
Acting
Hay Petrie
Born — Died
1895-07-16 — 1948-07-30
Place of birth
Dundee, Tayside, Scotland, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
60 titles
Known for
6.1In early 19th-century Cornwall, young Mary Yellan travels to live with her aunt and uncle at the remote Jamaica Inn, where she discovers the inn is a front for a violent gang of wreckers who lure ships to their doom along the coast. As she becomes entangled in their crimes, Mary must fight to survive and uncover the truth behind the terror that haunts the moors.
Jamaica Inn
1939
6.9Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.
A Canterbury Tale
1944
7.1When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess.
The Thief of Bagdad
1940
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
7.3In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Great Expectations
1946
7.2Phillipe, the son of an ambassador in London, hero-worships his father's butler Baines. His perception of the man changes when he accidentally discovers the secret that Baines keeps and witnesses the consequences that adults' lies can cause.
The Fallen Idol
1948
Film credits
1940s · 32 titles
6.9Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.
A Canterbury Tale
1944
7.1When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess.
The Thief of Bagdad
1940
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
7.3In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Great Expectations
1946
7.2Phillipe, the son of an ambassador in London, hero-worships his father's butler Baines. His perception of the man changes when he accidentally discovers the secret that Baines keeps and witnesses the consequences that adults' lies can cause.
The Fallen Idol
1948
6.6During a raid on Germany, a British bomber crew is forced to bail out after their plane is damaged. They land in Holland, where they're aided by Dutch civilians.
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1942
6.1After Larry Darrent accidentally kills his lover's blackmailing husband, someone else is arrested for the crime. When he is found guilty, Larry and Wanda have just three weeks together before he must give himself up— or let an innocent man go to the gallows.
21 Days
1940
7.1A working-class boy wins a scholarship to a public school, as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together.
The Guinea Pig
1948
7.8Bob Stevens awakens in a hospital with a gunshot wound to his head, and is told that he has been in Paris for ten days. However, this cannot be true because he insists that he crashed his plane and has no recollection of being anywhere for ten days. Bob decides to follow a note found in his jacket, to the woman who wrote it, "Miss D", and get to the bottom of the whole strange situation.
Ten Days in Paris
1940
5.6A tale of life on board a Royal Navy cruiser assigned to protect the vital convoys between America and England during WWII.
Convoy
1940
6.9British intelligence officers head off a Nazi plot to kidnap an atomic scientist.
Night Boat to Dublin
1946
10.0Waltz Time is a 1945 British musical film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Carol Raye, Peter Graves and Patricia Medina. In Imperial Vienna a young Grand Duchess is prevented from marrying the man she loves.
Waltz Time
1945
7.1During early World War II, a Danish sea captain, delayed in a British port, tangles with German spies.
Contraband
1940
7.1Two wealthy Victorian widows are courted tentatively by two impoverished British aristocrats. When one of the dowagers suggests that her beau go away with her for a month to see if they are compatible, the fireworks begin.
On Approval
1944
6.8Will Hay, back in his role as a hapless teacher, is hired by a grim school in remotest Scotland. The school soon starts to be haunted by a legendary ghost, whose spectral bagpipes signal the death of one of the staff. Hay, assisted by Claude Hulbert and Charles Hawtrey, has to unravel the mystery before he becomes the next victim.
The Ghost of St. Michael's
1941
6.7Allied spies and Nazi Agents insinuate themselves at a Scottish cottage (converted to a wartime hospital) with interests on an inventor's nearly perfected bomb sight.
Cottage to Let
1941
6.8The story of flyer Amy Johnson the girl from Yorkshire who won the hearts of the British public in the 1930s with her record-breaking solo flights around the world. Her marriage to fellow aviator Jim Mallison was less noteworthy.
They Flew Alone
1942
5.4Working-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?
Kiss the Bride Goodbye
1945
5.3Set in post Second World War Britain, Noose is the story of black market racketeers who face attempts to bring them to justice by an American fashion journalist, her ex-army fiancée and a gang of honest toughs from a local gym. When a corpse turns up at black market front The Blue Moon Club, Yank reporter Carole Landis starts snooping, much to gang boss Joseph Calleia’s annoyance. And soon there’s a hit man on the way...
Noose
1948
6.3A Royal navy Commander is tricked by a pretty girl who is working for the Nazis. She tricks him into revealing some military secrets and he is court martial. He vows to track her and her accomplices down.
They Met in the Dark
1943
6.8George Pearson, an employee at an underwear factory, is caught between his modern wife and his meddling mother. After buying a special yarn and getting his wife to promote it, he has an argument with his boss, Mr Dawson who insults Pearson's wife and refuses to apologise. Pearson then resigns. After finding out that the yarn is actually worth a fair amount, Mr Dawson tries to buy it from Pearson but he has some competition.
Turned Out Nice Again
1941
7.5A musical set during the French Revolution.
The Laughing Lady
1946
8.0The 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.
Pastor Hall
1940
6.5The captain of a British cargo ship shanghais a group of sabateurs, unaware that the daughter of the ship’s owner is among them.
