Basil SydneyFilmography

The Story of David

Actors: Jeff Chandler, David Knight

Synopsis: This religious epic chronicles the rise to power of a humble but courageous shepherd boy who usurps a ruler and becomes king of Israel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

Actors: Kerwin Mathews, Jo Morrow, June Thorburn, Lee Patterson, Gregoire Aslan

Synopsis: The Three Worlds of Gulliver is perhaps the least known of the Charles H. Schneer-Ray Harryhausen collaborations of the 1960s, perhaps because it was withdrawn from circulation so soon after its initial release. Kerwin Mathews, star of the Schneer-Harryhausen classic Seventh Voyage of Sinbad Read More

The Devil's Disciple

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott, Eva Le Gallienne

Synopsis: This film version of George Bernard Shaw's satirical take on the American Revolution had a troubled production history (with a director change in mid-production), but nevertheless boasts a cutting performance by Laurence Olivier. Shaw's tale depicts his version of how the British lost the American Read More

John Paul Jones

Actors: Robert Stack, Marisa Pavan, Charles Coburn, Jean-Pierre Aumont, MacDonald Carey

Synopsis: Robert Stack stars in this sea-faring historical epic as John Paul Jones, the first great hero of the American Navy. While originally a loyal soldier of the King's army, Jones in time becomes a fervent supporter of the American Revolutionaries, and he volunteers to lead the colonists' ragtag fleet Read More

A Question of Adultery

Actors: Julie London, Anthony Steel, Basil Sydney, Donald Houston, Anton Diffring

Synopsis: In this drama, a couple experiences marital turmoil because the husband is a hot-tempered race-car driver with a jealous streak. The woman then gets pregnant and begins hoping that a baby will bring them back together. Unfortunately, the two get into a terrible accident, she loses the baby, and Read More

Island in the Sun

Actors: James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie

Synopsis: Political intrigue and romantic gamesmanship send an already torrid Caribbean community to the boiling point in this drama. Maxwell Fleury (James Mason) and David Boyeur (Harry Belafonte) are two men running for political office in a British-controlled island in the West Indies. Maxwell is the son Read More

Sea Wife

Actors: Joan Collins, Richard Burton, Basil Sydney, Cy Grant, Ronald Squire

Synopsis: In this melodramatic adventure set after the British evacuated Singapore in 1942, a ship is torpedoed and only four people survive. They are a nun, an RAF officer, a godless bigoted business magnate, and a black purser. The four drift for days before getting themselves washed up on a small desert Read More

Star of India

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, Herbert Lom, Yvonne Sanson, John Slater

Synopsis: The roguish smile of Cornel Wilde and the impressive cleavage of Jean Wallace (Mrs. Cornel Wilde) are the principal attractions of the costume swashbuckler Star of India. Wilde plays a 17th-century French nobleman who embarks upon a search for a valuable emerald which has been stolen from a Dutch Read More

Around the World in 80 Days

Actors: David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton, Shirley MacLaine, Charles Boyer

Synopsis: Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production Read More

Simba

Actors: Dirk Bogarde, Virginia McKenna, Basil Sydney, Marie Ney, Joseph Tomelty

Synopsis: The recent Mau Mau uprising in Kenya served as story material for the 1955 British film Simba. White farmer Dirk Bogarde and his neighbors are targeted for extermination by the zealously nationalistic Mau Maus. Native doctor Joseph Tomelty, whose brother had earlier been killed under questionable Read More

The Dam Busters

Actors: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Stanley van Beers, Ursula Jeans, Derek Farr, Raymond Huntley, Patrick Barr

Synopsis: The British The Dam Busters is the story of the development and utilization of the "bouncing bombs" in World War II. Michael Redgrave stars as Dr. Barnes Wallis, who developed these unorthodox explosives. Wallis' invention is put to practical use during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams in Read More

