John MillsFilmography

Cats

Actors: Ken Page, Jacob Brent, Elaine Paige, John Mills

Synopsis: One of the longest-running hits in the history of Broadway and the West End, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats has been specially re-staged for this presentation, which captures all the music and movement of the original stage production with an uncommon intimacy and depth. The cast includes Elaine Read More

Bean

Actors: Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Burt Reynolds

Synopsis: Comic actor Rowan Atkinson brought his bumbling character Mr. Bean from television to the big screen with this British comedy. Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is a well-meaning but not especially bright fellow with a gift for making the worst of any situation. Bean is about to be fired from his job as a Read More

Hamlet

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Kenneth Branagh, Brian Blessed, Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi, Kate Winslet, Richard Briers

Synopsis: At least the 22nd time William Shakespeare's most famous tragedy has been brought to the screen, Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Hamlet was the first to preserve Shakespeare's entire text, uncut and unabridged. Moving the action into the 19th century, Branagh cast himself in the title role Read More

The Grotesque

Actors: Alan Bates, Theresa Russell, Sting

Synopsis: The Grotesque (aka Grave Indiscretion, aka Gentleman Don't Eat Poets) is a very black, very British comedy that puts an unusual and perversely entertaining spin on the classic tea-cup-and-intrigue mystery. Sir Hugo Coal (Alan Bates) is a grumpy, eccentric English gentleman (and Read More

Deadly Advice

Actors: Jane Horrocks, Brenda Fricker, Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, Edward Woodward

Synopsis: A disturbed woman starts getting friendly advice from some of the great murderers of history in this black comedy from Great Britain. Introverted Jody Greenwood (Jane Horrocks) and her bolder sister Beth (Imelda Staunton) both live under the thumb of their domineering mother Iris (Brenda Fricker). Read More

Martin Chuzzlewit

Synopsis: Charles Dickens' 1844 novel Martin Chuzzlewit was given one of its few TV presentations in this six-part British adaptation, which originally aired on BBC2 from November 7 to December 12, 1994. The youngest son of a mercenary London family, Martin Chuzzlewit was sent to America to learn the Read More

Frankenstein

Actors: Patrick Bergin, Randy Quaid, John Mills

Synopsis: Filmed in Eastern Europe, this direct-to-cable adaptation of Mary Shelley's iconographic monster tale features Patrick Bergin as Victor Frankenstein, a medical genius obsessed with the secret of creating life, who uses a bizarre cloning apparatus to grow a complete human being (Randy Quaid) from Read More

Animals of Farthing Woods

Crew: Producer

Harnessing Peacocks

Actors: Serena Scott Thomas

Synopsis: A teen is shunned by her family after she gets pregnant by a mystery man, in this British made-for-television drama. Based on the book by Mary Welsey, Serena Scott Thomas stars as Hebe, a girl who gets involved in casual prostitution as a way to make ends meet for herself and her young son while Read More

Ending Up

Synopsis: Made for British television, this is a black comedy/drama concerning the exploits of five elderly people whose friendship during one long Christmas holiday is sorely tested. The film features a notable cast of distinguished performers from stage and film. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide Read More

A Tale of Two Cities

Synopsis: Masterpiece Theatre's 1991 production of A Tale of Two Cities is a faithful adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic French Revolution drama. The story focuses on English lawyer Sydney Carton, who has an unrequited love for Lucie Manette, the wife of French aristocrat Charles Darnay. After Charles' Read More

The Garden

Actors: Derek Jarman, Tilda Swinton, Jody Graber, John Mills, Kevin Collins, Pete Lee-Wilson, Philip MacDonald, Roger Cook

Synopsis: Director Derek Jarman takes the viewer for a walk around his own garden in rural England for this non-narrative film. Many of the scenes depict the Passion of Christ, but the sufferings are instead visited upon a gay couple. Jarman then assaults the senses with a series of images, including a Read More

Neurotic Cabaret

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Tammy Stones, Dennis Worthington, Colleen Keegan

Synopsis: This off-beat, slapstick comedy tells the story of a pair of aspiring filmmakers who attempt to make their magnum opus, a sci-fi epic called Space Pirates. Like many other young directors and actors, the pair face one major obstacle--they have no money. To help fund the project, the girl Read More

The Lady and the Highwayman

Actors: Hugh Grant, Oliver Reed, Emma Samms

Synopsis: Adaptation of Barbara Cartland's novel featuring a 17th century adventure romance between an aristocrat and an endangered noblewoman. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

A Tale of Two Cities

Synopsis: The fourth presentation of Masterpiece Theatre's 1989-90 season, a four-part adaptation of Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, was so lavish an undertaking (especially for TV) that it ended up a Production of Two Cities. Part of the program was taped at London's Granada studios, while the remaining Read More

Night of the Fox

Actors: George Peppard, Michael York, Deborah Raffin

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Jack Higgins, this WW-II thriller chronicles the daring rescue of a captured American officer who has vital information concerning the upcoming Normandy invasion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Best of British Cinema: Five Decades of Classic British Films

Actors: John Mills

Synopsis: This documentary, narrated by Sir John Mills, looks back at the history of the British film industry, and features clips from many of the most memorable films to come from England, beginning with 1933's The Private Life Of Henry VIII and following through to the mid-1980s, with emphasis on some of Read More

Who's That Girl?

