Liz Smith Filmography

The Magic Flute

Actors: Joseph Kaiser, Amy Carson, Benjamin Jay Davis, Silvia Moi, Rene Pape

Synopsis: Acclaimed director Kenneth Branagh skillfully lifts one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most beloved works from it's original, fairytale setting and places it against the backdrop of the First World War with this impassioned, English-language adaptation staged to coincide with the 250th anniversary Read More

Keeping Mum

Actors: Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Patrick Swayze, Tamsin Egerton

Synopsis: Niall Johnson's comedy Keeping Mum concerns the family of a vicar who are beset by a variety of problems. Reverend Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson) is a well-meaning but hapless religious figure in his town. His son, Petey, is a wimp, forever terrorized at school. His daughter, Holly, enjoys the Read More

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Actors: Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Kay, Nicholas Smith, Clement Nicholas Smith, Liz Smith

Synopsis: Eccentric inventor Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis) and his faithful if often perplexed dog Gromit are back in their first feature-length adventure from animator Nick Park. Wallace and Gromit have launched a new business venture just in time for a major gardening competition in their neighborhood Read More

Oliver Twist

Actors: Ben Kingsley, Barney Clark, Jamie Foreman, Harry Eden, Leanne Rowe

Synopsis: Director Roman Polanski gives one of Charles Dickens' best-loved stories a new and dynamic interpretation in this period drama. Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) is a young orphan in Victorian England who has been sent to a dank workhouse run by the miserly Mr. Bumble (Jeremy Swift) when it is learned Read More

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Actors: Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor

Synopsis: Director Tim Burton brings his unique vision and sensibility to Roald Dahl's classic children's story in this lavish screen interpretation. Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) is the secretive and wildly imaginative man behind the world's most celebrated candy company, and while the Wonka factory is Read More

Dead Cool

Actors: Imogen Stubbs, Steven Geller, James Callis, Anthony Calf, Liz Smith

Synopsis: A fifteen year-old boy still recovering from the death of his father fantasizes that his deceased dad returns in ghostly form to put his new stepfamily to the ultimate test. Six years after David lost his father in a tragic car accident, his mother has moved on and found a new husband. But as Read More

Donovan Quick

Actors: Colin Firth, David Patrick O'Hara, Liz Smith, David Westhead

Synopsis: It's said that you can't take on City Hall, but one man takes a game stab at the bus company in this comedy-drama from the U.K. Donovan (Colin Firth) is a genial eccentric who arrives in the small Scottish town of Port Clyde and rents a room in the home of a woman named Lucy (Katy Murphy). Life Read More

Nicholas Nickleby

Actors: Charles Dance, James D'Arcy, Sophia Myles

Synopsis: This 2000 TV miniseries is based on an 1839 Charles Dickens novel, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. The film begins with the burial of Mr. Nickleby beneath snow-covered earth. Attending are Nickleby's wife and teenage children, Nicholas (James D'Arcy) and Kate (Sophia Myles). Because Read More

A Christmas Carol

Actors: Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Joel Grey, Ian McNeice, Saskia Reeves

Synopsis: Patrick Stewart stars as Ebeneezer Scrooge in this made-for-TV adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic holiday fable. Scrooge is a skinflint businessman who loathes the Christmas season and begrudges having to give time off to his best employee, Bob Cratchit (Richard E. Grant). On Christmas Eve Read More

Tube Tales

Actors: Kelly MacDonald, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Tom Bell

Synopsis: This omnibus film is both a tribute to 1990s Cool Britannia and an opportunity for many of Britain's best actors to step behind the camera. Set in the London's underground (AKA the Tube), the film's nine shorts depict England's most hallowed form of public transportation in wildly divergent Read More

Oliver Twist

Actors: Alex Crowley, Andy Serkis, Sam Smith, David Ross, Julie Walters, Roger Lloyd Pack, Michael Kitchen, Robert Lindsay

Synopsis: This 2000 television adaptation of Charles Dickens' Victorian classic was originally released as a six-hour, three-part miniseries on PBS. Adapted by Alan Bleasdale, this version of Oliver Twist gives viewers a new look at an old story, waiting 90 minutes to even introduce its eponymous hero Read More

Sweet Revenge

Actors: Sam Neill, Helena Bonham Carter, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rupert Graves, Martin Clunes

