Guy Newall (25 May 1885 – 25 February 1937) was a British actor, screenwriter and film director in a career that encompassed the silent era of film-making to the early years of sound films.
Newall was a theatre actor who began his film career playing comic roles in the early years of World War I. He joined the war effort as an anti-aircraft gunner, where he met his future business partner George Clark. The heyday of Newall's career was in the post-war period to the early 1920s, where he, in a production company formed with Clark, directed, scripted and acted in the leading roles in a series of highly-regarded films. The actress Ivy Duke, who later became Newall's second wife, played opposite him in these films. During the mid- to late-1920s, with the British film industry in decline due to competition from America, Newall undertook theatre work, including a tour to South Africa, punctuated by an occasional film acting role. By the early 1930s, with the legislated requirement of a quota of British-made films, Newall was employed as both an actor and director in a series of low budget films known as 'quota quickies'. Newall's health began to decline from the mid-1930s and he died in February 1937.
Biography
Early years
Guy Patrick Newall was born on 25 May 1885 on the Isle of Wight, the eldest child of Colonel Marius Charles Newall, of the Royal Horse Artillery, and Mabel Kathleen (née Bartlett).Biography written by Christine Gledhill (in) Robert Murphy (ed.) (2006), pages 454-455; see also, an online version: Newall, Guy (1885-1937), BFI ScreenOnline website; accessed 26 September 2024.Family records, Ancestry.com.
Newall gained his first theatrical experience with a travelling pantomime and circus which was touring on the Isle of Wight. A year or so later he found work in London and provincial theatre productions, specialising in comic roles. In addition to acting, Newall also wrote one-act plays and music-hall sketches.'The Importance of Being Ernest', The Picturegoer, March 1922, pages 43-46, 58.
Pre-war years
Guy Newall and Mary Hancock were married on 26 May 1906 at Sunderland in county Durham.
Newall had a part in the "farcical romance" The Duke of Killiecrankie at the Criterion Theatre and was understudy to the leading man. He was involved with the production "on and off" for two years.The Duke of Killiecrankie. A Farcical Romance in Three Acts, Google Books website; accessed 27 September 2024. In October 1911 Newall played the character of 'J. K. Ainslie' in Same Lodge at the Prince of Wales' Theatre in London.John Parker (ed.) (1936), page 1125.
Newall and his first wife Mary were divorced in 1913. Guy Newall began his film career playing small parts and writing scenarios for productions by the London Film Company, founded in 1913.
The war years
In May 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War I in late July, Newall was engaged to play the role of 'Adrian Harper' in The Wynmartens at London's Playhouse Theatre, alongside the established comic actress Marie Tempest. In September 1914 Newall was engaged to undertake a theatrical tour of North America with a company of actors led by Tempest. In mid-September it was reported that Marie Tempest, then "reciting patriotic pieces" at the Empire Theatre in London, "will shortly sail for America".Marie Tempest Will Leave, The Billboard, 19 September 1914, page 6. In early October Tempest and her English company began their season in Toronto, Canada, with productions of The Marriage of Kitty and Mary Comes First.Marie Tempest Opens Tour, Variety, 10 October 1914, page 12. Newall was also a cast-member of At the Barn that opened in late November 1914 in the Comedy Theatre in New York, performed by Tempest and her English company."At the Barn", The New York Clipper, 5 December 1914, page 6.Marie Tempest's Second Play, The Billboard, 12 December 1914, page 9.
Newall left Tempest's company in 1915 and returned to England where he was cast in a succession of films produced by the London Film Company. His first role as an acknowledged cast member was in the silent film The Heart of Sister Ann, a drama released in December 1915.The Heart of Sister Ann, IMDb website; accessed 26 September 2024. He played roles in a further eight films produced by the London Film Company that were released in Britain in the period January 1916 to January 1917. Seven of the eight were directed by Maurice Elvey, including two – Money for Nothing and Trouble for Nothing – for which Newall wrote the screenplays as well as playing the recurring lead character of 'Rev. Cuthbert Cheese'.'The Expressions of Guy Newall', The Picture Show, 27 March 1920, page 7. One of the films directed by Elvey, Driven, was renamed Desperation for its release in the United States in March 1917.Desperation, The Moving Picture World, 10 March 1917, pages 1594, 1661. The Manxman, in which Newall had a small role, was directed by the American George Loane Tucker and included extensive footage filmed on location on the Isle of Man.Paul Moody (2007), 'The Marketing of Landscapes in Silent British Cinema' (in) Laraine Porter & Bryony Dixon (editors) (2007), Picture Perfect: Landscape, Place and Travel in British Cinema Before 1930, Exeter, UK: Exeter Press, pages 23-24. It was released in Britain in November 1916, and in August 1917 in the United States, and was a financial and critical success.Tucker Finishes "Cinderella Man", Moving Picture World, 22 December 1917, page 1791.