Actors: Madonna, Griffin Dunne, Haviland Morris, John McMartin, Robert Swan, Bibi Besch

Synopsis: A year after appearing in the box-office sleeper Shanghai Surprise, pop superstar Madonna starred in the screwball comedy Who's That Girl? She plays Nikki Finn, who is being released from prison after serving a four-year sentence for a murder she didn't commit. Meanwhile, wealthy lawyer Loudon (Griffin Dunne Read More

When the Wind Blows

Actors: Peggy Ashcroft, John Mills

Synopsis: In this animated film, based on the novel by Raymond Briggs, an older English couple must struggle to deal with their altered reality when a nuclear war strikes, destroying their peaceful lives. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Murder with Mirrors

Actors: Dorothy Tutin, John Mills, Helen Hayes, Bette Davis, Leo McKern

Synopsis: Helen Hayes makes her second TV appearance as Agatha Christie's female sleuth Miss Marple in Murder with Mirrors. Marple has been summoned to the lavish country estate of her old friend Carrie Louise Serrocold (Bette Davis). Carrie's stepson has been killed, and she fears that his won't be the Read More

Hold the Dream

Actors: Deborah Kerr

Synopsis: This television mini-series sequel to A Woman of Substance finds aging businesswoman Emma Harte (Deborah Kerr) preparing to hand over her empire to granddaughter Paula Fairley (Jenny Seagrave), much to the dismay of the rest of the family. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Masks of Death

Actors: Peter Cushing, John Mills, Ray Milland, Anne Baxter, Anton Diffring

Synopsis: Twenty-seven years after Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Peter Cushing makes a belated return to the role of Sherlock Holmes in the made-for-television Masks of Death. Befitting his age, Cushing plays Holmes in retirement, content to play his violin and look after his bees. He is dragged back Read More

A Woman of Substance, Episode 1: Nest of Vipers

Synopsis: A Woman of Substance is a six-hour TV miniseries, based on the best-selling novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford. This story of a British servant girl who, through sheer force of will, becomes one of the world's most powerful women, stars Jenny Seagrove as Emma Hart from age 15 to 49, and Deborah Kerr Read More

Sahara

Actors: Brooke Shields, Lambert Wilson, Horst Buchholz, John Rhys-Davies, Ronald Lacey

Synopsis: Although it is based on an intriguing premise -- Dale (Brooke Shields), disguised as a man, takes the place of her late father in a 1927 car race through the Sahara -- this film perversely falls flatter than a blow-out, and just as quickly. After starting the race and because of tribal warfare Read More

Young at Heart [TV Series]

Actors: John Mills, Megs Jenkins, Carol Leader, David Neilson

Synopsis: Eminent British actor John Mills went the sitcom route in the ITV network's Young at Heart. Mills was cast as Albert Collyer, a pottery worker forced into retirement after 50 years at the same job. With no hobbies or outside interests (save for quaffing a few at the local pub), Albert shambled Read More

Gandhi

Actors: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard

Synopsis: It was Richard Attenborough's lifelong dream to bring the life story of Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi to the screen. When it finally reached fruition in 1982, the 188-minute, Oscar-winning Gandhi was one of the most exhaustively thorough biopics ever made. The film begins in Read More

Devil's Advocate

Synopsis: Though boasting a British star and director, The Devil's Advocate was essentially a West German production; it was released in Germany in 1977, three years before its bow in English-speaking theatres. John Mills tops the cast as a dying priest who has been summoned to Rome for one last assignment. Read More

Quatermass

Actors: John Mills, Simon MacCorkindale, Barbara Kellerman, Margaret Tyzack, Brewster Mason

Synopsis: The Quatermass Conclusion is comprised of highlights from the 1979 British TV serial of the same name. Like the earlier Quatermass projects of the 1950s and 1960s, the guiding force behind Conclusion was prolific screenwriter Nigel Kneale, though the series (and the film) hardly represent Read More

Zulu Dawn

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, Simon Ward, John Mills, Nigel Davenport

Synopsis: This film depicts the events prior to the devastating conflict that occurred in 1879 when British soldiers were held siege by thousands of Zulu warriors. Fifteen hundred soldiers were killed in the epic battle. This film portrays the tensions existing between the tribal factions and the British Read More

Dr. Strange

Actors: Peter Hooten, John Mills, Jessica Walter

Synopsis: Dr. Steven Strange, the Marvel Comics magician/superhero created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, made his long-awaited screen debut in this 1978 TV pilot film. Peter Hooten plays Strange, while Sir John Mills portrays the doctor's sorcerer shaman, "The Ancient One." The Ancient One (whose Read More

The Thirty-Nine Steps

Actors: Robert Powell, David Warner, Eric Porter, Karen Dotrice, John Mills

Synopsis: This 1978 re-remake of The 39 Steps adheres more closely to the source novel by John Buchan than Alfred Hitchcock's better-known original, restoring the pre-World War I time frame of the Buchan story. Hannay (Robert Powell) is an innocent bystander, suspected by enemy agents of having intercepted Read More

The Big Sleep

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Richard Boone, Candy Clark, Joan Collins

