Jessie Matthews

Acting

Jessie Matthews

Born 1907-03-11 · London, England, UK

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jessie Matthews, OBE (11 March 1907 – 19 August 1981) was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1920s and 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period. After a string of hit stage musicals and films in the mid-1930s, Matthews developed a following in the USA, where she was dubbed "The Dancing Divinity". Her British studio was reluctant to let go of its biggest name, which resulted in offers for her to work in Hollywood being repeatedly rejected. Matthews' first major film role was in Out of the Blue (1931). She was in two films directed by Albert de Courville, The Midshipmaid (1932) and There Goes the Bride (1932). Matthews enjoyed great success with The Good Companions (1933) directed by Victor Saville, although it was more of an ensemble film and The Man from Toronto (1933). Waltzes from Vienna (1933) was an operetta directed by Alfred Hitchcock, followed by Friday the Thirteenth (1933). She was in the film version of Evergreen (1934) which featured the newly composed song Over My Shoulder which was to go on to become Matthews' personal theme song, later giving its title to her autobiography and to a 21st-century musical stage show of her life. She was in First a Girl (1935) as a cross dresser, then It's Love Again (1936), where she had an American co-star Robert Young. Exhibitors voted her the sixth biggest star in the country that year. Matthews started to appear in films directed by husband Sonnie Hale: Gangway (1937), Head over Heels (1937) and Sailing Along (1938). She did Climbing High (1938) directed by Carol Reed. In 1938 she was the fourth biggest British star. Her warbling voice and round cheeks made her a familiar and much-loved personality to British theatre and film audiences at the beginning of World War II. She was one of many stars in Forever and a Day (1943). Her popularity waned in the 1940s after several years' absence from the screen followed by an unsatisfactory thriller, Candles at Nine (1944). Post-war audiences associated her with a world of hectic pre-war luxury that was now seen as obsolete in austerity-era Britain. In the late 1940s she ran an amateur theatre group at the Theatre Royal in Aldershot. After a few false starts as a straight actress she played Tom Thumb's mother in the 1958 children's film, and during the 1960s found new fame when she took over the leading role of Mary Dale in the BBC's long-running daily radio soap, The Dales, formerly Mrs Dale's Diary. Live theatre and variety shows remained the mainstay of Matthews' work through the 1950s and 1960s, with successful tours of Australia and South Africa interspersed with periods of less glamorous but welcome work in British provincial theatre and pantomimes.

Acting credits

Forever and a Day poster
7.5

In World War II, American Gates Trimble Pomfret is in London during the Blitz to sell the ancestral family house. The current tenant, Leslie Trimble, tries to dissuade him from selling by telling him the 140-year history of the place and the connections between the Trimble and Pomfret families.

Forever and a Day

1943

Tom Thumb poster
6.4

A boy, no bigger than a thumb, manages to outwit two thieves determined to make a fortune from him.

Tom Thumb

1958

Waltzes from Vienna poster
5.4

In Vienna, aspiring composer Johann Strauss Jr. clashes with his domineering father, who wants him to abandon music for a steady job in a bakery. Torn between his love for the baker’s daughter, Resi, and the encouragement of a wealthy countess, Strauss finds inspiration that leads to the creation of "The Blue Danube."

Waltzes from Vienna

1934

The Hound of the Baskervilles poster
4.4

When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

1978

The Beloved Vagabond poster
9.0

A jilted rich man poses as a tramp and falls in love with an orphan.

The Beloved Vagabond

1923

No artwork available
8.0

A young couple prepare for post-war marriage. Propaganda short encouraging women to contribute to the war effort by investing in war loans through National Savings.

Victory Wedding

1944

The Good Companions poster
6.4

Film musical taken from JB Priestley's novel about three musicians joining together to save a failing concert party, the Dinky Doos.

The Good Companions

1933

Edward & Mrs. Simpson poster
10.0

While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intentions to marry her.

