Ethel Griffies

Acting

Ethel Griffies

Born — Died

1878-04-25 — 1975-09-09

Place of birth

Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

66 titles

Known for

The Merv Griffin Show poster
6.8

No synopsis available yet.

The Merv Griffin Show

1962

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour poster
7.9

A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries.

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

1962

The Philco Television Playhouse poster
6.6

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.

The Philco Television Playhouse

1948

The Birds poster
7.5

Thousands of birds flock into a seaside town and terrorize the residents in a series of deadly attacks.

The Birds

1963

Lights Out poster
6.0

Lights Out was an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum. Versions of Lights Out aired on different networks, at various times, from January 1934 to the summer of 1947 and the series eventually made the transition to television. In 1946, NBC Television brought Lights Out to TV in a series of four specials, broadcast live and produced by Fred Coe, who also contributed three of the scripts. NBC asked Cooper to write the script for the premiere, "First Person Singular", which is told entirely from the point of view of an unseen murderer who kills his obnoxious wife and winds up being executed. Variety gave this first episode a rave review ("undoubtedly one of the best dramatic shows yet seen on a television screen"), but Lights Out did not become a regular NBC-TV series until 1949.

Lights Out

1949

Waterloo Bridge poster
7.5

On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front.

Waterloo Bridge

1940

Film credits

1960s · 3 titles

1940s · 29 titles

Waterloo Bridge poster
7.5

On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front.

Waterloo Bridge

1940

How Green Was My Valley poster
7.3

Huw Morgan, the academically inclined youngest son in a proud family of Welsh coal miners, witnesses the tumultuous events of his young life during a period of rapid social change. At the dawn of the 20th-century, a miners' strike divides the Morgans: the sons demand improvements, and the father doesn't want to rock the boat.

How Green Was My Valley

1941

Billy the Kid poster
5.3

Billy "The Kid" Bonney is a hot-headed gunslinger who postpones his life of crime when he is befriended and hired by peaceful cattle rancher Eric Keating. When Keating is killed by a rival, Billy seeks revenge, even if it means opposing his old friend, Marshal Jim Sherwood.

Billy the Kid

1941

Jane Eyre poster
6.9

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

Jane Eyre

1943

Stranger on the Third Floor poster
6.5

Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.

Stranger on the Third Floor

1940

It Happened Tomorrow poster
6.8

A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.

It Happened Tomorrow

1944

The White Cliffs of Dover poster
6.7

American Susan travels with her father to England for a vacation. Invited to a society ball, Susan meets Sir John Ashwood and marries him after a whirlwind romance. However, she never quite adjusts to life as a new member of the British gentry. At the outbreak of World War I, John is sent to the trenches and never returns. When her son goes off to fight in World War II, Susan fears the same tragic fate may befall him too.

The White Cliffs of Dover

1944

Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake poster
7.2

Sir Arthur Blake has inherited title and lands from his brother. He also has his orphaned nephew Benjamin working for him as a bonded servant. While he believes the lad was born out of wedlock and so cannot claim the inheritance, he is taking no chances. Benjamin eventually rebels against his uncle and sets sail to try and make his fortune. This may enable him to return to prove his claim to being the rightful heir to the estate.

Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake

1942

Remember the Day poster
7.3

Elderly schoolteacher Nora Trinell, waiting to meet presidential nominee Dewey Roberts, recalls him as her student back in 1916 and his relation to Dan Hopkins, the man she married and lost.

Remember the Day

1941

Saratoga Trunk poster
6.1

An opportunistic Texas gambler and the exiled Creole daughter of an aristocratic family join forces to achieve justice from the society that has ostracized them.

Saratoga Trunk

1945

Vigil in the Night poster
5.9

A good nurse ruins her career by covering up for her sister's careless mistake.

Vigil in the Night

1940

Castle in the Desert poster
7.1

Charlie Chan, with son Jimmy on a week's pass from the Army, takes up a request for help at a castle-home, miles from anywhere in the American desert south-west and inhabited by an eccentric, reclusive historian and his wife, a descendant of Lucrezia Borgia. Once there, he finds the request's legitimacy denied by all who are present, but still necessary as one houseguest has already been murdered, the other guests are at each other's throat, and the Borgia-related chatelain is suspected...

