James Mason

James Mason

Birthday: 1909-05-15

Place of Birth: Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, UK

Biography: James Neville Mason, known as James Mason, was an accomplished English actor who made a significant impact on both British and American cinema. He was born on May 15, 1909, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, and passed away on July 27, 1984, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Mason's acting career began in the 1930s, where he initially gained recognition for his stage performances in London's West End. He made his film debut in 1935 with the British film "Late Extra," marking the start of his illustrious on-screen journey. Throughout his career, Mason showcased his exceptional acting abilities, often portraying complex and morally ambiguous characters. His commanding presence, distinctive voice, and versatile range allowed him to effortlessly transition between genres, from dramas to thrillers and even period pieces. One of Mason's most acclaimed performances came in 1945 when he starred as the troubled and enigmatic Johnny McQueen in the film "Odd Man Out." His portrayal of the wounded Irish nationalist earned him widespread praise and established him as a respected leading man. Mason's notable filmography includes memorable roles in films such as "The Wicked Lady" (1945), "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" (1951), "A Star Is Born" (1954), "North by Northwest" (1959), and "Lolita" (1962). His ability to bring depth, sophistication, and complexity to his characters captivated audiences and garnered critical acclaim. Beyond his film career, Mason also dabbled in producing and directing. He co-produced and starred in the acclaimed film "A Star Is Born," showcasing his multifaceted talent and creative vision. Throughout his life, Mason was recognized with numerous awards and nominations, including three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. He was highly regarded by his peers and critics alike for his impeccable craft and his ability to elevate any production he was a part of.

Movies

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

A ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine, the Naut...

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North by Northwest
North by Northwest

Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase....

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Bloodline
Bloodline

A pampered heiress inherits her father's pharmaceutical empire when he dies in a suspicious accident...

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The Man Between
The Man Between

A British woman on a visit to post-war Berlin is caught up in an espionage ring smuggling secrets in...

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Lolita
Lolita

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulga...

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Frankenstein: The True Story
Frankenstein: The True Story

Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr...

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A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born

A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career ...

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Evil Under the Sun
Evil Under the Sun

An opulent beach resort provides a scenic background to this amusing whodunit as Poirot attempts to ...

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Cross of Iron
Cross of Iron

It is 1943, and the German army—ravaged and demoralised—is hastily retreating from the Russian front...

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Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan

This is the story of the shy Mongol boy Temujin who,during the 13th century, becomes the fearless Mo...

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Cry Terror!
Cry Terror!

A mad bomber holds an innocent family hostage....

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The Search for Alexander the Great
The Search for Alexander the Great

Friends, contemporaries and even enemies of Alexander the Great gather in a tent to tell his tale th...

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Fire Over England
Fire Over England

The film is a historical drama set during the reign of Elizabeth I (Flora Robson), focusing on the E...

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Lord Jim
Lord Jim

After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem him...

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Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories

A film biography with a difference, Sir John Mills' Moving Memories charts the life of one of Britai...

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The Wind in the Wires
The Wind in the Wires

This documentary recounts the history of modern aviation (primarily in Britain) from roughly 1900 un...

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John Keats: His Life and Death
John Keats: His Life and Death

Dramatization short on British romantic poet John Keats....

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Journey to the Center of the Earth
Journey to the Center of the Earth

An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic ...

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The Making of Agatha Christie's 'Evil Under the Sun'
The Making of Agatha Christie's 'Evil Under the Sun'

Director Guy Hamilton and several of the stars of Agatha Christie's "Evil Under The Sun" walk you th...

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James Mason: The Star They Loved to Hate
James Mason: The Star They Loved to Hate

Retrospective of the life and movie work of British actor James Mason. The documentary presents inte...

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Yellowbeard
Yellowbeard

For years Yellowbeard had looted the Spanish Main, making men eat their lips and swallow their heart...

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The Verdict
The Verdict

Frank Galvin is a down-on-his-luck lawyer and reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing, when a form...

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Heaven Can Wait
Heaven Can Wait

Joe Pendleton is a quarterback preparing to lead his team to the superbowl when he is almost killed ...

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The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler....

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The Last of Sheila
The Last of Sheila

A year after Sheila is killed in a hit-and-run, her multimillionaire husband invites a group of frie...

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The MacKintosh Man
The MacKintosh Man

A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be cau...

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Bigger Than Life
Bigger Than Life

A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resultin...

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Murder by Decree
Murder by Decree

Sherlock Holmes is drawn into the case of Jack the Ripper, who is killing prostitutes in London's Ea...

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The Water Babies
The Water Babies

Grimes, an amoral chimney sweep, occasionally likes to steal valuables from his clients. One day, on...

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The Reckless Moment
The Reckless Moment

After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measure...