Edward & Mrs. Simpson

1978

First a Girl poster
6.4

An aspiring singer quits her menial job and is talked into performing as a female impersonator by her friend. Her drag act makes her famous, which causes problems for her when a very determined young man falls in love with her. A remake of the 1933 German film Viktor und Viktoria.

First a Girl

1935

It's Love Again poster
6.5

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.

It's Love Again

1936

No artwork available
NR

1956/57 - This episode reflects the Kim Philby spy affair.

Nanny's Boy

1977

Sailing Along poster
7.8

A barge-owner's adopted daughter falls in love with his son, and gives up her chances of stardom to be with him.

Sailing Along

1938

Catch a Fallen Star poster
NR

A portrait of Jessie Matthews, a once famous British singer, dancer and film star

Catch a Fallen Star

1987

No artwork available
NR

An elderly widow women named Hazel lives in a farmhouse full of antiques. When a conman named Merv Pottinger arrives he persuades her into selling him a picture at a low price.

Tales of the Unexpected: A Picture of a Place

1980

The Midshipmaid poster
7.0

Sir Percy Newbiggin visits the fleet to find ways to economize Naval expenditures. Daughter Celia tags along and organizes a morale-boosting show utilizing ship-board talent. Her fiancé shows up, and romantic complications ensue.

The Midshipmaid

1932

Friday the Thirteenth poster
6.4

It is pouring with rain at one minute to midnight on Friday the thirteenth, and the driver of a London bus is peering through his blurred windscreen as his vehicle sails down an empty road. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and a vast crane above topples into the path of the oncoming bus... Then Big Ben begins to wind backwards. Time recedes. And we discover the lives of all the passengers and the events that brought them to that late-night bus journey, from the con-man with a hundred-pound cheque to the businessman's distraught and elderly wife. Time flows on, inevitably, to the crash -- and past it, as some live and some die.

Friday the Thirteenth

1933

No artwork available
7.0

Jessie Matthews relives, with Alvar Liddell an appreciative listener, the delights of a holiday spent in Devonshire.

Life Is Nothing Without Music

1947

Evergreen poster
6.4

Harriet Green, a beloved and radiant music hall star of the Edwardian era, mysteriously disappears on the eve of her wedding. Years later, she reappears on the stage as young looking and beautiful as ever.

Evergreen

1934

A Connecticut Yankee poster
6.0

A live television presentation of Rodgers and Hart's 1927 stage musical.

A Connecticut Yankee

1955

There Goes the Bride poster
6.5

A businessman's daughter runs away from an arranged marriage, only to find herself penniless and suspected of theft after she becomes the victim of a bag thief in the train. When she refuses to tell him who she really is, her accuser decides to take her home where he can keep an eye on her until 12 o'clock the next day, the time at which she has calculated that it will be safe to tell the truth! But when his fiancée arrives unexpectedly and then his 'guest' is mistaken for her, it all gets rather embarrassing...

There Goes the Bride

1932

Climbing High poster
7.1

Wealthy Nicky finds himself engaged to gold-digger Lady Constance, but he really loves scatty model Diana. Complications, slapstick and mountaineering are the result.

Climbing High

1938

The Man from Toronto poster
5.0

According to the terms of a will two strangers must marry. Leila (Jessie Matthews) is an English widow, and Fergus (Ian Hunter) is a Canadian bachelor. Both are bequeathed a fortune, but there is a condition to receive it; the two must marry within a year. To aid matters, Leila disguises herself as Fergus' maid, and the two begin to fall in love. However, when Fergus discovers the truth, he is less than pleased by the deception.

The Man from Toronto

1933

Candles at Nine poster
5.4

A rich but miserly old man taunts his relatives about who will get his money when he dies, and is soon mysteriously murdered. It turns out that he has left his estate to a beautiful young actress whom the other relatives didn't know was related to him. Several attempts on her life are thwarted by a detective, who sets out to discover who's behind the scheme to kill her.

Candles at Nine

1944

Gangway poster
7.0

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

Gangway

1937

Behind the camera