Sabotage at Sea
1942
5.9A curio dealer sells a monkey's paw that can grant the possessor three wishes but warns that disaster will follow.
The Monkey's Paw
1948
7.0Hitler's doctor is gradually realising that the Nazi regime isn't as good as it pretends to be when his friends start to "disappear" into the camps. His wife is courted by the party and accepts a political post in Berlin. Meanwhile Dr Karl decides to try to do something to counteract the Nazi propaganda and with the help of an engineer and a few friends he sets up the Freedom Radio to counteract the Nazi propaganda.
Freedom Radio
1941
A London cabby uncovers the city's secret nightlife in this surprising plug for post-war National Savings.
Midnight Taxi
1946
6.6This classic film reveals how the great composer Georg Friedrich Handel rose above the personal anguish and difficulties in his life to create the sublime musical composition, The Messiah.
The Great Mr Handel
1942
NRDuring World War I, a British farmer is abducted by the Germans to take the place of a spy about to be executed whom he closely resembles.
Spy for a Day
1940
6.2In this lurid melodrama, Tod Slaughter plays a villain who murders the wealthy Sir Percival Glyde in the gold fields of Australia and assumes his identity in order to inherit Glyde's estate in England. On arriving in England, "Sir Percival" schemes to marry an heiress for her money, and, with the connivance of the cunning Dr. Isidor Fosco, embarks on a killing spree of all who suspect him to be an imposter and would get in the way of his plans to stay Lord of the Manor.
Crimes at the Dark House
1940
Dennis O'Shea joins a gang of smugglers in order to raise the money to pay for his brother, who is fleeing from the IRA, to move to the USA. But after he accidentally kills a constable during a smuggling trip, the policeman's dog begins to follow him.
The Voice Within
1946
5.3A young couple become engaged, but enjoy a number of comedic aventures before their wedding day.
Quiet Wedding
1941
1930s · 28 titles
6.1In early 19th-century Cornwall, young Mary Yellan travels to live with her aunt and uncle at the remote Jamaica Inn, where she discovers the inn is a front for a violent gang of wreckers who lure ships to their doom along the coast. As she becomes entangled in their crimes, Mary must fight to survive and uncover the truth behind the terror that haunts the moors.
Jamaica Inn
1939
7.1A disgraced officer risks his life to help his childhood friends in battle.
The Four Feathers
1939
6.7Peggy Martin, daughter of a wealthy American businessman, persuades her father to buy a haunted Scottish castle from Donald Glourie. As the castle is dismantled and transported to Florida, its ghost tags along. Donald and Peggy fall in love, but the restless apparition proves to unwelcome, and they must find a way to appease the kilt-wearing spirit.
The Ghost Goes West
1935
6.4Renowned for his excess, King Henry VIII goes through a series of wives during his rule. With Anne Boleyn, his second betrothed, executed on charges of treason, Henry weds maid Jane Seymour, but that wedded bliss also ends in tragedy. Not one to be single for long, the tyrannical king chooses German-born Anne of Cleves, but their union lasts only months before an annulment is granted, and so Henry's reign of spousal terror continues.
The Private Life of Henry VIII
1933
6.4A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
The Spy in Black
1939
6.8A character study depicting the life of Rembrandt Van Rijn at the height of his fame in the mid 1600s. Beginning with the death of his wife, Rembrandt's work takes a dark turn, which offends many of his patrons.
Rembrandt
1936
6.8a biopic of eighteenth-century Irish actress Peg Woffington. It was based on the play Masks and Faces.
Peg of Old Drury
1935
5.4This early docudrama uses dramatic reenactment, working models of early flying machines, and archival footage to trace man's attempts to fly from ancient times through the 1930s.
The Conquest of the Air
1931
7.5A well-known actor is murdered. Another performer becomes an amateur sleuth so she can prove her sister is innocent of the crime.
Matinee Idol
1933
5.9In the last days of Czarist Russia, Russian-speaking Briton A.J. Fothergill is enlisted by his government to go undercover as Bolshevik radical Peter Ouranoff in an attempt to gain access to the revolutionaries' inner circle. Tasked with accompanying lovely aristocrat Alexandra Vladinoff from Moscow to Petrograd to be tried for crimes against the proletariat, Peter attempts to spirit her out of the war-torn country.
Knight Without Armour
1937
6.2A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.
The Old Curiosity Shop
1934
10.0This rare 1935 film (the title translated means "do not forget me") features Beniamino Gigli as, of course, an Italian singer who warbles his way through a touching love story. Features musical selections from "Il Trovatore" and "Rigoletto" as well as a lullaby and some Neapolitan songs, including the title tune. Distributed by New York's Bel Canto Society (an organization of hard-core opera buffs).
Do Not Forget About Me
1935
8.0As the threat of Napoleonic invasion looms ever closer, a German duke and potential ally of England falls for a pretty ballerina.
