock Holmes's housekeeper, Mrs Hudson, in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970); and Morgan's Communist mother, Mrs Delt, in Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966). She also had small roles in two of the Carry On films, Carry On Nurse and Carry On Constable), and played Miss Peach in the original version of The Italian Job. She worked until 1987, the year of her death. Her last role was released posthumously the following year. Handl died in her flat in Kensington, West London, on 29 November 1987, aged 85, reportedly from cancer. She never married. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, North London.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Maida Vale, London, England, UK
Adult: No
Birthday: December 27, 1901
Age: 123 years old
Gender: Female
Deathday: November 29, 1987
Popularity:
Known For:
The Italian Job
Overview: Charlie's got a 'job' to do. Having just left prison he finds one of his friends has attempted a high-risk job in Torino, Italy, right under the nose of the mafia. Charlie's friend doesn't get very far, so Charlie takes over the 'job'. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of Jaguars, and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal a fortune in gold and escape in the chaos.
Genres: Action Crime Comedy Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-06-02
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The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's
Overview: The fourth form monsters' latest trick is their best ever – they have burned down St Trinian’s school! As the girls stand trial, the police breathe a sigh of relief, but miraculously the judge's infatuation with a student means the school is freed. For the authorities, it means a new reign of terror as the girls of St Trinian’s regroup with gleeful anticipation.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-12-22
Popularity:
Carry On Constable
Overview: With a flu epidemic running rife, three new bumbling recruits are assigned to Inspector Mills police station. With help from Special Constable Gorse, they manage to totally wreck operations of the police force and let plenty of criminals get away, even before they arrive at the station. They all have to prove themselves or else they'll be out of a job and Sgt. Wilkins will be transferred.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-02-22
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I'm All Right Jack
Overview: Naive Stanley Windrush returns from the war, his mind set on a successful career in business. Much to his own dismay, he soon finds he has to start from the bottom and work his way up, and also that the management as well as the trade union use him as a tool in their fight for power.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-08-18
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Carlton-Browne of the F.O.
Overview: Great Britain has had an international agreement for the last 50 years with a small pacific island. It has been ignored until the death of their king brings it to the attention of the Foreign Office in Whitehall. They decide to send Cadogan de Vere Carlton-Browne to re-establish friendly relations.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-03-10
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School for Scoundrels
Overview: Hapless Henry Palfrey is patronised by his self-important chief clerk at work, ignored by restaurant waiters, conned by shady second-hand car salesmen, and, worst of all, endlessly wrong-footed by unspeakably rotten cad Raymond Delauney who has set his cap at April, new love of Palfrey's life. In desperation Henry enrolls at the College of Lifemanship to learn how to best such bounders and win the girl.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-03-24
Popularity:
Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment
Overview: Morgan, an aggressive and self-admitted dreamer, a fantasist who uses his flights of fancy as refuge from external reality, where his unconventional behavior lands him in a divorce from his wife, Leonie, trouble with the police and, ultimately, incarceration in a lunatic asylum.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-04-03
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On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
Overview: Daisy Gamble, an unusual woman who hears phones before they ring, and does wonders with her flowers, wants to quit smoking to please her fiancé, Warren. She goes to a doctor of hypnosis to do it. But once she's under, her doctor finds out that she can regress into past lives and different personalities, and he finds himself falling in love with one of them.
Genres: Fantasy Romance Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-06-17
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The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Overview: A rather incoherent post-breakup Sex Pistols "documentary", told from the point of view of Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, whose (arguable) position is that the Sex Pistols in particular and punk rock in general were an elaborate scam perpetrated by him in order to make "a million pounds."