Synopsis: Robert Mitchum reprises his role as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe from Farewell, My Lovely, in this misconceived remake of Howard Hawks's classic 1946 film -- transferring the setting from 1940s California to 1970s London. Marlowe is hired by a rich and dying General Sternwood (James Stewart) Read More

A Choice of Weapons

Synopsis: A former policeman investigates a series of murders by centering on an organization which re-creates medieval battles. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Human Factor

Actors: George Kennedy, John Mills, Raf Vallone, Arthur Franz, Rita Tushingham

Synopsis: A simple man becomes bent on violent revenge in this thriller. John Kinsdale (George Kennedy) is an American who lives with his wife and three children in Naples, Italy, where he's employed by NATO as an electronics expert. Kinsdale and his good friend Mike McAllister (John Mills) are working to Read More

Lady Caroline Lamb

Actors: Fanny Rowe, Sarah Miles, Jon Finch, Richard Chamberlain, John Mills, Margaret Leighton

Synopsis: Screenwriter Robert Bolt's directorial debut is a lushly romantic saga concerning the 1812 love affair between the wife of William Lamb, Lord of Melbourne, and the author of the poem Childe Harold, Lord Byron. Excited and embarrassed by the attendant affections heaped upon him, Byron found his Read More

Oklahoma Crude

Actors: George C. Scott, Faye Dunaway, John Mills, Jack Palance, William Lucking

Synopsis: Taciturn Faye Dunaway insists upon drilling for oil in her small, unpromising patch of Oklahoma land. Drifter George C. Scott signs on to work the derrick, but only after Dunaway, who for unspecified reasons hates all men, warns him to stay at arm's length. Jack Palance, the strong-arm Read More

Young Winston

Actors: Michael Audreson, Robert Lankesheer, Simon Ward, Robert Shaw, Anne Bancroft, John Mills, Jack Hawkins, Ian Holm

Synopsis: This historical drama is an account of the early life of Winston Churchill (Simon Ward), including his childhood years, his time as a war correspondent in Africa, and culminating with his first election to Parliament. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide Read More

Dulcima

Actors: Philip Marsden

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a runaway flees a bad home life and ends up working on an aging widower's farm. Time passes, and the man gradually begins falling in love with his young employee. He is just about to pop the question when she suddenly breaks his heart by running away with a handsome young Read More

Ryan's Daughter

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, Sarah Miles, Christopher Jones, John Mills

Synopsis: The logic behind inflating Robert Bolt's minimalist romantic drama Ryan's Daughter into a 12-million-dollar epic seems to have been "When David Lean directs, it's a super-spectacular." Sarah Miles (who at the time was married to Robert Bolt) stars as Rosy, the daughter of Irish pub keeper Tom Ryan Read More

Adam's Woman

Actors: Beau Bridges, Jane Merrow, John Mills, James Booth, Andrew Keir

Synopsis: Also known as Return of the Boomerang, Adam's Woman is set in the rough-and-tumble Australia of the 1840s. Beau Bridges plays Adam, convicted of a crime he didn't commit and shipped off to the penal colony "Down Under". Enduring brutal treatment, he escapes, only to be captured again. Thanks to Read More

Run Wild, Run Free

Actors: John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Bernard Miles, Mark Lester, Gordon Jackson

Synopsis: Child actor Mark Lester proved that his sudden ascension to stardom in Oliver wasn't a fluke with Run Wild, Run Free. Lester plays a psychosomatically mute young Dartmoor boy, who avoids all human contact whenever possible. He is fascinated by nature, but cannot convey this love to his Read More

Lady Hamilton

Actors: Michele Mercier, Richard Johnson, John Mills, Harald Leipnitz, Robert Hundar

Synopsis: This drama, based on Alexander Dumas' novel, chronicles the doomed love between Lord Horatio Nelson and the scandalous Lady Emma Hamilton. The tale begins when luscious country girl Emma, who possesses feminine charms no man can resist, uses her beauty to charm her way into the inner circle of the Read More

Oh! What a Lovely War

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Meriel Forbes, Wensley Pithey, Ruth Kettlewell, Ian Holm

Synopsis: Oh! What a Lovely War is an every-man-for-himself adaptation of Charles Chilton's 1963 play, as staged in London by Joan Littlewood. The tragedy of World War I is redefined in bawdy music-hall terms, beginning with a verbal free-for-all involving the Crowned Heads of Europe. The war is presented Read More

La Morte non ha sesso

Actors: John Mills, Luciana Paluzzi, Robert Hoffmann, Renate Kasche, Tullio Altamura

Synopsis: Cult director Massimo Dallamano made this surprisingly tedious thriller about a murder-for-hire plot. Lisa (Luciana Paluzzi) is the trampy wife of a jealous detective named Franz (John Mills), who has underworld connections from his job on the narcotics squad. Lisa's shady background and Read More

Africa - Texas Style!

