Leslie Arliss

Writer

October 6, 1901 (86 years)

† December 30, 1987

London, England

Biography

A British director and screenwriter born in London. He began his career as a journalist and entered the film industry as a screenwriter in the 1920s. In 1941, he became a director at British Associated Producers and later took charge of Gainsborough Pictures. Subsequently, he also worked for British Lion Films, founded by Alexander Korda. His notable works include *Eyes of the Night* (1942), *The Perfidy* (1943), and *The Bandit Queen* (1945), among others.

Filmography

6.8

The Adventures of William Tell

The Adventures of William Tell is a British swashbuckler adventure series, first broadcast on the ITV network in 1958, and produced by ITC Entertainment.

5.0

The Wicked Lady

Caroline is to be wed to Sir Ralph and invites her sister Barbara to be her bridesmaid. Barbara seduces Ralph, however, and she becomes the new Lady, but despite her new wealthy situation, she gets bored and turns to highway robbery for thrills. While on the road she meets a famous highwayman, and they continue as a team, but some people begin suspecting her identity, and she risks death if she continues her nefarious activities.

6.1

The Man in Grey

After marrying a dour and disinterested lord for status, a young woman falls in love with a stage actor while her best friend from boarding school enters an affair with her husband.

7.5

Rhodes of Africa

Rhodes of Africa is a 1936 British biographical film charting the life of Cecil Rhodes. It was directed by Berthold Viertel and starred Walter Huston, Oskar Homolka, Basil Sydney and Bernard Lee.

5.7

The Farmer's Wife

Successful middle-aged farmer Samuel Sweetland becomes widowed, then his daughter marries and leaves home. Deciding he wishes to remarry, Sweetland pursues some local women he considers prospects.

5.6

The Saint Meets the Tiger

A man murdered at the Saint's doorstep manages to utter a few words to Simon Templar before he dies, sending him off to the quaint resort village of Baycombe where he confronts crime mastermind 'The Tiger' and his gang as they plan to smuggle gold bullion out of the country.

6.3

The Wicked Lady

A married woman finds new thrills as a masked robber on the highways.

7.5

Windbag the Sailor

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.

N/A

Orders Is Orders

A brash American movie producer arrives at an army base in England wanting to shoot a movie and use the soldiers as extras. The base commander doesn't want any part of it, but the producer and his secretary cook up a scheme to trick the officer into letting him use the base and its men. Their plan succeeds, but things don't turn out quite the way they were expecting.

4.0

My Old Dutch

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.

10.0

Heat Wave

Musical comedy telling the hilarious story of greengrocer Albert Speed’s (Albert Burdon) adventures with would-be revolutionaries in a mythical South American banana republic. He becomes mistaken for a gun-runner, and problems arise when Albert begins using the names of vegetables as code words for weapons and ammunition that they are smuggling! Albert saves not only his own skin, but also those of the Presidente and his attractive daughter.

6.0

Come on George!

George Formby, who plays George, a stable boy. He also has the unique ability to soothe an anxious racing horse. Expectedly, George races the horse and wins

6.5

Love Story

After discovering that she has only a short time left to live, concert pianist Lissa travels to Cornwall for the final fling of her life. While there, she falls in love with young mineral prospector Kit, a man whose dark secret prevents him from fighting in the War. Unbeknownst to Lissa, however, Kit's affections are also much in demand from a rival of hers.

8.0

Pastor Hall

The village of Altdorf has to come to terms with Chancellor Hitler and the arrival of a platoon of Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers go about teaching and enforcing "The New Order", but Pastor Hall, a kind and gentle man, won't be cowed. Some villagers join the Nazi party avidly, and some just go along with things, hoping for a quiet life, but Pastor Hall takes his convictions to the pulpit.

7.1

Where There's a Will

Will Hay plays the pennyless, bungling solicitor Benjamin Stubbins, who arrives at his office to find his insolent office boy (Graham Moffatt) with his feet up on the desk, reading a wild west magazine, which Hay confiscates so that he can read it later. Stubbins later takes a job from a group of Americans who claim they want him to track down some ancestors of theirs in Scotland. In reality however they want to use his office so they can rob a safe in the room immediately below his office. Stubbins takes the job (which is designed to keep him out of the office). In the end Stubbins realises his mistake and at a Christmas Eve fancy dress party he informs a group of carol singing policeman about the Americans nefarious activities

6.6

The Foreman Went to France

Based on the true story of Melbourne Johns, an aircraft factory foreman sent to France to prevent the Nazis getting hold of some vital equipment.

7.0

The Farmer's Wife

Eden Philpotts' "provincial" comic novel and play The Farmer's Wife was first filmed in the silent era by Alfred Hitchcock. The 1940 talkie version was directed by Leslie Arliss, son of stage star George Arliss. The story remained the same: A middle-aged widower attempts to select a wife from his rural district's eligible females (Basil Sydney). Three unsuccessful dalliances later, the farmer settles for his housekeeper, whom the audience has been rooting for all along. The Farmer's Wife is a prime example of the sort of fare that struck a proper chord with British filmgoers, but whose appeal would be lost to any other nationality.

7.3

Saints and Sinners

What happens to the saints and sinners of a small Irish village on the day the world is supposed to end.

6.7

The Night Has Eyes

Two teachers, man-hungry Doris and restrained Marian, visit the Yorkshire moors a year after friend Evelyn disappeared there. On a stormy night, they take refuge in the isolated cottage of Stephen, one-time pianist shell-shocked in the Spanish Civil War. Doris flees as soon as the flood subsides; but Marian's suspicions about Evelyn's fate, in conflict with her growing love for Stephen, prompt her to stay on among the misty bogs.

6.7

South American George

To help out his exact double, George Formby (in a dual role) takes the place of a noted South American tenor. This way he can help the opera star fulfill contract obligations and also win the heart of the man's lovely press agent, Linden Travers.