Genres: Comedy Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-09-11
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Wonderwall
Overview: The eccentric professor Collins lives completely secluded in his chaotic apartment. When the model Penny moves in next to him, he becomes fascinated by her. He drills holes in her walls and ceiling and peeps on her day and night. He loses himself in daydreams and delusions.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-05-17
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Stage Fright
Overview: A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-02-23
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The Mini-Affair
Overview: A leading pop star is kidnapped in swinging London.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-01-01
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No Kidding
Overview: A young couple, David and Catherine Robinson, has to turn their large country house into a money-making proposition. Their solution is to invite the kids of the rich and famous to spend a summer enjoying all the loving care and attention they miss at home. After the youngsters arrive, David quickly realizes what the offensive little punks need is some real discipline, and so the summer begins.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-11-01
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Uncensored
Overview: During the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War II, a Belgian resistance group revives the newspaper "La Libre Belgique" to expose and counter Nazi propaganda efforts to deceive the people. They are so effective that the Nazis offer a reward for the capture of the paper's staff, although they don't know their identities. One of them is a well-known entertainer, and when his jealous partner hears of the reward, he turns him in. The paper's publishers escape capture, but their staff doesn't. The paper's founders must find not only a way to keep from getting captured by the Nazis but keep their newspaper going and get their staff released.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-08-24
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It's Your Move
Overview: A silent slapstick comedy depicting the travails of young couple moving into a new home, who hire an accident-prone firm of house removers, headed by Sykes. It features an all-star cast including Tommy Cooper, Bernard Cribbins, Jimmy Edwards, Irene Handl, Bob Todd and Andrew Sachs.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-10-18
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Come Play with Me
Overview: Two alluring young ladies live with their beautiful widowed aunt on a secluded wooded estate. The women have earned themselves quite a reputation in the surrounding towns and men from all over the region are frequent visitors to the small countryside home, hoping to encounter one, or preferably both, of the seductive nieces. Of course, the aunt has equally strong desires and refuses to be outdone. Soon all three are offering the many courters the chance to Come Play with Me!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-04-28
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Stand up, Virgin Soldiers
Overview: Some British soldiers in Singapore are more concerned with finding sex than finding Communists.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-04-04
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The Perfect Woman
Overview: In need of cash, Roger Cavendish and his valet take a job escorting the perfect woman for a night on the town. She is in fact the robotic creation of Professor Belman, but it turns out rather to be the Professor's niece Penelope doing a pretty good imitation of the perfect Olga who winds up with them in the bridal suite at the Hotel Splendide.
Genres: Comedy Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-05-23
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A Weekend with Lulu
Overview: Fred, Tim and Deirdre plan a fun weekend break on the coast. What they didn't make allowances for was the company of Deirdre's mother who insists on coming along as her daughter's chaperone.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-04-10
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Top Secret
Overview: A British Sanitary Engineer, goes on holiday with a set of plans for a new secret weapon which he has mistaken for his new plumbing invention. Everyone is hunting for him, including the Russians. The Russians find him and offer him a job in the Kremlin doing research (on plumbing he believes). He accepts, arrives in Russia and falls in love with Tania, a secret agent. And then discovers the true nature of the plans he is carrying...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-11-10
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Silent Dust
Overview: A wealthy blind man is determined to build a cricket pavilion as a memorial to his dead son, who was killed in battle in World War II. Not long before the dedication ceremony is to be held, the son shows up; it turns out that he wasn't killed in battle but deserted, and has become a blackmailer and a killer. He wants to get some money to "start a new life", but his blind father senses that something is wrong and sets out to find out what's going on.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-02-01
Popularity:
For You Alone
Overview: Wartime romantic melodrama, suggested by a popular song of the same title, with a young woman torn between her love for a naval officer and duty to an injured admirer.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-05-28
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The Night We Got the Bird
Overview: Good natured comic caper charting the misadventures of a hapless bunch of Brighton based petty crooks dogged with disaster at every turn.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-11-03
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Mr. Emmanuel
Overview: An elderly Jewish man from Manchester, travels to Nazi Germany to seek the mother of a young German refugee that has attempted suicide. In Germany, Mr. Emmanuel’s efforts to seek out Hertha Rosenhein are greeted by a wall of silence from the scared Jewish community and anti-Semitic hatred from many Germans.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-08-02
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Watch It, Sailor!
Overview: Sailor Albert gets a message from the Navy saying he can't marry for certain unexplained legal reasons. Everyone, including his domineering mother-in-law to be, jumps to the conclusion that there must be another woman involved.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-08-14
Popularity:
Give Us the Moon
Overview: Set just after the end of WWII (but filmed in the middle of it) in a time of general euphoria at having won the war, with full employment and general happiness for all (or nearly all). Peter, the young wastrel son of a hard working hotel owner doesn't like the idea of having to work for a living. He discovers a society of "White Elephants" who are quite willing to be poor as long as they don't have to work. They are protected and guided by Nina (Margaret Lockwood) and her precocious sister Heidi (Jean Simmons).
