David NivenFilmography

Better Late Than Never

Actors: David Niven, Art Carney, Maggie Smith, Kimberly Partridge, Catherine Hicks

Synopsis: The usually reliable director Bryan Forbes came acropper in Better Late Than Never. In one of his last films, a noticeably weary David Niven plays Nick, the supposed grandfather of 10-year-old heiress Bridget (Kimberly Partridge). Charley (Art Carney) shows up to cramp Nick's act, claiming that he Read More

The Trail of the Pink Panther

Actors: Peter Sellers, David Niven, Herbert Lom, Richard Mulligan, Joanna Lumley

Synopsis: Two years after the death of Peter Sellers, Blake Edwards tried to exhume his corpse in this pastiche of clips and out-takes from the old Pink Panther films. The plot concerns the legendary "Pink Panther" diamond which is once more stolen. Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is again enlisted to Read More

The Sea Wolves

Actors: Gregory Peck, Roger Moore, David Niven, Trevor Howard, Barbara Kellerman

Synopsis: Set in India during World War II, this fair action drama relies heavily on the good acting talent gathered to convey its slight, uninvolved story. Gregory Peck is Col. Lewis Pugh, backed up by Roger Moore as Capt. Gavin Stewart, David Niven as Col. Bill Grice, Patrick MacNee as Major Crossley, and Read More

Rough Cut

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Lesley-Anne Down, David Niven, Patrick Magee, Joss Ackland

Synopsis: Notorious international jewel thief Jack Rhodes (Burt Reynolds) is out to steal $30 million in uncut diamonds in this visually opulent, uneven comedy. Chief Inspector Cyril Willis (David Niven) is Rhodes' nemesis. He wants to retire from Scotland Yard but would like to capture Rhodes as a final Read More

A Man Called Intrepid

Actors: David Niven, Michael York, Barbara Hershey, Paul Harding, Flora Robson

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling book by William Stevenson, this three-part NBC miniseries begins in 1939, just before the outbreak of WWII. With his warnings of Hitler's treachery going ignored, out-of-power politician Winston Churchill (Nigel Stock) approaches patriotic Canadian industrialist Sir Read More

The Big Scam

Actors: Gloria Grahame, David Niven, Richard Jordan

Synopsis: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square was the original title of this British caper film. David Niven does his suave 'n' blase bit as a criminal mastermind planning a giant bank heist. Richard Jordan co-stars as an American ex-con tapped to oversee the operation. Gloria Grahame, in one of her last Read More

Escape to Athena

Actors: Roger Moore, Telly Savalas, David Niven, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Roundtree

Synopsis: The original British version of Escape to Athena ran 125 minutes; American prints were judiciously cut to 101 minutes, emphasizing the action content and neutralizing the duller dialogue sequences. Roger Moore stars as Major Otto Hecht, an anti-Nazi German who presides over a World War II POW Read More

The Golden Raiders

Synopsis: A Nazi-held island in World War II is the sight of an odd union between Allied prisoners of war, USO entertainers, Greek partisans and patriotic prostitutes. (AKA Escape to Athena) ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Death on the Nile

Actors: Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, David Niven, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury

Synopsis: Peter Ustinov began his long association with the Hercule Poirot character of murder mystery novelist Agatha Christie with this lavish but financially disappointing follow-up to the popular Murder on the Orient Express (1974). During a luxurious pleasure cruise down the Nile aboard a lavish vessel Read More

Candleshoe

Actors: David Niven, Helen Hayes, Jodie Foster, Leo McKern, Veronica Quilligan

Synopsis: Though she owns a large estate and is herself a noblewoman, Lady St. Edmund (Helen Hayes) is anything but rich. Indeed, if she cannot raise the money needed to pay taxes on the estate, she and the large crew of orphans she has taken in will be thrown out. Legend has it that one of her ancestors, a Read More

The Pink Panther Strikes Again

Actors: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Colin Blakely, Leonard Rossiter, Lesley-Anne Down

Synopsis: Most Inspector Clouseau fans regard The Pink Panther Strikes Again as the best of the clumsy Parisian detective's "comeback" films of the 1970s. Driven insane by the stupidities of Clouseau (Peter Sellers), ex-inspector Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom) transforms into a master criminal. Kidnapping the Read More

Murder by Death

Actors: Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith

Synopsis: As penned by Neil Simon, this satire of movie mysteries is set in motion when several prominent detectives are invited to the mansion of the reclusive Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). In Ten Little Indians fashion, the gathered sleuths are locked into the forbidding mansion, and subject to various Read More

