Esma Cannon

Esma Cannon

Birth : 1905-12-27, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Death : 1972-10-18

History

Esma Ellen Charlotte Littman, credited as Esme or Esma Cannon, was a diminutive (4 feet 7 inches) Australian-born character actress and comedian, who moved to Britain in the early 1930s. Although she frequently appeared on television in her latter years, Cannon is best known as a film actress, with a lengthy career in British productions from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Profile

Esma Cannon

Movies

Carry On Cabby
Flo Sims
Speedee Taxis is a great success, which means its workaholic owner Charlie starts neglecting Peggy, his wife. Suddenly a fleet of rival taxis appears from nowhere and start pinching all the fares. The rivals are Glamcabs, and they have a secret weapon. All their drivers are very attractive women! Who's behind Glamcabs? It's open warfare and only one fleet can survive!
We Joined the Navy
Consul's Wife
Lt Commander Badger, RN: an exceptionally likeable fellow, the Artful Bodger has one besetting sin a shining honesty which compels him to say the right thing at entirely the wrong time! When untimely remarks to some new recruits are splashed across the tabloids, the rush is on to find him a new posting somewhere far away.
Nurse on Wheels
Mrs. Jones
Quietly competent young Joanna moves with her scatterbrain mother to a country village to take up her first job as District Nurse. She soon overcomes the suspicion of her patients used to someone rather older, while becoming romantically involved with a local farmer - at least until he tries to evict a newly-arrived expectant couple who park their caravan on his land.
The Fast Lady
Lady on Zebra Crossing
A Scottish civil servant must learn how to drive a Bentley to impress his girlfriend's tycoon father.
On the Beat
Mrs. Stammers
Norman Pitkin wants to be a policeman like his father was, but he fails the height test (amongst others). One day he gets out his father's old uniform and "walks the beat". This leads to a level of chaos that only Pitkin could cause
In the Doghouse
Mrs. Raikes
After 10 years of failure a bumbling vet finally graduates and takes on his own practice.
Carry On Cruising
Bridget Madderley
Captain Crowther's lot is not a happy one! Five of his crew have to be replaced and at such short notice before the voyage begins there isn't much to choose from. Not only does he get the five most incompetent shipmates ever to sail the seven seas, but the passengers turn out to be a rather strange bunch too. The SS Happy Wanderer will never be the same.
What a Carve Up!
Aunt Emily
Ernie's Uncle Gabriel has just died but to claim his inheritance he must spend the night in the ancestral family home with the rest of his rather eccentric relatives. Ernie's imagination has been affected by his constant immersion in cheap horror novels, but his wildest fears turn out to be justified when the guests begin to drop dead.
Raising the Wind
Mrs. Deevens
'Carry On' director Gerald Thomas helms this comedy caper featuring early appearances by James Robertson Justice, Sid James, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Liz Fraser and Eric Barker. The film follows the hi-jinks of a group of music students who move into a shared flat in order to cut costs and have somewhere to practice their instruments. Things get tricky when Mervyn Hughes (Phillips) accidentally sells one of his compositions to an advertising agency and risks losing his scholarship. Can he and his friends find a way to raise the money to buy back the song rights?
Carry On Regardless
Miss Cooling
It's non stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hopers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs, including a chimps tea party, trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.
No Kidding
District Nurse
A young couple, David and Catherine Robinson, has to turn their large country house into a money-making proposition. Their solution is to invite the kids of the rich and famous to spend a summer enjoying all the loving care and attention they miss at home. After the youngsters arrive, David quickly realizes what the offensive little punks need is some real discipline, and so the summer begins.
Doctor in Love
Rafia Woman (uncredited)
Doctors Burke and Hare leave the confines of St Swithins for the world of general practice, stopping off on the way as patients at the Foulness Anti-cold Unit. Hare then takes up a position as junior in a well-healed G.P.'s surgery while Burke continues to sow his doctorial wild oats.
The Flesh and the Fiends
Aggie
Edinburgh surgeon Dr. Robert Knox requires cadavers for his research into the functioning of the human body; local ne'er-do-wells Burke and Hare find ways to provide him with fresh specimens...
Inn for Trouble
Dolly
Peggy Mount and David Kossoff star as Ada and Alf Larkin in this big screen version of the hugely popular 1950s TV comedy. Alf Larkin has finally made good his dream to own a pub. The trouble is, it's got no customers. But leave it to the Larkins to find unorthodox ways to bring in the punters.
Expresso Bongo
Nightclub Cleaner
A seedy London promoter turns a naive, working-class teenager into a pop singing sensation.
