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- Director
- Producer
- Actor
French-born Marcel Varnel began his film career not in France but in Hollywood, as a 30-year-old in 1924. He left Hollywood for Great Britain in the mid-'30s and began turning out a series of low-budget comedies for Will Hay and George Formby, among others. While his films were for the most part undistinguished, they were popular and moved fast, as good comedies are meant to do. His best film is generally considered to be Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937), a Will Hay comedy about a hapless railroad employee who is made stationmaster of a run-down, bottom-of-the-barrel station in Ireland and his efforts to bring it up to speed, only to get involved with ghosts and gun-runners. It garnered Hay some of the best reviews of his career and Varnel's direction of the picture also met with critical acclaim.
He died in an automobile accident in England in 1947 shortly after having finished This Man Is Mine (1946).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Composer, conductor and saxophonist James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford studied at the City College of New York and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Fisk University. He taught in New York City high schools and joined the Fletcher Henderson and Wilbut Sweatman orchestras as a saxophonist and flutist, then formed his own orchestra in 1929 which toured the US and Europe and made many recordings. Joining ASCAP in 1942, his popular-song compositions include "Rhythm in My Nursery Rhymes", "Dream of You", "Uptown Blues", and his theme "Rhythm Is Our Business".