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-07-31
Popularity:
Cardboard Cavalier
Overview: Cardboard Cavalier is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Sid Field, Margaret Lockwood and Jerry Desmonde.The film depicts a historical romance between Lord Lovelace and Nell Gwyne.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-03-31
Popularity:
Heavens Above!
Overview: A naive but caring prison chaplain, who happens to have the same last name as an upper class cleric, is by mistake appointed as vicar to a small and prosperous country town. His belief in charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the conservative and narrow-minded locals, and he soon creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a gypsy family, and persuading the local landowner to provide free food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town. When the congregation leaders realise the mistake and call for the Church of England to remove him, this turns out to be a very, very difficult issue - until one clergyman realises that a British project to send a man into space is in need of an astronaut...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-05-20
Popularity:
The Shop at Sly Corner
Overview: The French owner of an antique shop, Desius Heiss, (Oskar Homolka) has become disillusioned with society since his torture as a prisoner on Devil's Island, since when he has allowed his shop to become a front for criminal activity, and he himself is a receiver of stolen goods.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-03-10
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For the Love of Ada
Overview: Walter and Ada Bingley are celebrating their first wedding anniversary unaware that their friends and family are planning a surprise party for them.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-01-01
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Adventures of a Private Eye
Overview: While a private detective is away on vacation, his not particularly bright assistant takes it upon himself to "solve" a case that comes in. Complications ensue.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-03-04
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Happy Is the Bride
Overview: In a quiet summer corner of Wiltshire that is forever England, David and Janet decide to tie the knot. Unfortunately this is the cue for everyone else to take over proceedings, to the dismay of the couple and the increasing despair of Janet's father.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-03-04
Popularity:
You Must Be Joking
Overview: A motley group of soldiers are set loose on swinging England in an initiative test to collect a selection of esoteric items.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-08-03
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The Importance of Being Earnest
Overview: TV adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play. Jack pretends to be his foolish younger brother, Ernest in order to be a model of moral rectitude to his young ward, Cecily. And he intends to propose to Gwendolyn--that is until he discovers that she loves him because his name is Ernest.
Genres: Comedy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-11-15
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I'll Turn to You
Overview: When a soldier returns from the Far East after the war, he and his wife have to adjust to life at home.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-06-17
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A Kid for Two Farthings
Overview: Joe is a young boy who lives with his mother, Joanna, in working-class London. The two reside above the tailor shop of Mr. Kandinsky, who likes to tell Joe stories. When Kandinsky informs Joe that a unicorn can grant wishes, the hopeful lad ends up buying a baby goat with one tiny horn, believing it to be a real unicorn. Undaunted by his rough surroundings, Joe sets about to prove that wishes can come true.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-08-15
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Two Way Stretch
Overview: Three criminals plan to break out of prison the day before their release in order to carry out a daring jewel robbery, intending to establish the perfect alibi by returning to jail afterwards. First however they must get out, a task made more difficult by a new, stricter prison officer.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-12-20
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Left Right and Centre
Overview: At the Earndale by-election natural history expert and TV personality Bob Wilcot for the Conservatives finds himself up against Billingsgate girl Stella Stoker for the socialists. Amateur politician against committed activist. But could it become boy-who-fancies-girl against girl-who-fancies-boy? The party agents are soon colluding against such a disaster.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-06-23
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Temptation Harbour
Overview: The story of a harbor signalman who retrieves a suitcase full of money after witnessing a murder, fails to report it to the police, and finds himself the object of murderous and mercenary interest.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-02-27
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Kiss the Bride Goodbye
Overview: Working-class girl Joan Dodd's plan to marry Jack Fowler is thwarted when her mother Gladys interferes. Hoping to improve her daughter's social status, Gladys arranges for Joan to wed her boss Adolphus Pickering while Jack is away at war. Jack arrives home to discover his love is engaged to another man. Who will Joan decide to marry?
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-01-28
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On the Night of the Fire
Overview: A barber gives in to temptation and steals some money, leading to blackmail and murder.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-10-26
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George and Margaret
Overview: The Frictions of a suburban family come to boiling point.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-11-30
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Strange Boarders
Overview: Pre-war intelligence man Tommy Blythe interrupts his honeymoon to investigate the discovery of vital Air Ministry blueprints on a woman killed in a London road accident. The trail leads to a boarding house in Notting Hill and its varied tenants.