Actors: Hugh O'Brian, John Mills, Tom Nardini, Adrienne Corri, Ronald Howard

Synopsis: In this Ivan Tors action adventure (that later served as the basis for the television series Cowboy in Africa, John Mills appears as Wing Commander Howard Hayes, now having hung up his wings for ranching in Kenya. Hayes hatches a solution to alleviate the hunger of Masai villagers with a plan to Read More

Chuka

Actors: Rod Taylor, Ernest Borgnine, John Mills, Luciana Paluzzi, James Whitmore

Synopsis: The title character (Rod Taylor) is a drifting gunslinger, who enters a Southwestern fort and immediately becomes embroiled with its commander (John Mills). In the end, the wanderer helps the fort guard against attacks from Indians. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Family Way

Actors: Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, John Comer, Avril Angers, John Mills

Synopsis: This gently farcical British comedy stars Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett as Jenny and Arthur, a young couple who have just gotten married. However, while both of them are filled with anticipation for their honeymoon, a practical joke played by their "friends" causes their bed to collapse just as Read More

The Wrong Box

Actors: John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore

Synopsis: Years before the story proper in The Wrong Box gets under way, a "tontine" is drawn up on behalf several young British boys. Each of the boys' parents had placed 1000 pounds in a pool, to be invested and expanded upon. The resultant fortune will go to the last surving member of the tontine. A Read More

Gypsy Girl

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Hayley Mills, Ian McShane, Laurence Naismith, Geoffrey Bayldon, Annette Crosbie

Synopsis: Gypsy Girl was originally released in England as Sky West and Crooked. With this production, John Mills became a one-time film director, guiding his daughter Hayley through a screenplay written by Mills' wife Mary Hayley Bell. Radically cast against type, Hayley plays a mentally traumatized young Read More

King Rat

Actors: George Segal, Tom Courtenay, James Fox, Patrick O'Neal, Denholm Elliott, John Mills, Todd Armstrong

Synopsis: James Clavell incorporated a few of his own experiences as a British POW in his novel King Rat. Bryan Forbes' film version stars George Segal as the mastermind of all black market operations in a Japanese prison camp. He is called "King Rat" because of his breeding of rodents to serve as food for Read More

The Truth About Spring

Actors: Hayley Mills, John Mills, James MacArthur, Lionel Jeffries, Harry Andrews

Synopsis: An American widower and his 18-year-old daughter live on a Caribbean houseboat. Romance and adventure ensue when they invite the bored nephew of a millionaire to leave his uncle's yacht and stay with them. Though there is an immediate spark between the girl and her new friend, romance is delayed Read More

Operation Crossbow

Actors: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Tom Courtenay, Richard Todd, Sylvia Syms, Jeremy Kemp, Paul Henreid, Helmut Dantine

Synopsis: This big-budget, big-studio espionage film is set in the last years of World War II. George Peppard, Tom Courtenay and Jeremy Kemp parachute into Germany, with orders to destroy the Nazis' V-1 rocket base at Peenemunde. Given the order of billing, guess which special operative survives the Read More

The Chalk Garden

Actors: Deborah Kerr, Hayley Mills, John Mills, Edith Evans, Elizabeth Sellars

Synopsis: This film adaptation of Edith Bagnold's play stars Deborah Kerr as Miss Madrigal, the secretive new governess of British "problem child" Laurel (Hayley Mills). Both Madrigal and faithful butler Maitland (John Mills) are aware that Laurel's atrocious behavior stems from her belief that her Read More

The Valiant

Actors: John Mills, Ettore Manni, Robert Shaw, Liam Redmond

Synopsis: In this suspenseful WW II thriller, the hard-bitten commander of a British battleship stationed in Alexandria Harbor early in the war must force two captured Italian frogmen to tell him whether or not they planted time-bombs upon the ship's hull. The captives are uncooperative and the captain has Read More

Tiara Tahiti

Actors: James Mason, John Mills, Claude Dauphin, Herbert Lom, Rosenda Monteros

Synopsis: In his first effort at directing a feature-length film, William (Ted) Kotcheff, best-known for movies like The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, does an excellent job in making this drama effective. He is helped in no small part by James Mason as Brett Aimsley, a sophisticated, at-ease former Read More

The Singer Not the Song

Actors: Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, Mylène Demongeot, Laurence Naismith, Eric Pohlmann, John Bentley

Synopsis: This unusual western concerns the conflict between a priest and a Mexican bandito from A Night to Remember (1958) director Roy Baker. Father Keogh (John Mills) is a Catholic priest who arrives in the remote Mexican village of Quantano to build a congregation, unaware that the town is terrorized by Read More

Flame in the Streets

Actors: John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Brenda de Banzie, Earl Cameron, Johnny Sekka

Synopsis: Versatile director Roy Baker tackles the question of racial bias in this dated but effective drama, a working-class version of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Jacko Palmer (John Mills) is a dedicated, talented union leader who manages to mediate an upheaval over a black foreman at work and prevent a Read More

Tunes of Glory

Actors: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price, John Fraser, Susannah York

Synopsis: Two excellent actors shine in powerful roles in this drama by Ronald Neame that pits one Scottish army colonel against another. Alec Guinness is Lt. Col. Jock Sinclair, a man who temporarily takes over command of a regiment until his replacement, Col. Basil Barrow (John Mills) arrives. Sinclair Read More

Disneyland: Escape to Paradise and Water Birds

Actors: John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: The first portion of this Walt Disney Presents episode is a behind-the-scenes preview of the upcoming Disney theatrical feature Swiss Family Robinson. Hosted by three of the film's stars, John Mills, Dorothy McGuire and Janet Munro, the segment details the difficulties encountered by the Read More