No Deposit, No Return

Actors: David Niven, Darren McGavin, Don Knotts, Herschel Bernardi, Barbara Feldon

Synopsis: In this Disney comedy, a pair of spoiled kids, bored by their filthy rich grandfather, decide they'd rather be with their mom who is in Hong Kong. In order to get her attention, they engineer their own kidnapping. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Old Dracula

Actors: David Niven, Teresa Graves, Peter Bayliss, Jennie Linden, Nicky Henson

Synopsis: This horrendous horror spoof stars David Niven, who manages to keep a stiff upper lip as the title character. The Count, by now too old to dine out, must instead host tours of his castle in order to lure fresh victims. Hoping to resurrect his dead lover through the blood of a suitably beautiful Read More

Paper Tiger

Actors: David Niven, Toshiro Mifune, Hardy Kruger, Ando, Ivan Desny

Synopsis: David Niven is an English tutor for the son of the Japanese ambassador to a Southeast Asian country. The two are used as pawns in a politically motivated kidnapping. Niven entertains the boy with fantastic fabrications of his exciting past. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Remarkable Rocket

Synopsis: Enjoy this animated Reader's Digest presentation of the classic story by Oscar Wilde. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

King, Queen, Knave

Actors: David Niven, Gina Lollobrigida, John Moulder-Brown, Mario Adorf, Carl Fox-Duering

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, this English-language satirical drama details the experiences of Frank (John Moulder Brown), a young orphan who finds himself deep in the romantic clutches of his uncle's sensual wife. After Frank's parents die, he goes to live with his aunt Martha (Gina Lollabrigida Read More

The Statue

Actors: Pistillo Antonio, Mircha Carven, Maria Comberti, Kiko Concalves, Christopher Cruize, Antonino D'Acquisto, Edward Danko, Julie Fair, Marco Gobbi, F.L. Greaves, Mario Guizzardi, Mike Harvey, Ron Hepher, Hazel Hoskins, Tolis Karachalios, Roberto Lande, Maureen Lane, Nicolette LePelley, Pamela LePelley, Katarina Lidfeldt, Gianni Musi, Dough Parish, Robert Pomeroy, Jack Repp, Zoe Sallis, Luigi Scavran, Sergio Silverio, Bill Vanders, John Wregg

Synopsis: David Niven is Alex, a scholar who has won the Nobel Prize for developing a universal language. The U.S. State Department has decided to honor him with a statue, to be displayed in London's Grosvenor Square. The commission for the project went to Alex's wife Rhonda (Virna Lisi), who has designed a Read More

The Jarvis Collection: Scotland Yard

Synopsis: David Niven offers this look at the history and current reality of Scotland Yard. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Le Cerveau

Actors: Bourvil, David Niven, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eli Wallach

Synopsis: The Brain (Le Cerveau) is a tongue-in-cheek caper film with more twists and turns than a rural Oregon highway. David Niven plays The Brain, so named because it was he who mapped out the British Great Train Robbery (it says here). Now The Brain plans to lift a fortune in NATO money, which is being Read More

Before Winter Comes

Actors: David Niven, Topol, Anna Karina, John Hurt, Anthony Quayle

Synopsis: In this bitter drama that takes place in the immediate aftermath of World War II, British Major Giles Burnside (David Niven) is assigned to a Austrian refugee camp, his orders to send the masses of displaced civilians to either the Russian or the American zone. Burnside is a by-the-books commander Read More

The Extraordinary Seaman

Actors: David Niven, Faye Dunaway, Alan Alda, Mickey Rooney, Jack Carter

Synopsis: John Frankenheimer directed this tepid World War II comedy set in the Philippines. When four American soldiers -- Lieutenant Morton Krim (Alan Alda), Cook 3rd Class W.J. Oglethorpe (Mickey Rooney), Gunner's Mate Orville Toole (Jack Carter), and Seaman 1st Class Lightfoot Star (Manu Tupou) -- are Read More

The Impossible Years

Actors: David Niven, Lola Albright, Chad Everett, Ozzie Nelson, Cristina Ferrare

Synopsis: This situation comedy comes from a Bob Fisher and Arthur Marx play. Jonathan Kingsley (David Niven) is the teaching psychiatrist at the local university and is happily married to his wife Alice (Lola Albright). The couple has two teenage daughters, and the trouble begins when the oldest daughter Read More

Prudence and the Pill

Actors: Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Robert Coote, Irina Demick, Judy Geeson, Vickery Turner