Jack the Ripper
Nelly
A serial killer is murdering women in the Whitechapel district of London. An American policeman is brought in to help Scotland Yard solve the case.
Further Up the Creek
Maudie Lovelace
The sequel to 'Up The Creek' sees David Tomlinson return as bumbling navy boffin Lieutenant Humphrey Fairweather. This time he is skipper of the ship Aristotle and, together with his second-in-command, Fairweather wreaks havoc when he is ordered to deliver the Aristotle to its new owners in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.
Three Men in a Boat
Meek Woman (Maze)
Three London gentlemen take a vacation rowing down the Thames, encountering various mishaps and misadventures along the way.
A Touch of the Sun
Miss Tickle
A hotel porter is left a fortune but after living it up for a while he returns to his old place of work which is in financial difficulties.
Sailor Beware
Edie Hornett
Battle-axe Emma Hornett dominates her hen-pecked husband Henry, his meek sister Edie and daughter Shirley. Shirley is to marry young sailor Albert,raised in an orphanage,and he and best man Carnoustie stay with the Hornetts on the eve of the wedding, though Emma makes sure the stag night is a brief one. Next day Albert fails to show up for the wedding. He eventually turns up at the house and confides in the vicar that if family life is anything like the Hornetts he wants no part of it. When the Hornetts are told this Emma declares that she sees that has been a "very wicked woman" and will mend her ways but, as the young couple eventually marry and move into their own house , one wonders how long her change of heart will last.
Simon and Laura
Laura from Newcastle
Bickering married performers agree to star in a "Mr. and Mrs." TV show. Director Muriel Box's 1956 British comedy also stars Muriel Pavlow, Ian Carmichael, Maurice Denham and Richard Wattis.
Out of the Clouds
Rich Woman's Companion
A day following workers at an airport
The Sleeping Tiger
Scrubwoman with ladder
A petty thief breaks into the home of a psychiatrist and gets caught in a web of a doctor who wishes to experiment on him and a doctor's wife who wishes to seduce him.
The Large Rope
Screaming Woman
After being framed for a murder he didn't commit, Tom Penney (Donald Houston) serves his time and returns to his rural English home to establish a quiet life. When another victim is found, however, Tom is blamed for the crime and flees rather than returnng to prison. Hoping to find the real killer -- or killers -- Tom investigates while keeping a low profile to elude his pursuers, and a vital clue leads him on the path to possible redemption.
The Steel Key
Patient in Doctor's Waiting Room
An adventurer investigates the theft of a formula for hardened steel, assisted by his girlfriend.
Noose for a Lady
Miss Ginch
An amateur detective races against time to clear the name of his cousin, who is accused of murdering her husband. It is based on the novel Whispering Woman by Gerald Verner.
Crow Hollow
Aunt Judith Armour
A greedy woman tries to poison her nephew's bride in a dark mansion.
Last Holiday
Miss Fox
George Bird is a salesman of agricultural machinery who finds out that he hasn't long to live. On his doctor's advice, he goes to an exclusive seaside resort to spend his savings on one last holiday.
Double Confession
Madam Cleo
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.
Guilt Is My Shadow
Peggy
A woman is haunted by her conscience after she murders a man and then hides the body. Based on the novel 'You're Best Alone' by Norah Lofts.
Marry Me
Pleasant Little Woman (uncredited)
The stories of several individuals who consult a marriage bureau, including a peer of the realm, his butler, a lonely school teacher, a French girl on the run from a violent boyfriend, a country vicar, and a newspaper reporter, sent by his editor, to do an undercover story.
The Huggetts Abroad
Brown Owl
Life is not going well for the Huggetts. Father has lost his job. Jimmy and his wife cannot get to South Africa where he has a new job. So the family decide that they should go to South Africa by truck. With their travelling companion they travel across the desert which includes a brush with the law.
Vote for Huggett
(uncredited)
A firm of solicitors do battle with the head of the local council over a parcel of river front land, owned by the Huggett family, in order to build a lido/community center.
Helter Skelter
Autograph Huntress
A detective gets involved with a wealthy socialite who can't seem to stop hiccuping.
Here Come the Huggetts
Youth Leader
The Huggetts have their first telephone installed, sleep rough on The Mall whilst waiting for the Royal Wedding and deal with a fire at the 'Oatibix' factory.
Jassy
Lindy Wicks
In 19th century England, Jassy is a young Gypsy girl blessed with the gift of second sight. Pursued by superstitious villagers, she is rescued by the son of the owner of Mordelaine, a vast stately home. Unfortunately, his father's drinking and gambling threaten the very ownership of the house. Despite her humble origins as a servant girl, Jassy must try to use her talents to climb the social ladder and save Mordelaine for the man whom she loves.
