Laurence NaismithFilmography

Mission: Monte Carlo

Synopsis: Mission: Monte Carlo is a "movie" comprised of two episodes from the 1971 British/US TV series The Persuaders - which accounts for the presence of Basil Dearden, who died that year. The only element that the two hour-long episodes truly have in common is their setting: Southern France's Cote Read More

Oh Father! [TV Series]

Actors: Derek Nimmo, Laurence Naismith, Pearl Hackney, David Kelly

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

The Amazing Mr. Blunden

Actors: Laurence Naismith, Lynne Frederick, Garry Miller, Dorothy Alison, Rosalyn Landor, Marc Granger

Synopsis: The title character is a ghost, doomed to roam his mansion until an age-old mystery is solved. A widow Dorothy Alison and her two children are "hired" by the wraith-like Blunden to aid him in his sleuthing. Also joining in on the investigation are two ghostly kids, who'd been mistreated in life. Read More

Diamonds Are Forever

Actors: Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, Jimmy Dean

Synopsis: After George Lazenby portrayed James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Sean Connery returned to the tux, gimmicks, and catchphrases of Secret Agent 007 in his penultimate Bond outing, Diamonds Are Forever. Fragments of Ian Fleming's original 1954 novel remain, including the characters of Read More

Quest for Love

Actors: Tom Bell, Joan Collins

Synopsis: This science fiction/fantasy is loosely based on a story by John Wyndham (best known for The Day of the Triffids). Scientist Collin (Tom Bell) stumbles across a parallel world in which President Kennedy is not shot, Vietnam hasn't happened, and Ottilie (Joan Collins), the woman he loves, dies Read More

The Persuaders! [TV Series]

The Bushbaby

Actors: Margaret Brooks, Louis Gossett, Jr., Donald Houston, Laurence Naismith, Marne Maitland

Synopsis: Jackie (Margaret Brooks) is presented an African bush baby as a lovely parting gift from Tembo (Louis Gossett Jr.). She tries to board an outbound ship with her father and the annoying, squalling animal. Jackie jumps ship to plant the animal in a nearby tree, but the ship takes off and leaves her Read More

Scrooge

Actors: Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans, Kenneth More, Laurence Naismith

Synopsis: Scrooge was designed as a follow-up to 1968's Oliver!, the Oscar-winning musicalization of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. The umpteenth musical version of Dickens' 1843 novelette A Christmas Carol, Scrooge features several sprightly Leslie Bricusse songs, including the bona fide hit "Thank You Read More

Eye of the Cat

Actors: Michael Sarrazin, Gayle Hunnicutt, Eleanor Parker, Tim Henry, Laurence Naismith

Synopsis: This offbeat potboiler from Psycho scripter Joseph Stefano involves a plot hatched by mod couple Wylie (Michael Sarrazin) and Kassia (Gayle Hunnicutt) to murder Wylie's wealthy, cat-loving aunt Danny (Eleanor Parker). There's only one hitch in their scheme, but it's a doozy: Wylie suffers from a Read More

The Valley of Gwangi

Actors: James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Carlson, Laurence Naismith

Synopsis: When a traveling Wild West show comes to town, the natives are frightened by a one-foot-tall horse that is believed to be a bad omen. The superstitious natives try to return the horse to The Valley of Gwangi to avert disaster. Tuck (James Franciscus) and T.J. (Gila Golan) try to help archaeologist Read More

Bonanza: Another Windmill to Go

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, David Canary, Laurence Naismith

Synopsis: The "Don Quixote" legend was given a 19th century western spin on Bonanza's inaugural eleventh-season entry "Another Windmill to Go." The Cartwrights are dumbstruck when they find Don Q. Hought (Laurence Naismath) rowing a wheeled boat across their grazing land. But Don Q. is not as daffy as he Read More

Camelot

Actors: Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, David Hemmings, Lionel Jeffries

Synopsis: Joshua Logan directs this lavish version of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe Broadway success with Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero in the lead roles originally portrayed on Broadway by Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet. The musical, based on T.H. White's The Read More

The Scorpio Letters

Actors: Alex Cord, Shirley Eaton

Synopsis: A Victor Canning novel was the launching pad for this consummately produced TV spy movie. Alex Cord is an American secret agent reluctantly employed by British secret service for a life and death mission. Teamed with the beauteous Shirley Eaton (the "golden girl" of Goldfinger), Cord is expected Read More

