Acting

Ivor Novello

Born January 15, 1893 · Cardiff, Wales, UK

Died March 6, 1951 · aged 58

Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh composer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century, on both screen and stage. He was born into a musical Cardiff family and his mother, Clara Novello Davies, was an internationally known singing teacher and choral conductor. As a child, Novello was a suc…

Known For

Tarzan the Ape Man

Tarzan the Ape Man · 1932

Tarzan the Ape Man

James Parker and Harry Holt are on an expedition in Africa in search of the elephant burial grounds that will provide enough ivory to make them rich. Parker's beautiful daughter Jane arrives unexpectedly to join them. Jane is terrified when Tarzan and his ape friends abduct her, but when she returns to her father's expedition she has second thoughts about leaving Tarzan.

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog · 1927

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

MovieCrimeThriller

London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.

That's Entertainment, Part II

That's Entertainment, Part II · 1976

That's Entertainment, Part II

MovieDocumentaryMusic

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.

But the Flesh Is Weak

But the Flesh Is Weak · 1932

But the Flesh Is Weak

A poor-but-charming father and son try to enter high society by marrying rich English widows.

The Dancing Years

The Dancing Years · 1950

The Dancing Years

MovieRomanceDrama

The episodic story of a composer of operettas, Rudi Kleiber, in in old Viennese days, and the two women in his life; Maria Zeitler, his sweetheart, later mistress, lost love, an operetta star, and his first patron, and the mother of a son he did not know he had; and of Greta, his first love and companion in later years

King's Rhapsody

King's Rhapsody · 1955

King's Rhapsody

MovieDramaRomance

Flynn plays the exciled Ruritanian king who leaves his mistress to return home to a political marriage. Love versus duty in this enjoyable romantic film.

Downhill

Downhill · 1927

When school captain Roddy Berwick takes the blame for his friend’s scandal, he is expelled and disowned by his family. Cast out of his privileged world, Roddy drifts through a series of humiliations—from waiter to penniless actor to gigolo—descending ever further into ruin and self-disgust.

Symphony in Two Flats

Symphony in Two Flats · 1930

Symphony in Two Flats

A young composer goes blind, and shortly afterward enters his most recent work in a competition. He believes he's won, but doesn't know that his wife couldn't bear to tell him that he didn't. Complications ensue.

Filmography

Sort

Tarzan the Ape Man

Tarzan the Ape Man · 1932

Tarzan the Ape Man

James Parker and Harry Holt are on an expedition in Africa in search of the elephant burial grounds that will provide enough ivory to make them rich. Parker's beautiful daughter Jane arrives unexpectedly to join them. Jane is terrified when Tarzan and his ape friends abduct her, but when she returns to her father's expedition she has second thoughts about leaving Tarzan.

Writer

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog · 1927

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

MovieCrimeThriller

London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.

The Lodger Jonathan Drew

That's Entertainment, Part II

That's Entertainment, Part II · 1976

That's Entertainment, Part II

MovieDocumentaryMusic

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.

Thanks

But the Flesh Is Weak

But the Flesh Is Weak · 1932

But the Flesh Is Weak

A poor-but-charming father and son try to enter high society by marrying rich English widows.

Theatre Play

The Dancing Years

The Dancing Years · 1950

The Dancing Years

MovieRomanceDrama

The episodic story of a composer of operettas, Rudi Kleiber, in in old Viennese days, and the two women in his life; Maria Zeitler, his sweetheart, later mistress, lost love, an operetta star, and his first patron, and the mother of a son he did not know he had; and of Greta, his first love and companion in later years

Theatre Play

King's Rhapsody

King's Rhapsody · 1955

King's Rhapsody

MovieDramaRomance

Flynn plays the exciled Ruritanian king who leaves his mistress to return home to a political marriage. Love versus duty in this enjoyable romantic film.

Writer

Downhill

Downhill · 1927

When school captain Roddy Berwick takes the blame for his friend’s scandal, he is expelled and disowned by his family. Cast out of his privileged world, Roddy drifts through a series of humiliations—from waiter to penniless actor to gigolo—descending ever further into ruin and self-disgust.

Original Story

Symphony in Two Flats

Symphony in Two Flats · 1930

Symphony in Two Flats

A young composer goes blind, and shortly afterward enters his most recent work in a competition. He believes he's won, but doesn't know that his wife couldn't bear to tell him that he didn't. Complications ensue.

Theatre Play

I Lived with You

I Lived with You · 1933

I Lived with You

MovieComedyRomance

In London a young lady meets a homeless and apparently penniless Russian prince. She introduces him to her middle-class Fulham family and he moves in. It turns out he still has a number of diamonds given him by the last czar, and he is persuaded to start selling them. The resulting money, and his princely notoriety, soon cause changes in everyone's lives.