The Swiss Family Robinson

Actors: John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, Sessue Hayakawa

Synopsis: None of the many cinemadaptations of Johan Wyss' The Swiss Family Robinson are as relentlessly enjoyable as this 1960 Disney feature. The film wastes no time getting down to business, with the shipwreck of the Robinson family occurring as the credits flash across the screen. Fashioning a raft Read More

Season of Passion

Actors: Ernest Borgnine, Anne Baxter, John Mills, Angela Lansbury, Vincent Ball

Synopsis: Poignant and pointed, as well as funny, this love story by director Leslie Norman has a simple message: act your age. Since they were older teens, two buddies Barney (John Mills) and Roo (Ernest Borgnine) have gone to a summer rendezvous with the same two women, for fun in the sun in Sydney. They Read More

Tiger Bay

Actors: John Mills, Horst Buchholz, Hayley Mills, Yvonne Mitchell, Megs Jenkins

Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Hayley Mills made her film starring debut in the location-filmed melodrama Tiger Bay. Horst Buchholz plays a Polish sailor who, while docked in Cardiff, jealously murders his ex-girlfriend Yvonne Mitchell. The killing is witnessed by Hayley, a lonely, hoydenish preteen whose only Read More

I Was Monty's Double

Actors: John Mills, Cecil Parker, Patrick Allen, M.E. Clifton-James, Patrick Holt, Michael Hordern, Marius Goring

Synopsis: If official documentation didn't exist, we'd never believe a fantastic yarn like I Was Monty's Double. Actor M.E. Clifton James plays himself, a British stock-company actor who becomes an unsung hero during World War II. It seems that James, serving his country as a junior officer, is the exact Read More

Dunkirk

Actors: John Mills, Bernard Lee, Richard Attenborough, Robert Urquhart, Meredith Edwards, Anthony Nicholls, Ray Jackson

Synopsis: One of the most significant moments in the history of British warfare (in both the best and worst sense) is given reverent but reserved treatment in Dunkirk. The film takes place during the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops across the English channel. One party of British soldiers becomes detached Read More

Ice Cold in Alex

Actors: John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Anthony Quayle, Harry Andrews, Diane Clare

Synopsis: The British Ice Cold in Alex was released in the US as Desert Attack. John Mills stars as Captain Anson, a grumbling alcoholic sent on a WW2 mission to Alexandria. Travelling to his destination by ambulance, Anson becomes acquainted with his fellow passengers, nurses Sister Diane Murdoch (Sylvia Read More

The Vicious Circle

Synopsis: Originally released in Britain as The Circle, The Vicious Circle was based on the BBC TV series The Brass Candlestick. John Mills plays a respected doctor who comes home one evening to find the body of a murdered actress of his acquaintance. The police are summoned, and the murder weapon is found Read More

Town on Trial

Actors: John Mills, Charles Coburn, Barbara Bates, Derek Farr, Alec McCowen

Synopsis: Town on Trial! begins with the murder of a good-time girl in a small suburb of London. Scotland Yard inspector John Mills is called on the scene, immediately launching his investigation by bullying everyone in sight. Mills is particularly aggravated by the prejudicial, hypocritical attitude of Read More

War and Peace

Actors: Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer, Vittorio Gassman, Anita Ekberg

Synopsis: War and Peace is a commendable attempt to boil down Tolstoy's long, difficult novel into 208 minutes' screen time. In recreating the the social and personal upheavals attending Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, $6 million was shelled out by coproducers Carlo Ponti, Dino de Laurentiis and Read More

It's Great to Be Young

Actors: John Mills, Cecil Parker, John Salew, Elizabeth Kentish, Mona Washbourne, Carole Shelley

Synopsis: It's Great to Be Young stars John Mills as Dingle an easygoing high school teacher. When autocratic new headmaster Frome (Cecil Parker) begins imposing all sorts of repressive rules, Dingle does his best to stand up for his students, only to be dismissed for his troubles. The kids conspire to not Read More

Around the World in 80 Days

Actors: David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton, Shirley MacLaine, Charles Boyer

Synopsis: Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production Read More

The Baby and the Battleship

Actors: John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Bryan Forbes, Harold Siddons, Clifford Mollison, Lisa Gastoni

Synopsis: British sailors John Mills and Richard Attenborough would like to take Neopolitan lass Lisa Gastoni out on a date. But Gastoni can't leave the house unless her baby brother tags along. During a rowdy evening on the town, Mills is forced to sneak the infant on board his ship. When Gastoni and Attenborough Read More

Escapade

Actors: John Mills, Yvonne Mitchell, Alastair Sim, Marie Lohr, Colin Gordon

Synopsis: Escapade has to be one of the most overused titles in movie history. This particular Escapade is a mild British comedy with something to say. John Mills plays a renowned pacifist author, whose sons Andrew Ray and Peter Asher are completely sympatico with their dad's views. Convincing their Read More

The End of the Affair

Actors: Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills, Peter Cushing, Stephen Murray, Michael Goodliffe

Synopsis: Recently freed from his MGM contract, Van Johnson headed to England to star in a series of pictures, the first of which was The End of the Affair. Adapted by Lenore Coffee from the novel by Graham Greene, the film casts Johnson as Maurice Bendrix, the clandestine lover of married Briton Sarah Read More

