Claude Hulbert
British postcard. British International Pictures nr. 114.
Claude Hulbert (1900-1964) was a British actor who was very prolific in the 1930s and 1940s. He also scripted a few films and composed some soundtracks. Claude Hulbert was the brother of actor Jack Hulbert.
Claude Noel Hulbert (1900–1964) was a British comedian, born in London, and like his elder brother Jack he studied at Cambridge University. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Footlights comedy club. In the 1920s he started to perform on stage and acted for instance in the Gershwin musical Oh Kay!, which was performed in London in 1927. Apart from an uncredited part in the silent Hitchcock film Champagne (1928), Hulbert’s film career really began in the sound era. From 1930 on, Hulbert was visible in film, his roles getting bigger by the years. Hulbert began by supporting Ralph Lynn comedies before he got his first lead in the comedy Their Night Out (1933), which costarred Renee Houston and Binnie Barnes. In that year, Hulbert did various films for British International Pictures (see postcard), but more often as co-star. He had the male lead again in Big Business (1934), a comedy by Cyril Gardner, co-scripted by Gardner and Hulbert, and produced by Warner and First National. Occasionally Hulbert worked with his brother. In 1934 he wrote the song ‘My Hat’s on the Side of My Head’ for Jack Hulbert’s song and dance comedy Jack Ahoy! In 1935 Claude Hulbert had a supporting role in a Gaumont International production with his brother Jack and Fay Wray starring: Bulldog Jack (Walter Forde 1935), a crime story which involved scenes at the British Museum and the London Underground. And in 1940 Claude would write the song ‘Conga’ for Jack Hulbert’s film Under Your Hat (dir. Maurice Elvey).
In 1935 Hulbert played the lead of Henry Pennyfeather in what is said to have been his most successful solo film of the mid-1930s, but now a lost film: Hello Sweetheart, a comedy directed by Monty Banks, produced by again Warner/First National, and co-starring Gregory Ratoff and Jane Carr. It was a comedy about a naive farmer who loses all to perfidious grifters who convince him to invest in their movie and halfway dump him. The farmer though manages to finish the film himself, turning it into comedy and creating a big success. But, as Wikipedia writes, ‘like most of Hulbert's starring comedies, however, its ambition was strictly small-scale; it seemed that British studios simply didn't see him as a major star.’ His budgets were always limited too, reducing most of his output to a kind of B-movies. Still, Hulbert had interesting partners in his films, such as Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Laura La Plante in Man of the Moment (Monty Banks 1935). Hulbert’s film career got a boost with Wolf's Clothing (Andrew Marton 1936), in which he starred as the upper-class twit Ambrose Girling who is a lookalike of a notorious assassin. Hulbert’s female costar was Lili Palmer, in one of her first roles in Britain.
After some minor parts in comedies, Hulbert had a long series of leads in the late 1930s while he also started to expand his genre repertory, such as the adventure film Hail and Farewell (Ralph Ince 1936) about sailors on leave, and the crime story The Vulture (Ince 1937) about a detective capturing jewel thieves in Chinatown, but even these films had comical aspects. Most other leads of Hulbert then were in comedies, like in Olympic Honeymoon/Honeymoon-Merry-Go-Round (Alfred J. Goulding 1940), ‘where he played a bumbling bridegroom who unintentionally becomes an ice-hockey star’ (Wikipedia). When war broke out in 1939, Hulbert played in war comedies too, like Sailors Three (Walter Forde 1940), about three sailors who accidentally get aboard a Nazi ship. In 1941 Hulbert became a popular side-kick for comic actor Will Hay in The Ghost of St Michael's (Marcel Varnel 1941) in which Hay hunts a killer ghost in Scotland. It took two years for Hulbert’s subsequent role as co-star in the crime story The Dummy Talks (Oswald Mitchell 1943), starring debuting actor Jack Warner. In the same year, Hulbert was Hay’s sidekick again in the dark comedy My Learned Friend (Basil Dearden, Will Hay 1943), about a seedy lawyer threatened by a vengeful escaped convict. In the late 1940s, Hulbert continued to play in film but his appearances became scarcer and smaller.
NB As a film actor Claude Hulbert was less of a leading man than his brother, but he excelled as a radio broadcaster, often in partnership with his wife, actress Enid Trevor, whom he had married in 1924. In 1964 Claude Hulbert died in a hospital in Sydney, during a world cruise with his family.
