James KenneyFilmography

Ambush in Leopard Street

Synopsis: The title of the 60-minute British programmer Ambush in Leopard Street tells the whole story. Retired thief James Kenney comes out of mothballs for one last big heist. The plan is to bushwack a diamond shipment as the truck tools its way down Leopard Street. Since the truck is heavily guarded, it Read More

Hidden Homicide

Synopsis: In this thriller, a novelist is quite upset to discover himself awakening with a gun in his hand. He is more dismayed to find a dead relative nearby. Now he wonders: did he do it? He is assisted by a lady hitchhiker in discovering that the real killer is a female impersonator. ~ Sandra Brennan Read More

No Safety Ahead

Synopsis: In this crime drama, an impoverished but enamored bank clerk joins his brother's gang of bank robbers so he can afford to marry his sweetheart. Unfortunately, their latest caper fails and the bank clerk accidentally gets involved in a murder leaving him to take a hard look at the life he has Read More

Son of a Stranger

Synopsis: None of the characters in this grim little British drama are particularly likable. It is especially true of the protagonist, a ghetto kid who makes his living by robbing old ladies. He despises his mother, and at night dreams that his father, whom he never met, is a millionaire. One day he decides Read More

The Beasts of Marseilles

Actors: Stephen Boyd, Tony Wright, Anna Gaylor, Kathleen Harrison

Synopsis: The British Seven Thunders was released in the US as Beasts of Marseilles. Set in 1943, the film stars Stephen Boyd and Tony Wright as escaped POWs Dave and Jim. Hiding out in Marseilles, the two protagonists battle over the affections of local gamine Lise (Anna Gaylor). When they find the time Read More

The Yangtse Incident

Actors: Richard Todd, William Hartnell, Akim Tamiroff, Donald Houston, Keye Luke

Synopsis: The Yangtse Incident is the saga of the Amethyst, a British vessel left stranded in China during the Communist takeover. The British government tries to reclaim the Amethyst, only to run up against a Great Wall of Red bureaucracy and propaganda. It is up to Lieutenant Commander Kearns (Richard Todd Read More

Gelignite Gang

Actors: Wayne Morris, Sandra Dorne, Patrick Holt, Simone Silva

Synopsis: His career as a western star having recently come to an end in the US, Wayne Morris is the star of the British The Dynamiters. Morris plays an American insurance investigator, trying to get the goods on an elusive gang of London thieves. The crooks invariably wipe out all evidence by dynamiting Read More

The Love Match

Synopsis: In this comedy, two rabid football fans begin an unstoppable train of events when they physically harass a referee. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Above Us the Waves

Actors: John Mills, John Gregson, Donald Sinden, Michael Medwin

Synopsis: Judging by the number of times it has shown up on TV, Above Us the Waves may be American viewers' favorite British war film. Most of the film is set in a British midget submarine, commandeered by John Mills. The sub's mission (together with its "fellow" vessels) is to sink the German battleship Read More

Doctor at Sea

Actors: Dirk Bogarde, Brigitte Bardot, Brenda de Banzie, James Robertson Justice, Maurice Denham

Synopsis: This second entry in the British "Doctor" series once more stars Dirk Bogarde as young medico Simon Sparrow. Securing his first job as ship's doctor on a freighter, Simon again runs afoul of James Robertson Justice, here cast not as the irascible Sir Lancelot Sprat but as ship's captain Hogg. Read More

The Good Die Young

Actors: Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Richard Basehart, Joan Collins, John Ireland

Synopsis: The Good Die Young is a psychological crime yarn, exploring the motivations of four participants in an armed robbery. American ex-GI Joe (Richard Basehart) hopes to use his share of the haul to bring his British wife to the US. Professional boxer Mike (Stanley Baker) finds himself unable to work Read More

The Sea Shall Not Have Them

Actors: Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, Bonar Colleano, Jack Watling, Anthony Steel

Synopsis: The Sea Shall Not Have Them is our candidate for the most dramatic title of any British World War II film. Happily, the film itself upholds the promise of its name. The focus of the story is a dramatic rescue at sea, which consumes well over a third of the running time. A British bomber carrying Read More