Synopsis: Telecast on American cable television as Sweet Revenge, this wickedly black comedy was produced for British TV under the title The Revengers' Comedies, which was also the name of the Alan Ayckbourn play collection upon which it was based. Late one night on London Bridge, two potential suicides Read More

Tom's Midnight Garden

Actors: Greta Scacchi, James Wilby, Joan Plowright, Anthony Way, David Bradley

Synopsis: This fantasy for younger audiences concerns Tom (Anthony Way), a 14-year-old English boy who in the 1950s is sent to live with his Aunt Gwen (Greta Scacchi) and Uncle Alan (James Wilby) after one of his siblings becomes seriously ill. Late one night, Tom makes a remarkable discovery -- after Read More

Keep The Aspidistra Flying

Actors: Richard E. Grant, Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Wadham, Jim Carter, Harriet Walter

Synopsis: Based on a novel by George Orwell, this satiric comedy concerns Gordon Comstock (Richard E. Grant), an advertising copywriter who fancies himself a poet. While Gordon has published a small volume of his verse that received faint words of praise in the press ("promising" was the most enthusiastic Read More

Karaoke

Actors: Albert Finney, Richard E. Grant, Julie Christie, Alison Steadman, Hywel Bennett

Synopsis: The line between reality and fiction becomes increasingly blurred as an ailing screenwriter struggles with a story that seems to come to life before his eyes. A self-destructive loaner whose battle with pancreatic cancer has left him embittered and in great pain, Daniel Feeld (Albert Finney) Read More

Secrets and Lies

Actors: Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Phyllis Logan, Timothy Spall, Claire Rushbrook

Synopsis: A family is forced to confront the personal issues they've been avoiding for years in this powerful, realistic drama. Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a working-class British woman whose life has been a long series of painful disappointments. She's single with no romantic prospects and a dead-end job Read More

Haunted

Actors: Aidan Quinn, Kate Beckinsale, Anthony Andrews, John Gielgud, Anna Massey

Synopsis: Adapted from the novel by James Herbert, this subtle, melancholy British chiller owes a great deal to Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. The story opens with a chilling prologue in 1905 England, in which a young boy fails to prevent the accidental drowning of his sister. As a young man, David (Aidan Quinn Read More

Murphy Brown: Dick and Dottie

Synopsis: Shelley Long makes her first appearance as Dottie Wilcox, one-half of the hosting team of the popular daytime talk show "Dick and Dottie" (based on guess-which syndicated talkfest). Unable to hide her disdain for the lightweight Dottie, Murphy (Candice Bergen) makes a catty comment about the woman Read More

Marilyn Monroe: Life After Death

Actors: Joyce Brothers, David Brown, Amy Greene, Hugh Hefner

Synopsis: This documentary is an homage to Marilyn Monroe, arguably the most famous sex-symbol of the 20th century. The film offers a loving examination of her enduring charm and chronicles the continued devotion of her fans. Rather than present the traditional chronological biography, the filmmakers have Read More

The Vicar of Dibley: Series 01

Actors: Dawn French, Gary Horton, Alice Tinker, James Fleet, Roger Lloyd Pack

Synopsis: With the dead of Dibley's ancient vicar Percy Pottle, the ultra-conservative Dibley Parish Council requests that the Bishop send out a replacement ASAP. Imagine the surprise of blustery Council Chairman David Horton (Gary Waldhorn) when the new vicar turns out to be a youthful, exuberant and Read More

Piccolo Grande Amore

Actors: Raoul Bova, David Warner, Susannah York, Paul Freeman

Synopsis: In this romantic fantasy, Liechtenhaus is one of those seldom-heard-of tiny European principalities. It is being ruled by Prince Max (David Warner), but the little country is nearly bankrupt. In fact, if he can't get an infusion of cash quickly, he may have to sell the royal palace to American Read More

Son of the Pink Panther

Actors: Roberto Benigni, Herbert Lom, Claudia Cardinale, Debrah Farentino, Jennifer Edwards

Synopsis: After the death of Peter Sellers in 1980, writer/director Blake Edwards assembled a new "Pink Panther" film from outtakes of Sellers as Inspector Clouseau from previous movies in the series (the result was called The Trail of the Pink Panther) and later made two attempts to revive the series with Read More

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Actors: Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer, Paul Reubens, Luke Perry

Synopsis: The idea of fusing teen sex-comedy and horror genres into a boffo box-office bonanza seems like classic braindead Hollywood-think... but somehow, beyond all reason, the makers of this film manage to pull it off. Much of the credit goes to director Fran Rubel Kuzui (Tokyo Pop) who chooses wisely to Read More

