The term "Hollywood Raj" has traditionally been applied to that group of British actors who quietly invaded Hollywood during its golden age in the late 1920s and 1930s. It was personified by such stalwart greats as Basil Rathbone, David Niven, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Flora Robson, Claude Rains, Ronald Colman,
C. Aubrey Smith (who was captain of the Hollywood Cricket Club) and Victor McLaglen.
Here the term will be used regardless of the actual nationality of the actors involved or whether the film in question was shot in Hollywood, Great Britain, or on location somewhere in the wide expanses of the former British Empire.
In most cases, these photographs will depict actors playing parts for which the actual events occurred long before they were born though in some instances - such as Victor McLagen - actors who did indeed serve in Queen Victoria's forces before being seconded to the very different world of the silver screen.
The 1910s
Art Before Acting
"...An artist before he was an actor." are the words used by Marjorie Love the widow of the late Montagu Love to
describe him in a 1946 letter to a fan of the actor.
Probably best known to modern audiences for roles such as that of Colonel Weed in Gunga Din or as the traitorous Bishop of the Black Canons in The Adventures of Robinhood, Love's film acting career dated back to 1914 with his stage career beginning in the very early 1900s.
What is not so well known but alluded to in Marjorie's letter is that prior to acting Montagu Love made a living as an artist of military subjects and always considered this his true vocation with acting a convenient, entertaining, and lively way of paying the bills.
According to most sources Montagu Love was born Harry Montagu Love (his name is often seen incorrectly spelled as "Montague") on 15 March 1880 at Portsmouth, Hampshire, England the son of Harry an estate agent
and Fanny Louisa Love.
Production Still
Unknown South African Production
c. 1915
The 1920s
Cyril McLaglen
as
John Kennedy
Balaclava (Jaws of Hell)
1928
Richard Arlen as Lt. Harry Faversham
&
Fay Wray as Ethne Eustace
The Four Feathers
1929
Theodor Von Eltz
as
Lieutenant Castleton
The Four Feathers
1929
Victor McLaglen
as
Captain Donald Gordon King
The Black Watch
1929
Gary Cooper
as
Lieutenant Alan McGregor
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
1935
The 1930s
Errol Flynn
as
Major Geoffrey Vickers
The Charge of the Light Brigade
1936
Douglas Scott
as
Drummer Boy Mott
Wee Willie Winkie
1937
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
as
Sergeant Tommy Ballantine
Gunga Din
1939
Cary Grant
as
Sergeant Archibald Cutter
&
Victor McLaglen
as
Sergeant 'Mac' MacChesney
Gunga Din
1939
Ian Hunter
as
Captain Crewe
The Little Princess
1939
Spencer Tracy
as
Henry Morton Stanley
Stanley and Livingstone
1939
Ronald Colman
as
Dick Heldar
The Light That Failed
1939
Sam Jaffe
as
Regimental Bisti Gunga Din
Gunga Din
1939
Victor McLaglen
as
The Sergeant
The Lost Patrol
1934
Helen Hayes
as
Queen Victoria
Victoria Regina
1935
Anna Neagle
as
Queen Victoria
Victoria the Great
1937
Stan Laurel
as
Pte Stanley MacLaurel
&
Oliver Hardy
as
Pte. Ollie Hardy
Bonnie Scotland
1939
Desmond Tester
as
Drummer Bill Holder
The Drum
1938
(Signed)
Drummer William Quinnell
and the filming of
The Four Feathers
Showcased here is a remarkable archive of 45 photographs taken from a photo album once owned by William Quinnell of the East Surrey Regiment which recorded the 1938 filming of Zoltan Korda’s classic production of The Four Feathers. None of these images have been published before to the best of my knowledge.