Synopsis: Prudence and the Pill gained minor notoriety in 1968 as the first film comedy dealing with the new birth-control pill. David Niven substitutes aspirin for his wife's (Deborah Kerr) birth control medicine, hoping that she will become pregnant by her lover (Keith Mitchell) -- thereby freeing him to Read More

Eye of the Devil

Actors: Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Donald Pleasence, Edward Mulhare, Flora Robson

Synopsis: A fine cast distinguishes this unusual supernatural thriller. When London-based vintner Phillippe de Montfaucon (David Niven) receives the bad news that dry weather is expected to destroy crops in his vineyard in France for the third year in a row, he immediately leaves for his castle on the Read More

Casino Royale

Actors: Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Joanna Pettet

Synopsis: Retired after years of international espionage, Agent 007 is lured back into action to battle the evil spy organization SMERSH in this notoriously incoherent parody of the James Bond films. David Niven portrays the aging Bond, who atypically rejects the advances of a variety of women, and agrees Read More

Where the Spies Are

Actors: David Niven, Françoise Dorléac, Cyril Cusack, John Le Mesurier, Nigel Davenport

Synopsis: Dr. Love (David Niven) is a suave British secret agent sent to Lebanon to investigate the murder of his colleague Parkington (Nigel Davenport) by an enemy agent in this spy spoof. With the help of the beautiful Vikki (Francoise Dorlac), Love uncovers a plot by Russian agents to kill a Middle Read More

Lady L

Actors: Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, David Niven, Claude Dauphin, Philippe Noiret

Synopsis: Lady L (Sophia Loren) is an 80-year-old woman who recalls her amorous adventures in flashback in this light sex comedy. While working as a laundress, Lady L falls for the gambler and anarchist Armand (Paul Newman), who gets mixed up with an inept group trying to assassinate the senile Prince Otto (Peter Ustinov Read More

Day They Gave Diamonds Away

Personal Touch

55 Days at Peking

Actors: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, David Niven, Flora Robson, John Ireland

Synopsis: Samuel Bronston produced this extravagant blockbuster, shot in Super Technirama 70. Nominally directed by Nicholas Ray (who makes a brief appearance as the U.S. ambassador), Ray was taken off the film and replaced by the more pliable directorial touches of Andrew Marton. Charlton Heston stars as Read More

The Pink Panther

Actors: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Robert Wagner, Capucine, Claudia Cardinale

Synopsis: In the first in a series of detective comedies from director Blake Edwards starring Peter Sellers as bumbling French Inspector Jacques Clouseau, the mishap-prone snoop is actually a supporting player. David Niven stars as Sir Charles Litton, a suave jewel thief known as "The Phantom." Vacationing Read More

Bedtime Story

Actors: Marlon Brando, David Niven, Shirley Jones, Dody Goodman, Aram Stephan

Synopsis: An exercise in "black humor" bordering on the tasteless, Bedtime Story stars Marlon Brando and David Niven as a pair of womanizing confidence tricksters, operating up and down the Riviera. Pooling their talents, Brando and Niven pull off several scams, many of these requiring Brando to pose as a Read More

La Città Prigioniera

Actors: David Niven, Lea Massari, Ben Gazzara, Daniela Rocca, Martin Balsam

Synopsis: Filmed in 1962 but not released in the US until 1966 (with 20 of its 108 minutes removed), Conquered City is an all-star World War II drama financed in Italy and filmed in Greece. An Athens hotel, full of refugees and expatriates of all nationalities, is captured by Allied troops in the closing Read More

Guns of Darkness

Actors: Leslie Caron, David Niven, James Robertson Justice, David Opatoshu, Eleanor Summerfield, Derek Godfrey

Synopsis: This drama by director Anthony Asquith, a noted lynchpin in British cinematic history, may wear too many hats to be identified as either an adventure, a treatise on non-violence, a psychological study, or whatever. It is all of these things as it starts out in the midst of a revolution in a Read More

The Road to Hong Kong

Actors: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Joan Collins, Dorothy Lamour, Robert Morley, Walter Gotell

Synopsis: This was the last trip in the "road" comedies that Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and a bevy of female stars that featured Dorothy Lamour once made famous. In this road to Hong Kong and parts far beyond, Chester and Harry (Hope and Crosby) are a couple of failed vaudeville stars looking for a way to Read More

The Best of Enemies

Actors: David Niven, Alberto Sordi, Michael Wilding, Sr., Amedeo Nazzari, Harry Andrews

Synopsis: In this military comedy, Maj. Richardson (David Niven) and Lt. Burke (Michael Wilding) are two British soldiers on a recognizance mission over Ethiopia in 1941 when their plane crashes in the desert. Capt. Blasi (Alberto Sordi), an Italian officer, finds the Englishmen and offers to help them Read More