Genres: Thriller Mystery Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-05-01
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The Flemish Farm
Overview: Wartime commando story based on fact. Allied airman risks return (on the ground) to occupied France for the honour of his regiment.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-09-06
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Make Mine Mink
Overview: In a mansion block in Knightsbridge, a gang of middle-aged biddies decide to brighten up "the dullness of the tea time of life" by staging a series of robberies on furriers, then donating the proceeds to charitable concerns. Terry Thomas as a retired army officer leads the gang, which includes Athene Seyler and Hattie Jacques, on a series of capers that nearly go awry when their maid, Billie Whitelaw, an ex-con and also a resident of the block, falls for a police officer.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-08-09
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Desert Mice
Overview: A World War II farce that follows the antics of an ENSA (Entertainment National Service Association) group. Fresh from the music halls, they bumble their way from army camp to camp.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-01-05
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For Them That Trespass
Overview: In this drama, a frustrated upper-class writer decides that he will find real inspiration by examining his subjects first-hand. This leads him to begin wandering about the seamiest side of town where he witnesses a murder. When an innocent man is arrested, the writer refuses to assist him as the knowledge that he has been "slumming" could destroy his career. The young man is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-04-21
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Double Bunk
Overview: When newly weds Jack and Peggy face eviction, they are tricked into buying a run down houseboat. After rebuilding the engine, they take their friends Sid and Sandra, on a local trip down the river to Folkestone, but somehow they end up in France, and with no fuel and supplies, they resort to desperate actions to get back home.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-05-06
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Nothing Barred
Overview: Penniless Lord Whitebait's plan to save his sinking fortunes is to open stately Whitebait Manor to the public. But the public ignores his gesture, and his fortunes fade even further, with a stream of debts threatening to run into a deluge when his daughter's fiancé demands a plush and costly wedding. Where is the cash to come from? Whitebait and his servant Spankforth's answer is a scam involving the theft of a valuable painting from the Manor. How could such a cunningly original ruse fail?
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-10-10
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Inn for Trouble
Overview: Peggy Mount and David Kossoff star as Ada and Alf Larkin in this big screen version of the hugely popular 1950s TV comedy. Alf Larkin has finally made good his dream to own a pub. The trouble is, it's got no customers. But leave it to the Larkins to find unorthodox ways to bring in the punters.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-01-31
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Girl in the News
Overview: An elderly lady manages to sneak some pills away from her nurse and dies of an overdose. The nurse is tried for murder and acquitted. Some time later the nurse, under a new name and identity, cares for a patient who also dies of an overdose. When her real identity comes out, suspicions arouses.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-08-28
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Small Hotel
Overview: The dining room of the Jolly Fiddler has long been presided over by Albert, an aged but very shrewd waiter. A past master of the gentle art of fiddling, he extracts the maximum profit from his job while managing to endear himself to both the customers and staff. Then, there's a visit from Mr Finch, who feels it's time Albert was replaced.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-10-14
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Next to No Time
Overview: Unassuming planning engineer David Webb finds himself on the Queen Elizabeth to New York with instructions to negotiate a high-powered loan. His lack of confidence means he is completely out of his depth, at least until he finds his personality changes every day during the hour the ship's clocks stop to make allowance for their westward passage.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-08-04
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Law and Disorder
Overview: When Percy Brand, a habitual confidence trickster, keeps being sent down, he goes to great lengths to ensure that his son Colin, does not find out about his criminal past. But when Colin becomes an assistant to the Judge, who is about to try Percy for his latest escapade, Percy and his gang have to come up with a plan, to stop them meeting in court.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-06-09
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Mrs Pym of Scotland Yard
Overview: An eccentric woman detective investigates the murders of several people who visited the same medium.
Genres: Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-04-13
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Doctor in Love
Overview: Doctors Burke and Hare leave the confines of St Swithins for the world of general practice, stopping off on the way as patients at the Foulness Anti-cold Unit. Hare then takes up a position as junior in a well-healed G.P.'s surgery while Burke continues to sow his doctorial wild oats.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-07-12
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Rhythm Serenade
Overview: Patriotic musical romance. After her school is closed, teacher Ann tries to join up. However, she is persuaded to organise a nursery for a munitions factory.
