Estelle Brody
Encyclopedia
Estelle Brody was an American actress who became one of the biggest female stars of British silent film
in the latter half of the 1920s. Her career was then derailed by a series of ill-advised decisions and she disappeared from sight for many years before re-emerging between the late 1940s and the 1960s in smaller supporting film and television roles.
, and began her career as a dancer in vaudeville
. After working for some time as part of a touring troupe travelling round the U.S., she moved to England in the 1920s, finding work in West End theatres. Although Brody had no previous acting experience, her vivaciousness was spotted by film director Thomas Bentley
, who offered her a supporting role in his 1926 film White Heat
. She then immediately landed the lead role for Maurice Elvey
in Mademoiselle from Armentieres
, set in France during World War I. This turned out to be a huge popular success, running in British cinemas for several months and becoming reportedly the highest-grossing British-made film of 1926. To Brody's great surprise, she found herself acclaimed as a new star by the British media. At the time there was a general feeling, both from critics and audiences, of dissatisfaction with what was seen as excessive American influence on British film-making. To pre-empt this, publicity material falsely claimed Brody to be a Canadian citizen. This was accepted as fact, and the misapprehension would persist throughout her career.
Brody spent the remainder of the 1920s starring in a number of high-profile productions which earned her critical and popular acclaim as a natural in front of the camera. Reflecting on this period in later life, Brody commented: "Apparently my work went over well. Beyond my wildest dreams". Her most enduring performance is generally considered to be in 1927's Hindle Wakes
, again for Elvey. This was the second silent version of the famous, and controversial in its time, stage play by Stanley Houghton, and received an appropriate budget for a prestige production. Extensive location filming took place in Manchester
and Blackpool
, giving the film a documentary realism feel very unusual in British silent cinema, which is now regarded as a valuable socio-historical portrait of 1920s Lancashire.
In 1929, Brody had just finished work on the silent film Kitty
, when director Victor Saville
decided to reshoot the second half of the film with sound. As the British studio lacked the necessary facilities, Brody and co-star John Stuart
were despatched to New York where the scenes were shot at RKO Studios, with Brody in the odd situation of being in the city of her birth but having to disguise her native accent in order to sound like a London girl.
Disillusioned with her Hollywood experiences, Brody returned to England in the mid 1930s but did not seek to resurrect her British career. She married Robert Fenn, an agent representing actors and film composers, and settled into private life out of the spotlight. She finally returned to the screen in 1949 with a minor role in I Was a Male War Bride
and for the next decade made sporadic film appearances, with her last film credit coming in Never Take Sweets from a Stranger
in 1960. She also appeared occasionally in TV productions in the 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1969, Brody and Fenn relocated to Malta
, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Brody died in Valletta on 3 June 1995, aged 94.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
in the latter half of the 1920s. Her career was then derailed by a series of ill-advised decisions and she disappeared from sight for many years before re-emerging between the late 1940s and the 1960s in smaller supporting film and television roles.
Early life and stardom
Brody was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and began her career as a dancer in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. After working for some time as part of a touring troupe travelling round the U.S., she moved to England in the 1920s, finding work in West End theatres. Although Brody had no previous acting experience, her vivaciousness was spotted by film director Thomas Bentley
Thomas Bentley
Thomas Bentley was a British film director. He directed 68 films between 1912 and 1941. He directed three films in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, The Man in the Street , The Antidote , and Acci-Dental Treatment .Bentley was born in London and originally trained as an engineer,...
, who offered her a supporting role in his 1926 film White Heat
White Heat (1926 film)
White Heat is a 1926 British drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Juliette Compton, Wyndham Standing and George Bellamy. A dancer becomes romantically involved with a producer.-Cast:* Juliette Compton - Helen...
. She then immediately landed the lead role for Maurice Elvey
Maurice Elvey
Maurice Elvey was the most prolific film director in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year....
in Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Mademoiselle from Armentieres (film)
Mademoiselle from Armentieres is a 1926 British World War I silent film drama, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. The film was Elvey's first collaboration with producer Victor Saville.-Plot:...
