Подмосковные вечера
His film career began in 1935 with Anthony Asquith's "Moscow Nights". The following year he was cast as T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) in Alexander Korda's proposed biopic of the celebrated soldier/author, but the production was abandoned. He had previously played a character based on Lawrence in Bernard Shaw's play, "Too True to be Good", a performance that had been highly praised by Lawrence himself.