Hell Below Zero

Actors: Alan Ladd, Joan Tetzel, Basil Sydney, Stanley Baker, Joseph Tomelty

Synopsis: Hell Below Zero was one of several 1950s films made in Britain by Hollywood's Alan Ladd. The star plays Duncan Craig, who signs onto a whaling ship to get the facts behind the death of Judy Nordahl's (Joan Tetzel) father. While on a whaling expedition near Antarctica, Craig becomes suspicious of Read More

Salome

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Stewart Granger, Judith Anderson, Cedric Hardwicke, Alan Badel, Charles Laughton

Synopsis: "Her Salome Will Steal Your Breath Away" was the classic advertising slogan attached to this opulent Rita Hayworth epic -- a slogan which became laughable whenever a radio announcer would mispronounce Salome as "salami." Using the very sketchy Biblical story of the death of John the Baptist as its Read More

Three's Company

Synopsis: This British anthology was put together from the television series Douglas Fairbanks Presents. In the first two stories, Basil Sydney plays a surgeon who must operate on a man shot by his own daughter, and George Benson unwittingly becomes involved in a murder. The final story is a bit better, as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Read More

Ivanhoe

Actors: Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams

Synopsis: Produced by MGM's British facilities, the Technicolor Ivanhoe starred Robert Taylor in the title role. Returning to England from the Third Crusades, Ivanhoe is given a cool but cordial reception by his estranged father Cedric (Finlay Currie), a Saxon who despises the Norman king Richard the Read More

The Magic Box

Actors: Robert Donat, Margaret Johnston, Maria Schell, Robert Beatty, John Charlesworth, James Kenney

Synopsis: The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler Read More

The Angel with the Trumpet

Actors: Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney, Norman Wooland, Anthony Bushell, Maria Schell

Synopsis: Eileen Herlie, a German girl of Jewish heritage, is in love with Norman Wooland, but at her family's insistence marries Basil Sydney. Wooland's reaction is swift and decisive: he commits suicide. Years later, Hitler comes to power. Once more, Herlie's fate is in the hands of others. This time Read More

Treasure Island

Actors: Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton, Basil Sydney, Walter Fitzgerald, Denis O'Dea

Synopsis: The Walt Disney production of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic novel Treasure Island is one of the company's best live-action films of the '50s, and one of the best family-oriented adventures ever filmed. Bobby Driscoll plays Jim Hawkins, a young cabin boy who battles the pirate Long John Silver Read More

Jassy

Actors: Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc, Basil Sydney, Dermot Walsh, Linden Travers

Synopsis: Low-hanging clouds and low-cut blouses dominate the brooding British melodrama Jassy. Margaret Lockwood is at her teeth-baring best as a tempestuous gypsy girl who is hired as a servant in an aristocratic 19th century household. Dennis Price is her handsome master, with whom she falls in love. Read More

Hamlet

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney, Jean Simmons, Norman Wooland, Felix Aylmer

Synopsis: Although criticized by Shakespeare devotees upon its release because of director, producer, and star Laurence Olivier's decision to excise large portions of the text, his cinematic version of Hamlet is widely considered the best out of several dozens (and counting). Hamlet (Olivier) is a medieval Read More

The Man Within

Actors: Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent, Joan Greenwood, Richard Attenborough, Francis L. Sullivan

Synopsis: Lensed in lavish Technicolor, The Man Within is a rousing tale of smugglers, betrayal and redemption. The story is told from the point of view of seaman Andrews (Richard Attenborough), the ward of 19th century smuggler chieftan Carylyton (Michael Redgrave). Feeling persecuted by his stern Read More

Meet Me at Dawn

Actors: William Eythe, Stanley Holloway, Hazel Court, George Thorpe, Irene Browne

Synopsis: This romantic comedy is set in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century. It tells the story of a professional duelist who is hired by politicians to insult and challenge an important senator. He does this by pretending to have a tiff over a young woman whose father runs the local newspaper. Read More

Caesar and Cleopatra

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains, Stewart Granger, Flora Robson, Francis L. Sullivan