Holiday Camp
Elsie Dawson
The Huggett family go to a holiday camp, and get involved in crooked card players, a murderer on the run, and a pregnant young girl and her boyfriend missing from home.
The Years Between
Effie
Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, Flora Robson and Felix Aylmer star in this moving and sophisticated story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Second World War and based on the play by Daphne du Maurier. After hearing news that her officer husband has been killed in battle, Diana Wentworth forges a new life for herself, becoming an MP and learning to love again. Then, out of the blue comes the shattering news that her husband is not dead after all.
A Canterbury Tale
Agnes
Three modern day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town on the way to Canterbury.
English Without Tears
Queenie
While Lady Christabel Beauclark, a bird fancier, is scurrying about demanding certain territorial rights for British birds from other countries, Her Ladyship's niece is falling in love with the family butler, Tom Gilbey. The birds are forgotten when war breaks out, and Gilbey now finds himself in love with the niece whose love was previously unrequited. Written by Les Adams
The Way Ahead
Mrs. Ted Brewer
A mismatched collection of conscripted civilians find training tough under Lieutenant Jim Perry and Sergeant Ned Fletcher when they are called up to replace an infantry battalion that had suffered casualties at Dunkirk.
Fanny by Gaslight
Maid (uncredited)
Returning to 1870's London after finishing at boarding school, Fanny winesses the death of her father in a fight with Lord Manderstoke. She then finds that her family has for many years been running a bordello next door to their home. When her mother dies shortly after, she next discovers that her real father is in fact a well-respected politician. Meeting him and then falling in love with his young advisor Harry Somerford leads to a life of ups and downs and conflict between the classes. Periodically the scoundrel of a Lord crosses her path, always to tragic effect.
Asking for Trouble
Ada
A London fishmonger helps a young woman evade her unwanted upcoming marriage by pretending to be her fiancé, a big game hunter from Africa. Comedy.
We Serve
Training film for officers of the ATS, encouraging compassion and understanding for the young woman in their charge.
Quiet Wedding
(uncredited)
A young couple become engaged, but enjoy a number of comedic aventures before their wedding day.
Contraband
Erik Skold's Niece
When a neutral Danish merchant ship is forced to put into port after trying to evade British wartime contraband control, its captain becomes involved in a beautiful British Naval Intelligent agent's efforts to capture a group of German spies operating from a London cinema.
The Spy in Black
Maggie
A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
Poison Pen
Mrs Warren
The inhabitants of a peaceful village begin receiving mysterious hate mail penned by someone with malicious thoughts.
I Met a Murderer
A Hiker
An Englishwoman who writes novels meets a farmer who has just killed his nagging wife.
The Nursemaid Who Disappeared
An overheard conversation leads to clues that a kidnapping plot is afoot.
Trouble Brewing
Maid
Ealing comedy starring music hall star George Formby. An eager newspaper reporter (Formby) goes undercover to expose a gang of counterfeiters. Posing as a wrestler and waiter in his investigative efforts, George proves a greater menace to public order than the criminals he is chasing.
It's in the Air
Sir Philip's Maid
George Brown is rejected as an Air Raid Warden and in doing so sees his potential to join the Royal Air Force. His dreams could soon come true as he realises that in fact his friend has left behind some very important papers, he dons a his Royal Air Force uniform and delivers the papers when he is mistaken for a dispatch driver from HQ. He soon becomes the butt of jokes from his sergeant which ends him staying indefinitely at the air base. George soon falls in love with the Sergeant Major's daughter and when he discovers his real identity he threatens to report him. On the day of an annual inspection George attempts to escape the base and ends up in a plane, while the inspecting officer watches on, George's plane display is mesmerizing and the inspecting officer insists he should be commended, in order to save their skins George manages to land the plane and is accepted as a flyer by the RAF.
I See Ice
Bride
George Bright is a props man in an ice ballet company, and a keen amateur photographer who accidentally snaps crooks at work. Comic complications ensue....
The Five Pound Man
Lucy
British comedy crime film. Richard Fordyce released from prison after serving a sentence for counterfeiting of which he was innocent, determines to find out who framed him. He puts himself up for auction and is bought for £5 by Margaret Fenton whose husband happened to be the counterfeiter.
The Man Behind the Mask
Waitress
A young couple attend a masked ball before their planned (but secret) elopement. Suddenly everything goes wrong when the young woman is attacked and held hostage by a crazed attacker.