, set in France during World War I. This turned out to be a huge popular success, running in British cinemas for several months and becoming reportedly the highest-grossing British-made film of 1926. To Brody's great surprise, she found herself acclaimed as a new star by the British media. At the time there was a general feeling, both from critics and audiences, of dissatisfaction with what was seen as excessive American influence on British film-making. To pre-empt this, publicity material falsely claimed Brody to be a Canadian citizen. This was accepted as fact, and the misapprehension would persist throughout her career.
Brody spent the remainder of the 1920s starring in a number of high-profile productions which earned her critical and popular acclaim as a natural in front of the camera. Reflecting on this period in later life, Brody commented: "Apparently my work went over well. Beyond my wildest dreams". Her most enduring performance is generally considered to be in 1927's Hindle Wakes
Hindle Wakes (1927 film)
Hindle Wakes is a 1927 British silent film drama, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. The film is adapted from Stanley Houghton's 1912 stage play of the same name, and reunites Brody and Stuart following their hugely popular pairing in the previous year's...
, again for Elvey. This was the second silent version of the famous, and controversial in its time, stage play by Stanley Houghton, and received an appropriate budget for a prestige production. Extensive location filming took place in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, giving the film a documentary realism feel very unusual in British silent cinema, which is now regarded as a valuable socio-historical portrait of 1920s Lancashire.
In 1929, Brody had just finished work on the silent film Kitty
Kitty (1929 film)
Kitty is a 1929 British drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. The film was adapted from the 1927 novel of the same name by Warwick Deeping and marked the third co-star billing of Brody and Stuart, who had previously proved a very popular screen pairing...
, when director Victor Saville
Victor Saville
Victor Saville was an English film director, producer and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954...
decided to reshoot the second half of the film with sound. As the British studio lacked the necessary facilities, Brody and co-star John Stuart
John Stuart (actor)
John Stuart, born John Alfred Louden Croall , was a Scottish actor, and a very popular leading man in British silent films in the 1920s. He appeared in two films directed by Alfred Hitchcock....
were despatched to New York where the scenes were shot at RKO Studios, with Brody in the odd situation of being in the city of her birth but having to disguise her native accent in order to sound like a London girl.
Career decline and later life
Returning from New York, Brody found the British film industry in a state of flux and uncertainty on the cusp of the transition from silents to talkies. Her voice was not considered desirable by British producers at the time, which heightened her anxiety about the situation. When no new film offers were immediately forthcoming, she made the decision to try her luck in Hollywood. She later acknowledged that this had been a major mistake; not only did she at a stroke alienate a large number of her British fans who accused her of betrayal, but once in Hollywood she found that her status in Britain counted for nothing with American directors. The few offers made were not the kind of roles she wished to play, and ultimately she would only appear as support in two films in which her characters were billed as "Girl from Kokomo" and "Prisoner".Disillusioned with her Hollywood experiences, Brody returned to England in the mid 1930s but did not seek to resurrect her British career. She married Robert Fenn, an agent representing actors and film composers, and settled into private life out of the spotlight. She finally returned to the screen in 1949 with a minor role in I Was a Male War Bride
I Was a Male War Bride
I Was a Male War Bride is a 1949 comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan.This film was based on I was an Alien Spouse of Female Military Personnel Enroute to the United States Under Public Law 271 of the Congress, a biography of Henri Rochard, a Belgian who...
and for the next decade made sporadic film appearances, with her last film credit coming in Never Take Sweets from a Stranger
Never Take Sweets from a Stranger
Never Take Sweets from a Stranger is a 1960 British film, directed by Cyril Frankel and released by Hammer Film Productions. The screenplay was developed by John Hunter from the play The Pony Trap by Roger Garis. It stars Patrick Allen, Gwen Watford and Felix Aylmer, the latter being cast...
in 1960. She also appeared occasionally in TV productions in the 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1969, Brody and Fenn relocated to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Brody died in Valletta on 3 June 1995, aged 94.