The Colditz Story

Actors: John Mills, Eric Portman, Christopher Rhodes, Lionel Jeffries, Bryan Forbes

Synopsis: During World War II, the impenetrable Colditz castle in Germany was selected as the site for a POW camp. The Germans reason that, since Colditz has been virtually impossible to get into or out of for centuries, it is ideal for housing the most contentious allied prisoners. British officer John Mills 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

The Long Memory

Actors: John Mills, John McCallum, Elizabeth Sellars, Geoffrey Keen

Synopsis: John Mills followed his successful Gentle Gunman with the tensioned-filled meller The Long Memory. Convicted for a murder he did not commit, Davidson (Mills) spends 12 long years in prison. Upon his release, he vows to get even with the three witnesses who perjured themselves and clenched his Read More

Hobson's Choice

Actors: Charles Laughton, John Mills, Brenda de Banzie, Daphne Anderson, Prunella Scales

Synopsis: A "Hobson's Choice," as any slang expert will tell you, is no choice at all. In this 1953 filmization of Harold Brighouse's 1915 play Hobson's Choice, hero John Mills finds after several reels of evidence to the contrary that he does have a choice over how he'll conduct his life after all. Mills 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

Mr. Denning Drives North

Actors: John Mills, Phyllis Calvert, Eileen Moore, Sam Wanamaker, Herbert Lom

Synopsis: Mr. Denning (John Mills) is bedeviled by a blackmailer with whom his daughter Liz (Eileen Moore) has fallen in love. In a sudden fit of rage, Denning murders the scoundrel. Panicking, he drives northward with the corpse in the back seat, dumps the body in a lonely rural area, and carefully Read More

Operation Disaster - Morning Departure

Synopsis: A foundering British submarine provides the basis for this gripping drama. The trouble begins when the sub strikes a mine. The sub cannot surface, and only twelve on board survived the blast. Now rescuers must save them, but more trouble ensues when the trapped men below are informed that due to Read More

Morning Departure

Actors: John Mills, Helen Cherry, Richard Attenborough, Lana Morris, Nigel Patrick

Synopsis: Morning Departure isn't about a commuter train but instead the story of an imperiled submarine. On a routine postwar mission, the sub strikes a forgotten mine and sinks to the bottom. The twelve-man crew comes face to face with the probability of permanent entombment and eventual suffocation; the Read More

The Rocking Horse Winner

Crew: Producer

Actors: Valerie Hobson, John Howard Davies, Ronald Squire, John Mills, Hugh Sinclair

Synopsis: D.H. Lawrence's tragic fable The Rocking Horse Winner is faithfully transferred to the screen in this 1950 gem. John Howard Davies, the young star of Oliver Twist (and the future chief film editor at the BBC) plays sensitive lad Paul Grahame, whose selfish, grasping mother (Valerie Hobson) warps Read More

The History of Mr. Polly

Crew: Producer

Actors: John Mills, Sally Ann Howes, Finlay Currie, Betty Ann Davies, Edward Chapman, Diana Churchill, Megs Jenkins

Synopsis: H. G. Wells' non-fantasy efforts have, with the exception of Kipps, proven traditionally difficult to transfer to film. History of Mr. Polly occasionally suffers from too-close fidelity to its Wellsian source; one wishes that adaptor/director Anthony Pelissier could have "opened up" the story a Read More

The October Man

Actors: Adrianne Allen, John Mills, Felix Aylmer, Joan Greenwood, George Benson, Edward Chapman, Esme Beringer, Joyce Carey, Kay Walsh, John Boxer

Synopsis: Adapted by Eric Ambler from his own novel, The October Man centers around Jim Ackland (played by John Mills), who has been involved in a terrible accident that killed a friend's daughter and has given Ackland a brain injury. Despondent after his release from the hospital, Ackland moves into a Read More

Scott of the Antarctic

Actors: John Mills, Diana Churchill, Harold Warrender, Derek Bond, Anne Firth, Reginald Beckwith, James Robertson Justice

Synopsis: John Mills stars as Commander Scott, the leader of the ill-fated and famed 1911 expedition to be the first to discover the South Pole. The British were up against the Norwegians in the Arctic quest for fame and honor which was won by Norway. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

So Well Remembered

Actors: John Mills, Martha Scott, Patricia Roc, Trevor Howard, Richard Carlson

Synopsis: So Well Remembered was the first of a proposed series of Anglo-American co-productions underwritten by Hollywood's RKO Radio Pictures and England's J. Arthur Rank. In one of his better postwar roles, John Mills stars as George Boswell, the editor of the newspaper in the small English mining town Read More

Great Expectations

Actors: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Finlay Currie, Francis L. Sullivan, Alec Guinness, Jean Simmons

Synopsis: Immediately grabbing the audience's attention with a heart-stopping opening scene in a dark graveyard, acclaimed British director David Lean realizes the cinematic potential of Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel, and the result is considered by many to be one of the finest literary adaptations Read More

The Way to the Stars

Actors: John Mills, Michael Redgrave, Douglass Montgomery, Bonar Colleano, Trevor Howard, Rosamund John

Synopsis: Originally released in England as The Way to the Stars, Johnny in the Clouds is the story of how the Battle of Britain affected the lives of combatants and civilians alike. Terence Rattigan's screenplay concentrates on three groups of people: an American pilot and his wife, a doomed British Read More