Castle in the Desert

1942

Great Guns poster
6.0

Laurel and Hardy join the army. They are hardly soldiers, but they believe their employer, (Dick Nelson) will need them now he's drafted.

Great Guns

1941

A Yank in the R.A.F. poster
5.6

An American pilot impulsively joins His Majesty's Royal Air Force in Britain in an attempt to impress his ex-girlfriend.

A Yank in the R.A.F.

1941

Thrill of a Romance poster
6.6

A soldier falls in love with a newly-married woman after her husband abandons her for a business meeting on their honeymoon.

Thrill of a Romance

1945

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch poster
5.0

In the shanty town called the Cabbage Patch, Mrs. Wiggs scrabbles for survival with her brood of children and hopes for the return of her husband, who left many years before.

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

1942

Devotion poster
5.9

In Victorian England, literary siblings Emily and Charlotte Brontë vie for the affection of the Rev. Arthur Nicholls. Along with their sister Anne, Emily and Charlotte also try to help their tormented brother Branwell, a gifted artist whose life is being destroyed by alcohol.

Devotion

1946

Music for Millions poster
6.7

Six-year-old "Mike" goes to live with her pregnant older sister, Babs, who plays string bass in José Iturbi's orchestra. And the orchestra is rapidly turning completely female, what with the draft. As the orchestra travels around the country, Babs' fellow orchestra members intercept and hide her War Office telegram to protect the baby.

Music for Millions

1944

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

Dead Men Tell poster
6.5

When the elderly woman sponsoring a treasure hunt is murdered on board her docked ship, Charlie Chan must deal with a treasure map in four pieces, the ghost of a hanged pirate, a talking parrot, a recalcitrant sea captain and several suspicious passengers - and a second murder.

Dead Men Tell

1941

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry poster
6.2

George Sanders stars in this engrossing melodrama about a very domineering sister who holds a tight grip on her brother -- especially when he shows signs of falling in love.

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry

1945

Irene poster
6.5

Upholsterer's assistant Irene O'Dare meets wealthy Don Marshall while she is measuring chairs for Mrs. Herman Vincent at her Long Island estate. Charmed by her, Don anonymously purchases Madame Lucy's, an exclusive Manhattan boutique, and instructs newly hired manager Mr. Smith to offer Irene a job as a model. She soon catches the eye of socialite Bob Vincent, whose mother is hosting a ball at the family mansion. To promote Madame Lucy's dress line, Mr. Smith arranges for his models to be invited to the ball.

Irene

1940

Right to the Heart poster
7.0

John T. Bromley III is a young man from high society who is physically humiliated by a prizefighter before his socialite sweetheart, Jenny Killian. He goes to a training camp to redeem his self-respect and ensure his success in a return engagement with the fighter.

Right to the Heart

1942

Between Us Girls poster
7.5

A 20-year-old stage actress takes on her most challenging role when she pretends to be her own mother's 12-year-old daughter.

Between Us Girls

1942

The Horn Blows at Midnight poster
5.9

A trumpet player in a radio orchestra falls asleep during a commercial and dreams he's Athanael, an angel deputized to blow the Last Trumpet at exactly midnight on Earth, thus marking the end of the world.

The Horn Blows at Midnight

1945

Time to Kill poster
6.1

Lloyd Nolan is back as detective Michael Shayne who's in search of a stolen coin.

Time to Kill

1942

Holy Matrimony poster
6.8

An artist returning from years abroad takes the identity of his dead valet and gets married, but then there are complications.

Holy Matrimony

1943

The Postman Didn't Ring poster
7.0

Stolen way back in 1880, a sack of United States mail is discovered in an old attic in 1942. The letters are finally delivered, profoundly affecting the lives of the recipients.

The Postman Didn't Ring

1942

Millie's Daughter poster
4.0

An errant mother tries to teach her daughter to avoid the same errors she made by choosing a different lifestyle.

Millie's Daughter

1947

1930s · 28 titles

Waterloo Bridge poster
6.9

In WWI London, out-of-work American chorus girl Myra makes ends meet by picking up men on Waterloo Bridge. During a Zeppelin air raid, she meets Roy, a naive young Yank who enlisted in the Canadian army. After they fall for each other, Roy tricks Myra into visiting his family, who live in a country estate outside London, his mother having remarried to a retired British Major. Myra is reluctant to continue the relationship with Roy, he not aware of her past.