The Guns of Navarone

Actors: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, James Darren

Synopsis: The guns of Navarone are huge Nazi cannons, installed on an Aegean island behind enemy lines. Anthony Quayle is the officer assigned by the British to lead a task force to put the guns out of commission. When Quayle is injured, the mission winds up in the relatively inexperienced hands of Gregory Peck Read More

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Actors: Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige, Spring Byington, Richard Haydn

Synopsis: In this entertaining comedy by Charles Walters, everyone seems to get in on the act, even the dog and especially the four overactive kids in a wildly challenging family. David Niven co-stars with Doris Day as Lawrence and Kate Mackay, distinctive parents struggling with home, life, and family. Read More

Happy Anniversary

Actors: David Niven, Mitzi Gaynor, Carl Reiner, Loring Smith, Monique Van Vooren

Synopsis: In this comedy, a married couple is deeply embarrassed when their daughter reveals her father's indiscretions on a national TV show for children. It is doubly embarrassing when it is revealed that none of the allegations are true. It seems the child overheard a slightly inebriated conversation Read More

Ask Any Girl

Actors: David Niven, Shirley MacLaine, Gig Young, Rod Taylor, Jim Backus

Synopsis: Viewers know they're in a 1959 comedy film early in the proceedings of Ask Any Girl, when secretary Shirley MacLaine is advised by her new supervisor Jim Backus to wear a sweater "a size too small." But she is a good girl: like Doris Day, she won't offer any carnal favors unless a wedding ring is Read More

Separate Tables

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Wendy Hiller, Burt Lancaster

Synopsis: Based on Terence Rattigan's play, Separate Tables is about a number of characters and their adventures at a British seaside hotel. Among the guests are an alleged war hero (David Niven), a timid spinster (Deborah Kerr) and her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper), and a divorced couple (Burt Read More

The All-Star Christmas Show

Actors: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jack Benny

Synopsis: Produced for the Armed Forces overseas, this is a holiday spectacular created for Christmas. Fifty of the top stars of Hollywood in the 1950s turned out to be a part of this special. Some of these included: Bob Hope, George Burns, Bing Crosby, Danny Thomas, Dinah Shore, Shirley MacLaine, and Jane Russell Read More

My Man Godfrey

Actors: June Allyson, David Niven, Jesse Royce Landis, Robert Keith, Eva Gabor

Synopsis: The Depression-New Deal subtext of the original 1936 My Man Godfrey was understandably dispensed with in this so-so 1957 remake. David Niven steps into the old William Powell role as hobo-turned-butler Godfrey, while June Allyson does her best in the Carole Lombard part as Irene Bullock, the Read More

Bonjour Tristesse

Actors: Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg, Mylène Demongeot, Geoffrey Horne, Jean Kent, Roland Culver

Synopsis: Francoise Sagan's bittersweet novel Bonjour Tristesse is given a sumptuous Riviera-filmed screen treatment. David Niven plays a wealthy playboy, the father of teenaged libertine-in-the-making Jean Seberg. Seberg tolerates most of her father's mistresses, but doesn't know what to make of the Read More

Oh, Men! Oh, Women!

Actors: Franklin Pangborn, Dan Dailey, Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Barbara Rush, Tony Randall

Synopsis: Edward Chodorov's stage farce Oh, Men! Oh, Women! is somewhat unnecessarily overburdened by star names in this 1957 film version. Dan Dailey plays psychiatrist Arthur Turner, who is somewhat put out when he discovers that one of his patients is the ex-boyfriend of his supposedly "normal" fiancée Read More

The Silken Affair

Actors: David Niven, Geneviève Page, Ronald Squire, Beatrice Straight

Synopsis: Directed by Roy Kellino, this British comedy stars David Niven as Roger Tweakham, an accountant for a silk manufacturer who finds himself digging deeper and deeper into trouble. Not only is he suddenly smitten by a French model (Geneviève Page) despite his marriage to his wife (Dorothy Alison) Read More

The Birds and the Bees

Actors: George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, David Niven, Reginald Gardiner, Fred Clark

Synopsis: This comedy is a remake of 1941's The Lady Eve, and tells the story of the vegetarian son of a prominent meat packer who is sailing back from an African safari when he meets and falls in love with a con-artist's lovely daughter. Posing as a military officer, the card-sharp and his boys have come Read More

The Little Hut

Actors: Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger, David Niven, Walter Chiari, Finlay Currie