Sources: IMDB, Wikipedia
Claude Hulbert
British postcard. British International Pictures nr. 114.
Claude Hulbert (1900-1964) was a British actor who was very prolific in the 1930s and 1940s. He also scripted a few films and composed some soundtracks. Claude Hulbert was the brother of actor Jack Hulbert.
Claude Noel Hulbert (1900–1964) was a British comedian, born in London, and like his elder brother Jack he studied at Cambridge University. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Footlights comedy club. In the 1920s he started to perform on stage and acted for instance in the Gershwin musical Oh Kay!, which was performed in London in 1927. Apart from an uncredited part in the silent Hitchcock film Champagne (1928), Hulbert’s film career really began in the sound era. From 1930 on, Hulbert was visible in film, his roles getting bigger by the years. Hulbert began by supporting Ralph Lynn comedies before he got his first lead in the comedy Their Night Out (1933), which costarred Renee Houston and Binnie Barnes. In that year, Hulbert did various films for British International Pictures (see postcard), but more often as co-star. He had the male lead again in Big Business (1934), a comedy by Cyril Gardner, co-scripted by Gardner and Hulbert, and produced by Warner and First National. Occasionally Hulbert worked with his brother. In 1934 he wrote the song ‘My Hat’s on the Side of My Head’ for Jack Hulbert’s song and dance comedy Jack Ahoy! In 1935 Claude Hulbert had a supporting role in a Gaumont International production with his brother Jack and Fay Wray starring: Bulldog Jack (Walter Forde 1935), a crime story which involved scenes at the British Museum and the London Underground. And in 1940 Claude would write the song ‘Conga’ for Jack Hulbert’s film Under Your Hat (dir. Maurice Elvey).
In 1935 Hulbert played the lead of Henry Pennyfeather in what is said to have been his most successful solo film of the mid-1930s, but now a lost film: Hello Sweetheart, a comedy directed by Monty Banks, produced by again Warner/First National, and co-starring Gregory Ratoff and Jane Carr. It was a comedy about a naive farmer who loses all to perfidious grifters who convince him to invest in their movie and halfway dump him. The farmer though manages to finish the film himself, turning it into comedy and creating a big success. But, as Wikipedia writes, ‘like most of Hulbert's starring comedies, however, its ambition was strictly small-scale; it seemed that British studios simply didn't see him as a major star.’ His budgets were always limited too, reducing most of his output to a kind of B-movies. Still, Hulbert had interesting partners in his films, such as Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Laura La Plante in Man of the Moment (Monty Banks 1935). Hulbert’s film career got a boost with Wolf's Clothing (Andrew Marton 1936), in which he starred as the upper-class twit Ambrose Girling who is a lookalike of a notorious assassin. Hulbert’s female costar was Lili Palmer, in one of her first roles in Britain.
After some minor parts in comedies, Hulbert had a long series of leads in the late 1930s while he also started to expand his genre repertory, such as the adventure film Hail and Farewell (Ralph Ince 1936) about sailors on leave, and the crime story The Vulture (Ince 1937) about a detective capturing jewel thieves in Chinatown, but even these films had comical aspects. Most other leads of Hulbert then were in comedies, like in Olympic Honeymoon/Honeymoon-Merry-Go-Round (Alfred J. Goulding 1940), ‘where he played a bumbling bridegroom who unintentionally becomes an ice-hockey star’ (Wikipedia). When war broke out in 1939, Hulbert played in war comedies too, like Sailors Three (Walter Forde 1940), about three sailors who accidentally get aboard a Nazi ship. In 1941 Hulbert became a popular side-kick for comic actor Will Hay in The Ghost of St Michael's (Marcel Varnel 1941) in which Hay hunts a killer ghost in Scotland. It took two years for Hulbert’s subsequent role as co-star in the crime story The Dummy Talks (Oswald Mitchell 1943), starring debuting actor Jack Warner. In the same year, Hulbert was Hay’s sidekick again in the dark comedy My Learned Friend (Basil Dearden, Will Hay 1943), about a seedy lawyer threatened by a vengeful escaped convict. In the late 1940s, Hulbert continued to play in film but his appearances became scarcer and smaller.
NB As a film actor Claude Hulbert was less of a leading man than his brother, but he excelled as a radio broadcaster, often in partnership with his wife, actress Enid Trevor, whom he had married in 1924. In 1964 Claude Hulbert died in a hospital in Sydney, during a world cruise with his family.
Sources: IMDB, Wikipedia