Waterloo Road

Actors: John Mills, Stewart Granger, Alastair Sim, Joy Shelton, Beatrice Varley

Synopsis: This 1949 British film told a very plausible story about a triangle between a woman, her soldier husband, and her new lover. Jim Colter (John Mills) has joined the services, leaving his wife Tillie (Joy Shelton) with his mother (Beatrice Varley) and sister. Tillie is lonely, meets Ted Purvis (Stewart Granger Read More

This Happy Breed

Actors: Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, John Mills, Kay Walsh, Stanley Holloway

Synopsis: With This Happy Breed, playwright Noel Coward hoped to glorify the British working class in the same manner that he'd celebrated the "higher orders" in Cavalcade. The film begins just after World War I. Middle-class Londoner Robert Newton hopes to improve his family's lot by moving them into a Read More

Victory Wedding

Synopsis: This ten-minute propaganda film was commissioned by the British Ministry of Information during World War II. The idealistic scene of a soldier returning from war to marry his sweetheart was intended to be a morale-booster for the women whose boyfriends left them behind. ~ Michael Hastings, All Read More

We Dive at Dawn

Actors: Eric Portman, John Mills, Reginald Purdell, Louis Bradfield, Niall MacGinnis, Jack Watling, Joan Hopkins, Ronald Millar, Leslie Weston

Synopsis: After several months' heavy war duty, the crew of the British submarine Sea Tiger is enjoying a much-deserved leave, when suddenly they're called back to active duty. Sub commander John Mills has been ordered to pursue and sink the formidable German battleship Brandenburg. A series of nailbiting Read More

The Big Blockade

Actors: Leslie Banks, Morland Graham, Will Hay, Bernard Miles, John Stuart, John Mills

Synopsis: Having underestimated Hitler in the 1930s, British propaganda specialists spent the early war years insisting they were prepared for any international contingency. Big Blockade was a morale-boosting film produced in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Welfare. In documentary fashion, the 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

In Which We Serve

Actors: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson, Joyce Carey

Synopsis: Few morale-boosting wartime films have retained their power and entertainment value as emphatically as Noël Coward's In Which We Serve. To witness Coward's sober, no-nonsense direction (in collaboration with his co-director/editor, David Lean) and to watch his straightforward portrayal of navy Read More

Secret Mission

Crew: Special Effects

Actors: Hugh Williams, Carla Lehmann, James Mason, Roland Culver, Michael Wilding, Sr.

Synopsis: In this WW II actioner, two British Intelligence agents and a French agent follow their leader into Nazi-occupied France to see how strong the invaders really are; unfortunately, the only way to get that information is to break into the German headquarters. They do so by pretending to be champagne Read More

The Black Sheep of Whitehall

Actors: Will Hay, John Mills, Basil Sydney, Henry Hewitt, Felix Aylmer

Synopsis: In this WW II comedy, a professor teaching a correspondence school gets in hot water when he entangles himself with the Nazis who are trying to prevent the signing of an important trade agreement between South American countries and England. When the professor learns that a Nazi agent has breached Read More

You're in the Army Now

Actors: Jimmy Durante, Jane Wyman, Phil Silvers, Regis Toomey, George Meeker, Donald MacBride

Synopsis: In the wake of Abbott & Costello's Buck Privates, every studio in Hollywood began cranking out service comedies. Warner Bros.' contribution to this trend was You're in the Army Now, featuring the unlikely but undeniably chucklesome duo of Jimmy Durante and Phil Silvers. The stars are cast as Read More

Cottage to Let

Actors: Leslie Banks, Jeanne de Casalis, Carla Lehmann, Alastair Sim, John Mills

Synopsis: Cottage to Let is a taut British wartime spy thriller, laced with moments of genuinely hilarious comedy. The "maguffin" in this instance is a revolutionary new bombsight, designed by inventor John Barrington (Leslie Banks). A group of Nazi spies intend to steal the blueprints for the invention Read More

The Thief of Bagdad

Crew: Special Effects

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez, John Justin, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: In ancient Bagdad, the young prince Ahmad (John Justin) is betrayed, deposed, and imprisoned by his vizier Jaffar (Conrad Veidt), an evil and calculating man who is also a master of the Black Arts. But Ahmad is saved from prison, and certain execution, by Abu (Sabu), a young thief who has made his Read More

Old Bill and Son

Actors: Morland Graham, John Mills, Mary Clare, Renee Houston, Renee Ray

Synopsis: Cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfeather's woebegone WW1 British soldier Old Bill was revived for WW2 in Old Bill and Son. When his son Young Bill (John Mills) signs up for military duty against the Nazis, Old Bill (Morland Graham) tries to re-enlist as well. Turned down for the obvious reasons, Old Bill Read More

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Actors: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, Paul Henreid

Synopsis: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, based on James Hilton's novel, is a melodrama about a shy British teacher named Mr. Chipping (Robert Donat) who devotes his life to teaching "his boys" after the death of his lovely, energetic American wife Katherine (Greer Garson). Told via flashbacks, the film features an Read More

O.H.M.S.

