Claude Friese-Greene

Two wealthy Victorian widows are courted tentatively by two impoverished British aristocrats. When one of the dowagers suggests that her beau go away with her for a month to see if they are compatible, the fireworks begin.

A steelworker rises through the ranks to become manager of three steel mills, but ruthless ambition overwhelms him.

When Susie Long appears, together with her 20 year old son, Pink and Pound are thrown into confusion that one of them could be his father.

A series of murders in the West End of London baffle the officers of Scotland Yard and draw the interest of a crime reporter to the case.

Eden Philpotts' "provincial" comic novel and play The Farmer's Wife was first filmed in the silent era by Alfred Hitchcock. The 1940 talkie version was directed by Leslie Arliss, son of stage star George Arliss. The story remained the same: A middle-aged widower attempts to select a wife from his rural district's eligible females (Basil Sydney). Three unsuccessful dalliances later, the farmer settles for his housekeeper, whom the audience has been rooting for all along. The Farmer's Wife is a prime example of the sort of fare that struck a proper chord with British filmgoers, but whose appeal would be lost to any other nationality.

Short government film on the dangers of gossip in wartime.

Inspector Bradley of Scotland Yard is on the trail of the murderous ringleader of a smuggling organization in London.

Through a series of unforeseen events, two glamorous young ladies find that they are obliged to spend the night on board the battleship HMS Falcon, where they have been attending a 'bon voyage' reception. At first it seems that Captain Randall will be able to keep them concealed, but then the Admiral unexpectedly arrives on board and orders the ship to sea.

A gang of clever thieves kill a wealthy woman in hopes of stealing her gems. But the thieves aren't clever enough to ascertain the location of those gems, so they consult a phony spiritualist. Then they decide to dispose of the mystic by framing her for the murder.

Maxwell Archer, a private detective, attempts to clear a young man wrongly accused of murder.

A group of private detectives working for a jeweler pursue a gang of thieves in Argentina.

Suave soldier of fortune Simon Templer gets mixed up with a gang of counterfeiters who've murdered and robbed an European count of 1,000,000 pounds. He is aided reluctantly by Scotland Yard inspector Teal, who's convinced that Templar himself pulled off the heist, and less reluctantly by light-fingered Dugan and dizzy socialite Penny Parker.

A woman arranges a burglary to try to recover a stolen diary with compromising details written in it.

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.

This gripping, atmospheric crime thriller from Austrian-born director Paul Stein stars Oscar nominee Raymond Massey as a man at the centre of a multiple murder investigation – a case that sparks a sensationalist press frenzy when it becomes clear that the killer only strikes when there is a full moon.

Wallflower Jane Wilton has always lived in the shadow of her beautiful and popular sister Beatrice. Making things worse, Beatrice is spiteful and cruel, directing all manner of nastiness towards the submissive and uncomplaining Jane. But when Beatrice sets her cap for Jane's erstwhile boy friend Basil Gilbert, she goes a shade too far. For once, the worm turns, and Jane fights tooth and nail to win her man back. A retelling of the Cinderella story.

Due to a complex series of events a Guards Officer in a small European country is imprisoned. He manages to escape in the company of an idiotic milliner and they briefly take shelter with some gypsies, where the Captain falls in love with a young woman. Having been discovered by an American promoter while performing with gypsy orchestra in a tavern, the three accompany him to London as the latest new musical sensation. A great success, they begin a European-wide tour when their plane is forced down by bad weather in their homeland. Here events are satisfactorily resolved.

This cheerful maze of melody, song, comedy and drama showcases the talents of Henry Hall and His Dance Band.

Irresponsible playboy Arthur Rawlings is sent by his uncle to work as a waiter at a hotel in the South of France. Arthur arranges for shop assistant Frances Travers, with whom he has fallen in love, to win a fairground lottery and stay in the hotel as a prize. Complications arise!

Imposing Canadian-born stage actor and playwright Matherson Lang was one of the twentieth century's great Shakespearean players, and became Britain's foremost screen actor during the 1920s; in Drake of England, one of his final films, he takes the title role in Arthur Woods' portrayal of the life and times of the flamboyant piratical adventurer who founded Britain's sea fortunes. From clandestine romance at the court of Elizabeth I to conquests in the newly discovered lands of South America and spectacular victory over the Armada, Drake of England offers a panoramic overview of Drake's life.

As the threat of Napoleonic invasion looms ever closer, a German duke and potential ally of England falls for a pretty ballerina.