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Forever, Darling
Forever, Darling

Susan and Lorenzo have been married for over five years and they are starting to drift apart. So int...

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The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda

A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who take...

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The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady

A married woman finds new thrills as a masked robber on the highways....

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One Way Street
One Way Street

After stealing a gangster's money and his girlfriend, a doctor heads for a small village in Mexico t...

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The Desert Rats
The Desert Rats

In North Africa, German Field Marshal Rommel and his troops have successfully fended off British for...

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A Place of One's Own
A Place of One's Own

An elderly couple move into an old, supposedly haunted abandoned house. A young girl comes to live w...

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Cold Sweat
Cold Sweat

During the Korean War, Joe Moran, is convicted for striking a colonel. Imprisoned in Germany he enco...

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The Man in Grey
The Man in Grey

After marrying a dour and disinterested lord for status, a young woman falls in love with a stage ac...

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Georgy Girl
Georgy Girl

A homely but vivacious young woman dodges the amorous attentions of her father's middle-aged employe...

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The Deadly Affair
The Deadly Affair

Charles Dobbs is a British secret agent investigating the apparent suicide of Foreign Office officia...

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Island in the Sun
Island in the Sun

A scandalous tale of politics, social inequality, interracial romance, and murder set on a fictitiou...

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Caught
Caught

Wide-eyed and poor young Leonora weds an obsessive millionaire named Ohlrig, but the marriage is lov...

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Odd Man Out
Odd Man Out

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery....

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The Seventh Veil
The Seventh Veil

A concert pianist with amnesia fights to regain her memory....

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Mandingo
Mandingo

Warren Maxwell, the owner of a run-down plantation, pressures his son, Hammond, to marry and produce...

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Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary

A frivolous country girl married to a naïve small-town doctor goes down the path of destruction when...

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The Boys from Brazil
The Boys from Brazil

Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman discovers a sinister and bizarre plot, masterminded by Dr. Josef Mengele,...

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Mayerling
Mayerling

Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria clashes with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, over impl...

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Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

Pandora Reynolds is a woman who has never fallen in love – but one who men kill and die for. When sh...

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Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant

A young Viking prince strives to become a knight in King Arthur's Court and restore his exiled fathe...

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Theatre 62: Rebecca
Theatre 62: Rebecca

A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife....

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Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe, a worthy and noble knight, the champion of justice returns to England after the holy wars, ...

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The Fall of the Roman Empire
The Fall of the Roman Empire

In the year 180 A.D. Germanic tribes are about to invade the Roman empire from the north. In the mid...

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Great Expectations
Great Expectations

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that h...

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Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar

The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassi...

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Age of Consent
Age of Consent

An elderly artist thinks he has become too stale and is past his prime. His friend (and agent) persu...

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The London Nobody Knows
The London Nobody Knows

Based on Geoffrey Fletcher’s book, this captivating documentary exposes the real London of the swing...

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The Passage
The Passage

During WW 2, a Basque shepherd is approached by the underground, who wants him to lead a scientist a...

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The Blue Max
The Blue Max

A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambit...

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The Pumpkin Eater
The Pumpkin Eater

Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful b...

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Child's Play
Child's Play

At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, ...

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The Marseille Contract
The Marseille Contract

An important drug lord settled in Marseille is suspected of having ordered the killing of an America...

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Secret Mission
Secret Mission

World War II drama in which a member of the French Resistance and three British agents undertake a h...

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They Met in the Dark
They Met in the Dark

A Royal navy Commander is tricked by a pretty girl who is working for the Nazis. She tricks him into...

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Kidnap Syndicate
Kidnap Syndicate

After his son is kidnapped, a millionaire industrialist seeks revenge, in spite of the potential dan...

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I Met a Murderer
I Met a Murderer

An Englishwoman who writes novels meets a farmer who has just killed his nagging wife....

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Duffy
Duffy

Half-brothers Stefane and Antony despise their biological father, callous millionaire Charles Calver...

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Hatter's Castle
Hatter's Castle

The year is 1880. On the outskirts of the fictional small Scottish town of Levenford there stands a ...

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The Shooting Party
The Shooting Party

1913, shortly before the outbreak of WWI. A group of aristocrats gathers at the estate of Sir Randol...

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Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac

Inspired by Edmond Rostand's 1897 play, this 1938 BBC Television studio production retells the comic...

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The Moon in the Yellow River
The Moon in the Yellow River

Television broadcast of The Moon in the Yellow River by Denis Johnston....

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The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go
The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go

An American draft dodger and aspiring writer named Nero Finnigan becomes involved with the notorious...

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The Upturned Glass
The Upturned Glass

A neurosurgeon relates to his students in medical school a story about an affair he had with a marri...