The Fugitive: The Shattered Silence

Synopsis: As "Ben Lewis", Kimble (David Janssen) eludes a police dragnet and escapes to the Northwest. But "escape" turns out to be a relative term when Kimble is waylaid by John Mallory (Laurence Naismith), a hermit who dropped out of civilization back in 1953--and who, desperate for companionship, holds Read More

The Long Duel

Actors: Yul Brynner, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Andrew Keir, Charlotte Rampling

Synopsis: A lawmen who is sworn to bring a rebel to justice finds himself developing a great respect and admiration for his quarry in this period drama. In the 1920s, the British Raj still rule India, and Freddy Young (Trevor Howard) is a English police officer whose duty is to keep order among the native Read More

Deadlier Than the Male

Actors: Richard Johnson, Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina, Nigel Green, Suzanna Leigh

Synopsis: In this 1967 drama, resourceful British agent Bulldog Drummond, who appeared onscreen in a series of spy stories between 1929 and 1951, returned to duty in the wake of James Bond. Here, Drummond (Richard Johnson) is on the trail of Carl Petersen (Nigel Green), a corrupt industrialist who has a bad Read More

Fitzwilly

Actors: Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Feldon, Edith Evans, John McGiver, Harry Townes

Synopsis: When an aging philanthropist falls on hard times, her butler starts to rob the rich so that she can keep on giving to the poor in this comedy. Claude Fitzwilliam (Dick Van Dyke), known to his friends as "Fitzwilly," works as a butler for Victoria Woodworth (Edith Evans), who -- ever since the Read More

The Invaders, Vol. 2: The Experiment

Synopsis: Roy Thinnes was the star of this 1967-1968 science fiction series, about an Earth poised on the brink of alien takeover. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Gypsy Girl

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

The Fugitive: Not With a Whimper

Synopsis: Using the alias "Richard Spaulding", fugitive Richard Kimble (David Janssen) pays a visit to his former mentor Dr. Andrew McAllister (Laurence Naismith), now gravely ill and confined to a wheelchair. Because of his virulent "anti-smog" campaign, McAllister is regarded by most people as a harmless Read More

The Fugitive: Last Second of a Big Dream

Synopsis: As "Nick Peters", Kimble (David Janssen) lands a job with the wild-animal show owned by Barry Craft (Steve Forrest). Figuring out Kimble's true identity, the greedy Craft hopes to make his circus as famous as the Biograph Theater (where Dillinger met his doom) by arranging for the fugitive to be Read More

Cleopatra

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, Pamela Brown, George Cole, Martin Landau

Synopsis: In 1963, this colossal and opulent $60 million spectacular was epic in every sense of the word -- an epic investment, an epic in the annals of Hollywood gossip, and, ultimately, an epic flop that nearly dragged 20th Century Fox down the Nile along with Cleopatra's barge. Handsomely mounted by Joseph L. Mankiewicz Read More

Jason and the Argonauts

Actors: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond, Laurence Naismith, Niall MacGinnis, Michael Gwynn, Honor Blackman

Synopsis: Greek mythology is done up brown by the special-effects expertise of Ray Harryhausen in Jason and the Argonauts. Jason (Todd Armstrong), rightful heir to the throne of Thessaly, is spared from death through the intervention of the goddess Hera (Honor Blackman). The other celestial inhabitants of Read More

The Three Lives of Thomasina

Actors: Patrick McGoohan, Susan Hampshire, Karen Dotrice, Vincent Winter, Denis Gilmore

Synopsis: Based on a whimsical novel by Paul Gallico, Disney's Three Lives of Thomasina is an imaginative tale of a resourceful cat. Thomasina is the pet of Karen Dotrice, the daughter of taciturn Scottish veterinarian Patrick McGoohan. When Thomasina falls ill, McGoohan coldly diagnoses the cat as Read More

We Are in the Navy Now

Actors: Kenneth More, Lloyd Nolan, Joan O'Brien, Mischa Auer, Jeremy Lloyd

Synopsis: This was the last film for British director Wendy Toye whose special interests were always comedies and fantasies. In this light farce, the talented Kenneth More is Lt. Commander Bodger, a man with a penchant for honesty in moments when silence is much more diplomatic. Bodger offends the Navy Read More