Theatre Play

Glamorous Night

Glamorous Night · 1937

Glamorous Night

Based on Ivor Novello's hit stage play: an opera singer and her gypsy friends try to rescue their king from the clutches of a would-be dictator.

Theatre Play

Once a Lady

Once a Lady · 1931

A young Russian woman marries a wealthy Englishman, and has a daughter with him. After she has an affair with one of his friends, she is forced to leave Britain and moves to Paris. Many years later, her daughter approaches her, needing her help.

Bennett Cloud

The Bohemian Girl

The Bohemian Girl · 1922

The Bohemian Girl

A Polish officer posing as a gypsy loves a gypsy girl who is really the count's daughter.

Thaddeus

The Lodger

The Lodger · 1932

MovieActionThriller

An elderly couple's lodger, a British musician (Ivor Novello), becomes the suspect in a series of killings.

Michel Angeloff

Miarka, la fille à l'ourse

Miarka, la fille à l'ourse · 1920

Miarka, la fille à l'ourse

Miarka is to marry a gypsy chief - whereabouts unknown. She and her tame bear live upon the estate of an old gentleman who tolerates them because of his interest in gypsies, and more particularly because he has a gypsy document which he cannot decipher. One day, the gardener, who is in love with Miarka, robs the master and sets fire to the home, making it appear that she is the guilty one.

Ivor

The Return of the Rat

The Return of the Rat · 1929

The Return of the Rat

MovieCrimeRomance

The rich, amoral Zelie is married to Pierre Boucheron, "The Rat" - but her interest in another man is an open secret. Forced to defend his honour, the Rat takes refuge in his old domain of the Paris underworld. But even here he has a rival - and when murder is afoot, the sinister Morel's ambition threatens to cost the Rat dear....

Theatre Play

The Triumph of the Rat

The Triumph of the Rat · 1926

The Triumph of the Rat

MovieRomanceDrama

Pierre Boucheron, alias 'The Rat' and a former underworld notoriety, is now living the high life as the kept man of Zelie de Chaumet. But when she learns he is planning to marry another woman, her vengeance pursues him into the murkiest depths of Paris...

Pierre Boucheron, 'the Rat'

Free and Easy

Free and Easy · 1941

MovieRomanceComedy

This MGM B-picture was adapted from Ivor Novello's play The Truth Game. Max and Florian Clemington pretend to be members of the landed gentry. Max romances the much-older Lady Joan Culver before finding true love in the form of pretty heiress Martha Gray.

Theatre Play

The Rat

The Rat · 1937

MovieDramaCrime

Jean Boucheron the cat burglar is the darling of the Montmartre whores--and catches the eye of slumming socialite Zelia de Chaumont, who decides to "reform" him. A complication is his lovely young ward Odile... murder and a grand courtoom scene ensue.

Theatre Play

The Constant Nymph

The Constant Nymph · 1928

The Constant Nymph

MovieDramaRomance

Sanger, an eccentric expatriate composer, dies in his house in the Austrian Alps, leaving his daughters penniless. The young composer Lewis Dodd, a longstanding friend of the family, falls in love with their cousin Florence when she comes to take the girls back to England. But little Tessa Sanger is in love with Lewis herself, and when she runs away from school and comes to live with Florence and her husband, their already-shaky marriage is further undermined

Lewis Dodd

The Man Without Desire

The Man Without Desire · 1923

The Man Without Desire

MovieFantasyRomance

A grief-stricken 18th-century Venetian gentleman is thwarted in love and placed in suspended animation. When he wakes up 200 years later, he finds the experiment has more serious unexpected consequences.

Producer

Sleeping Car

Sleeping Car · 1933

A French sleeping-car attending with an eye for the ladies hooks up with a wealthy widow and they get married. What he doesn't know is that she married him because she wants to stay in France. Complications ensue.

Gaston

The White Rose

The White Rose · 1923

MovieDramaRomance

Wealthy young Southern aristocrat Joseph graduates from seminary and, before he takes charge of his assigned parish, goes out and see what 'the real world' is all about. His meetings with a young woman he believes to be more worldly than she is soon cause ruin for all involved.

Joseph

The Call of the Blood

The Call of the Blood · 1919

The Call of the Blood

An Englishman commits adultery with a Sicilian woman.

Maurice Delarey

Autumn Crocus

Autumn Crocus · 1934

MovieDramaRomance

A teacher falls in love with the married owner of the guest house in which she is staying during a holiday to Austria.

Andreas Steiner