Mona Washbourne

Mona Washbourne

Born: November 27, 1903
Died: November 15, 1988
in Solihull, Warwickshire, England, UK
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mona Lee Washbourne (27 November 1903 – 15 November 1988) was an English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film Stevie (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award.

Mona Washbourne was born in Solihull, Warwickshire and began her entertaining career training as a concert pianist.

In 1948, after several years acting professionally on stage, and numerous stage musical performances, she began appearing in films. Her film credits include the horror movie The Brides of Dracula (1960), Billy Liar (1963), and The Collector (1965). She is probably best known to American audiences for her role as housekeeper Mrs. Pearce in My Fair Lady (1964). She also appeared as the stern and caustic Mrs. Bramson in the remake of Night Must Fall (also 1964), and the matron in the film If.... (1968).

She appeared at both the Royal Court Theatre in London and on Broadway in 1970 in David Storey's Home. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. In 1975 she appeared on the West End stage with James Stewart in a revival of Mary Chase's play Harvey, in the role originally taken by Josephine Hull. Washbourne won the 1981 New York Film Critics' Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Stevie (1978).

In 1981 Washbourne appeared in Granada Television's TV miniseries adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as Nanny Hawkins. One of her last television appearances was in Where's the Key? (1983), a BBC play about Alzheimer's disease.

Mona Washbourne was married to actor Basil Dignam (1905-1979), whom she wed in 1940.

She died in 1988, aged 84, in London.

Movies for Mona Washbourne...

