
Writing
Rodney Ackland
Born 1908-05-18 · Southend, Essex, England, UK
Acting credits
Behind the camera
5.5A gang of jewel thieves hides out in an abandoned London house after a robbery, unaware that a detective is among them in disguise.
Number Seventeen
1932
NRVillage romance and gossip collide amongst the West Country fisherfolk of Yellow Sands, as the Varwell family gathers to celebrate the birthday of their aging matriarch, Jennifer. Apart from her Communist nephew, faithful companion and sozzled brother, everyone pays their homage with one eye towards shoring up their expected inheritances - but Jennifer may have her own ideas when she finally makes out her will.
Yellow Sands
1938
6.0Black comedy set in Soho, London, right after World War II. Half of the fun is seeing a slew of very familiar faces kick up their heels as gay men, lesbians, party-girls, drunks, and drag queens. Originally aired as part of the anthology series "Performance."
Absolute Hell
1991
6.5A czarist captain stops at nothing to learn the secrets of a countess rumored to have sold her soul to the devil in order to always win at cards.
The Queen of Spades
1949
7.0The Frictions of a suburban family come to boiling point.
George and Margaret
1940
6.4The son of a notorious hangman is gradually becoming insane and he finds himself unable to resist the urge to strangle women to death.
Wanted for Murder
1946
5.4The 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.
Temptation Harbour
1947
6.9Charts the events occurring during a typical 24-hour period on London’s thoroughfare Bond Street. Linking the four stories together is the impending wedding of society girl Hazel Court and Robert Flemyng.
Bond Street
1948
6.8Stefan Radetzky, a Polish pilot and famous concert pianist, is hospitalised in England from injuries sustained while in combat, and having lost his memory. As Radetzky plays the piano in a trance-like state, the story moves back in time to war-torn Warsaw. During an air-raid, Radetzky meets American journalist Carole, and there is a mutual attraction. Following the fall of Poland, Radetzky and Irish pilot, Mike, escape to Rumania and then on to America. Radetzky continues his musical career in America and meets up again with Carole.
Dangerous Moonlight
1941
6.2A 1930s British summer Bank Holiday starts at midday on Saturday with a rush for the trains to the seaside. Doreen and Milly are off to a beauty contest, Geoffrey and Catherine are having an illicit weekend in the Grand Hotel and May and the kids are set for a more straightforward holiday of sea, sand, and pub. Meanwhile, the manager and performers on the pier are praying for rain.
Bank Holiday
1938
7.0Two evacuee children living in the United States receive a letter from their mother, Mrs Taylor, telling them of her life in Blitz-era London. Glimpses of the events of Mrs Taylor's typical day, including ration shopping and fire warden training, belie the letter's innocuous statements.
Letter from Home
1941
9.0During 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.
Uncensored
1942
6.4An aristocrat falls in love with a human cannonball
Young Man's Fancy
1939
9.0Secret agents try to defeat terrorists on the Orient Express.
The Silent Battle
1939
10.0The estranged son of a newspaper owner returns to his father's good favour by unmasking a gang of criminals.
Shadows
1931
4.0Two sisters encounter a German spy. A public service film showing how to thwart the enemy.
Miss Grant Goes to the Door
1940
6.3In pre-Second World War England, a leading film star and his wife attempt to recover a secret carburetor stolen by enemy agents. Based on a popular stage musical starring Hulbert and Courtneidge, a husband-and-wife team who had made a series of successful comedy films during the 1930s.
Under Your Hat
1940
5.8A couple's little girl becomes a movie star, but all it seems to bring is trouble.
Thursday's Child
1943
5.8A couple's little girl becomes a movie star, but all it seems to bring is trouble.
Thursday's Child
1943
"What a life for a couple of nudes!" Two dancers find a new way of doing their bit for the boys in this frothy wartime propaganda short. Lord Kitchener's famous finger persuades Joan and Ireen, dancers in a 'Non Stop Nudes' revue (not that we see anything that warrants that title), to make a radical career change. Swapping their skimpy costumes for dowdy munitions factory overalls, they join a growing domestic army of women keeping the machines rolling. Belfast-born Brian Desmond Hurst was essentially a feature film director, whose best-remembered work is the Dickens adaptation Scrooge, but whose credits also included the war films Dangerous Moonlight (1941) and The Malta Story (1953). The Call for Arms was one of three propaganda shorts he made between 1940 and 1941, the most memorable being Miss Grant Goes to the Door, in which a pair of village spinsters outwit a Nazi paratrooper.
A Call for Arms!
1940
A landlady changes her resentful attitude to her lodger when she realises the value of his work in a munitions factory.
Lady Be Kind
1942