Newall joined the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), operating anti-aircraft guns as part of Britain's air defences against bombing raids by German aircraft and Zeppelin airships. It was during his service in the RGA, on military duty at a defence station at Dover, that Newall first met George Clark, who was also serving as an anti-aircraft gunner, beginning an association which led to the foundation of a film company after the war.Men Behind the Films: George Clark, Picture Show, 6 March 1920, page 19. In the ensuing discussion the two men formed the idea of founding an all-British film company as a commercial proposition. They shared a belief "in the superior talent of British players" and formed a plan for demonstrating "to the world the possibilities of all-British pictures". As Clark described the meeting: "In solemn conclave assembled we carefully considered ways and means, and soon a definite plan of campaign was mapped out".
Newall was cast as an army officer ('Lieutenant Baring') in Comradeship, one of the first films completed after the Armistice, directed by Maurice Elvey for the Stoll Film Company and released in January 1919. It was the first feature film produced by the Stoll company and, in addition to its central inter-class love story, attempted to highlight problems faced by injured soldiers returning from the war. The filming of Comradeship was carried out at around the time of the Armistice and incorporated footage of victory celebrations and captured German guns in its depiction of post-war London.Comradeship (1919), BFI ScreenOnline website; accessed 28 September 2024.
Lucky Cat Films
After the war ended Clark and Newall founded Lucky Cat Films with Clark as the business manager and Newall as a leading actor and with artistic control. They assembled a team made up of camera operators Bert Ford and Joe Rosenthal (jnr.), set designer Charles Dalmon and directors Kenelm Foss and Arthur Rooke. The other important relationship integral to the success of the new enterprise was Newall's partnership with Ivy Duke, a musical-comedy actress. Newall had met Duke during the war and she was persuaded to join Lucky Cat Films as his leading lady.Rachael Low (1971), pages 146-147. In July 1919 it was reported that Lucky Cat Films aimed to produce "good comedies" for the screen, "without extravagance in scenery or situation... with an English background". The account added: "Everything is to be English, the company, the settings, and, it is to be hoped, the style of humour".'English Comedy', The Times (London), 21 July 1919, page 10.
Lucky Cat Films completed four comedies in quick succession, released from June to September 1919, working from cramped studios in Ebury Street in Central London. The Lucky Cat films were distributed by the Ideal Film Company. Ivy Duke played the leading lady in each of the four Lucky Cat films, with Newall in a lead role in two of them (I Will and Fancy Dress). Newall, together with Frank Miller, wrote the screenplay for The March Hare, which was set in the New Forest.Denis Gifford (1973), pages 331-332 (06742, 06746, 06760, 06763).
George Clark Productions
Towards the end of 1919 Clark and Newall began operating under the name of George Clark Productions and announced plans to construct a new modern film studio at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, north-west of London. George Clark Productions secured an arrangement with the Stoll Film Corporation of America to distribute their entire output.Great Future Awaits Stoll Films Here, Motion Picture World, 23 October 1920, page 1075.English Producer is Here, Motion Picture News, 19 February 1921, page 1488.
George Clark Productions completed a series of films from December 1919 to mid-year 1923, in the process of which Newall extended his skills and experience as a writer and director. The first release under the new name was in December 1919: The Garden of Resurrection was directed by Arthur Rooke and featured Newall and Duke in the lead roles. The film was scripted by Newall, based on a novel by E. Temple Thurston. Newall wrote the screenplays for another eleven films produced by George Clark Productions, most of them adaptations of novels. All but a couple of the films produced by George Clark Productions in the period up until July 1923 featured Guy Newall and Ivy Duke in lead acting roles. The exceptions were Testimony, a drama released in September 1920 that was directed by Newall, with Ivy Duke and David Hawthorne in the leading roles and The Mirage (released in December 1920), for which Newall and Duke shared the credit for the screenplay. Testimony was Newall's debut as a director, a film for which he also wrote the screenplay (based on a novel by Alice and Claude Askew).
George Clark Productions Ltd. was registered as a company in October 1920 with capital of fifty thousand pounds, with Clark as company president and Newall as the managing director.Guy Newall, Notable Londoners, an Illustrated Who's Who of Professional and Business Men (1922), London: London Publishing Agency, page 67. After raising finance for the project, construction of the Beaconsfield Studios commenced in 1921.Patricia Warren (1995), British Film Studios: An Illustrated History, London: B. T. Batsford, page 11. While the studios were still under construction Newall took the company to Nice, on the French Riviera, where he directed The Bigamist and The Persistent Lovers, films for which he also wrote the screenplays and acted in the leading male roles. After returning from France Newall took his actors and production company to the New Forest and Salisbury Plain to film Boy Woodburn and Fox Farm (released in May and July 1922), films for which he had full artistic control as director, screenwriter and actor.
The films made by George Clark Productions were released in the United States through Stoll, with some being moderately successful. In particular, Newall's The Bigamist was highly regarded and was "exported with comparative success".Rachael Low (1971), page 77. In the early 1920s Newall was described as "the leading spirit of the movement among English film producers who aspire to make British films which shall compete with American productions on their own ground".