December Flower
Title: December Flower
Character: Mary Grey
Released: December 23, 1984
Type: Movie
Newly widowed Etta visits her beloved Aunt M and discovers her bedridden and listless. Etta's struggle to restore her aunt's dignity and cheer brings renewed meaning to the lives of both women, but also reveals family secrets and forces confrontations with her aunt's indifferent son and hostile daughter-in-law.
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Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story
Title: Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story
Character: Queen Mother
Released: September 17, 1982
Type: Movie
Dramatization of the romance and July 1981 wedding of Great Britain's Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
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Title: Brideshead Revisited
Character: Nanny Hawkins
Released: October 12, 1981
Type: TV
Charles Ryder, an agnostic man, becomes involved with members of the Flytes, a Catholic family of aristocrats, over the course of several years between the two world wars.
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Pygmalion
Title: Pygmalion
Character: Mrs. Pearce
Released: January 1, 1981
Type: Movie
Adaptation of the play by Bernard Shaw.
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Title: Thérèse Raquin
Character: Madame Raquin
Released: March 12, 1980
Type: TV
In order to be together, lovers Therese and Laurent plot to kill Therese's husband, Camille, but find themselves haunted by their deeds and Madame Raquin's silent judgment.
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The London Connection
Title: The London Connection
Character: Aunt Lydia
Released: December 21, 1979
Type: Movie
A missing formula, a defecting Eastern European scientist kidnapped, car chases, foot chases, air chases, the British secret service, and a couple of American tourists caught right in the middle.
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Stevie
Title: Stevie
Character: Aunt
Released: September 15, 1978
Type: Movie
For a poet with a gift for crafting words into barbs, Stevie Smith lives a relatively conventional life. Sheltered in a London suburb, she spends her days engaged in tedious housework, crafting verse and conversing with her aunt. But while her body may be committed to drudgery, Stevie's mind is constantly trying to break free, which causes her to rail against religion and middle-class values, and prevents her from finding happiness with a man interested in her.
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Title: The Galton & Simpson Playhouse
Released: February 17, 1977
Type: TV
Seven Hilariously comic situations from the fertile imaginations of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
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The Blue Bird
Title: The Blue Bird
Character: Grandmother
Released: April 5, 1976
Type: Movie
A pair of peasant children, Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the Fairy Berylune. On their journey, they are accompanied by the humanized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, Bread, and other entities.
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The Old Curiosity Shop
Title: The Old Curiosity Shop
Character: Mrs. Jarley
Released: November 7, 1975
Type: Movie
A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.
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Identikit
Title: Identikit
Character: Mrs. Helen Fiedke
Released: May 20, 1974
Type: Movie
Lise, a mentally unbalanced middle-aged woman, travels from her home in Copenhagen to Rome, Italy where she embarks on a fatal destiny, a premeditated search for someone, anyone, with whom she can form a dangerous liaison.
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O Lucky Man!
Title: O Lucky Man!
Character: Neighbour / Usher / Sister Hallett
Released: March 25, 1973
Type: Movie
This sprawling, surrealist comedy serves as an allegory for the pitfalls of capitalism, as it follows the adventures of a young coffee salesman in modern Britain.
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What Became of Jack and Jill?
Title: What Became of Jack and Jill?
Character: Gran Alice Tallent
Released: June 16, 1972
Type: Movie
Two young people plot to get their hands on grannie's money, but rather than simply pushing her down the stairs they hatch an elaborate plot to convince her that radical youth have taken over England are planning to do away with "oldies" like her.
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Home
Title: Home
Character: Kathleen
Released: January 6, 1972
Type: Movie
David Storey's adaptation of his award winning play for the BBC's Play for Today series.
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Title: Play for Today
Released: October 15, 1970
Type: TV
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
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Fragment of Fear
Title: Fragment of Fear
Character: Mrs. Gray
Released: September 3, 1970
Type: Movie
A reformed drug addict travels to Italy to find out who murdered his aunt.
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The Games
Title: The Games
Character: Mrs. Hayes
Released: August 7, 1970
Type: Movie
From Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Australia and behind the Iron Curtain. They are the most superbly conditioned animals in the world. They are also the pawns of powerful nations, the victims of dangerous drugs and the object of many men's ambitions. Once every four years they come together... for the Olympic Games.
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The Bed Sitting Room
Title: The Bed Sitting Room
Character: Mother
Released: June 1, 1969
Type: Movie
In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.
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if....
Title: if....
Character: Matron
Released: December 19, 1968
Type: Movie
In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. Three Lower Sixth students, Wallace, Johnny and leader Mick Travis decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.
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Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter
Title: Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter
Character: Mrs. Brown
Released: January 22, 1968
Type: Movie
Herman inherits a greyhound and decides to make his fortune by dog racing. After traveling from Manchester to London in the hope of entering a national invitational, Herman and his friends find work in a pop group, and Herman falls in love.
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Two A Penny
Title: Two A Penny
Released: December 31, 1967
Type: Movie
Set in London's Swiinging Sixties, Cliff Richard plays Jamie Hopkins, an art student whose desperate need for money leads him to dabble in the underworld of drug dealing. Cliff has stated that Two A Penny, his most dramatically challenging movie role ever, is the film he is proudest of. He has stated, "if I did want to send a fiolm as a CV, I would send that one". It is certainly his most demanding and controversial role; cynical, self centered and highly manipulative, Jamie Hopkins lies, steals and double-crosses his mother (Dora Bryan), forces himself on his girlfriend (Ann Holloway) and gets involved in fist fights with criminals. Through the influence of his girlfriend, a born again Christian, is the possibility that he may reform, yet in the mystery of the film's by-line "He promised to love her forever….today" lies the possibility that he may well not.
