Raffles

Raffles (1939)

Meet 'Raffles'! He's a lion with the ladies-and the cops all want him too!

Man about town and First Class cricketer A.J. Raffles keeps himself solvent with daring robberies. Meeting Gwen from his schooldays and falling in love all over again, he spends the weekend with her parents, Lord and Lady Melrose. A necklace presents an irresistible temptation, but also in attendance is Scotland Yard's finest, finally on the trail.

Date of release
1939-11-11
TMDB
6.2 / 10 (20)
Runtime
1h 12m
Genres
Adventure, Comedy, Crime
Director
Sam Wood

Casting

Interesting facts

Raffles is a 1939 American crime comedy film starring David Niven and Olivia de Havilland, and is one of several film adaptations of an 1899 short story collection by E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman.

Production history

Sidney Howard was given credit as co-author of the screenplay with John Van Druten, due to his having been the writer of the 1930 version. Howard had died four months prior to the release of this film. F. Scott Fitzgerald may also have worked on the script, as he is mentioned by Niven in his 2nd memoir, but Niven suggests Fitzgerald may actually have been working on his final novel, The Last Tycoon.

Olivia de Havilland, under contract with Warner Brothers at the time, was "lent" to Goldwyn for the film in April 1939.

As World War II began during filming, and Niven was a British citizen, it was rumored that the project would have to be suspended if Niven were called up for the army. Due to an accelerated schedule, by October 1939, filming had been completed and Niven left for England. It was rumored that there would be a sequel if Niven returned from England, but this film was not made.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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