Genres: Romance Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-10-11
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Brief Encounter
Overview: Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-11-24
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The Rebel
Overview: Anthony Hancock gives up his office job to become an abstract artist. He has a lot of enthusiasm, but little talent, and critics scorn his work. Nevertheless, he impresses an emerging very talented artist. Hancock proceeds to con the art world into thinking he is a genius.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-03-07
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Carry On Nurse
Overview: In Haven Hospital, a certain men's ward is causing more havoc than the whole hospital altogether. The formidable Matron's debut gives everyone a chill every time she walks past, with only Reckitt standing up to her. There's a colonel who's a constant nuisance, a bumbling nurse, a romance between Ted York and Nurse Denton, and Bell wants his bunion removed straight away, so after a couple of pints, the men decide to remove the bunion themselves!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-01-30
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It's in the Bag
Overview: Gert and Daisy attempt to retrieve an old dress containing £2,000. They have to impersonate two thespians, and bring all sorts of trouble to a stage-play.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-02-07
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Lionheart
Overview: A lion escapes from a circus but is rescued and protected by a young boy.
Genres: Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-01-01
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The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
Overview: Holmes and Dr. Watson take on the case of a beautiful woman whose husband has vanished. The investigation proves strange indeed, involving six missing midgets, villainous monks, a Scottish castle, the Loch Ness monster, and covert naval experiments.
Genres: Mystery Comedy Crime Adventure History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-10-29
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The Wrong Box
Overview: In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other—or can be made to have seemed to do so.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-06-19
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The Spell of Amy Nugent
Overview: A young man's fiancé dies after contracting a terminal illness, and in his efforts to contact her he gets involved with a group of spiritualists.
Genres: Horror Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-05-10
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Room to Let
Overview: Smoke bombs fail to dislodge an old busker who has taken over the kids' headquarters, an abandoned circus caravan. One of Magpie's hidden treasures, a half-eaten fish, finally drives him out.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-01-01
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Absolute Beginners
Overview: A musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes' novel about life in late 1950s London. Nineteen-year-old photographer Colin is hopelessly in love with model Crepe Suzette, but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world. So Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time. Meanwhile, racial tension is brewing in Colin's Notting Hill housing estate...
Genres: Drama Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-04-04
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Mr. Proudfoot Shows a Light
Overview: Humorously using the arrogant and bumbling Mr. Proudfoot, this film serves a dual purpose of emphasizing the importance of obeying blackout hours, as well as easing the stress of the time period by encouraging laughter.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-12-30
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Gasbags
Overview: 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.
Genres: War Adventure Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-02-01
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'Pimpernel' Smith
Overview: 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.
Genres: Adventure Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-07-28
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Medal for the General
Overview: A retired general helps out by sheltering some evacuees during WWII.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-11-06
Popularity:
I'll Walk Beside You
Overview: John meets Ann at a music shop where she works. Love blossoms briefly before John is called away to serve on his naval ship. John suffers severe memory loss when his ship is sunk and Ann believing John is dead throws herself into nursing - will they ever meet again?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-08-16
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Smashing Time
Overview: Two young women arrive in London to make it big in show business, and become corrupted by money and fame in the process.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-12-20
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Doctor in Trouble
Overview: Dr. Burke is in love with Ophelia but doesn't have time to propose to her as she leaves for a cruise to the Mediterranean. Also on board the cruise ship is an old school chum of Burke's who plays 'Dr.Dare' in a very popular TV series and who women flock to. Burke decides to join the cruise, but is first apprehended as a stowaway, and then becomes the captain's steward. For Burke, trying to talk to Ophelia is a hard enough task, but he meets some funny characters on board, such as a pools winner and a very stubborn captain.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-06-16
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The Key
Overview: In wartime England, circa 1941, poorly-armed tugs are sent into "U-Boat Alley" to rescue damaged Allied ships. An American named David Ross arrives to captain one of these tugs. He's given a key by a fellow tugboat-man -- a key to an apartment and its pretty female resident. Should something happen to the friend, Ross can use the key.
Genres: Drama Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-05-28
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Millions Like Us
Overview: When Celia Crowson is called up for war service, she hopes for a glamorous job in one of the services, but as a single girl, she is directed into a factory making aircraft parts. Here she meets other girls from all different walks of life and begins a relationship with a young airman.
