Margaret RutherfordFilmography

Arabella

Actors: Virna Lisi, James Fox, Margaret Rutherford, Terry-Thomas

Synopsis: Apparently in the Italy of the 1920s, the only way to keep your home out of the maws of the tax collector was to steal and cheat from everyone in sight -- and the dupes you'd swindle wouldn't know the difference since all their attentions would be focused upon cheating you. That little bit of Read More

A Countess from Hong Kong

Actors: Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Sydney Chaplin, Tippi Hedren, Patrick Cargill

Synopsis: Charles Chaplin wrote, directed, and scored this old-fashioned romantic comedy, which proved to be his last film. Wealthy American diplomat Ogden Mears (Marlon Brando) is sailing from Hong Kong to Hawaii, where he hopes to meet and reconcile with his estranged wife Martha (Tippi Hedren). However Read More

The Wacky World of Mother Goose

Synopsis: In this animated children's film, Mother Goose and her fairytale friends must stop a group of sneaky spies. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Chimes at Midnight

Actors: Orson Welles, John Gielgud, Jeanne Moreau, Norman Rodway, Keith Baxter

Synopsis: The legendary Shakespearean character Sir John Falstaff, the notoriously drunken, obese, and yet charming companion of the young Henry V, steps up from supporting character in several plays to the central focus of Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, considered by many critics the best of the Read More

The Alphabet Murders

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg, Robert Morley, Maurice Denham, Guy Rolfe

Synopsis: Released in Great Britain as The ABC Murders, The Alphabet Murders stars a well-disguised Tony Randall as Agatha Christie's brilliant, insufferable Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Unfortunately, director Frank Tashlin chooses to open the film with one of his Pirandelloian gimmicks by introducing Randall Read More

Murder Ahoy

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Lionel Jeffries, Charles "Bud" Tingwell, William Mervyn, Joan Benham, Stringer Davis

Synopsis: The last of Margaret Rutherford's "Miss Marple" films, Murder Ahoy is the only one of the series not based on an Agatha Christie original. The setting this time is a boat that has been purchased by a trusteeship to serve as a home for wayward kids. One of the trustees, Cecil Ffolly-Hardwicke (Henry Longhurst Read More

Murder Most Foul

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles "Bud" Tingwell, Andrew Cruickshank, Megs Jenkins, Dennis Price, Ralph Michael, James Bolam, Stringer Davis, Francesca Annis, Alison Seebohm, Terry Scott

Synopsis: Murder Most Foul represented Margaret Rutherford's third appearance as Agatha Christie's spinsterish sleuth Miss Marple. The film opens with Marple serving on a murder-trial jury. She forces a mistrial because she considers the accused to be innocent; to prove her theory, she traces the trail of Read More

The Mouse on the Moon

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Bernard Cribbins, Ron Moody, David Kossoff, Terry-Thomas

Synopsis: From Richard Lester, the director of 1980's Superman II and the 1964 A Hard Day's Night, comes this less-successful sequel to the The Mouse that Roared. The Prime Minister of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick (Ron Moody) is in a bind because he has no money to renovate his castle and there is a serious Read More

The V.I.P.'s

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, Margaret Rutherford, Maggie Smith

Synopsis: Terrence Rattigan, the playwright who brought us the multicharactered, multistoried Separate Tables, again offers us an episodic cross-section of humanity in The V.I.P.'s. When a heavy London fog paralyzes all air traffic, the lives of several people are profoundly affected. As indicated by the Read More

Murder at the Gallop

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, Flora Robson, Charles "Bud" Tingwell, Stringer Davis

Synopsis: This is one of a series of competent murder mysteries directed by George Pollock based on the Agatha Christie character, Miss Marple. Margaret Rutherford stars as the grey-haired, wily sleuth who will not give up until all the pieces of a puzzle have been neatly put in place. This time around, an Read More