Synopsis: Adapted by F. Hugh Herbert from Andre Roussin's risque stage farce that has become a staple of community theatres, The Little Hut is totally reliant upon the charms of stars Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger and David Niven. Granger is a businessman who is too busy to pay attention to wife Gardner (is 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

The King's Thief

Actors: Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven, George Sanders, Roger Moore

Synopsis: Director Robert Z. Leonard brought his 31-year association with MGM to a rousing close with The King's Thief. Set in England during the reign of Charles II (drolly portrayed by George Sanders), the film stars Edmund Purdom as Michael Dermott, who sets about to steal the crown jewels on behalf of Read More

Tonight's the Night

Actors: David Niven, A.E. Matthews, Noelle Middleton, Robert Urquhart

Synopsis: David Niven plays the new squire in a small Irish community. As snooty and restrictive as the old squire was warmhearted and generous, Niven quickly earns the animosity of the locals. Eventually they draw lots for the privilege of bumping Niven off. Before the cad is humanized by the love of Yvonne DeCarlo Read More

Carrington V.C.

Actors: David Niven, Margaret Leighton, Noelle Middleton, Laurence Naismith, Clive Morton, Mark Dignam

Synopsis: Dorothy and Campbell Christie's witty courtroom comedy/drama Carrington V.C. was given a classy screen treatment by director Anthony Asquith. David Niven stars as Major Carrington, a war hero who is "kicked upstairs" in peacetime. Compelled to use his own money for his expense account, Carrington Read More

The Love Lottery

Actors: David Niven, Peggy Cummins, Anne Vernon, Herbert Lom, Charles Victor

Synopsis: David Niven returns to his native England to star in the frothy comedy The Love Lottery. Niven plays a Hollywood movie star who is the "prize" in a lottery dreamed up by his press agent. The lucky lady who "wins" Niven will be able to spend a week in his company. Sensing the silliness of the whole Read More

The Moon Is Blue

Actors: William Holden, David Niven, Maggie McNamara, Tom Tully, Dawn Addams

Synopsis: This is the story of a chaste young TV-commercial actress (Maggie McNamara) who is romanced by a playboy architect (William Holden). Despite all sorts of temptations, the girl refuses the architect's invitation to become his mistress, holding out for marriage or nothing. Meanwhile, middle-aged Read More

Four Star Playhouse [TV Series]

Actors: Charles Boyer, David Niven, Ida Lupino, Dick Powell

Appointment with Venus

Actors: David Niven, Glynis Johns, George Coulouris, Barry Jones, Kenneth More

Synopsis: Don't be misled by the title, and by the presence of Glynis Johns in the cast. The "Venus" in Appointment with Venus is a prized cow. The time is World War II: special operatives David Niven and Glynis Johns are dispatched to a Nazi-held island to rescue Venus, who for some reason or other is Read More

Soldiers Three

Actors: Stewart Granger, Walter Pidgeon, David Niven, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack

Synopsis: Allegedly based on a Rudyard Kipling novel, this draws most of its inspiration from the 1939 film made of Kipling's narrative poem Gunga Din. Stewart Granger, Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack play three boisterous English soldiers stationed on the Northern India frontier. Walter Pidgeon and David Niven Read More

Happy Go Lovely

Actors: David Niven, Vera-Ellen, Cesar Romero, Bobby Howes, Diane Hart

Synopsis: The Anglo-American musicomedy Happy Go Lovely is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, during a major film festival. The gathered throngs are aghast when unknown dancer Janet Jones (Vera-Ellen) steps daintily from a limousine owned by a Scottish millionaire. A few miles earlier, the girl had thumbed a ride Read More

The Lady Says No

Actors: Joan Caulfield, David Niven, Lenore Lonergan, Frances Bavier

Synopsis: The lady of the title is author Dorinda Hatch (Joan Caulfield), who writes a scathing best-seller in which she trashes all men. Photographer Bill Shelby (David Niven) vows to make Dorinda eat her words, thereby proving the superiority of the male of the species. Suffice to say that he doesn't Read More

The Toast of New Orleans

Actors: Kathryn Grayson, Mario Lanza, David Niven, J. Carrol Naish, James Mitchell

Synopsis: So far as their fans were concerned, Mario Lanza and Kathryn Grayson could have stood up against a blank wall and sung uninterruptedly for 96 minutes in Toast of New Orleans. MGM, however, adhered to the policy that all movies must have plots. This one finds Lanza playing Pepe Abellard Duvalle, a Read More

The Elusive Pimpernel

Actors: David Niven, Margaret Leighton, Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack, David Hutcheson, Robert Coote

