Sir John Mills' Moving Memories is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

  documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 featuring 16mm color home movies shot by the actor Sir John Mills

John Mills

Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...

. It documents his life between 1946 and 1969, directed by Marcus Dillistone

Marcus Dillistone

Marcus Dillistone is an award-winning and Royal Premiered British film director. A close friend of Sir John Mills, he directed the film of Sir John's life Sir John Mills' Moving Memories. Dillistone and Sir John first collaborated on Dillistone's film "The Troop", which was first screened at BAFTA...

 and written by his son Jonathan Mills. Commentary was provided by Sir John (who was over 90 years old at the time), Hayley Mills

Hayley Mills

Hayley Mills is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay , the Academy Juvenile Award...

, Juliet Mills and Sir Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...

. His wife Mary Hayley Bell

Mary Hayley Bell

Mary Hayley Bell, Lady Mills was an English actress, writer and dramatist.Mary Hayley Bell was born in Shanghai, China, where her father served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and the family later moved to Tianjin . It was there that she first met John Mills, although exactly when is not...

 is also seen towards the end of the film listening to her husband singing at the piano.

The home movie clips date mainly from the 1950 and early 1960s and include appearances by Sir Dirk Bogarde

Dirk Bogarde

Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...

, David Niven

David Niven

James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...

, Lord Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

, James Mason

James Mason

James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...

, Lionel Jeffries

Lionel Jeffries

Lionel Charles Jeffries was an English actor, screenwriter and film director.-Early life and career:Jeffries attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wimborne Minster, Dorset. In 1945, he received a commission in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry...

, Sir Rex Harrison

Rex Harrison

Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...

, Walt Disney

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

, Jean Simmons

Jean Simmons

Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE was an English actress. She appeared predominantly in motion pictures, beginning with films made in Great Britain during and after World War II – she was one of J...

, Harry Andrews

Harry Andrews

Harry Fleetwood Andrews, CBE was an English film actor known for his frequent portrayals of tough military officers. His performance as Sergeant Major Wilson in The Hill alongside Sean Connery earned Andrews the 1965 National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for the...

, Tyrone Power

Tyrone Power

Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...

 and Stewart Granger

Stewart Granger

Stewart Granger was an English-American film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.-Early life:He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old...

. Some of the color footage was shot on the sets of black and white movies such as Ice-Cold in Alex

Ice-Cold in Alex

Ice-Cold in Alex is a British film based on the novel of the same name by British author Christopher Landon. Directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring John Mills, the film was a prizewinner at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival...

(1958) and Dunkirk

Dunkirk (film)

Dunkirk is a 1958 British war film directed by Leslie Norman and starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough and Bernard Lee. It was based on two novels: Elleston Trevor's The Big Pick-Up and Lt. Col. Ewan Hunter and Maj. J. S...

(1959). Jonathan put the film together from over 10 hours of footage, and said "I immediately realised what could be made using these home movies – a unique way of telling my father's extraordinary life story."

In 2002 the film was released on DVD and VHS video by ITV Studios Home Entertainment.

External links

• Sir John Mills' Moving Memories. Glory Film Co.