Nero

Actors: Sergio Castellitto, Chiara Caselli, Hugo Pratt

Synopsis: Bear witness to the rise of the most corrupt and ruthless ruler ever to preside over the Roman Empire as filmmaker Paul Marcus tells the tale of Nero's unlikely ascent to the throne, and his historical fall at the hands of his own vengeful kingdom. After murdering his sister's husband on grounds Read More

2.4 Children [TV Series]

Actors: Belinda Lang, Gary Olsen, Julia Hills, Clare Woodgate, Claire Buckfield

Synopsis: Debuting September 3, 1991 over BBC1, the long-running British sitcom 2.4 Children was all about an ostensibly typical family, the Potters. Despite their veneer of normality, the family invariably found itself experiencing all sorts of abnormal and surrealistic adventures, in the manner of the Read More

Dakato Road

Actors: Amelda Brown, Jason Carter, Charlotte Chatton, Alan Howard

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Actors: Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard, Tim Roth

Synopsis: This is probably Peter Greenaway's most famous (or infamous) film, which first shocked audiences at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and then on both sides of the Atlantic. A gang leader (Michael Gambon), accompanied by his wife (Helen Mirren) and his associates, entertains himself every night in a Read More

Dakota Road

Synopsis: In this finely observed low-key drama, Alan Brandon lives by himself. Compared to his employee Bernard, he's practically upper-crust, but in reality he is just a small property holder. He has had his eye on Bernard's abused wife and teen-aged older daughter for some time and has yearnings for some Read More

Apartment Zero

Actors: Colin Firth, Hart Bochner, Dora Bryan, Liz Smith, Fabrizio Bentivoglio

Synopsis: A withdrawn Beunos Aries movie buff develops an unusually charged relationship with his new roommate in this off-beat psychological thriller. Reclusive and demanding, movie theater owner Adrian LeDuc is none too happy when circumstances force him to share his apartment. His outlook begins to Read More

Bert Rigby, You're a Fool

Actors: Robert Lindsay, Cathryn Bradshaw, Robbie Coltrane, Anne Bancroft, Corbin Bernsen

Synopsis: Tony award-winning British musical comedy star Robert Lindsay makes his first important American film appearance in Bert Rigby, You're a Fool. Lindsay, of course, plays the title character, a coal miner who dreams of becoming a big showbiz star. Only problem is, there's very little demand for Bert Read More

We Think the World of You

Actors: Alan Bates, Gary Oldman, Max Wall, Liz Smith, Frances Barber

Synopsis: Set in sexually repressive 1950's London, We Think the World of You features actor Alan Bates as Frank, a gay middle-aged businessman whose lover Johnny (Gary Oldman) is married and in jail for burglary. While Johnny (Oldman) is behind bars, his beloved German shepard Evie becomes the center of a Read More

High Spirits

Actors: Daryl Hannah, Peter O'Toole, Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D'Angelo, Liam Neeson, Jennifer Tilly

Synopsis: The owner of an Irish castle decides to attract visitors by falsely claiming that the building is haunted, only to have a pair of real ancestral spirits start causing trouble in this uneven attempt at fantasy-comedy. The story centers on Jack and Sharon (played by Steve Guttenberg and Beverly D'Angelo Read More

Little Dorrit

Actors: Alec Guinness, Derek Jacobi, Cyril Cusack, Sarah Pickering, Joan Greenwood, Miriam Margolyes

Synopsis: Little Dorrit was intended as the cinematic equivalent to the mammoth, eight hour Royal Shakespeare Company's staging of Dickens' Nicholas Nickelby. The film was released to theatres in two parts, each running approximately three hours. The first part, subtitled "Nobody's Fault," introduced us to Read More

A Private Function

Actors: Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Liz Smith, Denholm Elliott, Richard Griffiths

Synopsis: A British couple's attempts to circumvent local food-rationing regulations trigger a chaotic series of events in this satirical comedy set in post-World War II England. The couple's scheme centers on a massive hog which has been illegally raised by a local farmer. Seeing a chance to capitalize on Read More

A Christmas Carol

Actors: David Warner, George C. Scott

Synopsis: Charles Dickens' classic holiday tale of one man learning the true meaning of Christmas is brought to the screen once again in this made-for-TV movie. Ebenezer Scrooge (George C. Scott) is a cynical old man whose greatest concern is money, and who regards compassion as a luxury he can't afford. On Read More