Genres: Drama War Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-06-01
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Hotel du Lac
Overview: Romantic novelist Edith Hope so horrifies her friends that they banish her to the solitude of a Swiss hotel. She decides to work out her exile by observing her fellow guests.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-03-02
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Treasure Hunt
Overview: Short of money the owners of Ballyroden Hall must attempt to run it as a guest house, but not everyone is happy about the plan.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-06-01
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The Hound of the Baskervilles
Overview: The death of Sir Charles Baskerville is blamed on a curse that has followed the Baskerville family for two hundred years. Sherlock Holmes is out to uncover the truth about a hound who roams the moors, waiting to attack the heir to the Baskerville estate.
Genres: Comedy Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-08-01
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The Belles of St. Trinian's
Overview: The unruly schoolgirls of St Trinian's are more interested in men and mischief than homework and hockey. But greater trouble than ever beckons when the arrival at the school of Princess Fatima of Makyad coincides with the return of recently expelled Arabella Fritton, who has the kidnap of a prize racehorse on her mind. The first film in the classic comedy series.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-09-28
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The Light Princess
Overview: Based on a short story by George MacDonald, a princess experiences constant weightlessness.
Genres: Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-12-24
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Riding High
Overview: Riding High is a 1981 British drama film directed by Ross Cramer and starring Eddie Kidd, Irene Handl and Murray Salem. The screenplay concerns a bored young motorcycle messenger who begins training to take part in a major competition.
Genres: Action Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-05-01
Popularity:
Mad About Men
Overview: Flirtatious mermaid Miranda swaps places with a schoolteacher who has gone on holiday. All is well until she falls in love with a human.
Genres: Fantasy Drama Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-11-16
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Partners in Crime
Overview: A parallel is drawn between a housewife's dealings with her butcher, and a burglar and his fence (receiver).
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-06-02
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Get Cracking
Overview: Get Cracking is a 1943 British comedy war film, directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Dinah Sheridan, Ronald Shiner and George Formby. It was produced by Marcel Varnel, Ben Henry and Columbia (British) Productions. This comedy explores the wayward rivalry between mechanic and Home Guard Lance Corporal George Singleton (George Formby) and an adversary also in the Home Guard (Ronald Shiner). When the rival Home Guard units of Major Wallop and Minor Wallop are sent on battle manoeuvres, George Singleton (Formby) launches his own unique style of commando raid against neighbouring Major Wallop to steal a Vickers machine gun. The raid fails and Singleton loses his Lance Corporal's stripe, so he and a little evacuee girl named Irene (Vera Frances) decide to fall back on 'Plan B' - to build their very own tank.
Genres: Comedy War Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-05-17
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Burnt Evidence
Overview: Duncan Lamont plays Jane Hylton's jealous husband. In a confrontation, Lamont accidentally shoots Hylton's lover. Convinced that he's a murderer, he heads for the hills as a police hunt begins... Classic British thriller from the creator of Dixon Of Dock Green.
Genres: Crime Mystery Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-07-05
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The Weak and the Wicked
Overview: Jean Raymond an upper class woman with a gambling addiction, is given a twelve-month prison sentence resulting from her inability to pay her debts. At first she is overwhelmingly depressed by life in the women's prison; gradually, however, her misery is relieved by the many close friends she makes there. This sympathetic drama traces the contrasting lives and often faltering progress of the inmates of a women's prison.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-02-02
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Brothers in Law
Overview: Roger Thursby is an overly keen, newly-qualified barrister who rubs his fellow barristers up the wrong way. When he is thrown in at the deep-end, with a particularly hot-tempered judge and tricky case, Thursby learns how to prove himself not only to the judge and fellow barristers but also to the public gallery.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-03-04
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The Crowning Touch
Overview: Several stories linked by a hat.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-06-01
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The Silken Affair
Overview: An accountant who is creative with his firm's books uses the money to fund a romantic spree.
