Frank Launder Trailers
The Wildcats of St Trinian's TrailerOoh...You Are Awful TrailerEndless Night Trailer
Frank Launder (28 January 1906 – 23 February 1997) was a British writer, film director and producer, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with Sidney Gilliat.
He was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England and worked briefly as a clerk before becoming an actor and then a playwright. He began working as a screenwriter on British films in the 1930s, contributing the original story for the classic Will Hay comedy Oh, Mr Porter! (1937). After writing a number of screenplays with Gilliat, including The Lady Vanishes (1938) for Alfred Hitchcock, and Night Train to Munich for Carol Reed; the two men wrote and directed the wartime drama Millions Like Us (1943).
After founding their own production company Individual Pictures, they produced a number of memorable dramas and thrillers including I See a Dark Stranger (1945) and Green for Danger (1946), but were best known for their comedies including The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and most famously, the St Trinians series, based on Ronald Searle's cartoons set in an anarchic girls school. He was married to actress Bernadette O'Farrell from 1950 until his death in Monaco. The couple had two children.
Most Popular Frank Launder Trailers
Total trailers found: 70
17 May 1941
Third and final film in the 'Inspector Hornleigh’ series of comedy-thrillers. Inspector Hornleigh (Gordon Harker), disappointed at not being handed an important spy case, is assigned by Scotland Yard to an army barracks to investigate the mundane thefts of supplies from the stores.
28 October 1935
A Smithfield porter becomes a butler, and later finds himself heir to a fortune.
01 March 1935
The owner of a small Italian restaurant in central London is left a million pound inheritance, the only stipulation to the will being that he cannot speak or write anything for a period of one month.
20 November 1930
A casual date at a high-class hotel leads Binnie, an aspiring showgirl, to be mistaken for model and actress Lia de Marita – landing her an audition for the producer of a new musical stage show.
31 December 1931
The arrival of Mr. Knox, the new sports instructor at a British public school, heralds trouble. He imposes his dominant personality to influence colleagues and the headmaster alike, and then attempts to force himself on Millicent, the assistant matron.
05 February 1935
Erich Kästner’s beloved novel has been adapted for film or television six times since its publication in 1929; this 1935 British version was the first in English.
11 December 1933
A young musician invents an anti-theft device for cars, but works as a jazz conductor while waiting for his invention to be successful.
09 December 1935
A sacked engineer stows away on another vessel
21 April 1955
Charles Hathaway wakes up in West Wales with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. With the help of a Cardiff specialist he traces his life back to his gorgeous wife and their large London house, so all seems well with the world.
04 December 1952
A newly-arrived army chaplain is put in charge of camp entertainment and has the idea of putting on a Brains Trust with local notables.
25 October 1951
Marjory Clark wins a competition in her Midland town and finds herself in a Festival of Britain procession as Lady Godiva - though not in the buff.
03 September 1940
Charters and Caldicott are touring the Middle East. After visiting Saudi Arabia they find themselves in Bagdad where they are mistaken by a group of German spies for the messengers who are to carry a song record by beautiful singer La Palermo which contains secret instructions of the German Intelligence.
01 March 1934
A young Spanish woman marries a lowly Englishman, rather than the aristocrat her father had intended, much to his displeasure.
02 September 1955
Concerned about his small stature, a young Scottish boy applies for a mail-order body building course, successfully gaining both height and strength.
07 October 1938
On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel in a fictional European country, young Iris befriends elderly Miss Froy.
01 December 1932
A useless secretary and his private detective friend try to help an heiress from being swindled by her guardian.
05 August 1959
Based on a novel by Nigel Tranter, The Bridal Path is a light-hearted look at the somewhat unfortunate results that can come of the continued marrying of fairly close cousins in a restricted and remote community.
13 March 1957
An insurance man discovers his ex-girlfriend and her husband's art-forgery/arson scam.
06 December 1945
Vivian Kenway, a young Englishman from an aristocratic background, flunks out of Oxford, and decides to use his considerable charm to achieve his goal of, apparently, making dissipation his career.
01 January 1965
While posters urge austerity and vigilance in wartime Britain, 'Joey Boy' Thompson has never had it better.
23 March 1964
The film is based on the actual events of the Portland Spy Ring trial in the U.K. A disgruntled Navy Clerk is transferred to a secret research establishment and is subsequently black-mailed/paid by Czech intelligence to procure secrets for them.
28 June 1941
A young tradesman learns that money doesn't necessarily bring happiness. Drama.
15 September 1932
A henpecked husband is mistaken for a famous toreador while holidaying in Spain!