Actors: Wallace Ford, John Mills, Anna Lee, Grace Bradley, Frank Cellier

Synopsis: Raoul Walsh, best remembered for his rough-and-tumble action pictures, made this film on a rare loan-out to a British studio. Jim Tracey (Wallace Ford) is an American gangster who, while on the run from the law, flees to England, where he joins the British army by posing as a Canadian. Jim and his Read More

Four Dark Hours

Actors: John Mills

Synopsis: Filmed in 1937, the British Four Dark Hours wasn't generally released until 1940, and then only after several minutes' running time had been shaved off. The existing 65-minute version stars John Mills, uncharacteristically cast as a Soho song and dance man. When Mills' racketeer brother Robert Newton Read More

The First Offense

Synopsis: A wealthy doctor's bratty son throws a temper tantrum when his father denies him a car. To get even, the spoiled sprout heads for France to join a gang of car thieves. Fortunately, his devoted father speeds across the Channel to save him from further travels down a ruinous road. ~ Sandra Brennan Read More

Charing Cross Road

Actors: John Mills, June Clyde, Derek Oldham, Belle Baker, Jean Colin

Synopsis: Charing Cross Road is a London thoroughfare where several theatrical boarding houses have set up shop. Each one of these establishments is chock full of show-biz hopefuls, wannabes, has-beens and never-weres. John Mills and June Clyde play Tony and Pam, "at liberty" vaudevillians who arrive in Read More

Born for Glory

Actors: Betty Balfour, John Mills, Barry Mackay, Jimmy Hanley, Howard Marion-Crawford

Synopsis: This war movie is set on the high-seas during WWI. It chronicles the exploits of a brave English sailor who is captured by a German cruiser. The courageous sailor, the bastard of a RN officer, soon escapes from the German ship. He also steals a rifle. He hides on the shore and begins taking Read More

Car of Dreams

Actors: John Mills, Mark Lester, Norah Howard, Grete Mosheim

Synopsis: In this romance, a poor girl spends her spare time window shopping for pricey goods. On a lark, she goes into an auto dealership to price a Rolls Royce. She feigns outrage when she learns the car has already been sold. She petulantly demands that she be sold that particular car. Her feisty actions Read More

Regal Cavalcade

Synopsis: His Hollywood career a thing of the past, director Herbert Brenon returned to his native England in 1934, where he continued making films until his retirement in 1940. Brenon's first project upon his arrival in London was the feature-length documentary Royal Cavalcade. Covering a 25-year period Read More

The Lash

Synopsis: The tumultuous relationship between a self-made man and his no-account son is chronicled in this drama. The father is proud that he has worked his way into wealth and power. He is deeply disappointed that his playboy son did not follow in his footsteps. When he learns that the boy jumps a ship Read More

The River Wolves

Synopsis: One doesn't expect much from British programmers of the 1930s, so it comes as a relief that River Wolves has a great deal of entertainment value. Michael Hogan plays a sea captain who aspires to become a novelist. Hogan decides to soak up "local flavor" in a small waterfront community. He and Read More

Doctor's Orders

Actors: John Mills

Synopsis: John Mills made his seventh screen appearance in this British "quota quickie". Mills plays a supposed orphan who is actually the son of a medicine show huckster (Leslie Fuller). The shifty showman finances Mills' medical school education, keeping his identity secret all the while. It is all but Read More

Those Were the Days

Synopsis: In this comedy, an upstanding judge marries a woman whom he believes is much younger than she really is. To keep the illusion alive, the woman dresses her adult son as a boy. The truth is finally revealed during a wild music hall party. Fortunately, the judge is willing to accept them as they Read More

Nine Days a Queen

Actors: Cedric Hardwicke, John Mills, Felix Aylmer, Leslie Perrins, Frank Cellier, Desmond Tester, Sybil Thorndike, Nova Pilbeam

Synopsis: This lush historical drama chronicles the brief reign of the late Henry VIII's successor, Lady Jane Grey. After only nine days on the throne, she was beheaded at the behest of the treacherous Mary Tudor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Blind Justice

Synopsis: Eva Moore, famous for her portrayal of Ernst Thesiger's religious-zealot sister in The Old Dark House, is awarded top billing in the British Blind Justice. Moore provides comic relief to the deadly serious goings-on in the rest of the film. Geraldine Fitzgerald plays the sister of a man who was Read More

A Political Party

Synopsis: In this comedy, a chimney sweep is swept into a political campaign and finds himself not only supporting the Labour Party, but also running against the elitist incumbent. When the sweep's son falls for the opposition's daughter, trouble ensues, but the sweep wins anyway. Later he realizes that he Read More

The Ghost Camera

Actors: Henry Kendall, Ida Lupino

Synopsis: Very little plot, but some interesting scenes in this slight suspense offering. A man is falsely accused of murder. Luckily for him, a picture was taken of the murder. Unluckily for him, the camera had been thrown out of the window to destroy the evidence. Luckily, it landed in a passing car, so Read More

Britannia of Billingsgate

Synopsis: In this musical, a middle-class cockney fishwife yearns to become a movie star. Her plans go swimmingly. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Midshipmaid

Actors: Jessie Matthews, Frederick Kerr

Synopsis: When economy expert Kerr works to cut the costs of the fleet in Malta, his lovely daughter, Matthews, is courted by the crew members on board. ~ All Movie Guide Read More