Cyril Raymond

BRIEFEST ENCOUNTERS has been quietly waiting in the wings for decades to be told. Journalist and filmmaker Joanna Crosse uncovers the hidden past of her grandfather – actor Cyril Raymond - who played the cuckolded husband in the film. In an uncanny twist of fate, Cyril had a ‘brief encounter’ with fellow actor Janet Morrison during a transatlantic stage production which resulted in a child being born out of wedlock. This documentary is where cinema myth meets lived experience. Through interviews, letters, diaries and archive material, Briefest Encounters shows how interrupted love, inherited silence and duty shaped family lives for generations. Some love stories don’t end. They echo.

After a bunch of no-hopers approaches an employment agency, the anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs, including a chimp's tea party, trying to stay sober at a wine tasting… and demolishing a house.

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.

Former OSS officer Alan Holiday, now living in London, is visited on New Year's Eve by Catherine Carrel who says she is a close friend of Jules Lemoine who served with Holiday during the war. Lemoine urgently requests that Holiday go to Paris on a secret mission. Lemoine visits and wants Alan to deliver a reel of tape which he gives him, and keeps a fake reel himself to deceive enemy agents. Lemoine is killed and the fake tape stolen. Holiday, poses as an assistant to photographer Louis Vernay, and they take three models along to further the ruse.

An innocent girl is "groomed" over the telephone, and nearly becomes the victim of an attacker.

The year is 1940 and Pilot Officer T.B. Baird arrives straight out of flight school to join a front line RAF squadron at the height of the Battle of Britain. After an unfortunate start and a drumming down from his commanding officer, Baird must balance the struggle to impress his Group Captain, regain his pride, fit in with his fellow pilots, and survive one of the most intense air battles in history.

A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing.

A new career opens for Charley Moon when, during his army service, he is detailed to appear in a unit concert. In doing so, he becomes friendly with Harold Armytage, a peacetime actor of the old school. Hearing that Charley has no job to go to when demobilized, Armytage suggests they team up as stage comics. Things are not easy; jobs are few and far between, and when they can be found they are in the tattiest of theatres, but Charley gains the experience he needs. They then decide to try their luck in London.

A new career opens for Charley Moon when, during his army service, he is detailed to appear in a unit concert. In doing so, he becomes friendly with Harold Armytage, a peacetime actor of the old school. Hearing that Charley has no job to go to when demobilized, Armytage suggests they team up as stage comics. Things are not easy; jobs are few and far between, and when they can be found they are in the tattiest of theatres, but Charley gains the experience he needs. They then decide to try their luck in London.

After a quayside mix-up with the Italian family of his fiancée, Able Seaman Knocker White finds himself literally left holding the baby. Unable to return it before his ship sails he enlists the help of best mate Puncher Roberts to smuggle the child aboard. But babies are surprisingly demanding and gradually the whole crew is drawn into helping keep it fed and washed - and undiscovered. Even so, the officers above deck start to puzzle over the increasingly strange happenings on board.

One day in the lives and loves of the staff in a large department store.

William Thorne, vicar of a small village, leads a modest life as a clergyman. Supporting his wife Vera and musically talented daughter Susan with his work, Thorne is also thoroughly devoted to his community. When he finds out that he doesn't have long to live, however, Thorne rethinks his staid existence and develops a more vibrant way of being, affecting all of those around him.

An American military officer and his wife move to a cottage in what they think is the peaceful English countryside, only to discover the area is a hotbed of spies and secret agents.

Safe cracker, Colley Dawson, is recruited to steal a list of Nazi agents from a safe in a Nazi occupied chateau in Belgium.

Jim Gay loves his racing greyhound but, out of town, he finds a dog with a better chance to win. His friends bet on his dog while he bets against.

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.

Down on their luck, a couple rent out their ship to a mysterious man looking for treasure he'd hidden during the war. Complications ensue when it turns out he's not the only one looking for it.

Somerset Maugham introduces four of his tales in this anthology film: "The Facts of Life," "The Alien Corn," "The Kite," and "The Colonel's Lady."

An African music student returns home and has to defeat the witch doctor who dominates his tribe and attempt to take them to healthier land away from disease-infestation.

The woman here is Sylvia Russell: power mad with set goals. In order to achieve those goals she is sadistically devoted to her son and daughter, able to possess and direct them. She subtly ruins her daughter's marriage by corrupting a servant girl and, then, uses her to compromise her son-in-law; slowly breaks her bumbling, unambitious husband's confidence...

A bookmaker with a fancy for detective work attempts to prevent the execution of a potentially innocent man.