Filmography
- 1926: White HeatWhite Heat (1926 film)White Heat is a 1926 British drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Juliette Compton, Wyndham Standing and George Bellamy. A dancer becomes romantically involved with a producer.-Cast:* Juliette Compton - Helen...
- 1926: Mademoiselle from ArmentieresMademoiselle from Armentieres (film)Mademoiselle from Armentieres is a 1926 British World War I silent film drama, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. The film was Elvey's first collaboration with producer Victor Saville.-Plot:...
- 1927: The Marriage BusinessThe Marriage BusinessThe Marriage Business is a 1927 silent-era British comedy film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and featuring Estelle Brody, Owen Nares and Jack Rutherford.-Cast:* Estelle Brody - Annette* Owen Nares - Robert* Marjorie Hume - Pat* Jack Rutherford - Duncan...
- 1927: The Glad Eye
- 1927: Hindle WakesHindle Wakes (1927 film)Hindle Wakes is a 1927 British silent film drama, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. The film is adapted from Stanley Houghton's 1912 stage play of the same name, and reunites Brody and Stuart following their hugely popular pairing in the previous year's...
- 1927: The Flight Commander
- 1928: Sailors Don't Care
- 1928: Mademoiselle Parley Voo
- 1929: The Plaything
- 1929: Weekend Wives
- 1929: KittyKitty (1929 film)Kitty is a 1929 British drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. The film was adapted from the 1927 novel of the same name by Warwick Deeping and marked the third co-star billing of Brody and Stuart, who had previously proved a very popular screen pairing...
- 1931: A Broadway Romeo
- 1933: Ann VickersAnn VickersAnn Vickers is a 1933 novel by Sinclair Lewis.It is also a 1933 drama film directed by John Cromwell, adapted by Jane Murfin from Lewis's novel, and starring Irene Dunne, Bruce Cabot, Walter Huston, and Conrad Nagel...
- 1949: I Was a Male War BrideI Was a Male War BrideI Was a Male War Bride is a 1949 comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan.This film was based on I was an Alien Spouse of Female Military Personnel Enroute to the United States Under Public Law 271 of the Congress, a biography of Henri Rochard, a Belgian who...
- 1950: Lilli MarleneLilli Marlene (film)Lilli Marlene is a 1950 British historical drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Hugh McDermott, Lisa Daniely and Stanley Baker...
- 1950: They Were Not DividedThey Were Not DividedThey Were Not Divided is a 1950 British war film, which depicted the Guards Armoured Division in Second World War Europe. It was written and directed by Terence Young, a former Guards officer who served in the campaigns depicted in the film....
- 1953: Finishing School
- 1955: Safari
- 1957: The Story of Esther CostelloThe Story of Esther CostelloThe Story of Esther Costello is a 1957 British drama film starring Joan Crawford, Rossano Brazzi, and Heather Sears . The film is an exposé of large-scale fundraising. The Story of Esther Costello was produced by David Miller and Jack Clayton with Miller directing...
- 1959: BreakoutBreakout (1959 film)Breakout is a 1959 British drama film directed by Peter Graham Scott and starring Lee Patterson, Hazel Court, Terence Alexander. A government official organises a mass breakout from a prison.-Cast:* Lee Patterson ... George Munro...
- 1960: Never Take Sweets from a StrangerNever Take Sweets from a StrangerNever Take Sweets from a Stranger is a 1960 British film, directed by Cyril Frankel and released by Hammer Film Productions. The screenplay was developed by John Hunter from the play The Pony Trap by Roger Garis. It stars Patrick Allen, Gwen Watford and Felix Aylmer, the latter being cast...
External links
- Estelle Brody filmography at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...