Separate Tables

Actors: Alan Bates, Claire Bloom, Julie Christie, Irene Worth

Synopsis: British filmmaker John Schlesinger directs Separate Tables, a made-for-cable TV version of the Terence Rattigan plays Table By the Window and Table Number Seven. This 50-minute adaptation features Julie Christie and Alan Bates, each in a dual role. Set in a sleepy British town, a group of Read More

Curse of the Pink Panther

Actors: Ted Wass, David Niven, Robert Wagner, Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley, Capucine

Synopsis: Curse of the Pink Panther was released just after Trail of the Pink Panther with a script that has someone looking for the inept Inspector Clousseau and the fabulous stolen Pink Panther diamond at the same time. In Curse, Clifton Sleigh (Ted Wass) is a New York retread of the bumbling Inspector Read More

Britannia Hospital

Actors: Leonard Rossiter, Graham Crowden, Malcolm McDowell, Joan Plowright, Jill Bennett

Synopsis: This dark comedy charts the chaos that results when the panicked staff of a major English hospital attempts to prepare for a visit by the Queen Mother, only to face every problem imaginable. Britannia Hospital clearly attempts to recapture the anarchic bite of director Lindsay Anderson's previous Read More

Crystal Gazing

The Trail of the Pink Panther

Actors: Peter Sellers, David Niven, Herbert Lom, Richard Mulligan, Joanna Lumley

Synopsis: Two years after the death of Peter Sellers, Blake Edwards tried to exhume his corpse in this pastiche of clips and out-takes from the old Pink Panther films. The plot concerns the legendary "Pink Panther" diamond which is once more stolen. Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is again enlisted to Read More

The French Lieutenant's Woman

Actors: Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Hilton McRae, Emily Morgan, Charlotte Mitchell

Synopsis: John Fowles' original novel The French Lieutenant's Woman was distinguished by a literary technique that involved telling a story of Victorian sexual and social oppression within the bounds of a 1970s viewpoint. How does one convey this time-frame dichotomy on film? The decision made by director Karel Reisz Read More

Sir Henry at Rawlinson End

Actors: Trevor Howard, Patrick Magee, Denise Coffey, J.G. Devlin, Harry Fowler

Synopsis: Trevor Howard is virtually the whole show in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End. He plays an eccentric-to-the-point-of-insanity nobleman whose love affair with the bottle is a long standing source of family embarrassment. Still, when the family mansion is plagued by an unfriendly ghost, Howard finds Read More

Agatha

Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Dalton, Helen Morse, Celia Gregory

Synopsis: What happened when best-selling mystery novelist Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days back in 1926? The British Agatha "answers" that question. Vanessa Redgrave is cast as Ms. Christie, who vanished from her home not long after her husband (Timothy Dalton) informed her that he was leaving her. Read More

It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet

Actors: John Alderson, Colin Blakely, Lisa Harrow, Bill Maynard, Paul Shelley

Synopsis: James Herriot wrote several well-loved books about his experiences as a small-town veterinarian in the Yorkshire countryside of Britain in the 1930s. One of them gave its title to the film All Creatures Great and Small. That family movie was so successful that this movie It Shouldn't Happen to a Read More

Hard Labour

Synopsis: Mrs. Thornley (Liz Smith) leads a rather miserable existence in Salford. She lives with her husband, Jim (Clifford Kershaw), a night custodian at a toy factory, and their grown daughter, Ann (Polly Hemingway). Mrs. Thornley is a maid who works for an imperious upper-middle class woman, Mrs. Stone Read More

Bleak Moments

Actors: Anne Raitt, Mike Bradwell, Eric Allen

Synopsis: Mike Leigh began his career as one of Britain's most interesting directors with this realistic drama about a woman looking for respite from an unsatisfying life. Sylvia (Anne Raitt) is a slightly overweight woman who works as a secretary and hasn't had much luck in romance. She shares her home Read More

Leo the Last

Actors: Marcello Mastroianni, Billie Whitelaw, Calvin Lockhart, Glenna Forster-Jones

Synopsis: Prince Leo (Marcello Mastroianni) is the exiled ruler from an unnamed country living on the edge of a London ghetto with his harridan mistress Margaret (Billie Whitelaw). While viewing birds through his telescope, he witnesses the struggles of his black neighbors to survive their harsh urban Read More