I Thank a Fool

Actors: Susan Hayward, Peter Finch, Diane Cilento, Cyril Cusack, Kieron Moore

Synopsis: Dr. Susan Hayward makes a tragic mistake when she leaves her Canadian practice to follow her ailing, married lover to England. Dying slowly and in great pain, her love begs her to help him die quickly. With great compassion, she does so with a large morphine injection. Unfortunately, her mercy Read More

The 300 Spartans

Actors: Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker, Barry Coe, David Farrar

Synopsis: A colorful action film about the Battle Of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. in which the Spartans defend themselves for a Persian invasion against overwhelming odds. King Leodinas (Richard Egan) rallies the locals to stop the attack of thousands of plundering Persian invaders led by evil King Xerxes (David Read More

The Prince and the Pauper

Actors: Guy Williams, Sean Scully, Laurence Naismith, Niall MacGinnis, Donald Houston

Synopsis: Based on Mark Twain's classic tale, this lively 16th-century-set comedy drama chronicles the misadventures and the lessons learned by two disparate and discontented look-a-likes who swear that the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide 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

Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story of a Dog

Actors: Donald Crisp, Laurence Naismith, Alex Mackenzie, Kay Walsh, Andrew Cruickshank

Synopsis: Disney's Greyfriars Bobby is a remake of A Challenge to Lassie; both are based on the same novel by Eleanor Atkinson, and both feature Donald Crisp in a major role. A true story, set in Edinburgh around 1875, the Disney version stars Alex McKenzie as the shepherd Old Jock, the owner of a loyal 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

Sink the Bismarck!

Actors: Kenneth More, Dana Wynter, Carl Möhner, Laurence Naismith, Karel Stepanek, Geoffrey Keen

Synopsis: The Bismarck was the fabled German battleship of World War II. This film traces the "life" of the Bismarck from its launching (courtesy of newsreel footage) through its many battles and narrow escapes, concluding with its far-from-inevitable sinking in the Spring of 1941. Since one couldn't expect Read More

The Criminal

Actors: Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Gregoire Aslan, Margit Saad, Jill Bennett

Synopsis: Directed by American expatriate Joseph Losey, the British The Criminal is a gloom-wallow elevated by superb performances. Top crook Stanley Baker plans a clever bank robbery. It goes off hitchless, but the clerk responsible for "laundering" the stolen money insists upon a bigger percentage of the Read More

The World of Suzie Wong

Actors: William Holden, Nancy Kwan, Sylvia Syms, Michael Wilding, Sr., Jacqui Chan, Laurence Naismith

Synopsis: William Holden stars as an American artist who becomes involved with the sordid underworld of prostitution in Hong Kong in The World of Suzie Wong, based on Paul Osborn's Broadway adaptation of the novel by Richard Mason. Holden is American architect Robert Lomax, who travels to Hong Kong to Read More

Village of the Damned

Actors: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Naismith, John Phillips

Synopsis: Something is seriously amiss in the tiny British village of Midwich. At 11 a.m. one morning, every village resident suddenly falls asleep -- and then, just as suddenly, everyone wakes up, completely unaffected by the phenomenon. Well, not completely: virtually every woman of childbearing years has Read More

The Trials of Oscar Wilde

Actors: Peter Finch, Yvonne Mitchell, James Mason, Nigel Patrick, Lionel Jeffries

Synopsis: Peter Finch portrays the titular flamboyant Irish poet/playwright in The Trials of Oscar Wilde. The storyline, lifted to a great extent from actual court records, recounts Wilde's late 19th century libel action against the Marquis of Queensbury. The author loses, whereupon he himself is tried for Read More

The Angry Silence

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Michael Craig, Bernard Lee, Alfred Burke

Synopsis: Richard Attenborough stars in this British drama as Tom Curtis, an ordinary man with a job in a factory. A new employee, Travers (Alfred Burke), begins complaining about conditions at the plant and stirs up disharmony among his fellow workers. Tom thinks that there's something fishy about Travers Read More

Solomon and Sheba

Actors: Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders, Marisa Pavan, David Farrar