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5 Fingers
5 Fingers

During WWII, the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans whil...

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Inside Out
Inside Out

An American ex-WW II POW returns to Germany 30 years after the war. He teams up with the former comm...

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A Touch of Larceny
A Touch of Larceny

After falling in love with an American woman, Virginia Killain, who is engaged to another man, Briti...

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The Flower in His Mouth
The Flower in His Mouth

A female school teacher is implicated in a murder in a Sicilian town only hours after her arrival. T...

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Thunder Rock
Thunder Rock

David Charleston, once a world renowned journalist, now lives alone maintaining the Thunder Rock lig...

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Bad Man's River
Bad Man's River

Robber Roy King loses his wife, Alicia, to revolutionary Montero. Despite their rivalry they collabo...

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Hotel Reserve
Hotel Reserve

A hunt for a spy, in a hotel in the South of France just before World War Two....

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Bees on the Boat-Deck
Bees on the Boat-Deck

Television broadcast of Bees on the Boat-Deck by J.B. Priestley....

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Fear in the City
Fear in the City

The film focuses on Murri; the token maverick cop. He is called in after a bunch of criminals pull o...

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The Miser
The Miser

Television broadcast of L'avare by Molière....

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The Circle
The Circle

In London, aware of her husband's longstanding affair and feeling neglected, a woman flirts with a f...

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East Side, West Side
East Side, West Side

A vain businessman puts strains on his happy marriage to a rich, beautiful socialite by allowing him...

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The Marriage-Go-Round
The Marriage-Go-Round

An anthropology professor and his professor wife have the perfect marriage--until a Swedish colleagu...

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The Night Has Eyes
The Night Has Eyes

Two teachers, man-hungry Doris and restrained Marian, visit the Yorkshire moors a year after friend ...

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The Tell-Tale Heart
The Tell-Tale Heart

One of the most discussed and imaginative cartoons of any era. It tells the famous Edgar Allan Poe s...

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Uncertain Verification
Uncertain Verification

A short film containing a collection of clips from various Hollywood movies....

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The Decks Ran Red
The Decks Ran Red

A band of dishonest seamen plans a murderous mutiny aboard the S.S. Berwind....

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Fanny by Gaslight
Fanny by Gaslight

Returning to 1870s London after finishing at boarding school, Fanny winesses the death of her father...

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Tiara Tahiti
Tiara Tahiti

James Mason and John Mills star in this comedy-drama about a tough colonel and a refined captain who...

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The Story of Three Loves
The Story of Three Loves

Passengers on an ocean liner recall their greatest loves....

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A Dangerous Summer
A Dangerous Summer

Building is Howard's passion, and he is so absorbed in his plans to build an elaborate resort in the...

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Spring and Port Wine
Spring and Port Wine

A stern father and lenient mother try to deal with the ups and downs of their four children's lives ...

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Escape from Zahrain
Escape from Zahrain

Yul Brynner plays political leader Sharif who is sprung from a police van on his way to a firing squ...

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Homage to Chagall: The Colours of Love
Homage to Chagall: The Colours of Love

For over three-quarters of a century, Russian-born Marc Chagall set new standards for modern art wit...

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They Were Sisters
They Were Sisters

The story of three sisters and the men they marry: one is happily married but childless, the second ...

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Alibi
Alibi

In 1930s France a bar hostess helps a man prove himself innocent of murder....

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The Sea Gull
The Sea Gull

Film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's story of life in rural Russia during the latter part of the 19th ...

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Botany Bay
Botany Bay

Based on the story of the start of Australia's colonisation. An American medical student is falsely ...

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The High Command
The High Command

A general must come to terms with a crime he commited years earlier....

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The Trials of Oscar Wilde
The Trials of Oscar Wilde

England, 1890s. The brutal and embittered Marquis of Queensberry, who believes that his youngest son...

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Candlelight in Algeria
Candlelight in Algeria

Candlelight in Algeria is a 1944 British war film directed by George King and starring James Mason, ...

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Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel

Sir Percy is forced to return to France one last time, to rescue his wife from the clutches of the s...

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The Left Hand of the Law
The Left Hand of the Law

After a couple of 'special squad' cops are gunned down while chasing some kidnappers, the head of th...

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Hero's Island
Hero's Island

A family shipwrecked on an island must deal with escaped convicts and pirates....

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Stranger in the House
Stranger in the House

John Sawyer, once an eminent barrister, has slid into a life of cynicism and drunkenness since his w...

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Kill!
Kill!

Interpol investigates the freelance killings of drug and porn peddlers....

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The Secret of Stamboul
The Secret of Stamboul

A man travels to Istanbul to try and prevent a revolution....