Zoltan Korda’s production of A.E.W. Mason’s 1904 novel The Four Feathers was the fourth of seven films versions of the book made between 1915 and 2002. Korda’s version differs from the novel and other filmed versions by having its action take place during Kitchener’s Omdurman Campaign of 1896 instead of the Nile Campaign of 1884-5. Korda’s version is noted for its historical accuracy and most of the extras who portrayed British soldiers in the film were actually members of the 2/East Surreys who were stationed in Khartoum at the time of the filming. This explains the remarkably soldierly appearance...
Drummer William Quinnell
1/2 East Surrey Regiment
Shanghai, China
1939
The 1940s
David Niven
as
General Sir Roland Dane
Enchantment
1948
Robert Preston
as
Constable Ronnie Logan
North West Mounted Police
1940
Preston Foster
as
Sergeant Jim Brett
North West Mounted Police
1940
The 1950s
Robert Newton
as
Private Bill Sykes
Soldiers Three
1951
Stewart Granger
as
Private Archibald Ackroyd
Soldiers Three
1951
Walter Pidgeon
as
Colonel Brunswick
Soldiers Three
1951
Tyrone Power
as
Constable Duncan MacDonald
Pony Soldier
1952
Tyrone Power
as
Captain Alan King
King of the Khyber Rifles
1953
Peter Lawford
as
Capt. Dion Lenbridge/
Pte. Harry Sims
Rouge's March
1953
Torin Thatcher
as
Colonel Morrow
Bengal Brigade
1954
Cyril Cusack
as
Private Dennis Malloy
Soldiers Three
1951
Robert Ryan
as
Inspector William Gannon
The Canadians
1961
The 1960s
Richard Todd
as
Sergeant Sam Hargis
The Hellions
1961
Richard Haydn
as
General Sir Henry Vining
Five Weeks in a Balloon
1962
David Niven
as
Sir Arthur Robertson
55 Days at Peking
1963
Stanley Baker
as
Lt. John Rouse Merriott Chard
Zulu
1964
Michael Caine
as
Lt. Gonville Bromhead
Zulu
1964
Edward Underdown
as
Col. William "Billy" Hicks
Khartoum
1966
Charlton Heston
as
Gen. Charles "Chinese" Gordon
Khartoum
1966
Richard Johnson
as
Col. J.D.H. Stewart
Khartoum
1966
Gert van den Bergh
as
Man #2
The Naked Prey
1966
Brian Keith
as
Lt. Col. Alexander Bowen
The Rare Breed
1966
Peter Sellers
as
Hrundi V. Baskhi
The Party
1968
David Hemmings
as
Captain Lewis Nolan
The Charge of the Light Brigade
1968
Lionel Jeffries
as
Grandpa Potts
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
1968
Trevor Howard
as
Lord Cardigan
The Charge of the Light Brigade
1968
John Fraser
as
Lieutenant Robert Fitch
Waltz of the Toreadores
1962
The 1970s
Malcolm McDowell
as
Captain Harry Flashman
Royal Flash
1975
Christopher Plummer
as
Major Alistair Wimbourne, VC
Conduct Unbecoming
1975
Robert Powell
as
Captain Jack Durrance
The Four Feathers
1977
Peter O'Toole
as
Lord Chelmsford
Zulu Dawn
1979
Saeed Jaffrey
as
Rifleman Majendra Bahadur Gurung
(Billy Fish)
The Man Who Would Be King
1975
The 1980s
Bo Derek
as
Jane Parker
Tarzan, the Ape Man
1981
Eric Idle
as
Wounded British Private
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
1983
Ben Cross
as
Ashton Pelham-Martyn
The Far Pavilions
1984
Lewis Fitz-Gerald
as
Lt. George Witton
Breaker Morant
1980
Bryan Brown
as
Lt. Peter Handcock
Breaker Morant
1980
The 1990s
Patrick Bergin
as
Capt. Sir Richard Francis Burton
Mountains of the Moon
1990
Val Kilmer
as
Colonel John Patterson
The Ghost and the Darkness
1997
Aidan Quinn
as
Henry Morton Stanley
Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone
1997
The 2000s
Wes Bentley
as
Captain Jack Durrance
The Four Feathers
2002