Synopsis: Romance, treachery, intrigue and spiritual awakenings abound in the Biblical film adaptation of Solomon and Sheba. Trouble begins between two brothers when poet Solomon (Yul Brynner) is chosen to be next in line to the throne by King David of Israel. His warrior brother Adonijah (George Sanders) Read More

Disneyland: Perilous Assignment

Actors: Gaston Rebufatt, Michael Rennie, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, James Donald

Synopsis: Promoted as an in-depth study of the art of mountain climbing, this episode of Walt Disney Presents is actually an extended advertisement for the upcoming Disney theatrical feature Third Man on the Mountain. Although the stars of that film (including James MacArthur and Michael Rennie), the real Read More

The Third Man on the Mountain

Actors: Michael Rennie, Janet Munro, James Donald, Herbert Lom

Synopsis: Filmed on location in Switzerland, Walt Disney's Third Man on the Mountain was based on Banner in the Sky, a book by James Ramsey Ullman. James MacArthur plays a Swiss youth who vows to be the first to scale a formidable Matterhorn-like mountain called the Citadel. The fact that MacArthur's father Read More

La Tempesta

Actors: Van Heflin, Viveca Lindfors, Silvana Mangano, Geoffrey Horne, Robert Keith

Synopsis: Based on the Alexander Pushkin story The Captain's Daughter, Tempest is set in Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great. A Russian ensign named Peter Griniev (Geoffrey Horne), banished by Catherine (Viveca Lindfors) to a distant outpost, saves the life of Pugachov (Van Heflin), leader of a Read More

I Accuse!

Actors: José Ferrer, Anton Walbrook, Viveca Lindfors, Leo Genn, Emlyn Williams

Synopsis: The still-controversial L'Affair Dreyfuss of the late 19th century is the focal point of I Accuse! Jose Ferrer (who also directed) stars as French Army captain Alfred Dreyfus, who is chosen as the fall guy for a major military scandal for no other discernable reason than his Jewishness. Wrongly Read More

Gideon of Scotland Yard

Actors: Jack Hawkins, Dianne Foster, Anna Lee, Anna Massey, Andrew Ray, Cyril Cusack

Synopsis: Director John Ford traveled to England to film this adaptation of the novel by J.J. Maraca, which details a typical day in the busy life of a detective for Scotland Yard. Inspector George Gideon (Jack Hawkins) begins his working day by confronting one of his fellow officers who is believed to be Read More

The Gypsy and the Gentleman

Actors: Melina Mercouri, Patrick McGoohan, June Laverick, Lyndon Brook

Synopsis: Greek actress Melina Mercouri made her English-language film debut in The Gypsy and the Gentleman. Mercouri plays tempestuous gypsy girl Belle, while the "gentleman" is Sir Paul Deverill (Keith Michell). Escaping an arranged marriage, Sir Paul weds the bewitching Belle,who intends to take him for Read More

A Night to Remember

Actors: Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, Anthony Bushell, Ronald Allen, Robert Ayres, Jane Downs, Jill Dixon

Synopsis: This meticulous re-creation of the sinking of the Titanic was adapted by Eric Ambler from the best-selling book by Walter Lord, and it preceded the blockbuster Titanic by almost 40 years. The film covers the life and death of the huge vessel from its launching celebration to that fateful night of Read More

The Two-Headed Spy

Actors: Jack Hawkins, Gia Scala, Erik Schumann, Alexander Knox, Felix Aylmer

Synopsis: This WWII espionage drama is based on the true tale of a British spy, as told in the story by J. Alvin Kugelmass. Alex Schottland (Jack Hawkins) is a career agent for England, having served during WWI. He is assigned to Nazi Germany and rises to the rank of general as WWII breaks out. His contact Read More

The Naked Earth

Actors: Richard Todd, Juliette Greco, Finlay Currie, John Kitzmiller, Laurence Naismith

Synopsis: A poor Irishman goes to Africa to help a friend harvest his tobacco, but upon arrival, he learns that his friend was eaten by a crocodile. His friend's French mistress proposes marriage and they work on the tobacco crop until the natives helping them leave for a ritual. He starts hunting Read More

Robbery under Arms

Actors: Peter Finch, Ronald Lewis, Laurence Naismith, Maureen Swanson, David McCallum

