H.F. Maltby

When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.

At the height of the Roman Civil War, an aging Julius Caesar finds himself intrigued by the young Egyptian queen Cleopatra, whom he teaches how to rule Egypt.

When a young writer is falsely accused of murdering a famous actress, he escapes custody and joins forces with the daughter of a police constable to prove his innocence.

Adam McAdam is an old, dour sheepherder whose life is devoted to his faithful dog, the whiskey bottle and his daughter, Jeannie. And a conflict that arises when the other sheep-men of the district try every means within their power to have his dog, accused of being a sheep-killer, destroyed.

A lawyer's love for a young girl causes him to defend the man he thinks to be her lover. During the trial the lawyer finds out that the man is his own son.

Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.

A useless secretary and his private detective friend try to help an heiress from being swindled by her guardian.

John Forrest is anticipating a quiet retirement spent penning detective fiction when he learns that a priceless collection of jewels belonging to a foreign potentate, Prince Homouska, has just vanished from the safekeeping of the Stamford Assurance Company. Aided by his butler, his Cockney assistant and his (initially) unwilling wife, Forrest sets out on the trail of the thieves.

It is England in the 1830s. London's dockside is teeming with ships and sailors who have made their fortune in foreign lands. Sweeney Todd, a Fleet Street barber, awaits the arrival of men whose first port of call is for a good, close shave. For most it will be the last time they are seen alive. Using a specially designed barber's chair, Sweeney Todd despatches his victims to the cellar below, where he robs them of their new found fortunes and chops their remains into small pieces. Meanwhile, Mrs Lovett is enjoying a roaring trade for her popular penny meat pies.

This classic film reveals how the great composer Georg Friedrich Handel rose above the personal anguish and difficulties in his life to create the sublime musical composition, The Messiah.

An aunt objects to the romance between her niece and a neighbour's nephew, and steps in to put an end to the love affair.

Paul, artistically-inclined son of an American millionaire, moves to Paris where he can find inspiration and study the masters. While there, he finds inspiration of a different sort in the form of the beautiful Jacqueline.

Robert Maine is torn between returning to the glamour of Hollywood and working with a small theatre company in England.

The Duke of Bridgewater sends for the heir he's never seen. His heir is Patricia, and the Duke is a woman-hater, so Patricia disguises herself as a boy.

A confirmed bachelor takes pity on a young woman and takes her to London.

Two Americans in England--a wealthy playboy and an actress--join forces to stop international spies.

A young business man (James Mason) is being duped by business swindlers but his gaol bird father is determined to save him.

Two teenage gang members are forced to be page boys at a hotel where a criminal gang are operating.

A farce based on Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'The Magistrate' in which the son (John Mills) of a stern magistrate (Will Hay) visits a music hall against the wishes of his father. In true farcical style, the magistrate too ends up at the music hall, and before long all the characters are trying not to avoid each other... Mainly notable (a) because of its depiction of the music hall as seen by a generation which knew it intimately (b) because of its use of music hall acts of the time and (c) because it gave Will Hay his first film role.

A retired general helps out by sheltering some evacuees during WWII.

The film begins in a BBC studio with the 100th edition of "In Town Tonight". Flotsam and Jetsom open with a "topical number". Then there is an interview with a distinguished actor, which dissolves into a performance of one of his famous melodramas about a wicked moneylender etc.

Will Hay plays the pennyless, bungling solicitor Benjamin Stubbins, who arrives at his office to find his insolent office boy (Graham Moffatt) with his feet up on the desk, reading a wild west magazine, which Hay confiscates so that he can read it later. Stubbins later takes a job from a group of Americans who claim they want him to track down some ancestors of theirs in Scotland. In reality however they want to use his office so they can rob a safe in the room immediately below his office. Stubbins takes the job (which is designed to keep him out of the office). In the end Stubbins realises his mistake and at a Christmas Eve fancy dress party he informs a group of carol singing policeman about the Americans nefarious activities

Calling the Tune offers a fascinating look at the fledgeling gramophone industry as it tries to solve the problems of reliable recording and production methods. 'I predict that the gramophone will be the democratic entertainment of the future' states unscrupulous record label boss Mr Gordon (Sam Livesey), who finally gets his comeuppance after one dirty trick too far against his rivals. If the film's love story is perfunctory, the real interest comes with watching performers of the day, from Henry Wood and his orchestra to George Robey and Charles 'the laughing policeman' Penrose laying down their recordings direct to record. And something very like a prototype laser disc makes a crucial appearance too.