An elderly shop-keeper and his grand-daughter are threatened by the rich, mean-spirited dwarf Quilp, and decide to flee across England to escape him. They are pursued both by Quilp and by the shop-keeper's long-lost brother, who wants to find them for a different reason.

A north-country chimney sweep standing for Parliament is opposed by a local bigwig. His campaign is imperiled when his artist son, Tony, falls in love with a girl who has reason to hope that the bigwig will be elected.

A telephonist falls for her employer.

A young Spanish woman marries a lowly Englishman, rather than the aristocrat her father had intended, much to his displeasure.

In this murder mystery, Vicar Casson looks into the poisoning of a wealthy man. He soon finds that the man they convicted, the fiance of the rich man's niece, was innocent.

A young musician invents an anti-theft device for cars, but works as a jazz conductor while waiting for his invention to be successful.

The owner of a professional help agency poses as a poet at a wealthy patron's ball and prevents a necklace from being stolen by thieves.

Set in Vienna, this lively musical comedy stars Bebe Daniels as an actress who falls in love with her secretary, but has difficulty in persuading him to propose to her.

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

In Egypt a colonel with a year to live saves a girl from an Arab prince.

A British comedy film directed by Norman Walker

A British musical film directed by Lupino Lane

A romantic drama film directed by Norman Walker.

Vincent Floyd, a seeming lazy figure lounging around London Gentleman's Clubs is in fact a secret agent hot on the trail of Michael Marlowe whom he suspects of smuggling drugs into Britain from France on a regular basis. Floyd has so far struggled to gain evidence on Marlowe, but through a series of incidents finds himself bound for Paris on the same plane as Marlowe.....

A man sponges off an old comrade from the First World War who believes he has saved his life during the war, although this ultimately proves not to be true.

Farcical confusions ensue when newlywed bride Peggy Gay overhears her husband Jack discussing the purchase of a piano, and somehow interprets what he has said to mean he is the father of an illegitimate child.

A comedy film directed by Norman Walker

William Kell, the keeper of a lighthouse on a lonely stretch of coastline, marries cabaret dancer Eileen. His young wife, however, goes on to have an affair with Henry Cass, the handsome assistant later taken on by her husband; when she then begins to flirt with a stranger who is rescued from the wreck of a motor-launch, a chain of shocking events is set in motion...

This is the German-language version of the British film The Love Storm (1931).

'Captain tries to hide accidental female passengers from admiral.' (British Film Catalogue)

A young couple struggle with their overbearing parents.

A schoolboy falls in love with his teacher's young wife.

A musical crime film directed by Harry Lachman.

'A woman reporter is blackmailed for knowledge of freed suspect's involvement in a murder.' (British Film Institute)

An ex-French Foreign Legion soldier comes to Soho and ends up as a singer in a cafe.

A series of 19 musical and comedy "vaudeville" sketches presented in the form of a live television broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley (as himself).

Dolores and Ramon celebrate their arranged betrothal with little enthusiasm: Dolores has a lover, and Ramon wants his freedom so that he can pursue Pepita. Having heard of Ramon's betrothal, Pepita gives her heart to another but when bandits accost her and try to rob her father, they give the dashing Ramon just the chance he needs to prove the gallant lover!

Colour footage of London.

In the summer of 1924 Claude Friese-Greene, a pioneer of colour cinematography, set out from Cornwall with the aim of recording life on the road between Land’s End and John O’Groats. Entitled The Open Road, his remarkable travelogue was conceived as a series of shorts, 26 episodes in all, to be shown weekly at the cinema. The result is a fascinating portrait of inter-war Britain, in which town and country, people and landscapes are captured as never before, in a truly unique and rich colour palette.

The legend of how colour came into the world.

The legend of how colour came into the world.

Famous dancer Margaret Morris performs her dances in a short film made in the experimental Friese-Greene Natural Colour process.

Famous dancer Margaret Morris performs her dances in a short film made in the experimental Friese-Greene Natural Colour process.

Famous dancer Margaret Morris performs her dances in a short film made in the experimental Friese-Greene Natural Colour process.

A woman poses, in and out of her diaphanous shift.

One of a series of short films featuring Cornish beauty spots. The style and content is reminiscent of Friese-Greene's subsequent odyssey, The Open Road - indeed, it could well have been the precursor of that journey. Shot in black and white, a collection of moving picture postcards are linked by quirky captions. Look out for an aerial shot of Trevose Head - commercial aerial photography was a relatively new development following on from the First World War. Padstow is a sleepy harbour, without a single fish restaurant in sight!

A demonstration of the Friese-Greene biocolour process.