Synopsis: One of several feature film versions of the late 19th century novel by Rolf Boldrewood, this frontier adventure is set not in the Wild West of the U.S., but in the equally untamed Australian Outback of the same era. Two brothers, Jim (David McCallum) and Dick Marsten (Ronald Lewis) follow in their Read More

The Weapon

Actors: Steve Cochran, Lizabeth Scott, Herbert Marshall, Nicole Maurey, Jon Whiteley

Synopsis: The Weapon is a loose grouping of elements first seen in the 1951 British melodrama The Yellow Balloon. Jon Whitely plays a young London boy who finds a loaded gun in a blitzed-out building. He fires, accidentally shooting a playmate. Believing he's killed his friend, the boy runs away--leading to Read More

The Boy on a Dolphin

Actors: Alan Ladd, Sophia Loren, Clifton Webb, Alexis Minotis, Laurence Naismith, Jorge Mistral

Synopsis: Italian screen goddess Sophia Loren made her American film debut with this glossy romantic adventure set (and partially filmed) on the Greek island of Hydra. Phaedra (Loren) is a female sponge diver who, while combing the waters, discovers the wreckage of a sunken ship with a number of fascinating Read More

The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Actors: Jennifer Jones, John Gielgud, Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Susan Stephen, Jean Anderson

Synopsis: First filmed in 1934 with Norma Shearer, Fredric March and Charles Laughton, Rudolf Bessier's stage hit The Barretts of Wimpole Street was lavishly remade in CinemaScope and Metrocolor in 1957. This time around, Jennifer Jones stars as the beautiful invalid Elizabeth Barrett, who lives under the Read More

Abandon Ship

Actors: Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, Stephen Boyd, Moira Lister

Synopsis:
In this supenseful and provocative high-seas drama, the captain of a luxury liner is suddenly faced with life or death decisions when his ship sinks, leaving himself and a few survivors floating at sea in an overcrowded lifeboat that does not contain enough food, water and medical supplies to Read More

The Man Who Never Was

Actors: Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin, Stephen Boyd

Synopsis: The Man Who Never Was is the true story of how the Allies threw the Nazis off track in planning the invasion of Sicily. The British Royal Navy exhumes the corpse of a man who died of natural causes, arranging to make it appear as though the dead man was a special services operative carrying the Read More

Lust for Life

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, James Donald, Pamela Brown, Everett Sloane

Synopsis: This filmed biography of Vincent Van Gogh was adapted by Norman Corwin from the best-selling novel by Irving Stone, which was in turn inspired by the written correspondence between Van Gogh and his brother Theo. Kirk Douglas plays the tormented genius, whose obsessive devotion to his art engulfs Read More

The Extra Day

Actors: Richard Basehart, Simone Simon, George Baker, Josephine Griffin, Colin Gordon

Synopsis: The Extra Day is a portmanteau film in the tradition of the earlier Derby Day. The ball gets rolling when Joe Blake (Richard Basehart), the assistant to film director Kurt Vorn (Laurence Naismith), routinely summons a group of movie extras for a few necessary retakes. The audience then Read More

Tiger in the Smoke

Actors: Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Tony Wright, Bernard Miles, Alec Clunes

Synopsis: In this British crime drama, an escaped killer heads for the French coast to find a mysterious treasure reportedly buried in a widow's mansion. The lonely widow is preparing to marry a man she doesn't love. Suddenly she begins receiving mysterious photos of her late spouse; they seem to suggest Read More

The Final Column

Synopsis: This crime drama is made up of two different tales of murder gone awry. In the first episode, an angry man plans a murder/suicide to protect his daughter from an extortionist. In the other story, a vengeful doctor hypnotizes his wife's unsuspecting lover and suggests that he break into her room Read More

The Dam Busters

Actors: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Stanley van Beers, Derek Farr, Raymond Huntley, Patrick Barr

Synopsis: The British The Dam Busters is the story of the development and utilization of the "bouncing bombs" in World War II. Michael Redgrave stars as Dr. Barnes Wallis, who developed these unorthodox explosives. Wallis' invention is put to practical use during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams in Read More

Richard III

Actors: Cedric Hardwicke, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Nicholas Hannen, Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Alec Clunes

