Elizabeth Allan

Four years after her first stage appearance with the Old Vic, 21-year-old British actress Elizabeth Allan made her entree into films with the 1931 melodrama Alibi. Brought to the U.S. by MGM, Elizabeth enjoyed such prestigious film roles as David's mother in David Copperfield (1935) and Lucie Mannette in A Tale of Two Cities (1935). Is it any wonder, then, that she felt like she was "slumming"-and said as much-when MGM assigned her to the comparatively minor 1935 horror flick Mark of the Vampire? Upon being replaced by Rosalind Russell in the 1937 feature The Citadel, Elizabeth sued MGM, which resulted in her being blacklisted in Hollywood. After a three-year period of enforced inactivity, she returned to England to appear in such films as Heart of the Matter, Folly to be Wise and No Highway in the Sky. Elizabeth Allan became a major name all over again in the 1950s, thanks to her many television appearances.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide