Francis L. SullivanFilmography

The Prodigal

Actors: Lana Turner, Edmund Purdom, Louis Calhern, Audrey Dalton, James Mitchell, Neville Brand

Synopsis: One critic has noted that The Prodigal was aptly titled, inasmuch as it was all too prodigal with the funds of the then-flagging MGM studios. In its retelling of the 22-verse Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, the film helpfully fills in the story details inconsiderately left out of the Old Read More

Drums of Tahiti

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Patricia Medina, Francis L. Sullivan, George Keymas, Sylvia Lewis

Synopsis: During a 1980 interview, writer-director Douglas Heyes mentioned that he preferred to forget his first big-screen writing assignment, Drums of Tahiti. Though lensed in 3D, the film's action content is minimal: the character spend most of their time talking over their various problems. Set in the Read More

Sangaree

Actors: Fernando Lamas, Arlene Dahl, Patricia Medina, Francis L. Sullivan, Charles Korvin

Synopsis: Filmed in 3-D, Sangaree is a satisfactory swashbuckler adapted from a novel by Frank G. Slaughter. Fernando Lamas portrays the son of an 18th century slave whose fortunes take a radical turn when he inherits a huge cotton plantation in the American colonies. Arlene Dahl (later Mrs. Fernando Lamas) Read More

Plunder of the Sun

Actors: Glenn Ford, Diana Lynn, Patricia Medina, Francis L. Sullivan, Sean McClory

Synopsis: Adapted from a novel by David Dodge, Plunder of the Sun is basically Treasure of the Sierra Madre in Aztec country. Several interested parties converge upon the Mexican Aztec ruins in search of a long-buried treasure. Insurance investigator Glenn Ford is ostensibly the hero, but he doesn't seem Read More

Studio One: Treasure Island

Studio One: Pontius Pilate

Synopsis: The story of Jesus Christ is recounted from Pontius Pilate's beleaguered perspective in this Easter installment of the popular small screen series "Studio One." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

Caribbean

Actors: John Payne, Arlene Dahl, Cedric Hardwicke, Francis L. Sullivan, Willard Parker

Synopsis: Caribbean was another box-office winner from Paramount's "two dollar bills," producers William H. Pine and William Thomas. Set in the 18th century, the film stars John Payne as adventurer Dick Lindsay, hired by pirate leader Charles Barclay (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) to pose as the long-lost nephew of Read More

Lights Out: The Man With the Watch

My Favorite Spy

Actors: Bob Hope, Hedy Lamarr, Francis L. Sullivan, Arnold Moss, John Archer

Synopsis: Bob Hope is up to his famous nose in danger in this espionage comedy. Second-rate burlesque comic Peanuts White (Hope) is approached by federal agents who think that he's international spy Eric Augustine, to whom Peanuts bears a striking resemblance. When they realize that Peanuts and Eric are two Read More

Behave Yourself!

Actors: Farley Granger, Shelley Winters, William Demarest, Francis L. Sullivan, Margalo Gillmore

Synopsis: One of the oddest comedies of the 1950s, Behave Yourself! stars Farley Granger and Shelley Winters as a pair of none-too-bright newlyweds. Granger and Winters adopt a stray pooch named Archie, who unbeknownst to them has been trained as a go-between for a couple of underworld gangs. To the Read More

Night and the City

Actors: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Francis L. Sullivan

Synopsis: Jules Dassin's Night and the City opens with cheap grifter Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) running for his life through the streets of London. Harry wants to be big-time, and he does not care how he raises cash for his schemes. Like a junkie, he uses and steals from his girlfriend Mary (Gene Tierney Read More

The Winslow Boy

Actors: Robert Donat, Margaret Leighton, Cedric Hardwicke, Neil North, Basil Radford, Jack Watling, Kathleen Harrison

Synopsis: Based on the infamous Archer-Shee case of 1912, The Winslow Boy features Neil North as the 14-year-old title character. Accused of a petty theft, North is expelled from Naval College. His father, retired bank official Sir Cedric Hardwycke, is prevented by existing British law to clear his son's Read More