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier was the director, co-screenwriter (with Alan Dent), and star of this robust adaptation of Shakespeare's drama, which, as Bruce Eder has written, "was the final, crowning glory of the British studio system and the end of the great cycle of British films aimed at international Read More

Josephine and Men

Actors: Glynis Johns, Jack Buchanan, Donald Sinden, Peter Finch, Heather Thatcher

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a womanizing uncle tells the story of his good-hearted but fickle niece, whose tendency to always champion the underdog causes her endless romantic woes. It all begins when she breaks up with her fiance on the eve of their wedding so she can marry and help out a Read More

The Black Knight

Actors: Alan Ladd, Peter Cushing, Harry Andrews

Synopsis: Alan Ladd once more journeyed to England to make a film for Columbia's British counterpart (Warwick Studios), and the result was the lively swashbuckler The Black Knight. Ladd plays John, a young swordmaker who aspires to join the Knights of the Round Table. Unfortunately, he is falsely accused of Read More

Carrington V.C.

Actors: David Niven, Margaret Leighton, Noelle Middleton, Laurence Naismith, Clive Morton, Mark Dignam

Synopsis: Dorothy and Campbell Christie's witty courtroom comedy/drama Carrington V.C. was given a classy screen treatment by director Anthony Asquith. David Niven stars as Major Carrington, a war hero who is "kicked upstairs" in peacetime. Compelled to use his own money for his expense account, Carrington Read More

The Beggar's Opera

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Stanley Holloway, George Devine, Hugh Griffith, Daphne Anderson, Mary Clare, Athene Seyler

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier makes his singing debut in this lively adaptation of John Gay's 18th century theatrical piece The Beggar's Opera. Olivier stars as Captain MacHeath, the leader of all bandits and cutthroats in England. MacHeath is in love with Polly Peachum (Dorothy Tutin), the daughter of beggar 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

Mogambo

Actors: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Donald Sinden, Philip Stainton, Eric Pohlmann

Synopsis: The 1953 Clark Gable film Mogambo is a remake of Gable's 1932 seriocomic adventure Red Dust. Where the earlier film was lensed on the MGM backlot, Mogambo was shot on location in Africa by director John Ford. Gable is safari leader Victor Marswell, who plays "host" to stranded Eloise Y. Kelly (Ava Gardner Read More

Love in Pawn

Actors: Bernard Braden, Barbara Kelly, Tom Gill, Alan Robinson

Synopsis: This fanciful British farce stars Bernard Braden as an impoverished artist. The uncle of Braden's wife Barbara Kelly agrees to bankroll the couple if Braden will start making his work more commercial. Uncle sends an attorney over to the couple's house to assess their net worth. In order to pay for 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

Shoot First

Actors: Joel McCrea, Evelyn Keyes, Herbert Lom, Roland Culver, Marius Goring

Synopsis: Scripted by Eric Ambler from a novel by Geoffrey Household, the British Rough Shoot top-bills Hollywood stars Joel McCrea and Evelyn Keyes. McCrea plays Taine, an American colonel stationed in England. When he spots what appears to be a prowler, Taine tries to scare the fellow away with a round of Read More

Penny Princess

Actors: Yolande Donlan, Dirk Bogarde, Edwin Styles, Reginald Beckwith, Kynaston Reeves

Synopsis: Actress Yolande Donlon and her producer-director husband Val Guest were the prime movers of the 1952 comedy Penny Princess. Donlon plays Lindy Smith, a Manhattan shopgirl who inherits a mythical European kingdom. Upon learning that the country is flat broke, Lindy applies her Yankee ingenuity Read More

Whispering Smith vs. Scotland Yard

Actors: Richard Carlson, Greta Gynt, Herbert Lom, Rona Anderson, Alan Wheatley

Synopsis: Released in Britain as Whispering Smith Hits London, this economically produced whodunit stars Richard Carlson as famed pulp-novel amateur sleuth Whispering Smith. While vacationing in London, Smith becomes intrigued by a suicide case. He suspects that there's more to this than meets the eye, and Read More

His Excellency

Actors: Eric Portman, Cecil Parker, Helen Cherry, Susan Stephen, Edward Chapman

Synopsis: In this British drama a veteran laborer rises above the turmoil of unionization to become the governor of Artista, an industrial island that finds itself further embroiled in a terrible fight over low pay and terrible working conditions. A strike ensues, but the new governor remembers what it Read More

