Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London
| 29 January 1937 (USA)
Lloyd's of London Trailers

Norfolk, England, 1770. The nephew of an innkeeper and the son of a reverend maintain a very close friendship until, after living a great adventure, they must separate their paths. The former will head his footsteps to London and bound his destiny to Lloyd's, a thriving insurance company; the latter will eventually become one of the greatest heroes in the history of the British Empire.

Reviews
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Claverhouse Film was all right, though a long time since I saw it.But in reference to the comment above from adamshl, British ships may or may not have carried 3.5 million slaves for sale to Americans, yet equally the Portuguese, French and Spanish carried three times that number. The American colonies only took 5% of the total trade.Since the trade was around 1% of British investment it is doubtful if Lloyds benefited from it as a primary source of income. Which is neither to whitewash the trade or Lloyds or the disgusting traders, since no profit, no matter how small, from sin is allowable.Virginia Field was very pretty.
mll1-2 OK, so here's the deal, this movie ruined my life. How can such a thing be? Well, listen up: At the age of five (or thereabouts) I watched this movie on television. I fell in love with Ms. Carroll. Her golden-ringletted cloying prettiness was perfectly suited to a five-year-old's notion of female beauty. She was married to Mr. Saunders, who dressed REALLY well, spoke beautifully, was rich and was exceptionally urbane. Naturally, she didn't care for him. She was in love with Mr. Powers, who was, frankly, breathtakingly beautiful -- much more beautiful than Ms. Carroll at her best.But I digress. Anyway, my five year old brain decides, "In order to win M.C., you have to look like T.P." Well, it's been over 50 years and I'm STILL WAITING to be as handsome as Mr. Power (probably NOT going to happen -- what's your guess?). So, here I am in (advanced) middle age, still functioning under the delusion that you have to look like Mr. Power in order to secure the attentions of the lady of your dreams. How messed up is THAT? Silliness aside, the movie is thin on (rational) plot but long on star-magic. Enjoy Mr. Power and Ms. Carroll at their loveliest and Mr. Saunders at his most vile. The rest of the flic is just and excuse to watch them dress up in period costumes.
edwagreen 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.
MartinHafer 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.