Genres: Comedy Crime Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-10-02
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It's Never Too Late
Overview: To Laura Hammond's large family, she is simply the mother who makes all their lives run more smoothly. But although they don’t know it, she is a very successful novelist and when her screenplay comes to the attention of a Hollywood producer, Laura is suddenly plunged into the big time.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-05-07
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The Terror
Overview: For ten years, The Terror has laughed at both police and public. And for ten years, two of his erstwhile associates, Joe Conner and 'Soapy' Marks, have plotted revenge on the mastermind whose double-crossing sent them to Dartmoor prison without their share of the bullion stolen in a daring raid.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-05-02
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The Night We Dropped a Clanger
Overview: The movie takes place during WWII. A dashing British RAF Officer is earmarked for a secret mission behind enemy lines in occupied France, but wishing to distract the enemy, enlists a person to double for him and thereby draw attention to North Africa . An unlikely airman is found and tutored in the ways of an English officer.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-10-10
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The Wedding of Lilli Marlene
Overview: The story leading up to the wedding of Lilli Marlene.
Genres: Comedy Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-11-30
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The Hills of Donegal
Overview: Eileen Hannay (Dinah Sheridan) is the singing star of an Irish operatic society but gives up to marry Terry O'Keefe (John Bentley).
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-09-01
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Night Train to Munich
Overview: Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, inventor Axel Bomasch manages to flee and reach England; but those who need to put his knowledge at the service of the Nazi war machine, in order to carry out their evil plans of destruction, will stop at nothing to capture him.
Genres: Drama Thriller War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-08-31
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Great Day
Overview: An impending V.I.P. visit causes bustle in an English village, while the Ellis family struggles with private problems.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-07-09
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Just for Fun
Overview: When the government cuts the quota of musical programs permitted on television, teenagers Mark and Cherry lead others youngsters in forming their own political party.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-02-01
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English Without Tears
Overview: While Lady Christabel Beauclark, a bird fancier, is scurrying about demanding certain territorial rights for British birds from other countries, Her Ladyship's niece is falling in love with the family butler, Tom Gilbey. The birds are forgotten when war breaks out, and Gilbey now finds himself in love with the niece whose love was previously unrequited. Written by Les Adams
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-07-28
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Woman Hater
Overview: A confirmed bachelor and a woman who claims to hate men get together and find romance.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-10-13
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The Last Remake of Beau Geste
Overview: Digby Geste joins his brother, Beau, in the Foreign Legion following the theft of a priceless family heirloom.
Genres: Adventure Action Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-06-15
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Confessions of a Driving Instructor
Overview: Timothy Lea and his brother-in-law Sidney decide upon opening a driving school as their latest get-rich-quick scheme. Though he sincerely wants to teach, young Timmy finds that his female students are far more interested in keeping their eyes on him than on the road.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-09-01
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Dark Secret
Overview: A young couple move into a charming rural cottage. They become fixated upon the mysterious death of the earlier female occupant.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-10-30
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Adam and Evelyne
Overview: A handsome gambler unwittingly becomes guardian of an orphaned, teenaged girl.
Genres: Romance Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-05-31
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Upstairs and Downstairs
Overview: On marrying the boss's daughter, Richard takes his father-in-law's advice to hire a live-in domestic. He soon finds good help is hard to come by. Run-ins follow with dipsomaniacs, bank robbers, a Welsh lass who takes one look at London and runs, and an Italian charmer who turns the place into a bawdy house. Then when Ingrid arrives from Sweden things actually start to get complicated.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-11-02
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Who Done It?
Overview: This movie debut for saucy British TV comic Benny Hill has Benny leaving his job as a sweeper after winning some money. He becomes a private detective and investigates a plot to assassinate British scientists.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-03-20
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Meet Mr. Lucifer
Overview: A TV set given as a retirement present is sold on to different households causing misery each time.
Genres: Fantasy Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-11-30
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A French Mistress
Overview: The boys of Melbury Primary School are plunged into turmoil when the new French Master turns out to be a Mistress! Madelin Leforge's (the French Mistress) effect on the boys is swift and amazing. Suddenly everyone wants extra French Lessons just to glimpse the teacher in revealing shorts and bikinis. As discipline crumbles, a scandal explodes when the Head discovers the mademoiselle's mother was an old flame. Madeline must be dismissed to save further embarrassments.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-08-25
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Look at Life: Saturday Special
Overview: Behind the scenes with the Children's Film Foundation, including the making of Lionheart.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-01-01
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One Wild Oat
Overview: A lawyer's plan to break up his daughter's budding romance backfires when the boyfriend's father becomes involved.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-05-16
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