--- name: "Elizabeth Allan" canonical: "https://film.one/person/elizabeth-allan" roles: ["Actor"] born: "9 April 1910" died: "27 July 1990" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 78 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-19T23:17:53.577745+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Elizabeth Allan Actor. Born 9 April 1910 in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England, UK. Died 27 July 1990. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 9 April 1910, Skegness, Lincolnshire, England, UK - **Died:** 27 July 1990 - **Also known as:** Elizabeth Allen - **Frequently works with:** [David O. Selznick](https://film.one/person/david-o-selznick.md), [Edna May Oliver](https://film.one/person/edna-may-oliver.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as actor, over 2 titles - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Allan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q283178, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0019922/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/47678 ## Fi1m on Elizabeth Allan > Elizabeth Allan spent her Hollywood years being looked at and wept over, and did both well enough that nobody thought to ask for anything else. Her Clara Copperfield shows what was going spare. The rest of the 1930s mostly let it go. There is a moment early in *David Copperfield* (1935) when Basil Rathbone's Murdstone stands in the parlour with a hand resting on Elizabeth Allan's shoulder, and the scene belongs to the boy watching them. That is Allan's Hollywood career in a single shot. She is at the centre of the frame, she is the reason everyone else is there, and the camera is looking at somebody else. She plays Clara as a pretty, weak woman who knows she has made a mistake and cannot bring herself to say so, and she does it with less fuss than the part invites. We found her sadder than the film seems to notice. Cukor is busy with Murdstone, rightly, but Allan's face under that hand stayed with us longer than the beating that follows it. She had come up through the Old Vic, from 1927, and British films from *Alibi* (1931) before MGM signed her in 1933. Nineteen thirty-five was her year: two Dickens adaptations and Tod Browning's *Mark of the Vampire*, which she regarded as beneath her. In *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935) she is Lucie Manette, and the trouble with Lucie is that she exists to be adored. Allan is asked to be looked at and wept over and does both nicely, and every time Jack Conway leaves Ronald Colman for the happy household the temperature drops. That is Dickens's fault before it is hers, but the film does nothing to fix it and neither does she. *Camille* (1936), in support of Garbo, was more of the same at a smaller size. She knew exactly what was happening. "Because I was once an English school teacher, and because I'm told I look like a shy, shrinking violet, I seem to be doomed forever to goody-goody roles. I want to be wicked … on the screen–a sort of exotic vamp who lures men to their destruction." She never got the vamp. She lost parts in *The Citadel* (1938) and *Goodbye, Mr. Chips* (1939) and was back in Britain by 1938, where the work was steadier and less grand: *Went the Day Well?* (1942), *No Highway in the Sky* (1951). By the 1950s she had moved into character parts, and the one that people remember is Louise Scobie, Trevor Howard's brittle wife in *The Heart of the Matter* (1953). We have not reviewed it and will not judge it here, but it is the part she had been asking for since 1935, arriving twenty years late and in a different country. Her last feature was *The Haunted Strangler* (1958), opposite Boris Karloff; after that she was a fixture of British television game shows until the late 1960s. Start with *David Copperfield*. It is the better film and the better use of her, and if you want to know what MGM saw and then failed to do anything with, it is all there in the parlour, waiting for someone to turn the camera round. ## Biography Elizabeth Allan (also credited as Elizabeth Allen) was an English actress who appeared in stage, film and television productions in Britain and Hollywood. She made her stage debut at the Old Vic in 1927 and her film debut in *Alibi* (1931). Allan worked under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1930s and is known for roles including Clara Copperfield in *David Copperfield* (1935), Lucie Manette in *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), Irena Borotyn in *Mark of the Vampire* (1935) and Nichette in *Camille* (1936). Later film credits include *No Highway in the Sky* (1951) and *Grip of the Strangler* (1958). She appeared as a panellist on the British version of *What's My Line?* and was named Great Britain's Top Female TV Personality of 1952. Allan was married to theatrical agent Wilfrid J. O'Bryen from 1932 until his death in 1977. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), Fi1m 76, as Lucie Manette — [page](https://film.one/film/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) - *David Copperfield* (1935), Fi1m 81, as Clara Copperfield — [page](https://film.one/film/david-copperfield.md) ## Complete filmography (46) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Big Parade of Comedy* (1964), as Mrs. Copperfield in 'David Copperfield' (arch. foot.) (uncred.) - *Grip of the Strangler* (1958), as Barbara Rankin - *The Brain Machine* (1955), as Dr. Phillipa Roberts - *Front Page Story* (1954), as Susan Grant - *The Heart of the Matter* (1953), as Louise Scobie - *Twice Upon a Time* (1953), as Carol-Anne Bailey - *Folly to Be Wise* (1952), as Angela Prout - *No Highway in the Sky* (1951), as Shirley Scott - *That Dangerous Age* (1949), as Lady Sybil - *He Snoops to Conquer* (1944), as Jane Strawbridge - *Went the Day Well?* (1942), as Peggy - *The Great Mr Handel* (1942), as Mrs. Cibber - *Saloon Bar* (1940), as Queenie - *The Girl Who Forgot* (1940), as Leonora Barradine - *Inquest* (1939), as Margaret Hamilton - *It Might Be You* (1938), as Betty - *Dangerous Medicine* (1938), as Victoria Ainswell - *Slave Ship* (1937), as Nancy Marlowe - *The Soldier and the Lady* (1937), as Nadia - *Camille* (1936), as Nichette - *A Woman Rebels* (1936), as Flora Anne Thistlewaite - *A Tale of Two Cities* (1935), as Lucie Manette — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) - *Mark of the Vampire* (1935), as Irena Borotyn - *David Copperfield* (1935), as Clara Copperfield — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/david-copperfield.md) - *Outcast Lady* (1934), as Venice - *Java Head* (1934), as Nettie Vollar - *Men in White* (1934), as Barbara - *The Mystery of Mr. X* (1934), as Jane Frensham - *Ace of Aces* (1933), as Nancy Adams - *The Solitaire Man* (1933), as Helen Hemming - *No Marriage Ties* (1933), as Peggy Wilson - *Looking Forward* (1933), as Caroline Service - *The Lost Chord* (1933), as Joan Elton - *The Shadow* (1933), as Sonia Bryant - *The Lodger* (1932), as Daisy Bunting - *Insult* (1932), as Pola Dubois - *The Chinese Puzzle* (1932), as Naomi Melsham - *Nine Till Six* (1932), as Gracie Abbott - *Service for Ladies* (1932), as Sylvia Robertson - *Many Waters* (1931), as Freda Barcaldine - *Michael and Mary* (1931), as Romo - *Chin Chin Chinaman* (1931), as Countess Olga Dureska - *Black Coffee* (1931), as Barbara Amory - *The Rosary* (1931), as Vera Mannering - *Rodney Steps In* (1931), as Masked Lady - *Alibi* (1931), as Ursula Browne ## Gallery - ![Myrna Loy and Elizabeth Allan on a publicity still for the American drama film Men in White (1934).](https://film.one/media/person/1228019/gallery-bd3d871f90a7.jpg) Myrna Loy and Elizabeth Allan on a publicity still for the American drama film Men in White (1934). — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Men_in_White_1934.jpeg/1280px-Men_in_White_1934.jpeg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Lobby card for the 1936 film Camille.](https://film.one/media/person/1228019/gallery-7244c62957cf.jpg) Lobby card for the 1936 film Camille. — MGM, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Camille_lobby_card.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Elizabeth Allan](https://film.one/media/person/1228019/gallery-c69f96c588ce.jpg) Elizabeth Allan — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/elizabeth-allan