The Red Danube

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh

Synopsis: One of the more palatable of Hollywood's anti-communist tracts of the late 1940s-early 1950s was MGM's The Red Danube. Janet Leigh plays Maria Buhlen, an Eastern Bloc ballerina who seeks political asylum in the British-occupied zone of Vienna. Maria's plight turns into a political tug-of-war Read More

Christopher Columbus

Actors: Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, Francis L. Sullivan, Linden Travers, Kathleen Ryan, Derek Bond

Synopsis: Reverent to the point of tedium, Christopher Columbus stars Fredric March in the title role, and he's welcome to it. March's wife Florence Eldredge co-stars as Queen Isabella, who finances Columbus' expedition to find a westward route to India. After several reels devoted to table-top miniatures Read More

Oliver Twist

Actors: Robert Newton, Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Francis L. Sullivan, John Howard Davies

Synopsis: The second of director David Lean's adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel (Great Expectations (1946) was the first), Oliver Twist expertly boils down an enormous novel to a little less than two hours' screen time. The film begins with baby Oliver left on the doorstep of an orphanage/workhouse by Read More

Broken Journey

Actors: Phyllis Calvert, Margot Grahame, James Donald, Francis L. Sullivan, Raymond Huntley

Synopsis: This disaster movie is based on the true story of ways in which a diverse group of plane passengers managed to survive after their plane crashed in the Swiss Alps. Some of the surviving passengers were publically prominent people. All of them had to face new challenges that tested their inner Read More

Take My Life

Actors: Hugh Williams, Greta Gynt, Marius Goring, Francis L. Sullivan, Henry Edwards

Synopsis: Cinematographer Ronald Neame made his directorial debut with the 1947 murder melodrama Take My Life. When a Covent Garden violinist is found murdered, her ex-lover, show business manager Nicholas Talbot (Hugh Williams) finds himself under suspicion. The only person who believes that Talbot is Read More

Joan of Arc

Actors: Ingrid Bergman, José Ferrer, Selena Royle, Ward Bond, Robert H. Barrat, Jimmy Lydon, Francis L. Sullivan, Cecil Kellaway, Rand Brooks

Synopsis: Director Victor Fleming's final film features Ingrid Bergman as a vivid and luminous Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who led the French in battle against the invading English, becoming a national hero. When she was captured, tortured, and ultimately executed by the English, she 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

Great Expectations

Actors: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Finlay Currie, Francis L. Sullivan, Alec Guinness, Jean Simmons

Synopsis: Immediately grabbing the audience's attention with a heart-stopping opening scene in a dark graveyard, acclaimed British director David Lean realizes the cinematic potential of Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel, and the result is considered by many to be one of the finest literary adaptations Read More

The Laughing Lady

Actors: Anne Ziegler, Webster Booth, Francis L. Sullivan, Peter Graves

Synopsis: The French Revolution provides the setting for the British musical. The story centers on the notorious rebel Robespierre who cuts a deal with the son of a duchess headed for the guillotine. Robespierre tells the son that if he can go to England and find a pearl necklace Marie Antoinette gave as a 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

Fiddlers Three

Synopsis: A pair of furloughed British sailors and a Wren go for a visit to Stonehenge, get caught in a violent storm and end up in ancient Rome. This comedy chronicles their exploits that begin when they try to curry the emperor's favor by predicting the future. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Butler's Dilemma

Synopsis: In this comedy, a young playboy and a petty thief both simultaneously attempt to impersonate an non-existent butler. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Lady from Lisbon

Synopsis: In this British espionage comedy, an opportunistic South American woman will do anything to get her hands on a copy of the Mona Lisa. When she hears the Nazis have it, she offers to do some spying in Lisbon in exchange for the painting. Suddenly, many different 'Mona Lisas' begin to surface. After Read More

The Foreman Went to France

Actors: Tommy Trinder, Constance Cummings, Clifford Evans, Robert Morley, Gordon Jackson

Synopsis: Set near the beginning of WW II, this exciting war drama follows a courageous British factory foreman as he makes a dangerous foray into occupied France to recover three machine parts that will be vital to the Allies. He is accompanied by a pair of tough British soldiers and an American girl. Read More

The Day Will Dawn

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, Francis L. Sullivan

Synopsis: Also known as The Avengers, the British The Day Will Dawn is set in Norway at the outbreak of WW2. British foreign correspondent Lockwood (Ralph Richardson), forced out of Norway by the Nazi invasion, returns to the occupied Scandanavian country at the request of the War Office. Lockwood's Read More

Pimpernel Smith

Actors: Leslie Howard, Francis L. Sullivan, Mary Morris, Peter Gawthorne

Synopsis: The "Scarlet Pimpernel" legend is updated to WW2 in the breathless actioner Pimpernel Smith. Leslie Howard (who also directed) plays bespectacled and seemingly mild-mannered Professor Smith, who under cover of darkness transforms into a tireless defender of democracy. With the help of several Read More

21 Days

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Leslie Banks, Laurence Olivier, Francis L. Sullivan, Hay Petrie

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier plays a young Londoner implicated in a brutal murder. According to the rules of British law, he is permitted 21 days of comparative freedom from the time of the first hearing to the time of trial -- provided he does not leave London. As the three weeks pass, Olivier falls deeply Read More

Young Man's Fancy

Actors: Griffith Jones, Anna Lee, Seymour Hicks, Martita Hunt, Edward Rigby

Synopsis: In this gentle comedy, an aristocratic English fellow is not happy to be betrothed to a brewery heiress. One day he goes to a circus and ends up with a lively human cannonball in his life. He immediately falls for the daring young performer and they end up eloping and going to Paris to live out 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

The Drum

Actors: Sabu, Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Valerie Hobson, David Tree

Synopsis: The Drum is an opulent Technicolor "British India" epic, based on a story by A.E.W. Mason (of Four Feathers fame). Teenaged actor Sabu stars as a young East Indian prince educated in England. By rights, his loyalties should lie with his countrymen, but in typical "Sun Never Sets" fashion most of Read More

Kate Plus Ten

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a police inspector pursues a Lord's secretary suspected of stealing his gold bullion. She is the prime suspect because she is the leader of an infamous gang of thieves. The cops do not realize that the gang acted on their own accord. The secretary and the inspector then team Read More

The Ware Case

Actors: Clive Brook, Jane Baxter, Barry Barnes, C.V. France, Francis L. Sullivan

Synopsis: In this taut drama, a wealthy financier is tried for the murder of his brother-in-law after the damning corpse is found floating in his garden pond. He is eventually acquitted. Upon his return home, he is angered to find his lawyer has become romantically involved with his wife. An argument Read More

Climbing High

Actors: Jessie Matthews, Michael Redgrave, Noel Madison, Alastair Sim

Synopsis: Originally conceived as a musical (called Asking for Trouble) to showcase the talents of leading lady Jessie Matthews, Climbing High emerged as a straight romantic comedy, albeit one that sometimes sets up musical numbers that don't occur. Michael Redgrave plays Nicky Brooke, a millionaire Read More

The Citadel

Actors: Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Richardson, Rex Harrison, Emlyn Williams

Synopsis: Robert Donat stars as Dr. Andrew Manson in this adaptation of A.J. Cronin's best-selling novel. Manson devotes himself to treating the residents of a poverty-stricken Welsh mining community. Tuberculosis runs rampant in the village, and Manson is determined to help stem its tide and bring good Read More

The Gables Mystery

Non-Stop New York

Actors: Anna Lee, John Loder, Frank Cellier, Desmond Tester, William Dewhurst

Synopsis: While W.C. Fields poked fun at the asinine notion of a high-speed airplane with an open observation deck in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), the producers of the futuristic British melodrama Non-Stop New York (1937) take this notion quite seriously. The film's setpiece is a streamlined Read More

Action for Slander

Actors: Clive Brook, Ann Todd, Margaretta Scott, Arthur Margetson, Ronald Squire

Synopsis: This film takes a look at British decorum and civilities when a highly conscientious army officer is accused of cheating at cards and turns to the courts to clear his name. At stake, of course, is his good name and the respect of his peers. The film depicts the British class and court systems and 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

Two Who Dared

Actors: Anna Sten, Henry Wilcoxon, Viola Keats, John Garrick, Romilly Lunge, Guy Middleton

Synopsis: Having flunked out as Sam Goldwyn's answer to Greta Garbo, Russian actress Anna Sten retreated to Britain for the 1936 historical drama A Woman Alone. Based on a novel by Fedor Ozop, the film is set in 19th century Russia. Sten plays a peasant girl who falls in love with military captain Henry Wilcoxon Read More

Fine Feathers

The Interrupted Honeymoon

Synopsis: In this comedy, a helpful friend offers to care for the apartment of a honeymooning couple. As soon as they leave, he brings his mistress to the place to spice it up. Meanwhile, in Paris, the honeymooners experience trouble after the husband accidently kisses a jealous man's wife. They quickly Read More

The Limping Man

Actors: Francis L. Sullivan, Hugh Wakefield, Iris Hoey, Patricia Hilliard, Robert Cochran

Synopsis: In this remake of the 1931 film, an informer is plagued by the three ex-cons he was responsible for sending to prison. They exact their revenge by bedeviling the man in his newly inherited estate and try to drive him crazy by having him believe the place is haunted. The young man then hires a Read More

Spy of Napoleon

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Dolly Haas, Frank Vosper, Francis L. Sullivan, Joyce Bland

Synopsis: Hollywood star Richard Barthelmess, who's about as French as a hot dog with mustard, plays the title character in the British costume melodrama Spy of Napoleon. Based on a novel by Baroness Orczy (The Scarlet Pimpernel), the plot focuses on the animosity between Napoleon III (Frank Vosper) and Read More

Strange Wives

Actors: Roger Pryor, June Clayworth, Esther Ralston, Hugh O'Connell, Ralph Forbes

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a man marries his Russian lover and discovers that she has a large extended family. He is utterly overwhelmed and decides that the only way he will be able to free himself of their burden will be to make them famous. Along the way, he keeps running into the bold lover of Read More

The Wandering Jew

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Matheson Lang, Marie Ney, Cicely Oates, Malvina Longfellow, Isobel Elsom, Basil Gill, Anne Grey

Synopsis: This story is based both on a long-standing legend and a play by E. Temple Thurston. Veteran British director Maurice Elvey brought years of experience with theatrical adaptations to the difficult task of filming a movie that spans centuries and strains credulity. Conrad Veidt stars as the Jew who Read More

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Actors: Claude Rains, Douglass Montgomery, Heather Angel, David Manners, Valerie Hobson

Synopsis: Charles Dickens' unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, has been a source of speculation and controversy ever since its posthumous publication. Even so, the ending concocted by scenarists John Balderston and Gladys Unger for the 1935 film version of Edwin Drood met with near-unanimous Read More

Her Last Affaire

Actors: Hugh Williams, Viola Keats, Francis L. Sullivan, Sophie Stewart, Cecil Parker

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1929 as S.O.S. (also the title of the Walter Ellis play that is its basis), Her Last Affaire switches the sexes of its leading characters so that the protagonist is now a male, Alan Heriot (Hugh Williams). Heriot is the secretary to Sir Julian Weyre (Francis L. Sullivan) a Read More

Princess Charming

Actors: Evelyn Laye, Henry Wilcoxon, Yvonne Arnaud, George Grossmith, Max Miller

Synopsis: To save her country from revolutionaries, a princess decides to accept the marriage proposal of a neighboring king she has never met. The king then assigns a naval commander to escort the princess to his kingdom, but unfortunately, the escort is captured in a revolt and the only way he and the Read More

What Happened Then?

Synopsis: In this mystery, a sculptor is convicted of murder after the body of his guardian is discovered. The artist's fiancee doesn't believe he is guilty and begins investigating. She goes to the deceased's nephew for help. He says he will, but only if she will marry him. Later she learns that he has Read More

Power

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Benita Hume, Pamela Ostrer, Frank Vosper, Gerald du Maurier, Cedric Hardwicke

Synopsis: Jew Suss was a well-worn stage drama based on an old novel by Lionel Feuchtwanger. The story involves an enterprising Jewish businessman (Conrad Veidt) who gains power and influence in the European community of Wurttemburg. He does this to help his people, who have suffered persecution under the Read More