Synopsis: In this costume adventure set in France during the Reign of Terror, a mysterious man known only as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues noblemen from the guillotine and leads them to safety across the English Channel. Chauvelin (Cyril Cusack) is determined to unmask the Pimpernel and bring him to Read More

A Kiss in the Dark

Actors: David Niven, Jane Wyman, Victor Moore, Broderick Crawford

Synopsis: A Kiss in the Dark opens with a shot of Jane Wyman in a two-piece bathing suit. Alas, the dictates of cinematic construction demand that some sort of plot must follow this promising beginning. Wyman plays model Polly Haines, one of several mildly eccentric tenants in an apartment building owned by Read More

Almost a Bride

Actors: Shirley Temple, David Niven, Tom Tully, Virginia Welles, Darryl Hickman

Synopsis: Shirley Temple's final starring film, A Kiss for Corliss is a sequel to the actress' 1945 hit Kiss and Tell. The 21-year-old Temple again stars as impulsive teenager Corliss Archer, who on this occasion harbors a crush on notorious playboy Kenneth Marquis (David Niven), who has already been to the Read More

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Actors: David Niven, Margaret Leighton, Morland Graham, John Laurie, Judy Campbell

Synopsis: In one of his rare visits to his home turf, British actor David Niven essayed the title role in Bonnie Prince Charlie. The film's principal challenge was to transform 18th-century Scottish Prince Charles into a sympathetic character, which, patriotism aside, he most decidedly was not in real life. Read More

Enchantment

Actors: David Niven, Teresa Wright, Evelyn Keyes, Farley Granger, Jayne Meadows

Synopsis: Most of the story in this five-hanky British melodrama takes place over a 50 year period within a single London home, 99 Wiltshire Place, the birth place of a noted general who has not been back since he was a young man and had a terrible wrenching fight with his sister over his love for their Read More

The Bishop's Wife

Actors: Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven, Monty Woolley, Gladys Cooper, James Gleason

Synopsis: When Episcopalian bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) prays for divine guidance in his efforts to raise the necessary funds for a new cathedral, his prayers are answered in the form of a handsome, personable guardian angel named Dudley (Cary Grant). Establishing himself as a Yuletide guest in the Read More

The Other Love

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, David Niven, Maria Palmer, Joan Lorring, Richard Conte

Synopsis: Barbara Stanwyck headlines this romantic tearjerker as a free-spirited concert pianist dying of tuberculosis. She checks into a posh Alpine sanitarium and there falls in love with her suave and gentle doctor (David Niven). The poor physician has his hands full trying to keep the energetic Stanwyck Read More

Magnificent Doll

Actors: Erville Alderson, Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Robert H. Barrat, George Barrows, Burgess Meredith, Joe Forte, Horace McNally, Peggy Wood, Henri Letondal

Synopsis: Director Frank Borzage and star Ginger Rogers both came acropper in the lavish but dull historical biopic Magnificent Doll. The usually ebullient Rogers seems encased in wax as Dolly Madison, first lady of the United States in the early 19th century. The story begins as young Washington socialite Read More

The Perfect Marriage

Actors: Loretta Young, David Niven, Eddie Albert, Charlie Ruggles, Virginia Field

Synopsis: If the Perfect Marriage in this romantic comedy were truly perfect, there wouldn't be any story, would there? Outwardly an ideal couple, Maggie and Dale Williams (Loretta Young, David Niven) have grown tired of one another after 10 years. Petty squabbles lead to major battles, exacerbated by the Read More

A Matter of Life and Death

Actors: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Richard Attenborough

Synopsis: Also known as Stairway to Heaven, A Matter of Life and Death is the remarkable British fantasy film that became the surprise hit of 1946. David Niven stars as Peter Carter, a World War II RAF pilot who is forced to bail out of his crippled plane without a parachute. He wakes up to find he has Read More

The Way Ahead

Actors: David Niven, Raymond Huntley, William Hartnell, Stanley Holloway, James Donald

Synopsis: The Immortal Battalion has a bit of a convoluted history. It started life as a training film, The New Lot, which ran 44 minutes. When Winston Churchill approached David Niven about creating a film that would do for the British Army what In Which We Serve had done for the Royal Navy, he contacted Read More

The First of the Few

Actors: Leslie Howard, David Niven, Rosamund John, Roland Culver, Anne Firth

Synopsis: Not a remake of the 1934 Katharine Hepburn film of the same name, Spitfire was originally released in Great Britain as The First of the Few. Director Leslie Howard stars in this dramatization of the life and work of R.J. Mitchell, inventor of the Spitfire fighter plane. The film suggests Read More