01 March 1949
In the Victorian period, two British children survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific. After days afloat, they are marooned on a lush tropical island in the company of kindly old sailor.
09 April 1957
Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business—a cinema in the town of Sloughborough.
11 September 1950
While working in England, an American surgeon Dr. John Marlowe is invited to Vosnia (a fictitious East-European country) to receive an award and demonstrate his life-saving surgery.
31 August 1940
Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, inventor Axel Bomasch manages to flee and reach England; but those who need to put his knowledge at the service of the Nazi war machine, in order to carry out their evil plans of destruction, will stop at nothing to capture him.
01 December 1939
During a holiday by the British seaside, Hornleigh and Bingham grow bored and turn their hand to investigating a local crime.
28 April 1936
'Honeymoon wife learns of husband's past and runs away.' (British Film Catalogue)
01 December 1935
British crime film directed by Ralph Ince
21 September 1942
This biopic tells the story of the life of Pitt The Younger, who became Prime Minister of Great Britain at the age of 24.
05 November 1948
Classic British drama about the residents of a large terrace house in London between Christmas 1938 and September 1939.
05 October 1937
Comedy in which a bungling railway worker is given the job of stationmaster at a rundown station in rural Ireland, where his sidekicks are a toothless old gaffer and a portly young loudmouth.
28 September 1954
The unruly schoolgirls of St Trinian's are more interested in men and mischief than homework and hockey.
01 June 1944
Life aboard merchant ships with the Maritime Regiment of the Royal Artillery.
10 September 1980
The girls of St Trinian's decide they are being asked to do too much work so they go on strike.
22 January 1931
An Earl's daughter is torn between loving opposing parliamentary candidates.
11 March 1966
The all-girl school foil an attempt by train robbers to recover £2.5 million hidden in their school.
10 December 1957
With their headmistress under lock and key in her majesty's prison, the St Trinian's girls find themselves under the protection of the army.
15 April 1943
A gripping tale of WWII naval warfare in the Baltics, starring John Mills as Lt. Freddie Taylor, a British submarine Captain.
21 December 1956
Unknown to everyone but his shady Middle Eastern bosses, watchmaker Hawkins is actually a professional hired assassin with a predilection for killing his targets with bombs.
05 October 1972
Shiftless dreamer Michael Rogers fantasizes about a lifestyle above his means and marries a wealthy, young girl who just came of age.
25 February 1930
A tense WWI spy thriller in which Colonel Duncan Grant (British star Brian Aherne, in his first talking role), parachutes into Germany to gather intelligence on the enemy’s secret ‘W Plan’ and to assist Allied POWs in digging escape tunnels.
07 December 1946
In the midst of Nazi air raids, a postman dies on the operating table at a rural hospital. But was the death accidental?
02 October 1931
A coarse boot-shop owner becomes outraged when his eldest daughter decides to marry a meek cobbler.
22 December 1960
The fourth form monsters' latest trick is their best yet – they have burned down the school! As the girls stand trial, police breathe a sigh of relief, but miraculously the judge's infatuation with a student means the school is freed.
01 December 1972
Charlie Tully and womanising Reggie Peek con two rich Italians out of £500,000, but during their flight out, Charlie is arrested for scamming an American and a dog.
12 January 1931
'Rich man suspects wife loves poet.' (British Film Catalogue)
14 March 1930
An ex-French Foreign Legion soldier comes to Soho and ends up as a singer in a cafe.
01 March 1936
A convicted killer escapes and seeks revenge on the jurors who put him in prison. He kills two of them and the rest end up hiding in the large home of another juror, an actor.
24 September 1939
A run-away school-girl falls among chorus girls planning to marry into the nobility.
26 August 1947
Based on real events, this historical drama is set in 19th-century Ireland, when poverty-stricken tenants dispossessed by greedy landowner Capt.
27 October 1930
'Captain tries to hide accidental female passengers from admiral.' (British Film Catalogue)
01 June 1943
When Celia Crowson is called up for war service, she hopes for a glamorous job in one of the services, but as a single girl, she is directed into a factory making aircraft parts.
04 July 1946
Proud Irishwoman Bridie Quilty journeys to Dublin while World War II rages across Europe. During her travels, she encounters J.
08 March 1950
Nutbourne College, an old established, all-boys, boarding school is told that another school is to be billeted with due to wartime restrictions.
30 June 1932
A bird's-eye view of life in a City of London office.
02 June 1942
A parallel is drawn between a housewife's dealings with her butcher, and a burglar and his fence (receiver).
23 December 1933
A joyful medley of farce, romance, song and slapstick starring Stanley Lupino as an impressionable youth whose pursuit of an opera singer’s niece lands him in trouble!