Throughout the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, Mr Arthur Chipping rises from a shy, nervous teacher to the beloved, revered headmaster of Brookfield School, with his life and career shaped by his love for his wife and his unwavering dedication to his students.

A visiting American engages in a bold business promotion, the likes of which the British have not seen.

A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.

Elaine Bradford is a young singer and dancer, looking for her big break. Peter Carlton is a gossip columnist facing a deadline and a blank page. So, Peter invents "Mrs. Smythe-Smythe", a mysterious Englishwoman who spends her days hunting tigers in India, jumping out of airplanes, and generally driving men mad with her beauty. Since no one in London has ever seen Mrs. Smythe-Smythe, Elaine decides to impersonate the lady, in hopes that the publicity will land her the big break she's been looking for.

No synopsis available yet.

A drama film directed by Louis Mercanton

A young woman goes to stay at the house of Lord Lebanon, but two murders in quick succession lead to the arrival of detectives and cause the woman to fear for her life.

An engineer leads the building of a trans-Atlantic tunnel linking Britain and the United States.

A group of people in an old dark house are terrorized by a mysterious hooded figure dressed in black who proceeds to kill them off one by one.

The story, about the social interaction of a group of railway passengers who have been stranded at a remote rural station overnight who are increasingly threatened by a latent external force. Only five reels of picture and two reels of soundtrack survive.

Tony and his dance partner/wife Gaby headline a Paris musical. Tony becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Yvette. She is later murdered with the dagger used by Tony and his wife in their act, and Gaby is accused of the crime.

Eddie Smart (George Gee) was born clumsy and is a laughing stock at work, the Sprouto Hair Tonic Company. One day a phrenologist reads his 'bumps' and pronounces him another Napoleon. Eddie becomes a changed man and issues orders to everyone. Meantime the boss believes Eddie to be the rightful owner of the company so let's him have his way. With the boss ill, Eddie invests heavily in the nutmeg market, almost bankrupting the company. By luck the research department discover that nutmeg is the secret ingredient for the new hair-restorer. The 1933 British Lion comedy feature film "Strike It Rich" starring George Gee and Gina Malo seems to be a 'lost' film on the 35mm cinema film format. However it was released (sadly savagely cut) on the UK Pathescope 9.5mm home movie film format in December 1938. One musical number was cut from the 9.5mm feature film release, but issued separately in a 9.5mm Pathe Vox Review. This print has this extra item edited back in.

Charles and Barbara are a devoted couple who, in seven years' marriage, have never spent a night apart. When they come up to town for a family engagement, an urgent business appointment obliges Charles to let Barbara go on without him. Left alone and bored in the hotel, Charles agrees to accompany a man-about-town friend to a nightclub. He gets helplessly drunk among dubious company, and come the morning finds that a hangover is the least of his problems..!

Financier Sir Charles Hendra, on the brink of ruin, contemplates ending his own life. After pondering the difficult decision, Charles decides to invite twelve similarly desperate individuals to dinner so they can all discuss their problems. Will his generosity change the course of their lives?

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

A condemned man uses hypnotism on a judge. After the man's death, the judge finds himself acting like the condemned man.

Carla de Hulvea is a rumba dancer who makes news by posing as a South-American heiress. She is doing fine with her hoax until she meets American Peter Jackson, a high-pressure promoter who is looking for movie-producing money. He does some big-time bluffing on his own in order to get Carla to invest in a film he is making with his partner, Roy Harley. Through Carla, Roy meets actress Diana West, who is given a role in the movie, and Roy falls in love with her.

'Lord poses as workman to win dancer who works as waitress in her mother's tea garden.' (British Film Catalogue)

A father who deserted his family some years before returns home only to find that his wife has told his children and neighbours that he died as a hero.

A murder at a country house centres around the whereabouts of a horde of stolen diamonds and the unmasking of people who are not as they at first seem.

Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

A decadent tale of drugs and the London underworld the cosseted daughter of a respectable businessman - in fact head of a cocaine racket - succumbs to the pleasures of drink and drugs. Vivid nightlife scenes recreate the interwar world of flappers and hedonists; the dapper club owner and seedy street dealers.

An earnest young solicitor comes to Holmes just before he is arrested--for murder. He insists he had only just met the victim, and knows nothing of him, though he finds himself his sole beneficiary. But then Holmes finds a new thumb print, and the game is afoot.

A naval captain returns and jilts a socialite to take care of his bastard daughter.

The Prime Minister's wife helps acquire shares in the Suez Canal.

A fop wins a socialist's daughter by earning his living as a farm-hand.