Gunga Din

Actors: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Joan Fontaine

Synopsis: Though Rudyard Kipling's poem Gunga Din makes a swell recital piece, it cannot be said to have much of a plot. It's simply a crude cockney soldier's tribute to a native Indian water boy who remains at his job even after being mortally wounded. Hardly the sort of material upon which to build 118 Read More

Wuthering Heights

Actors: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson, Geraldine Fitzgerald

Synopsis: William Wyler's Wuthering Heights is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the classic Emily Brontë novel. A traveler named Lockwood (Miles Mander) is caught in the snow and stays at the estate of Wuthering Heights, where the housekeeper, Ellen Dean (Flora Robson), sits down to tell him the Read More

Raffles

Actors: David Niven, Olivia de Havilland, Dame May Whitty, Dudley Digges, Douglas Walton

Synopsis: The fourth cinematic version of the novel Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung, this romantic caper is a virtual remake of the 1930 version. David Niven stars as A.J. Raffles, a famed cricket player of English society's upper crust. Secretly, however, Raffles is a skilled cat burglar Read More

The Real Glory

Actors: Gary Cooper, Andrea Leeds, David Niven, Broderick Crawford, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Set during the turn-of-the-century Moro uprising in the Philippines, The Real Glory stars Gary Cooper as an American Marine doctor and David Niven and Broderick Crawford as a pair of rowdy mercenaries. While staving off the insurgent Moros, Cooper must also combat a cholera outbreak. Once this Read More

Eternally Yours

Actors: Loretta Young, David Niven, Billie Burke, Hugh Herbert, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Anita's (Loretta Young) life seems to be progressing nicely. She's engaged to Don Barnes (Broderick Crawford), a wealthy man that will give her all the stability and comfort a woman could desire. But then she meets a magician with the unlikely name of The Great Arturo (David Niven), who performs a Read More

Bachelor Mother

Actors: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn, Frank Albertson, E.E. Clive

Synopsis: Ginger Rogers slipped off her dancing shoes to play one of her best comic roles as Polly Parish, a salesgirl at a large department store. Single and with no steady beau, Polly leads a quiet life until she discovers a baby left at her doorstep. While puzzled by this development, Polly feels for the Read More

Three Blind Mice

Actors: Loretta Young, Joel McCrea, David Niven, Stuart Erwin, Marjorie Weaver

Synopsis: Whenever things got slow at 20th Century-Fox, the studio revved up its old reliable "three girls looking for millionaires" plotline. Three Kansas sisters (Loretta Young, Marjorie Weaver and Pauline Moore) use a small inheritance to set themselves up in a Manhattan penthouse. Figuring that Young Read More

The Dawn Patrol

Actors: Errol Flynn, David Niven, Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, Melville Cooper

Synopsis: This 1938 remake of Howard Hawks' 1930 film The Dawn Patrol is faithful to the original's basic plotline. The story is set during World War I; the scene is the French headquarters of the British Royal Flying Corps, 59th division. The corps is suffering heavy losses, a fact that ace pilot Courtney (Errol Flynn Read More

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, David Niven, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: The great Ernst Lubitsch directed this farce (written by Charles M. Brackett and Billy Wilder) about a free-wheeling millionaire, Michael Brandon (Gary Cooper), who enjoys getting married but has a hard time staying married: he's had seven wives and is looking for number eight. He thinks he may Read More

Four Men and a Prayer

Actors: Loretta Young, Richard Greene, George Sanders, David Niven, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: This saga spans the globe as the three young heroes search for the man who killed their much-admired, beloved father, a cashiered officer who was wrongly dishonorably discharged before he was murdered. Their quest takes them from India to South America, London, Egypt, and the U.S. As the progress Read More

We Have Our Moments

Actors: Sally Eilers, James Dunn, David Niven, Mischa Auer, Warren Hymer

Synopsis: Previously teamed in six early-1930s films, James Dunn and Sally Eilers bring the total up to seven with their last co-starring vehicle We Have Our Moments. A trio of American crooks board a ship bound for Europe, intending to get rid of $100,000 in stolen dough. With detective John Wade (James Dunn Read More

The Prisoner of Zenda

Actors: Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mary Astor, David Niven, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Ronald Colman stars in David O. Selznick's classic production of Anthony Hope's swashbuckling adventure. The film takes place in a mythical Central European kingdom with Colman in a dual role as King Rudolf V and Rudolph Rassendyl, a visitor from England who's a distant cousin to the prince. Read More