Synopsis: George Bernard Shaw adapted his own play for the screen in this blithe film version of the romance between Caesar (Claude Rains) and Cleopatra (Vivien Leigh). Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra are merely Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle cast back into ancient times with Caesar doting with admiration Read More

Next of Kin

Actors: Basil Sydney, Frederick Leister, Reginald Tate, Jack Hawkins, David Hutcheson

Synopsis: The phrase "Loose Lips Sink Ships" takes on a new and special meaning in the cautionary British war drama Next of Kin. In grade-school-primer fashion, the film shows how careless talk can have a devastating and tragic effect in times of war, sometimes boomeranging on the "talker" in the form of Read More

Went the Day Well?

Actors: Leslie Banks, Basil Sydney, Frank Lawton, Elizabeth Allan, Valerie Taylor

Synopsis: Released in the US as Forty-Eight Hours, Went the Day Well? is a solidly constructed wartime melodrama. Actually, the film covers 72 hours in the life of the small British village of Bramley Green, which serves as the focal point for an attempted German invasion. Immediately upon parachuting in Read More

The Black Sheep of Whitehall

Actors: Will Hay, John Mills, Basil Sydney, Henry Hewitt, Felix Aylmer

Synopsis: In this WW II comedy, a professor teaching a correspondence school gets in hot water when he entangles himself with the Nazis who are trying to prevent the signing of an important trade agreement between South American countries and England. When the professor learns that a Nazi agent has breached Read More

Spring Meeting

Actors: Enid Stamp Taylor, Michael Wilding, Sr., Basil Sydney, Sarah Churchill, Nova Pilbeam

Synopsis: Based on a stage play by M. J. Farrell and John Perry, Spring Meeting stars Enid-Stamp Taylor and Michael Wilding as Tiny and Tony Stamp-Collier, mother and son. Tiny is a wealthy British courtesan who hopes to arrange a profitable marriage for son Tony. The logical choice for a bride is beautiful Read More

Ships with Wings

Actors: John Clements, Leslie Banks, Jane Baxter, Ann Todd, Basil Sydney

Synopsis: This stirring wartime morale-booster stars John Clements in a virtual reprise of his "redeemed hero" role in The Four Feathers. Clements is cast as Lieutenant Stacey, a Fleet Arm Pilot whose recklessness causes the death of a fellow airman. Cashiered from the Service, Stacey becomes a mercenary Read More

The Farmer's Wife

Actors: Basil Sydney, Wilfred Lawson, Patricia Roc, Michael Wilding, Sr.

Synopsis: Eden Philpotts' "provincial" comic novel and play The Farmer's Wife was first filmed in the silent era by Alfred Hitchcock. The 1940 talkie version was directed by Leslie Arliss, son of stage star George Arliss. The story remained the same: A middle-aged widower attempts to select a wife from his Read More

Shadowed Eyes

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a renowned eye surgeon goes mad and murders the lover of his wife. He is later given a life-sentence to be spent in a mental hospital. He thinks he truly is in for life, but then his assistant busts him out so he can save the eyesight of the prosecuting attorney (the Read More

The Four Just Men

Actors: Hugh Sinclair, Griffith Jones, Francis L. Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Anna Lee

Synopsis: The eponymous Four Just Men of this film are British World War I comrades, who reunite in peacetime to bring disaster to their country's enemies. The quartet is not above murder and sabotage to achieve their ends, but their patriotism is never in question. The goal of the heroes is to thwart a Read More

Accused

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dolores Del Rio, Florence Desmond, Basil Sydney, Athole Stewart

Synopsis: Accused is a British melodrama starring American actor (and confirmed Anglophile) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Somewhat incongruously cast as an Apache dancer, Fairbanks and his dance partner/wife Dolores Del Rio headline a Paris musical. Fairbanks becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of Read More

Talk of the Devil

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, Sally Eilers, Basil Sydney, Randle Ayrton, Charles Carson, Frederick Culley