Waterloo Bridge

1931

Anna Karenina poster
6.6

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

Anna Karenina

1935

Alice in Wonderland poster
6.1

In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.

Alice in Wonderland

1933

Love Me Tonight poster
6.6

A Parisian tailor goes to a château to collect a bill, only to fall for an aloof young princess living there.

Love Me Tonight

1932

Werewolf of London poster
6.0

A strange animal attack turns a botanist into a bloodthirsty monster.

Werewolf of London

1935

The Painted Veil poster
6.4

The wife of a doctor in China falls in love with a diplomat.

The Painted Veil

1934

The Road to Singapore poster
5.6

A woman's life falls to pieces when she's caught cheating on her husband.

The Road to Singapore

1931

Vanessa: Her Love Story poster
6.2

The Victorian wife of a mad baron waits years for a British soldier sent to Egypt.

Vanessa: Her Love Story

1935

Westward Passage poster
6.3

A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Europe years later after she has remarried.

Westward Passage

1932

Jane Eyre poster
5.2

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

Jane Eyre

1934

Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back poster
5.6

Bulldog Drummond finds himself immersed in another adventure when he stumbles upon a corpse in the mysterious London mansion of Prince Achmed. Enlisting the help of his old friend Algy and the beautiful Lola, Drummond uncovers a scheme to ship illegal cargo into the country. He must rely on his cunning to survive when the prince offers a reward for his capture.

Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back

1934

Bombshell poster
6.5

A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.

Bombshell

1933

Sadie McKee poster
7.0

A maid has romances with a two-timer, a boozing millionaire and the master of the house.

Sadie McKee

1934

We Live Again poster
6.8

Nekhludoff, a Russian nobleman serving on a jury, discovers that the young girl on trial, Katusha, is someone he once seduced and abandoned and that he himself bears responsibility for reducing her to crime. He sets out to redeem her and himself in the process.

We Live Again

1934

White Woman poster
5.8

A nightclub singer marries the rich owner of a rubber plantation. When she returns with him to his estate in Malaysia, she finds out that he is cruel, vicious and insanely jealous. She and the plantation's overseer develop a mutual attraction, but are terrified at what will happen if her husband finds out.

White Woman

1933

The Mystery of Edwin Drood poster
5.9

A choirmaster addicted to opium and obsessed with a beautiful young woman will stop at nothing to possess her.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

1935

Over the Moon poster
5.8

Young Jane Benson just about manages to make ends meet running the large family house in Yorkshire. In love with local doctor Freddie Jarvis, she suggests they marry, but almost at once finds she has inherited eighteen million pounds. He makes it clear he wants nothing to do with the money and what it can buy, and Jane sets off alone on a spree pursued by two ardent suitors. Jarvis finds he has gained notoriety for turning down such a catch and his plans for ernest research are soon compromised.

Over the Moon

1939

Tonight Is Ours poster
10.0

A princess is torn between her royal obligations and her love for a handsome Frenchman.

Tonight Is Ours

1933

Are You Listening? poster
5.6

WBLA is on the air, presenting the live music, the sudsy dramas and the sell-sell-sell of commercial interludes that keep consumers buying and sponsors smiling. But one sponsor, a producer of plumbing supplies, isn’t happy. So WBLA scriptwriter Bill Grimes is bounced from his job, setting in motion this movie’s turn from comedic to darkly tragic. William Haines, two years removed from being Tinseltown’s top male star, plays Grimes in a melodrama noted for its glimpses of live radio production and for a Depression-era ethos that includes peroxide cuties eager to land a job, a sugar daddy or both.

Are You Listening?

1932

Torch Singer poster
5.4

When she can't support her illegitimate child, an abandoned young woman puts her up for adoption and pursues a career as a torch singer. Years later, she searches for the child she gave up.

Torch Singer

1933

A Lady's Profession poster
7.0

A couple of down-and-out British aristocrats buy an American roadhouse.

A Lady's Profession

1933

We Are Not Alone poster
6.9

A British doctor and his son's Austrian governess have an affair and are accused of killing his wife.

We Are Not Alone

1939

Enchanted April poster
4.9

Mrs. Lotty Wilkins is an unhappily wife whom's life husband and romance have departed. In order to possibly salvage some of the missing elements in her life she rents an old Italian mansion and sharing it with three women. Here the four women plan to spend the month of April away from the cares of home, husbands and the everyday monotony.