Dinner at the Ritz

Actors: Annabella, Paul Lukas, David Niven, Romney Brent, Francis L. Sullivan

Synopsis: Filmed in Paris and along the French Riviera, Dinner at the Ritz afforded David Niven the chance to play his first starring role. As Paul de Brack, he is a government agent and playboy and is quite at home among the elite set, whether in England or France. This comes in handy when he falls in with Read More

Rose Marie

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, James Stewart, Reginald Owen, Allan Jones

Synopsis: It was standard operating procedure at MGM to cast their favorite singing team of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in new versions of old operettas, then retain only the music, drastically altering the plotlines to conform to popular tastes. This was the treatment afforded the Rudolf Friml-Herbert Stothart Read More

Palm Springs

Actors: Frances Langford, Smith Ballew, Guy Standing, Ernest Cossart, Spring Byington

Synopsis: Just before his brief turn as a "singing cowboy," radio crooner Smith Ballew starred in Paramount's Palm Springs. Filmed on location at the famed California resort community, the story concerns the efforts by near-bankrupt gambler Capt Smyth (Sir Guy Standing) to marry off his daughter Joan (Frances Langford Read More

Thank You, Jeeves

Actors: Arthur Treacher, Virginia Field, David Niven, Lester Matthews, Colin Tapley

Synopsis: In this romantic mystery, based on the beloved characters of P.G. Wodehouse, the ever-impeccable, unflappable butler Jeeves does all he can to serve his clumsy young master. This time Jeeves falsely identifies evil spies as government agents. Unfortunately these bogus G-men have come to steal Read More

Dodsworth

Actors: Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor, David Niven

Synopsis: In this highly acclaimed adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' novel, Walter Huston plays Sam Dodsworth, a good-hearted, middle-aged man who runs an auto manufacturing firm. His wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton) is obsessed with the notion that she's growing old, and she eventually persuades Sam to sell his Read More

Beloved Enemy

Actors: Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, Karen Morley, Jerome Cowan, David Niven

Synopsis: This lavishly appointed Sam Goldwyn soap opera is set in Ireland during "the troubles." Irish rebel leader Dennis Reardon (Brian Aherne) falls in love with Lady Helen Drummond (Merle Oberon), the aristocratic daughter of British diplomat Lord Athleigh (Henry Stephenson). Reardon's underground Read More

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, Henry Stephenson, Donald Crisp, Nigel Bruce

Synopsis: Of the many film versions of Alfred Lord Tennyson's narrative poem, 1936's Charge of the Light Brigade has the least relationship to the facts concerning the famous 19th century British military blunder in the Crimea. Reflecting the popularity of 1935's Lives of A Bengal Lancer, the film uses the Read More

A Feather in Her Hat

Actors: Pauline Lord, Basil Rathbone, Louis Hayward, Billie Burke, Wendy Barrie

Synopsis: Legendary stage actress Pauline Lord made but a few films, but was always worth watching whenever she took command of the screen. In Feather in Her Hat, Lord plays cockney storekeeper Clarissa Phipps, who worries that her son Richard will grow up being ashamed of her humble vocation. Thus, she Read More

Mutiny on the Bounty

Actors: Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone, Dudley Digges, Herbert Mundin, Donald Crisp, Eddie Quillan

Synopsis: The 1932 publication of Charles Nordhoff and James Norton Hall's Mutiny on the Bounty sparked a revival of interest in the titular 1789 ship mutiny, and this 1935 MGM movie version won the Oscar for Best Picture. Clark Gable stars as Fletcher Christian, first mate of the infamous HMS Bounty Read More

Splendor

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Paul Cavanagh, Helen Westley, Billie Burke

Synopsis: This romantic comedy-drama is set -- typical for producer Samuel Goldwyn at the time -- among the upper class. Joel McCrea plays Brighton Lorrimore, son of a well-to-do American family who returns from a trip abroad with a new wife, Phyllis Manning (Miriam Hopkins). Brighton's parents are dismayed Read More

The Barbary Coast

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan, Frank Craven

Synopsis: It's the wild and woolly waterfront world of San Francisco in the late 1800s in this rambling tale of an outrageous nightclub owner (Edward G. Robinson) and his efforts at wooing lovely Mary Rutledge (Miriam Hopkins), a lovely Eastern lass left to her own devices in the rowdy port city. The Read More

Without Regret

Synopsis: In this melodramatic adventure, a young woman is abducted by Chinese bandits. One of them is a free-lance pilot in need of quick money. He immediately falls for the hostage and jilts his own girl friend. He begins protecting the victim from her lust-filled captors. The two end up married. Years Read More

Reader's Digest Children's Classics [Video Series]

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