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
Exoticalot

People are voting emotionally.

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VeteranLight

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

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Platicsco

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

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Billy Ollie

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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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.

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adamshl

In retelling this piece of history, the writers left out one item. Between 1688 and 1807 one of the prime sources of Lloyd's of London's revenue was by insuring ships engaging in slave trading.* This enabled Britian to establish itself very rapidly as the chief slave trading center in the Atlantic.British ships carried more than three and a quarter million humans into slavery. This shocking statistic casts a deep pall on Lloyd's of London. It may be have been an embarrassment to the writers to include this in their screenplay; still a fact of this magnitude can be considered a sad omission.The rest of the film is well presented with beautiful acting and production values. Both Bartholomew and Power are excellent, as are Carroll and Sanders. _______________ *According to Wikipedia Enclycopedia "Lloyds in London...was a popular place for ship owners...especially those involved in the slave trade....Historian Eric Williams notes 'Lloyds insured slaves and slave ships...and quickly obtained a monopoly on maritime insurance related to the slave trade and maintained it up through the early 19th century.' "

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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.

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Ron Oliver

A bright young lad goes to work at LLOYD'S OF London, the famous insurance house. He grows up to become a power in the institution, with much adventure & financial intrigue along the way, but love continues to elude him...This lavish film is great fun to watch for two primary reasons: some very good acting & the history of Lloyd's, preeminent in its field, which it details. 20th Century Fox obviously spent a pretty penny on the production values, and it shows.Freddie Bartholomew has top billing and effortlessly steals the first half hour of the film. When his character grows up, Master Bartholomew is sorely missed. He turns into Tyrone Power, who is billed fourth. This was the film that made Power a star, and he's quite effective in the role, if you overlook the American accent.An excellent supporting cast lends a hand: wonderful old Sir Guy Standing as Power's mentor at Lloyd's - this powerful actor would soon have his life cut short by a rattlesnake bite; Una O'Connor as Bartholomew's harridan aunt; Montagu Love as a duplicitous pirate; obese Robert Greig as the jocular First Lord of the Admiralty; E. E. Clive as a dyspeptic magistrate; oily George Sanders as a noble cad; and marvelous old Sir C. Aubrey Smith as a flirtatious peer.The romantic subplot is ludicrous: Power moons over beautiful, married Madeleine Carroll for 20 years, while pert barmaid Virginia Field pines for him; none of them so much as gain a wrinkle or an extra ounce during this time.The film earns high marks in its generally faithful depiction of the history both of Lloyd's, and of Horatio Nelson.

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