Lloyd’s of London *** (1936, Tyrone Power, Madeleine Carroll, George Sanders, Freddie Bartholomew, C Aubrey Smith, Guy Standing, Virginia Field, Montagu Love, E E Clive) – Classic Movie Review 4688

Director Henry King’s 1936 period drama stars Tyrone Power, whose career took off with this role as Lloyd’s insurance boss Jonathan Blake, who, it is alleged, is the friend of Lord Nelson (John Burton). Blake falls for high-born temptress Lady Elizabeth Stacy (Madeleine Carroll), whose angry husband Lord Everett (George Sanders) then wounds him badly. Nelson’s friendship aids Blake’s part in the growth of Lloyd’s insurance business after the Battle of Trafalgar.

As a historical romance it is decidedly unhistorical, but it is also undeniably lavish and entertaining, propelled along with a whole lavish catalogue of delicious performances. It helped put both young Power and the new 20th Century Fox Studios on the map. Freddie Bartholomew plays the young Blake as a boy and Scott the young Horatio Nelson, later played by Burton. Bartholomew speaks with an English accent but Power takes over with an American accent, stretching credulity further.

The screenplay is by Ernest Pascal and Walter Ferris, based on a Story: Curtis Kenyon, it is shot at the 20th Century Fox Studios in black and white by Bert Glennon, produced by Darryl F Zanuck and Kenneth MacGowan, scored by David Buttolph, Cyril J Mockridge and Louis Silvers, and designed by William S Darling.

Also in the massive cast are C Aubrey Smith, Guy Standing, Virginia Field, Montagu Love, E E Clive, Una O’Connor, Douglas Scott, John Burton, Miles Mander, Gavin Muir, J M Kerrigan, Forrester Harvey, Arthur Hohl, Robert Greig, Lumsden Hare, Will Stanton, Murray Kinnell, Billy Bevan, Elsa Buchanan, Georges Renavent, Reginald Barlow, May Beatty, Lester Matthews, Vernon Steele, Barlowe Borland, Hugh Huntley, Charles Croker-King, Ivan F Simpson, Holmes Herbert, Charles McNaughton, Leonard Mudie, Charles Coleman, Thomas Pogue, Yorke Sherwod, Sidney Bracey, Jean de Briac, Douglas Gerrard, Art Dupuis, Olaf Hytten, Ann Howard, Robert L Simpson, Pat Somerset and Yvonne Severn.

Loretta Young was put on suspension by the studio for her refusal to play Lady Elizabeth.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 4688

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