Frederick Valk

Acting

Frederick Valk

Born 1895-06-10 · Hamburg, Germany

Frederick Valk was a German-born Jewish stage and screen actor of Czech Jewish descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalised British citizen.

Acting credits

A Matter of Life and Death poster
7.8

A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.

A Matter of Life and Death

1946

Dead of Night poster
7.2

An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread.

Dead of Night

1945

Night Train to Munich poster
7.2

Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, inventor Axel Bomasch manages to flee and reach England; but those who need to put his knowledge at the service of the Nazi war machine, in order to carry out their evil plans of destruction, will stop at nothing to capture him.

Night Train to Munich

1940

Never Let Me Go poster
5.9

An American reporter falls in love with a Russian ballet dancer.

Never Let Me Go

1953

Wicked as They Come poster
5.0

A ruthless woman takes advantage of gullible men to climb up the social ladder.

Wicked as They Come

1956

Hotel Reserve poster
6.7

A hunt for a spy in a hotel in the South of France just before World War Two.

Hotel Reserve

1944

Magic Fire poster
5.0

Director William Dieterle's film biography of classical composer Richard Wagner stars Carlos Thompson, Yvonne De Carlo, Rita Gam, Alan Badel and Valentina Cortese.

Magic Fire

1955

Zarak poster
5.4

A notorious bandit develops a grudging respect for the English military man assigned to capture him.

Zarak

1956

Thunder Rock poster
6.2

David Charleston, once a world renowned journalist, now lives alone maintaining the Thunder Rock lighthouse in Lake Michigan. He doesn't cash his paychecks and has no contact other than the monthly inspector's visit. When alone, he imagines conversations with those who died when a 19th century packet ship with some 60 passengers sank. He imagines their lives, their problems, their fears and their hopes. In one of these conversations, he recalls his own efforts in the 1930s when he desperately tried to convince first his editors, and later the public, of the dangers of fascism and the inevitability of war. Few would listen. One of the passengers, a spinster, tells her story of seeking independence from a world dominated by men. There's also the case of a doctor who is banished for using unacceptable methods. David has given up on life, but the imaginary passengers give him hope for the future.

Thunder Rock

1942

Saraband for Dead Lovers poster
6.6

Sophie Dorothea is a young woman forced into a loveless marriage with Prince George Louis of Hanover. George Louis is later crowned King George I of England. Despairing of ever experiencing true love, the depressed queen finds life at court no solace. Sophie then falls for a dashing Swedish soldier of fortune, Count Konigsmark.

Saraband for Dead Lovers

1948

The Colditz Story poster
6.8

The Germans believed that no man could escape from Colditz Castle, set as it was in the heart of the Reich, 400 miles from any neutral frontier. This film, based on Pat Reid's epic novel, tells the story of how the British, French, Dutch and Polish prisoners of war who were incarcerated in Colditz set out to prove their captors wrong.

The Colditz Story

1955

Albert R.N. poster
7.3

The British inmates of a POW camp think they have an informer among them after several escape attempts fail. One of the prisoners constructs a dummy which they christen "Albert" and use at roll call in order to foil the German guards.

Albert R.N.

1953

Outcast of the Islands poster
5.8

After financial improprieties are discovered at the Eastern trading company where he works, Peter Willems flees the resulting disgrace and criminal charges. He persuades the man who gave him his start in life, the merchant ship captain Lingard, to bring him to a trading post on a remote Indonesian island where he can hide out.

Outcast of the Islands

1951

The Magic Box poster
6.5

Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green. He changed his name to include his first wife's for the photographic portrait work he excelled at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.

The Magic Box

1952

Dear Mr. Prohack poster
6.4

A modern-day retelling of Arnold Bennett's novel, in which a Treasury official with a reputation for fiscal prudence is left a great deal of money and has no idea how to cope with sudden personal wealth.

Dear Mr. Prohack

1949

Top Secret poster
8.0

A British Sanitary Engineer, goes on holiday with a set of plans for a new secret weapon which he has mistaken for his new plumbing invention. Everyone is hunting for him, including the Russians. The Russians find him and offer him a job in the Kremlin doing research (on plumbing he believes). He accepts, arrives in Russia and falls in love with Tania, a secret agent. And then discovers the true nature of the plans he is carrying...

Top Secret

1952

The Young Mr. Pitt poster
6.2

In 1783 England, King George III appoints William Pitt only 24 years old, as PM. When members of Parliament refuse to take Pitt seriously, he calls for a general election and wins. Pitt works to reform England, focusing on rebuilding the navy while across the sea in France, Napoleon Bonaparte begins his conquest of Europe.

The Young Mr. Pitt

1942

The Patient Vanishes poster
10.0

Action and excitement beckon as popular sleuth Mick Cardby goes on the trail of a missing girl, and finds himself in the clutches of a gang of blackmailers.

The Patient Vanishes

1941

Dangerous Moonlight poster
6.8

Stefan 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

The Flanagan Boy poster
6.0

Johnny Flanagan did not have the privileges of a good education or wealthy background but the streets developed his natural talent to be a great fighter. His enormous potential to reach the top is born out of a string of spectacular successes. All of which is brought to a halt when he develops a physical relationship with his manager's wife, the beautiful but manipulative Lorna. His naive temperament is no match for her callous, dispassionate scheming and he unwittingly becomes a pawn in Lorna's ultimate plan to murder her husband.

The Flanagan Boy

1953

I Am a Camera poster
6.2

Just before the Nazis ascend to power in Berlin, Chris, an aspiring novelist from England, meets flamboyant cabaret entertainer Sally Bowles and an unusual friendship is born. As Sally feeds her extravagant tastes, Chris goes along for the ride, until their Jewish pal, Fritz, encounters trouble.

I Am a Camera

1955

Ho scelto l'amore poster
7.8

A satire of the Cold War, Italian style. Soviet flunkey Boris Popovitc is sent on a goodwill mission to Rome, where he is to deliver a symbolic dove of peace to a group of WW II freedom fighters. Somehow, Boris winds up in Venice minus the dove. As he searches up street and down canal for the missing bird, he meets and falls in love with luscious flower-girl Maria.

Ho scelto l'amore

1953

Gasbags poster
6.1

It's war time London and the Crazy Gang (Flanagan & Allen, Nervo & Knox, Naughton & Gold) are doing their bit for the war effort by running a fish and chip stall using their platoon's barrage balloon for advertising. Their Sgt Major is not happy about this and orders them to take the balloon down, but a freak heavy wind accidentally carries the gang away to Nazi Germany. They are captured and placed in a detention camp where they meet an elderly prisoner named Jerry, who possess a map for the location of a secret weapon which will win the war! Fortunately Teddy Knox's impersonation of Hitler lands him the spot of pretending to be the Fuhrer at a gala dinner and the gang are allowed out of the camp. However the Nazis have other ideas for their substitute leader.

Gasbags

1941

Mrs. Fitzherbert poster
6.7

The tangled affairs of George, Prince of Wales, leading to his illegal marriage to commoner Mrs. Fitzherbert. Also portrayed is the conflict between the future George IV and his father George III.

Mrs. Fitzherbert

1947