Enchanted April

1935

Doctor Bull poster
6.7

In this engaging adaptation of James Gould Cozzen's novel The Last Adam, film icon Will Rogers portrays Dr. George Bull, a compassionate, highly regarded small-town physician who often prescribes a healthy dose of common sense! But when Bull begins dating a widow (Vera Allen), the local gossips misconstrue the story. To make matters worse, Bull's plainspoken manner earns him an enemy in the wealthy owner of a nearby construction camp. But once it's learned that the camp has caused illness by polluting the local water supply, the good doctor steps in to try to restore the town's health - and his reputation!

Doctor Bull

1933

Chances poster
7.4

Two brothers, Jack and Tom, are in love with the same woman, Molly. While the two brothers go off to war and Molly does her part in the effort, Tom believes that Molly is waiting for him, while in fact, she loves Jack and only turned to Tom on the rebound. Jack and Molly meet while he is on leave, and when he returns to battle, he doesn't know how to handle the situation with Tom.

Chances

1931

I'm from Missouri poster
7.0

Sweeney Bliss, champion mule raiser in Missouri, takes his prize mule Samson to London, where the British government is trying to decide whether to buy mules or tractors for its colonial troops. He is accompanied by his ritzy wife Julie who has high society aspirations and hopes to have her younger sister Lola Pike marry a British diplomat. Complicating matters is a business rival, Porgie Rowe, who is trying to sell tractors to the government and keeps knocking Sweeney's prize Missouri mules.

I'm from Missouri

1939

The Impatient Maiden poster
9.0

Med student Myron Brooks graduates and starts his internship at a hospital. He asks his sweetheart Ruth Robbins to marry him, but she refuses to until he's established his practice. Meanwhile, she goes to work as a secretary for attorney Albert Hartman, and he is so impressed with her abilities that he sets her up a place to hone her skills.

The Impatient Maiden

1932

Union Depot poster
6.1

Among the travelers of varied backgrounds that meet and interact on one night at Union Depot, a metropolitan train station, are Chick and his friend Scrap Iron, both newly released from prison after serving time for vagrancy. Hungry and desperate for a break, Chick fortuitously comes across across a valise abandoned by a drunken traveler. In it he finds a shaving kit and a suit of clothes with a bankroll, which help transform the affable tramp into a dashing gent. After buying himself a meal, Chick seeks some female companionship among the many hustlers who walk the station. He propositions Ruth Collins, a stranded, out-of-work showgirl and takes her to the station's hotel.

Union Depot

1932

Series credits

The Merv Griffin Show poster
6.8

No synopsis available yet.

The Merv Griffin Show

1962

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour poster
7.9

A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries.

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

1962

The Philco Television Playhouse poster
6.6

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.

The Philco Television Playhouse

1948

The Philco Television Playhouse poster
6.6

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.

The Philco Television Playhouse

1948

Lights Out poster
6.0

Lights Out was an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum. Versions of Lights Out aired on different networks, at various times, from January 1934 to the summer of 1947 and the series eventually made the transition to television. In 1946, NBC Television brought Lights Out to TV in a series of four specials, broadcast live and produced by Fred Coe, who also contributed three of the scripts. NBC asked Cooper to write the script for the premiere, "First Person Singular", which is told entirely from the point of view of an unseen murderer who kills his obnoxious wife and winds up being executed. Variety gave this first episode a rave review ("undoubtedly one of the best dramatic shows yet seen on a television screen"), but Lights Out did not become a regular NBC-TV series until 1949.

Lights Out

1949

The Trials of O'Brien poster
7.0

The Trials of O'Brien is a 1965 television series starring Peter Falk as a sordid Shakespeare-quoting lawyer and featuring Elaine Stritch as his secretary and Joanna Barnes as his ex-wife. The series ran for only 22 episodes. Among its guest stars: Milton Berle, Robert Blake, David Carradine, Faye Dunaway, Britt Ekland, Tammy Grimes, Buddy Hackett, Gene Hackman, Frank Langella, Angela Lansbury, Cloris Leachman, Roger Moore, Rita Moreno, Estelle Parsons, Joanna Pettet, Brock Peters, Tony Roberts and Martin Sheen. Falk often said that he actually liked this financially unsuccessful series much better than his later smash-hit Columbo.

The Trials of O'Brien

1965