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The Bells Go Down
The Bells Go Down

Comedian Tommy Trinder plays it straight in this tribute to the wartime AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service)...

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The Assisi Underground
The Assisi Underground

This film sheds light on the role of the Catholic Church and the people of Assisi in rescuing Italia...

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Face to Face
Face to Face

Two short films released together under a collective title. The first, "Secret Sharer", directed by ...

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11 Harrowhouse
11 Harrowhouse

A small time diamond merchant jumps at the chance to supervise the purchase and cutting of a large f...

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Lady Possessed
Lady Possessed

A pianist takes his ailing wife out of a London hospital at the same time that another female patien...

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Late Extra
Late Extra

A newspaper reporter sets out to track down the murderer of a policeman....

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The Uninhibited
The Uninhibited

Vincent is recovering from a nervous breakdown in a seaside village on the Costa Brava. He enters in...

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Troubled Waters
Troubled Waters

James Mason is teamed up once again with Virginia Cherill whom he appeared with in his debut film, '...

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The Mill on the Floss
The Mill on the Floss

Romeo and Juliet in 1930s England. The owner of the mill and the local lord are in conflict over wat...

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Prison Breaker
Prison Breaker

A British secret service agent falls in love with the daughter of a leading London criminal, and soo...

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Blind Man's Bluff
Blind Man's Bluff

A formerly blind scientist continues to feign his condition in order to thwart his philandering wife...

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Lasseter's Bones
Lasseter's Bones

Australia’s El Dorado was found by Lewis Harold Bell Lasseter – if we believe his claims in the late...

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Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

As the Metropolitan Museum of Art closes, Big Bird decides to leave his Sesame Street friends behind...

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The Reformation: Age of Revolt
The Reformation: Age of Revolt

This educational documentary describes the political, social, and religious conditions of sixteenth ...

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Roger Moore: A Matter of Class
Roger Moore: A Matter of Class

The story of actor Roger Moore, including clips from his movies, television shows and interviews wit...

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Autobiography of a Princess
Autobiography of a Princess

On the birthday of her late father, a deposed Maharaja, a displaced Indian princess living in London...

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Home, James
Home, James

Actor James Mason returns to his Huddersfield roots. Harking back to his childhood memories, he rema...

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North Sea Hijack
North Sea Hijack

When terrorists take over two oil rigs, and threaten to blow them up if their demands are not met, a...

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Torpedo Bay
Torpedo Bay

An Italian submarine captain tries to navigate his sub through enemy waters while being stalked by a...

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Alexandre
Alexandre

Three years ago Ariane left Antoine, sending him a postcard announcing her departure for the mountai...

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The Patient Vanishes
The Patient Vanishes

Action and excitement beckon as popular sleuth Mick Cardby goes on the trail of a missing girl, and ...

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Charade
Charade

This is an anthology film with three stories. In "Portrait of a Murderer", a female artist draws ske...

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Group Madness
Group Madness

A behind-the-scenes documentary of the making of 1983's Yellowbeard...

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Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned

A luxury liner carries Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany in a desperate fight for survival....

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Twice Branded
Twice Branded

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

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Sid & Judy
Sid & Judy

Explore the dramatic career and personal struggles of the talented and tragically short-lived entert...

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Ellis in Freedomland
Ellis in Freedomland

Westinghouse claims its electric appliances "freed women from the drudgery of housework." The first ...

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The Popes and Their Art
The Popes and Their Art

A visit of the art collections of the Vatican Museums with British actor James Mason....

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Catch as Catch Can
Catch as Catch Can

Undercover agent Robert Leyland entraps crooks trying to sneak expensive goods past customs on trans...

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Dr. Fischer of Geneva
Dr. Fischer of Geneva

Dr. Fischer has an unusual hobby — to expose human greed. How much humiliation will his fellow man e...

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The Star of Bethlehem
The Star of Bethlehem

James Mason and his wife Pamela read sections from the bible that lead up to the birth of Jesus. Jam...

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People of the Wind
People of the Wind

The Bakhtiari migration is one of the most hazardous tests of human endurance known to mankind. Ever...

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The Glory of the Garden
The Glory of the Garden

This documentary is a cinematic celebration of how Lionel de Rothschild spent a fortune in creating ...

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Night of 100 Stars
Night of 100 Stars

The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place ...

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Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1950s: The Golden Era of the Musical
Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1950s: The Golden Era of the Musical

During the 1950s, musical masterpieces that have yet to be equaled were produced in Cinemascope with...

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John Brown's Raid
John Brown's Raid

White abolitionist John Brown and twenty of his men attempt to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 b...

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The Hiding Place
The Hiding Place

In the last days of World War II, two English airmen are captured by an ordinary German citizen, who...

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