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Casino Royale
Title: Casino Royale
Character: Tea Lady (uncredited)
Released: April 13, 1967
Type: Movie
Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH, James thinks up the ultimate plan - that every agent will be named 'James Bond'. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle.
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The Third Day
Title: The Third Day
Character: Catherine Parsons
Released: August 4, 1965
Type: Movie
A man stumbles out of a car crash with no memory of what transpired. Everyone who he meets suggests that he is a ruthless man with an aggressive temper. Could he be deliberately blocking out memories of his past?
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The Collector
Title: The Collector
Character: Aunt Annie
Released: June 17, 1965
Type: Movie
Freddie is an inept bank clerk with no future. His only hobby is collecting butterflies, which gives him a feeling of power and control that is otherwise totally missing from his life. He comes into a large sum of money and buys himself a country house. Still unable to make himself at ease socially, he starts to plan on acquiring a girlfriend - in the same manner as he collects butterflies. He prepares the cellar of the house to be a collecting jar and stalks his victim over several days.
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Ferry Cross the Mersey
Title: Ferry Cross the Mersey
Character: Aunt Lil
Released: February 10, 1965
Type: Movie
Gerry and Fred Marsden, Les McGuire, and Les "Chad" Chadwick portray themselves in a romp through the early-1960s Liverpool Beat Scene. Art students by day and musicians by night, the boys' big break comes by winning a local talent contest. But first, they must retrieve their instruments, which have been mistakenly carried to the airport.
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One Way Pendulum
Title: One Way Pendulum
Character: Aunt Mildred
Released: January 21, 1965
Type: Movie
A study of absurdity in a suburban family: father recreates the Old Bailey in the living room while the son teaches speak-your-weight machines to sing in the attic.
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My Fair Lady
Title: My Fair Lady
Character: Mrs. Pearce
Released: October 21, 1964
Type: Movie
A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.
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Night Must Fall
Title: Night Must Fall
Character: Mrs. Bramson
Released: March 18, 1964
Type: Movie
A psychotic killer gets in the good graces of his aging invalid employer, and worms his way into the affection of her beautiful daughter, with unpleasant results for all.
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Billy Liar
Title: Billy Liar
Character: Alice Fisher
Released: August 15, 1963
Type: Movie
A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
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The Brides of Dracula
Title: The Brides of Dracula
Character: Helga Lang
Released: July 7, 1960
Type: Movie
A young teacher on her way to a position in Transylvania helps a young man escape the shackles his mother has put on him. In so doing she innocently unleashes the horrors of the undead once again on the populace, including those at her school for ladies. Luckily for some, Dr. Van Helsing is already on his way.
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Count Your Blessings
Title: Count Your Blessings
Character: Nanny
Released: April 23, 1959
Type: Movie
Englishwoman Grace Allingham marries Frenchman Charles Edouard de Valhubert, but their marriage quickly becomes unusual. Because Charles cheats on her and lives away from his family out of professional obligation to his government, Grace ends up raising the couple's son, Sigismond, on her own. Grace and Charles are finally reunited after nearly a decade apart, and, while they seem headed for a permanent split, there's still a spark between them.
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A Cry from the Streets
Title: A Cry from the Streets
Character: Mrs. Daniels
Released: August 12, 1958
Type: Movie
Bittersweet story about London's unwanted children and the good people trying to help them. Ann is a social worker, while Bill is an electrician whose contract with the local care home introduces him to the children and Ann. Events start to escalate out of control when a child takes possession of a loaded gun.
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Son of a Stranger
Title: Son of a Stranger
Released: March 3, 1958
Type: Movie
A young man searches for the father he never knew, who he believes to be a millionaire.
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Stranger in Town
Title: Stranger in Town
Character: Agnes Smith
Released: May 1, 1957
Type: Movie
A vacationing journalist investigates the mysterious death of a composer and debunks the theory that it was suicide.
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The Good Companions
Title: The Good Companions
Character: Mrs. Joe
Released: April 22, 1957
Type: Movie
The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth.
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It's Great to be Young!
Title: It's Great to be Young!
Character: Miss Merrow, a School Mistress
Released: December 26, 1956
Type: Movie
IT’S GREAT TO A YOUNG stars John Mills as Dingle an easygoing high school teacher. When autocratic new headmaster Frome (Cecil Parker) begins imposing all sorts of repressive rules, Dingle does his best to stand up for his students, only to be dismissed for his troubles. The kids conspire to not only reinstate their favourite teacher, but to circumvent Frome's refusal to purchase new instruments for an upcoming music festival.
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Circus Friends
Title: Circus Friends
Character: Miss Linstead
Released: October 1, 1956
Type: Movie
A group of circus children and their friends band together to save the show from financial disaster.
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Loser Takes All
Title: Loser Takes All
Character: Nurse (uncredited)
Released: September 9, 1956
Type: Movie
Bertrand, an accountant employed by a large London firm, is called to the office of the Managing Director, Dreuther, to explain a mistake in the accounts. Dreuther is highly impressed by the young accountant's skilful explanation of the error and, hearing that Bertrand is soon to marry his spirited young fiancée, tells him to spend the honeymoon not in Bournemouth, but Monte Carlo at the company s expense! However, events in the fabulous Mediterranean paradise do not work out quite as Bertrand had envisaged...
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Yield to the Night
Title: Yield to the Night
Character: Mrs. Thomas, landlady
Released: June 19, 1956
Type: Movie
Locked in her cell, a murderer reflects on the events that have led her to death row.
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Lost
Title: Lost
Character: Librarian (Uncredited)
Released: January 31, 1956
Type: Movie