Murder, She Said

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice, Charles "Bud" Tingwell

Synopsis: Dumpy, dough-faced British comedienne Margaret Rutherford was not precisely the physical type Agatha Christie had in mind for the prim, tweedish sleuth Miss Marple. Still, Rutherford's first "Marple" movie Murder, She Said did so well at the box office that there was no question she would continue Read More

On the Double

Actors: Danny Kaye, Dana Wynter, Margaret Rutherford, Diana Dors

Synopsis: Danny Kaye headlines this lively WW II-era comedy. He plays a foot soldier who with his fellow troop is preparing for D-day. Trouble begins when he is caught pretending to be the most important generals in England, a man he closely resembles. The two look so much alike that military intelligence Read More

I'm All Right Jack

Actors: Ian Carmichael, Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price

Synopsis: Set in the 1950s in Britain, this award-winning social comedy by director and co-writer John Boulting features Ian Carmichael as the inept Stanley Windrush, a hopeless twit with -- we are to believe -- an Oxford degree. Unlike others in his social circle, Stanley wants to work. When he tries out Read More

Just My Luck

Actors: Norman Wisdom, Jill Dixon, Leslie Phillips, Delphi Lawrence, Margaret Rutherford, Joan Sims

Synopsis: Norman Wisdom, Britain's much-funnier answer to Jerry Lewis, stars in Just My Luck. Wisdom plays a humble jewelry-store clerk who begins playing the horses, the better to raise enough money to buy a fancy gift for girlfriend Anne (Jill Dixon). Much to his surprise, Wisdom wins a fortune at the Read More

The Smallest Show on Earth

Actors: Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Leslie Phillips, Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford

Synopsis: The Smallest Show on Earth is a gentle, frequently uproarious takeoff of Britain's neighborhood-cinema industry. Real-life husband and wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna star as Matt and Jean Spencer, a middle-class couple who inherit a decrepit movie house in a tiny railroad whistle stop. Read More

An Alligator Named Daisy

Actors: Donald Sinden, Diana Dors, James Robertson Justice, Jean Carson, Stanley Holloway

Synopsis: You gets what you pays for in An Alligator Named Daisy. Donald Sinden stars as a young songwriter who accidentally picks up someone else's alligator suitcase. Somehow this leads to the luckless Sinden being saddled with a baby alligator, who prefers to sleep within his piano. Glamour girl Diana Dors Read More

Aunt Clara

Synopsis: A prim and pious old woman suddenly has her hands full when her devilishly free-spirited uncle dies and bequeaths her his five greyhounds, a ramshackle tavern and a popular cathouse in this British comedy that features a number of guest appearances by some of the country's most popular comedians. Read More

Mad About Men

Actors: Glynis Johns, Anne Crawford, Donald Sinden, Margaret Rutherford, Dora Bryan

Synopsis: Mad About Men is the delightful sequel to the saucy British comedy-fantasy Miranda. Glynis Johns returns in the dual role of amorous mermaid Miranda and her somewhat more reserved "human" lookalike Caroline. Having inherited a house in Cornwall, Caroline goes on an extended holiday, whereupon Read More

The Runaway Bus

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Petula Clark, George Coulouris, Toke Townley

Synopsis: Lantern-jawed British comedian Frankie Howerd, best known to American TV fans as the star of the raucous historical satire Up Pompeii, heads the cast of The Runaway Bus. Howard plays Percy Lamb, a novice bus driver assigned to drive a coach from one London ariport to another. Alas, the city is Read More

Innocents in Paris

Actors: Alastair Sim, Ronald Shiner, Margaret Rutherford, Claire Bloom, Claude Dauphin

Synopsis: Innocents in Paris is a series of anecdotes bundled together by geography. First we see the efforts by British diplomat Alastair Sim to loosen up Soviet-agent Peter Illing long enough to forge an economic plan between Russia and England. Then we watch as dotty artist Margaret Rutherford purchases Read More

Trouble in Store

Actors: Norman Wisdom, Margaret Rutherford, Moira Lister, Derek Bond, Lana Morris