Chu Chin Chow

Actors: George Robey, Fritz Kortner, Anna May Wong, John Garrick, Pearl Argyle

Synopsis: The timeworn British stage musical Chu Chin Chow had already been made into a silent picture when this talkie version made its bow in 1934. Based on Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, the film stars corpulent music-hall comedian George Robey as Ali Baba, sinister Fritz Kortner as robber captain Abu Read More

The Return of Bulldog Drummond

Actors: Ann Todd, Ralph Richardson, Francis L. Sullivan, Claud Allister

Synopsis: Based on the character created by "Sapper" (Herman Cyril McNeile), Return of Bulldog Drummond was a British production starring Ralph Richardson in the title role. The film is closer to the jingoistic, near-fascist spirit of the original stories than were the Hollywood "Drummond" B-pictures of the Read More

Cheating Cheaters

Actors: Fay Wray, Cesar Romero, Minna Gombell, Hugh O'Connell, Henry Armetta

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1919 and 1927, Max Marcin's stage success Cheating Cheaters made its talking-picture bow courtesy of Universal in 1934. Fay Wray stars as seductive Nan Brockton, seemingly in the employ of a gang of slick jewel thieves. The crooks disguise themselves as high-society types, as Read More

Great Expectations

Actors: Phillips Holmes, Henry Hull, Jane Wyatt, Florence Reed, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Twelve years before David Lean's definitive filmization of Dickens' Great Expectations, Hollywood had a go at the novel, with mixed results. The story is the familiar one of young Pip (George Breakstone as a boy, Phillips Holmes as an adult) whose future wealth is assured through the auspices of a Read More

F.P.1

Actors: Leslie Fenton, Conrad Veidt, Jill Esmond, George Merritt, Donald Calthrop

Synopsis: This drama is set upon a floating platform, used for oil drilling, located in the Atlantic. The owners of a rival platform are desperate to destroy it. The film was originally made in German and titled F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Called Back

Synopsis: In this drama, a radical doctor hatches a plot to takeover the Spanish government. He is thwarted by a blind man and a young girl with amnesia. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Right to Live

Red Wagon

Actors: Charles Bickford, Raquel Torres, Greta Nissen, Don Alvarado, Anthony Bushell

Synopsis: Hollywood's Charles Bickford and Mexican leading lady Raquel Torres top the cast of the British circus melodrama Red Wagon. Bickford plays Joe, an expert trick rider, while Torres is his fiery gypsy dancer Sheba. Though in love with tiger trainer Zara (Greta Nissen), Joe breaks up with her over a Read More

The Fire Raisers

Synopsis: The Fire Raisers (British slang for arsonists) was inspired by the true story of Leopold Harris, an insurance assessor convicted of arson. Called "a sort of Warner Brothers Newspaper Headline story" by director Michael Powell, the film centers around Jim Bronson (played by Leslie Banks), an Read More

The Wandering Jew

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Ben Adler, Abraham Teitelbaum, Marie Ney, Anne Grey, Joan Maude, Peggy Ashcroft

Synopsis: Filmed in the Yiddish language, The Wandering Jew features Jacob Ben-Ami as a young Jewish artist living in Germany in the early 1930s. As the Nazis gain in influence, the artist's life and livelihood are slowly eroded: his non-Jewish fiancee leaves him and his paintings are rejected by the Read More

The Missing Rembrandt

Actors: Arthur Wontner, Ian Fleming, Francis L. Sullivan, Dino Galvani

Synopsis: Saturnine Arthur Wontner makes his second screen appearance as Conan Doyle's master sleuth Sherlock Holmes in The Missing Rembrandt. The plot is motivated by the perfidious Baron von Guntermann (Francis L. Sullivan), "the worst man in London." Using blackmail as his principal weapon, the Baron Read More

The Chinese Puzzle

Synopsis: In this drama a Chinese mandarin admits that he stole a secret treaty. He does this to protect the true thief who is his friend's wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

When London Sleeps

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a gambler runs up a huge debt and happily pays it back. The owner of the gambling house learns that the gambler's girl friend is his cousin. She is first in line for his late uncle's fortune; he is second. The greedy fellow kidnaps his cousin and plans to eliminate her. Read More