Synopsis: In this drama, a deliciously nasty villain endeavors to steal a successful shipping firm from an honest man. To get the company and gather information, the villain employs a talented mimic who begins dating the daughter of the company president. He succeeds and causes the president to take his own Read More

Crime Over London

Actors: Joseph Cawthorn, Basil Sydney, Margot Grahame, Paul Cavanagh, Renee Ray

Synopsis: In this British gangster movie, a Chicago gang goes to cool their heels in London. There they try to overtake the town. Meanwhile the mob boss searches for the perfect job. He convinces a millionaire, the owner of a department store, to help his gang rob the store blind. The plot fails and the Read More

Rhodes

Actors: Walter Huston, Oscar Homolka, Basil Sydney, Frank Cellier, Peggy Ashcroft

Synopsis: African-American students who have accepted Rhodes scholarships may feel like wincing at Rhodes of Africa, an unabashed celebration of British imperialism. Walter Huston portrays Cecil Rhodes, the 19th century explorer who dreamed of "taming" the rugged African terrain. Establishing the colony of Read More

The Amateur Gentleman

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Elissa Landi, Gordon Harker, Frank Pettingell, Basil Sydney, Hugh Williams

Synopsis: The Amateur Gentleman takes place in England during the Regency era. The hero is Barnaby Barty (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), an innkeeper's son. To prove his dad innocent of a crime, Barnaby poses as a famous bare-knuckle gentleman prizefighter. In this guise he gains access to the Royal court, and in Read More

Blind Man's Bluff

Synopsis: In this drama, a suspicious blind scientist neglects to tell his cheating wife that a fluke during a recent experiment has restored his sight. He then tries to catch her with her lover, his rival. He also continues to perfect his newly invented invisibility ray, something the rival is eager to Read More

White Lilac

Synopsis: In this British mystery, a man is killed in a rural village. There are plenty of suspects, as he was hated by almost everyone. Unfortunately for the investigator, all of the suspects seem to have airtight alibis. This doesn't stop the detective from solving the mystery though. ~ Sandra Brennan Read More

Transatlantic Tunnel

Actors: Richard Dix, Leslie Banks, Madge Evans, Helen Vinson, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Transatlantic Tunnel is the English-language version of the 1932 French-German speculative drama The Tunnel. Set sometime in the future (complete with two-way televisions, art-deco airships and self-propelled automobiles), the film stars Richard Dix as McAllen, a visionary architect who devotes Read More

The Riverside Murder

Synopsis: In this murder mystery, three prominent, wealthy businessmen are killed just before their big meeting. To find their killers, a reporter assists the inspector. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Third Clue

Synopsis: In this crime drama, two gangs of criminals compete to find a cache of purloined jewels. Both gangs really want them and use all sorts of devious tricks to beat out their rivals. Eventually both converge at a creepy old mansion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Dirty Work

Actors: Ralph Lynn, Gordon Harker, Robertson Hare

Synopsis: Although this Laurel and Hardy short is quite funny, it's often neglected. The boys, playing chimney sweeps, don't appear right away -- first the stage is set in the laboratory of a mad scientist, Professor Noodle (Lucien Littlefield). He has been working intensely for the past 20 years to create Read More

The Midshipmaid

Actors: Jessie Matthews, Frederick Kerr

Synopsis: When economy expert Kerr works to cut the costs of the fleet in Malta, his lovely daughter, Matthews, is courted by the crew members on board. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Red Hot Romance

Actors: Basil Sydney, Henry Warwick

Synopsis: This fast-paced comedy came from the pen of husband and wife screenwriting team Anita Loos and John Emerson. After his father's death, Roland Stone (Basil Sidney) learns that his will stipulates that he must go to the South American country of Bunkonia and sell life insurance. Stone doesn't find Read More

Romance

Synopsis: United Artists had only been in existence for a few months when D.W. Griffith decided to bring this Edward Sheldon play to the screen, and he showed bad judgment, both financially and artistically, in doing so. The play had been a success in England, running for six years with Doris Keane and her Read More