Mr. Lord Says No

Actors: Stanley Holloway, Kathleen Harrison, Naunton Wayne, Dandy Nichols, John Stratton

Synopsis: Mr. Henry Lord (Stanley Holloway) and his wife Lilian (Kathleen Byron) have been asked to move from their home to make room for the 1950 Festival of Britain. But Mr. Lord, as the title makes clear, has no intention of doing so. The government tries all sorts of persuasion and coercion, but ends up Read More

A Killer Walks

Synopsis: In this murder mystery, the trouble begins when one of two brothers kills his own grandmother so he can steal her fortune and use it to impress a sophisticated city girl. To make matters worse he frames his milque-toast sibling for his crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

I Believe in You

Actors: Cecil Parker, Celia Johnson, Harry Fowler, Joan Collins, George Relph

Synopsis: Inspired by the recent success of The Blue Lamp, I Believe in You is a multiplotted British drama about parole officers. Several short character vignettes pass our way as the film studies the various methods employed by the officers in dealing with their charges. The film settles upon Cecil Read More

Pool of London

Actors: Bonar Colleano, Susan Shaw, Renée Ashershon, Earl Cameron, Moira Lister

Synopsis: Bonar Colleano, who spent the war years playing featured roles in British films as likeably cocky Americans, heads the cast of Pool of London. Ever his brass, cheeky self, Colleano is cast as Dan MacDonald, a sailor who dabbles in a bit of smuggling, just for the fun of it. The fun is over when he Read More

Hell Is Sold Out

Synopsis: In this farce, an enigmatic writer begins using the pen-name Lom, a popular writer believed dead. The dead writer "returns" to peruse his newest book, which he didn't write. He soon meets the woman who is using his name and after several engaging misdirections, the two fall in love and marry. Read More

High Treason

Actors: Liam Redmond, Andre Morell, Anthony Bushell, Kenneth Griffith, Patric Doonan

Synopsis: High Treason is a British espionage thriller filmed in the style of such American "docudramas" as The House on 92nd Street. Enemy saboteurs infiltrate the industrial suburbs of London, intending to plant high-powered bombs at several factory sites. Their motivation is to cripple the British Read More

Chelsea Story

Synopsis: This crime drama follows the struggles of a reporter who finds himself accused of murder after he makes a bet and breaks into a house. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Happiest Days of Your Life

Actors: Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, John Turnbull, Joyce Grenfell, Richard Wattis, Guy Middleton, Edward Rigby

Synopsis: A battle of the sexes begins to rage in an isolated private school in this charming British comedy. Just outside of London during World War II, Axis bombing forces the evacuation of a private all-girls school, St. Swithins. Thanks to a bureaucratic mix-up, the girls of St. Swithins and their Read More

Train of Events

Actors: Jack Warner, Valerie Hobson, John Clements, Irina Baronova, Peter Finch, John Gregson, Joan Dowling

Synopsis: The British Train of Events explores the consequences of a railroad accident from four different viewpoints. Jack Warner plays the engine driver, whose daughter's boy friend is responsible for the crash. Peter Finch plays a homicidal actor whose "perfect murder" of his wife is thwarted by the Read More

Room to Let

Synopsis: In this spooky thriller set in Victorian England, during the time Jack-the-Ripper was running amok, an invalid widow and her daughter run a boarding house. One day a man claiming to be a physician appears and lets a room. Soon he has the women terrorized and imprisoned in their home because they Read More

Badger's Green

Synopsis: Originally filmed in 1934 (see entry 84314), R.C. Sheriff's venerable stage comedy Badger's Green was given another screen treatment in 1949. The plot is the same as before: a group of villagers revolt when their precious cricket field is threatened with demolition by a fat-cat business firm. Most Read More

Dark Secret

Synopsis: In this crime melodrama, a young couple moves into a charming rural cottage. There the wife becomes fixated upon the mysterious demise of the earlier occupant. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Trouble in the Air

Synopsis: Like such later American programmers as Rock Around the Clock, the British Trouble in the Air is essentially an excuse to parade popular radio entertainers before the cameras. The plot is but a sliver: When a team of small-town bellringers is picked to perform over the BBC, their village is Read More