Lloyd's of London (1936)

Too many fans seem to be blown away

Such a frustrating disappointment

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

A life-long friendship is maintained although Lord Nelson and Blake never see each other again.Blake grows up to become an important person of Lloyd's of London, the syndicates that insured English shipping. We don't have to go into Nelson's part of history.This is the story of Blake being befriended and taken into the business as a young lad by the elderly gentleman.It is also the story of Blake rescuing a British damsel, Madeleine Carroll, from Napoleon's decree and getting her back to England, only to find out that she is married to the aristocratic George Sanders, up to no good as usual.We see history coming forth via the bells being rung at Lloyd's. The ending is tragic, but very meaningful.Tyrone Power was only 22 years of age when he made this excellent film. He gave a terrific performance and was destined for stardom. How ironic that 22 years later,while in a dueling scene with Sanders in "Solomon and Sheba," Power suffered a fatal coronary which stunned the movie kingdom.Look for E.E. Clive, the magistrate in this film. A year before, he took the same exact part in "A Tale of Two Cities."You will really appreciate investments after viewing this film. It was basically a story of putting country first before the all-mighty pound.

This is one of a sort of sub-genre that appeared on screens in the late 1930s. Let's see, there were biographies of all these tycoons, inventors, and successful businessmen -- Alexander Graham Bell, Reuters, Dr. Ehrlich, Robert Koch, and even Diamond Jim Brady. It's hard to imagine why these stories were so popular in the depths of the Great Depression. Maybe hope sells.Handsome Tyrone Power is the fictional Jonathan Blake who rises to a position of importance within the insurance company, Lloyd's of London, in the late 1790s, earnest here, rather than dashing. His girl is Madeleine Carrol. His friend from boyhood is Horatio Nelson. You know, Nelson? Trafalgar Square? His enemy is the dandyish, rich George Sanders who plays a snobbish cad for a change. He's marvelous with all that frothy lace at his neck. He's adopted a tendency to speak with a patina of elegance, pronouncing the word "me" as "meh." As in, "She died and left meh her entire faw-tyune." I have no idea how much of this tale is fabricated, though I doubt that a man pulled up in front of the tavern that housed the original Lloyd's and asked to see Doctor Johnson. (That would be Samuel Johnson, who said: "Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.") Who is asking? the doorman replies. "Benjamin Franklin." It's a nice little touch anyway.There is no poetry here, so don't look for it. The movie is to art as a Boston rocker is to furniture. It is hard and functional. It's designed to get the job done and it accomplishes its goal. It represents old-fashioned Hollywood craftsmanship. It's mostly studio bound but atmospheric as all get out. And it not only entertains, it "educates", as the Moguls would have phrased it.

In response to ADAMSHL's comment on LLoyd's insuring slave ships-In one scene when the insurers were in deep trouble, Blake was asked if he would insure a slave ship and he curtly said no! to emphasize the director's view of that practice.It is a pleasant change to watch a movie that flows through the acting and dialog rather than sound effects and extreme graphics. I could even understand all the actors voices in spite of 60 yr old audio technology. Most present day English movies have horrible sound and many words are lost because of the actors elocution.The main value of this movie is not a history lesson in politics but one in the lives of those who lived in that period and their environment, clothing, etc.

While I read that this movie was a very, very fictionalized account of the early days of Lloyd's of London, it still was a nifty 1930s-style adventure film. This is not exactly a wonderful endorsement, I know, but the film was far from perfect. Now if you are a Brit or a real Anglophile, then you will probably like the film more than the average person--with all its "Huzzah and God save the King" style of hooplah. I am not 100% sure why Hollywood embraced Britain so strongly in the 1930s (WWII would explain this for 1940s and 50s films).A very young Tyrone Power played the lead and much of the film concerned the British shipping industry during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It was mildly interesting but that's about all. His love interest was the married Madeleine Carroll, though for the life of me, I didn't understand why he didn't pursue the prettier and available (and very amply endowed) Virginia Field--she seemed just as nice and almost identical to Ms. Carroll in looks and devotion to Tyrone--especially since his unrequited relationship that lasted years to Ms. Carroll just made him seem awfully desperate and pathetic.In the end, this is yet another costumer from the era--neither great nor bad. The acting was decent and the production values good. It's worth a look, but certainly not great or deserving special attention by anyone.