Synopsis: Ebullient British music-hall comedian Norman Wisdom made his movie debut in Trouble in Store. The scene is a large department store, where the bumbling Norman (Wisdom) has somehow landed a clerical job. The rest of the film is a series of slapstick catastrophes, some hilarious, others less so. Read More

Curtain Up

Actors: Robert Morley, Margaret Rutherford, Olive Sloane, Joan Rice, Charlotte Mitchell

Synopsis: The world of provincial British theatre is given a gentle going over in Curtain Up. Short of funds, a small-town repertory troupe is forced to bow to the whims of wealthy Catherine (Margaret Rutherford), the aunt of the theatre's manager. When Catherine writes a perfectly dreadful play, the actors Read More

Castle in the Air

Actors: David Tomlinson, Helen Cherry, Margaret Rutherford, Barbara Kelly, A.E. Matthews

Synopsis: Most of this hectic British comedy takes place in an ancient Scottish castle. The British National Coal Board, following a real-life policy established in the 1940s, wants to annex the castle as a group home for the local miners and their families. Wealthy, much-married American Mrs. Clodfelter Read More

The Importance of Being Earnest

Actors: Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, Michael Denison, Dorothy Tutin, Miles Malleson, Margaret Rutherford, Joan Greenwood

Synopsis: Anthony Asquith's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's witty play of mistaken identities stars Michael Redgrave as rich bachelor Jack Worthing. Jack's friend is Algernon Moncrieft (Michael Denison), a poor bloke living on credit. Jack refers mysteriously to Algernon about his country retreat, which drives Read More

Miss Robin Hood

Synopsis: In this whimsical fantasy, a mild-mannered writer of wild adventure novels for young girls finds himself presented with an intriguing proposition from an elderly fan. She suggests that they conspire together to steal the whiskey formula from the distillers who took it from her family many years 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

Quel Bandito Sono Io

Actors: Jean Kent, Robert Beatty, Margaret Rutherford, Rona Anderson

Synopsis: Based on a play by Pepine de Felipe, Her Favorite Husband is a British comedy set in Italy. Housewife Jean Kent is bemused by her husband Robert Beatty, who is not quite himself these days. In truth, he is not himself at all: Jean's husband has been replaced by a lookalike gangster who is plotting Read More

The Happiest Days of Your Life

Actors: Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, John Turnbull, Joyce Grenfell, Richard Wattis, Guy Middleton, Edward Rigby

Synopsis: A battle of the sexes begins to rage in an isolated private school in this charming British comedy. Just outside of London during World War II, Axis bombing forces the evacuation of a private all-girls school, St. Swithins. Thanks to a bureaucratic mix-up, the girls of St. Swithins and their Read More

The Adventures of Don Juan

Actors: Errol Flynn, Viveca Lindfors, Robert Douglas, Raymond Burr, Romney Brent, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Though Errol Flynn was well past his prime (and obviously well lubricated in certain scenes), he rises to the occasion of The Adventures of Don Juan with a spirited, athletic performance. As fabled Spanish swashbuckler/lover Don Juan, Flynn spends the early portions of the film romancing willing Read More

Passport to Pimlico

Actors: Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Raymond Huntley, Philip Stainton, Roy Carr

Synopsis: Passport to Pimlico is one of the most charmingly whimsical Ealing Studios comedies of the late 1940s-early 1950s. As a result of wartime bombing, an ancient parchment is uncovered, proving that the Pimlico section of London belongs to Burgundy, France. Long taken for granted by other Londoners Read More

Miranda

Actors: Glynis Johns, Googie Withers, Griffith Jones, John McCallum, Margaret Rutherford

Synopsis: Based on the play by Peter Blackmore, Miranda was the first of two British comedies starring Glynis Johns as a mischievous mermaid. Rescued from a watery grave by the finny-tailed Miranda (Johns), handsome doctor Paul Marten (Griffith Jones) agrees under durress to take his lovely rescuer to Read More

While the Sun Shines

Actors: Barbara White, Ronald Squire, Brenda Bruce, Bonar Colleano, Ronald Howard

Synopsis: Director Anthony Asquith's first postwar effort, While the Sun Shines was based on a play by frequent Asquith collaborator Terence Rattigan. Set in WW2 London, the story revolves around Lady Elizabeth Randall (Barbara White), who is serving her country as an Air Force corporal. While en route to 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

Blithe Spirit

Actors: Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford, Hugh Wakefield

Synopsis: The Noel Coward/David Lean combination which turned out such dramas as Brief Encounter and This Happy Breed sets its sights on the viewer's funny bone with Blithe Spirit. Rex Harrison plays a novelist, newly married to straight-laced Constance Cummings. Via a seance, Harrison accidentally summons Read More

English without Tears

Actors: Michael Wilding, Sr., Lilli Palmer, Claude Dauphin, Albert Lieven

Synopsis: English without Tears is a gentle satire of the temporary relaxation of class barriers in wartime England. Michael Wilding portrays the faithful family butler to a fabulously wealthy household. Each member of the family greets the news of upcoming world conflict with a different reaction, the most Read More

The Yellow Canary

Actors: Anna Neagle, Richard Greene, Nova Pilbeam, Albert Lieven, Lucie Mannheim, Margaret Rutherford

Synopsis: The Yellow Canary was one of several wartime collaborations between British producer-director Herbert Wilcox and Hollywood's RKO Radio Pictures. The film stars Wilcox's wife Anna Neagle as pretty aristocrat Sally Maitland. Having alienated many of her friends with her prewar Nazi sympathies, Sally Read More

The Demi-Paradise

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Marjorie Fielding, Margaret Rutherford, Leslie Henson

Synopsis: Demi-Paradise stars Laurence Olivier as a Russian inventor (accent and all). In Europe to promote his new propeller device, Olivier is put off by English customs and manners-or, rather, the lack of the latter. No one in 1939 England trusts a foreigner, least of all one of those shifty "Reds", but 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

Quiet Wedding

Actors: Margaret Lockwood, Derek Farr, Marjorie Fielding, A.E. Matthews, Athene Seyler

Synopsis: The old reliable plot device known as premarital hanky-panky was the basis of the Esther McCracken stage play Quiet Wedding. The film version, scripted by Terence Rattigan and Anton de Grunewald, tones down some of the more censorable elements of the play, though not enough to completely Read More

Catch As Catch Can

Synopsis: A young woman, desiring to be wealthy, attempts to smuggle French jewels into America. When her boat docks, she is immediately caught by a US customs agent who convinces her to return the jewels to France. If she does that, he will not arrest her. Unfortunately, before she can get back she is Read More

Big Fella

Actors: Paul Robeson, Elisabeth Welch, Roy Emerton, James Hayter, Lawrence Brown

Synopsis: African-American actor/singer Paul Robeson had to travel to England in the 1930s to seek out dignified film roles. In Big Fella, Robeson is a happy wanderer who chances upon a runaway child. The kid so enjoys the company of Robeson and his café-singer friend Elisabeth Welch that he threatens to Read More

Beauty and the Barge

Synopsis: British author W.W. Jacobs, whose love of the sea and seafarers permeated everything he wrote, was responsible for the story upon which Beauty and the Barge was based. Judy Gunn plays the headstrong daughter of an Army officer who runs away from home. She is later adopted by bargeman Gordon Read More

Missing, Believed Married

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

Dusty Ermine

Actors: Ronald Squire, Jane Baxter, Arthur Macrae, Anthony Bushell, Athole Stewart

Synopsis: Although Neil Grant's stage play Dusty Ermine enjoyed a 250-performance run in London, screenwriters Du Garde Peach and Michael Hankinson could not resist the temptation to "improve" the play for its 1936 film version. Surprisingly, the film actually did turn out to be better than the play, no Read More