Invitation to the Waltz
1935
5.9During the First World War, Russian officer Ignatoff, wounded, falls in love with his nurse, Natasha. But she is subject to an upcoming marriage of family convenience to Brioukow, a wealthy industrialist of peasant stock. Brioukow is unjustifiably jealous, since Natasha has not betrayed him. He forces Ignatoff into his debt as a means of humiliating him. When Ignatoff's new friend, Madame Sabline, offers to pay his debt, preventing his ruin, Ignatoff comes quickly to realize that Madame Sabline has an ulterior motive, one that could prove dangerous to more lives than just Ignatoff's.
Moscow Nights
1934
6.8In this murder mystery, Vicar Casson looks into the poisoning of a wealthy man. He soon finds that the man they convicted, the fiance of the rich man's niece, was innocent.
Crime on the Hill
1933
King Charles II first meets Nell Gwyn after seeing her do a turn at Drury Lane. They soon become close, the King preferring her feisty irreverent company to that of the aristocratic French Duchess of Portsmouth. Nell becomes his most loyal subject, while ever-ready to take the Duchess down a peg. But the actress can never hope to be fully accepted by the King's circle despite his constant attentions.
Nell Gwyn
1934
6.0In England, an eccentric police inspector, an earnest test pilot and a spunky female reporter team up to solve the mystery of a series of test aircraft which have disappeared without a trace while over the ocean on their maiden flights; unaware, as they are, that a spy ring has been shooting the planes down with a ray machine hidden aboard a salvage vessel which is on hand to haul the downed aircraft aboard, crews and all.
Q Planes
1939
10.0Poor New York shop girl Nadina receives the unexpected news that she is next in line to be queen of an Eastern European country. On her arrival in Ruritania, a revolution is in progress, and only minutes before her coronation, Nadina is forced into exile. She flees to Paris with her nurse, and then travels on to Switzerland. There Nadina encounters the Ruritanian revolutionary leader Carl, recuperating from the trials of revolution, and the couple unexpectedly fall in love. When the revolution collapses in Ruritania, they return and marry, thus forming a constitutional monarchy supported by all the people.
The Queen's Affair
1934
6.5A man ignores a warning to stay away from a sinister house on marshland near Liverpool; when someone drowns close by, he finds the evidence doesn’t add up…
The House of the Spaniard
1936
6.2Koenigsmark is a 1935 British-French drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Elissa Landi, John Lodge and Pierre Fresnay. The film is based on the novel Koenigsmark by Pierre Benoît. It's sets were designed by the art director Lucien Aguettand. The film was known in the United States as Crimson Dynasty.
Crimson Dynasty
1935
7.0In 1931, Sir Malcolm Sargent – then a rising young conductor – acted as musical director for this first filmed musical version of Prosper Mérimée’s classic story of passion and fatal jealousy, Carmen. With a score based on Bizet’s opera, Gipsy Blood features celebrated American soprano Marguerite Namara as the capricious gypsy girl from the cigarette factory; her co-performers include Thomas Burke as Carmen’s tormented lover, Don José, and New Zealand-born baritone Lance Fairfax as his rival, the toreador Escamillo.
Gipsy Blood
1931
A retired major and ex-enemies pledge peace at reunion.
Men of Yesterday
1936
When Peggy wants to break off her engagement to Dick in order to marry Gilbert, Dick threatens to reveal that Peggy's brother Ralph was shot for cowardice during World War One.
Blind Justice
1935
5.7A lancashire singer buys a pub in Clydebank and hits money troubles when the shipbyards are closed. She takes a petition to London to try to get them reopened.
Shipyard Sally
1939
'1670. Irish patriot caught stealing Crown Jewels talks his way to pardon.' (British Film Catalogue)
Colonel Blood
1934
6.7A German-born woman works as a spy for the French in Switzerland during the First World War, and has to marry an interned French lieutenant in order to be able to stay in the country.
Secret Lives
1937
7.0The Loves of Madame du Barry was the American title of the 1935 British operetta I Give My Heart, based on the stage musical The Du Barry. German actress Gitta Alpar stars as Jeanne, the young 18th century Parisian milliner who sleeps her way to the uppermost rungs of French aristocracy, emerging at last as the glamorous Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV (Owen Nares). Refusing to gloss over du Barry's sexual peccadilloes (as previous films with Norma Talmadge and Dolores del Rio had done), the film presents the "heroine" as a whore, pure and simple-or, on second thought, not so pure and simple! Particularly troublesome for American censors was a scene in which du Barry is depicted as a resident of a bawdy house. Otherwise, The Loves of Madame du Barry is standard historical-drama fare, allowing dozens of top European actors to play "dress-up" for 90 minutes.
I Give My Heart
1935
7.4Old Jerusalem: Matathias, spiteful over his lover's illness, spits on Jesus along the road to Calvary, and is cursed to live endlessly until His return. The Crusades, 1150: Matathias, now an anonymous knight, competes for glory in combat and for the wife of a soldier. Palermo, 1290: Matteos Battadios witnesses the death of his young son, leading to conflict with his wife over whether to take comfort in Christianity. Seville, 1560: Dr Matteos Battadios dedicates himself to the treatment and comfort of the poor, but his life and work are endangered by the arrival of the Spanish Inquisition.
The Wandering Jew
1933