U.S. Embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife, Sue, receive a shock when they discover that their 18-month-old son, Simon, has disappeared in London. He was last seen with their nanny, and the couple seemingly have no leads that might help police Detective Craig in his investigation. The media sensationalizes the incident, causing an unnecessary distraction as the couple prepares to confront the culprit face-to-face.
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Title: Matinee Theater
Released: October 31, 1955
Type: TV
Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.
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Cast a Dark Shadow
Title: Cast a Dark Shadow
Character: Monica Bare
Released: September 20, 1955
Type: Movie
Edward "Teddy" Bare is a ruthless schemer who thinks he's hit the big time when he kills his older wife, believing he will inherit a fortune. When things don't go according to plan, Teddy sets his sights on a new victim: wealthy widow Freda Jeffries. Unfortunately for the unscrupulous criminal, Freda is much more guarded and sassy than his last wife, making separating her from her money considerably more challenging.
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To Dorothy, a Son
Title: To Dorothy, a Son
Character: Midwife Appleby
Released: October 31, 1954
Type: Movie
Under a complicated bequest from her uncle, Myrtle stands to inherit $2,000,000 if her ex-husband doesn't have any male heirs on the way, else he gets the cash. She journies from New York to England, and finally tracks him down with his heavily pregnant new wife. Should she try and woo him back or challenge the legality of the new marriage?
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Betrayed
Title: Betrayed
Character: Waitress (uncredited)
Released: September 7, 1954
Type: Movie
Screen superstars Clark Gable ("Gone With The Wind," "It Happened One Night") and sultry bombshell Lana Turner ("Peyton Place," "The Postman Always Rings Twice") team-up in this intriguing WWII drama. Suspected of being a Nazi spy, Dutch-resistance member Turner is given a last chance mission to redeem herself. Gable is an intelligence agent of the exiled Dutch government, who falls in love with her. Co-starring Victor Mature ("My Darling Clementine") and Oscar-nominee Louis Calhern ("The Asphalt Jungle").
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Adventure in the Hopfields
Title: Adventure in the Hopfields
Character: Mrs. McBain
Released: June 6, 1954
Type: Movie
A little girl accidentally breaks her mother's favourite ornament and goes hop-picking to replace it.
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Doctor in the House
Title: Doctor in the House
Character: Midwifery Sister (uncredited)
Released: March 23, 1954
Type: Movie
The first of the seven "Doctor" films, based on Richard Gordon's novels and released between 1954 and 1970. Simon Sparrow is a newly arrived medical student at St Swithin's hospital in London. Falling in with three longer-serving hopefuls he is soon immersed in the wooing, imbibing and fast sports-car driving that constitute 1950s medical training. There is, however, always the looming and formidable figure of chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt to remind them of their real purpose.
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The Million Pound Note
Title: The Million Pound Note
Character: Mum with Pram
Released: January 7, 1954
Type: Movie
An impoverished American sailor is fortunate enough to be passing the house of two rich gentlemen who have conceived the crazy idea of distributing a note worth one million pounds. The sailor finds that whenever he tries to use the note to buy something, people treat him like a king and let him have whatever he likes for free. Ultimately, the money proves to be more troublesome than it is worth when it almost costs him his dignity and the woman he loves.
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Johnny on the Run
Title: Johnny on the Run
Character: Mrs MacGregor
Released: June 1, 1953
Type: Movie
A Polish boy runs away from his unkind foster mother in Edinburgh and finds a new home in a lakeside village for orphans of all nations, after encountering trouble through his innocent implication in a robbery.
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The Gambler and the Lady
Title: The Gambler and the Lady
Character: Miss Minter
Released: December 26, 1952
Type: Movie
A greedy but successful professional gambler wants to join the British Establishment when he falls in love with a blue-blooded lady. But first he must mend his ways and then dump his nightclub singer girl friend. She's not so easy to get rid of, neither is his past.
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Probation Officer
Title: Probation Officer
Character: Mrs. Mead
Released: December 31, 1950
Type: Movie
Part of BFI collection "Police and Thieves." Follows the work of a probation officer and the people he tries to help.
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Dark Interval
Title: Dark Interval
Released: November 1, 1950
Type: Movie
A young woman marries and moves into her husband's family mansion. She soon discovers that neither the house, nor her husband, is exactly what it seems to be.
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Double Confession
Title: Double Confession
Character: Fussy Mother
Released: April 30, 1950
Type: Movie
The hero discovers his estranged wife dead and tries to frame her lover for the murder. He becomes involved with the criminals who make various unsuccessful attempts on his life while the police clear up the mystery.
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Adam and Evelyne
Title: Adam and Evelyne
Character: Mrs. Salop - Lady Gambler (uncredited)
Released: May 31, 1949
Type: Movie
The father of a girl in an orphanage, who doesn't remember him, has been writing to her with tales of his success in business. Actually, he is impersonating a friend, a handsome gambler. When the father dies, the gambler takes the girl from the orphanage and tells her the truth. But the girl is now a full-grown beauty and complications arise, including those provided by a black-sheep brother.
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Maytime in Mayfair
Title: Maytime in Mayfair
Character: Lady Levenson
Released: May 24, 1949
Type: Movie
Penniless man-about-town Michael Gore-Brown is delighted to hear he has been left a high-class Mayfair fashion salon. His intention is to sell it as quickly as possible, but on meeting Ellen, chief designer and manager, he quickly changes his mind and turns his attention to courting her.
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Once Upon a Dream
Title: Once Upon a Dream
Character: Vicar's Wife
Released: February 1, 1949
Type: Movie
An officer's wife has a romantic dream about her husband's man (servant) and comes to believe it is true. Meanwhile the husband has asked his servant to help him, after the war, to suggest ways to ignite the romance he and his wife had before the war, as well as find a way to make money in a post-war economy.
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The Winslow Boy
Title: The Winslow Boy
Character: Miss Barnes
Released: September 24, 1948
Type: Movie
In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.