The Red Dress

Synopsis: This film offers a trio suspenseful dramas. In the first, an unhappy wife refuses to mourn the death of her husband, a miner who was trapped in a mining accident. Instead, she gets herself a new lover. Unfortunately, the husband survived. In the second episode, one sister saves the other, who has Read More

Cosh Boy

Actors: James Kenney, Joan Collins, Betty Ann Davies, Hermione Baddeley

Synopsis: The British Cosh Boy was unsubtly but appropriately retitled The Slasher in the U.S. James Kenney plays Roy Walsh, one of the most thoroughly unpleasant characters ever to appear on screen. When he's not busy beating and robbing the aged and infirm, Roy enjoys slapping around his lady friends. And Read More

The Tough Guy

Synopsis: This drama chronicles the nasty exploits of a young London punk and his thuggish gang as they mug passersby and seduce innocent young girls. Their story is used to comment upon the state of London society and is based on Bruce Walker's play. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Outcast of the Islands

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Trevor Howard, Robert Morley, Kerima, Wendy Hiller

Synopsis: Partially filmed on location in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Outcast of the Islands is a reasonably faithful adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel. Trevor Howard plays a degenerate British expatriate who wanders aimlessly around a Malayan island. Most of the film involves the search for Howard by those Read More

The Gentle Gunman

Actors: John Mills, Dirk Bogarde, Robert Beatty, Elizabeth Sellars, Barbara Mullen

Synopsis: During the Irish "troubles", an IRA gunman (John Mills) wearies of the constant violence. He begins to preach a philosophy of peaceful persuasion, and refuses direct orders to blow up a London railway station. The gunman's impatient brother (Dirk Bogarde) find his sibling's new approach to be Read More

The Gift Horse

Actors: Trevor Howard, Richard Attenborough, Sonny Tufts, James Donald, Joan Rice

Synopsis: Also known as Glory at Sea, a World War II British commander and his crew wage a fierce sea battle against the Germans in spite of their inferior vessel. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Captain Horatio Hornblower

Actors: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty, Terence Morgan, Denis O'Dea, James Robertson Justice, Moultrie Kelsall

Synopsis: Gregory Peck stars as the title character in this swashbuckling saga of the high seas based on C.S. Forester's novel. In 1807, Hornblower is given a special assignment by the British Navy: he is to deliver a supply of weapons to El Supremo (Alec Mango), a Latin American rebel leading an uprising Read More

The Magic Box

Actors: Robert Donat, Margaret Johnston, Maria Schell, Robert Beatty, John Charlesworth, James Kenney

Synopsis: The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler Read More

Trapped by the Terror

Synopsis: A British boy living in France with his aristocratic parents rallies some of the family's former servants and a baker's children to help him free his parents from the revolutionaries who have captured them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Guinea Pig

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Sheila Sim, Bernard Miles, Cecil Trouncer, Robert Flemyng

Synopsis: Not a film about scientific research, The Guinea Pig (US title: The Outsider) is the story of an incipient "affirmative action" program. An impoverished young British boy wins a scholarship. As part of a sociological experiment, he becomes the first product of his "class" to be accepted in a Read More

Vice Versa

Synopsis: Written and directed by Peter Ustinov, Vice Versa is a one-joke fantasy comedy which manages to hold up almost to the very end. Anthony Newley plays the funloving son of stuffy stockbroker Roger Livesy. Father and son come into possession of a magic stone, and place a wish upon it. The result Read More

Circus Boy

Synopsis: In this children's movie a shy young swimmer becomes a successful circus clown. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Young Mr. Pitt

Actors: Robert Donat, Robert Morley, Phyllis Calvert, John Mills, Raymond Lovell, Max Adrian

Synopsis: Released worldwide by 20th Century Fox, Carol Reed's The Young Mr. Pitt is a static but sincere filmed biography of 19th century British prime minister William Pitt Jr., here played by Robert Donat. Appointed to his office at the tender age of 24, Mr. Pitt spends most of his time in Parliament Read More