Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
American Movie Stars in British Films, 3 Jan 2008
So what exactly is a "mixed movie"? I define a "mixed movie" as one with cross-over talent, for example a British star lighting up a Hollywood production, or a Hollywood star (or a director) working on a British film. Of course, many British movies like "Father Brown, Detective", although totally homegrown at the time they were made, boasted stars like Alec Guinness and Peter Finch who were later to become international celebrities. "Mixed movies" is a wide-ranging subject. Even with a massive, large-format book of this size, it has been necessary to impose certain limits. The accent therefore is primarily on British stars and Hollywood luminaries who lent their talents to British films, such as "The Scarlet Pimpernel" with Raymond Massey, Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, and Nigel Bruce; or "Personal Affair" with Gene Tierney, Leo Genn and Glynis Johns; or "On the Double" with Danny Kaye, Dana Wynter, Margaret Rutherford and Diana Dors; or "Naked Runner" with Frank Sinatra, Peter Vaughan and Nadia Gray; "Land of the Pharaohs" with Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins and Dewey Martin; "The Angry Silence" with Pier Angeli and Richard Attenborough; "Knight Without Armor" with Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat; "The Battle of the Sexes" with Peter Sellers and Constance Cummings; "I Was a Spy" with Madeleine Carroll, Conrad Veidt and Herbert Marshall; "Hot Millions" with Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Karl Malden, Cesar Romero, Bob Newhart; "Hobson's Choice" with Charles Laughton and John Mills; "Happy Go Lovely" with David Niven, Vera-Ellen and Cesar Romero; "The City under the Sea" with Vincent Price and Tab Hunter; Mia Farrow in "Blind Terror"; Anna May Wong in "Chu-Chin-Chow"; Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Charles Boyer in "Casino Royale"; Van Johnson and Vera Miles in "Beyond This Place". Even the box-office appeal of British "B" productions was often augmented by the presence of one or more Hollywood stars. Thus we find Mona Freeman in "Before I Wake", Zachary Scott and Peggie Castle in "The Counterfeit Plan", Alex Nicol in "The Gilded Cage", Alex Nicol and Hilary Brooke in that little Ken Hughes masterpiece, "House across the Lake", Otto Kruger in "Housemaster", Wayne Morris in "The Master Plan", Phylls Kirk in "River Beat". More prestigious productions were often helmed by Hollywood directors: Robert Siodmak directed William Bendix and Nadja Tiller in "The Rough and the Smooth"; Fielder Cook coached Arthur Kennedy in "Home Is the Hero"; while William K. Howard worked with Edmund Lowe on "The Squeaker". This book also covers a few Hollywood productions with British stars such as "The Ghost and Mrs Muir", "The Reckless Moment", "Gentleman Jim", "The Bridge on the River Kwai". Also included in the book for contrast are films like "Tom Jones", "Elephant Boy", "South Riding", "The Lady Vanishes", and "Where No Vultures Fly". On the surface, some of these movies seem totally British, but on closer inspection you can see the involvement of either a Hollywood producer or director.
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