The Powell & Pressburger Pages Dedicated to the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and all the other people, both actors and technicians who helped them make those wonderful films. A lot of the documents have been sent to me or have come from other web sites. The name of the web site is given where known. If I have unintentionally included an image or document that is copyrighted or that I shouldn't have done then please email me and I'll remove it. I make no money from this site, it's purely for the love of the films. [Any comments are by me (Steve Crook) and other members of the email list]

Anton Walbrook Trivia

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Did you know ...

• Viktor und Viktoria (1933)
  Most prints were lost in a fire during the early 1980s. There is at least one surviving Spanish print. Please check your attic.

• Der Student von Prag (1935)
  The first feature film to be shown on British television by the BBC on 14 August 1938.

• Sixty Glorious Years (1938)
  The world premiere found Queen Mary, after a two-year absence from the theatre, in the Royal Box in London's Odeon Theatre, accompanied by Lady Cambridge, the Duke of Kent, Lord Carisbrooke and Lady Claud Hamilton.

• Gaslight (1940)
  The original play, Gas Light, opened in London on 31 January 1939.
  The movie opened in New York with the title changed to Angel Street on 5 December 1941.

• Dangerous Moonlight (1941)
  This movie introduced "The Warsaw Concerto" to the world. It became a very popular number through the following years. Composed by Richard Addinsell, it is really played in the film by Louis Kentner.

• 49th Parallel (1941)
  In A Life in Movies, Michael Powell notes that Anton gave half his fee of £2,000 to the Red Cross.

• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
  In the scene where Clive goes to see Theo (Anton) in the POW camp, three-quarters of the Germans in the crowd at the POW camp are "carefully painted and positioned" plaster models. In 1943 most fit young men were busy doing other things.

• The Queen of Spades (1949)
  Yvonne Mitchell who got the part of Lizaveta Ivanova opposite Anton, she says, when a friend of her's ran into AW at the dentist's office. The friend mentioned her name and Anton arranged for her to have an audition. Now that's trivia! - Michelle Guillot

• Anyone wishing to pay homage to Anton can go and see his old house at

  69 Frognal
  London
  NW3 6YA

  and then visit his grave at the nearby

  St. John's Church
  Downshire Hill
  Hampstead
  London
  NW3 1NU

  See more details of where he is buried.

• In an interview in Time magazine author Caleb Carr said he based the title character in his historical crime novels The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness on AW. Makes for interesting reading when one imagines Anton saying the lines. They are also fascinating books!

  Caleb Carr: It was based on an actor named Anton Walbrook, but he's dead. I have no idea what living actors would be appropriate, and I'm open to suggestions. It just happens that Walbrook had a big influence on me when I was young, and I developed him as a sort of alter-ego when I was a kid. I used to imitate how he talked.

  For the full text of the interview, go to: http://www.time.com/time/community/transcripts/1999/110399carr.html.

  Michelle Guillot

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