Rachel Kempson Filmography

Lorna Doone

Actors: Sean Bean, Rachel Kempson, Polly Walker, Billie Whitelaw

Synopsis: This British version of Lorna Doone is one of the more rewarding film adaptations of the venerable R. D. Blackmore novel. The plot remains as ever: Lorna (Polly Walker), a feisty 17th century Scots lass, falls in love with a much-despised landowner (Sean Bean). Lorna's father, a notorious brigand Read More

She's Been Away

Actors: Peggy Ashcroft, Geraldine James, James Fox, Jack Kyle, Rebecca Pidgeon

Synopsis: In her final film, celebrated British actress Peggy Ashcroft portrays one Lillian Huckle. Released from a mental institution after 60 years, Lillian is taken in her nephew (James Fox) and his somewhat trepidatious family. As they (and we) get to know Lillian better, the many social and emotional Read More

Stealing Heaven

Actors: Derek de Lint, Kim Thomson, Denholm Elliott, Bernard Hepton, Kenneth Cranham

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Marion Meade, this costume drama retelling of the doomed 12th century romance of Abelard and Heloise was directed by Clive Donner. Abelard (Derek de Lint) is a philosophy professor at the cathedral school of Notre Dame. Considered the greatest teacher in Paris at a time when Read More

Out of Africa

Actors: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Malick Bowens

Synopsis: Out of Africa is drawn from the life and writings of Danish author Isak Dinesen, who during the time that the film's events occured was known by her married name, Karen Blixen-Flecke. For convenience's sake, Karen (Meryl Streep) has married Baron Bor Blixen-Flecke (Klaus Maria Brandauer). In 1914 Read More

Camille

Actors: John Gielgud, Greta Scacchi, Colin Firth

Synopsis: Alexandre Dumas fis first dramatized his own novel La Dame aux Camelias in 1852. Before the century was out, the work had been transformed by Giuseppe Verdi into the opera La Traviata; before the next century was out, the Dumas book had been made into no fewer than 25 films. The 1984 Read More

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Actors: Alec Guinness

Synopsis: Alec Guinness stars as an elderly Brit who takes in his poor New Yorker grandson (Ricky Schroeder) in this made-for-TV modern-day retelling of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Kate, the Good Neighbour

Synopsis: Rachel Kempson stars in Kate, the Good Neighbour as an ailing seventy-year-old British woman. Unable to take care of herself, she begins relying upon the kindness of her neighbor. The relationship between the two women takes several surprising twists and turns before the film's alotted 95 minutes Read More

Love for Lydia

Actors: Mel Martin, Jeremy Irons, Christopher Blake, Peter Davison

Synopsis: Adapted from the novel by H.E. Bates, the British miniseries Love for Lydia featured Mel Martin in the title role. A young and giddy heiress, Lydia spent the better part of the 1930s holding several eligible bachelors in her thrall. Meanwhile, long-suffering Edward Richardson (Christopher Blake) Read More

Jane Eyre

Actors: George C. Scott, Susannah York, Ian Bannen, Jack Hawkins, Nyree Dawn Porter

Synopsis: Charlotte Bronte's classic Victorian novel is once again put through the paces, this time by Delbert Mann, in this stodgy Masterpiece Theater style television adaptation. Susannah York is Jane Eyre, the orphan girl who secures a position as a governess to the ward of Edward Rochester (George C. Scott Read More

Thank You All Very Much

Actors: Sandy Dennis, Ian McKellen, Michael Coles, John Standing, Peggy Thorpe-Bates, Eleanor Bron

Synopsis: Also titled A Touch of Love, this British drama concerns a woman who decides to keep and raise a baby born out of wedlock. Sandy Dennis stars as Rosamund Stacey, a graduate student who has an affair with a television broadcaster, George (Ian McKellen). When she learns that she is pregnant, her Read More

Two Gentlemen Sharing

Actors: Robin Phillips, Judy Geeson, Esther Anderson, Hal Frederick, Norman Rossington

Synopsis: A black Jamaican lawyer shares an apartment with a liberal white man in Two Gentlemen Sharing. Andrew (Hal Frederick), the lawyer, longs to become part of London's middle class while Roddy (Robin Phillips) is the waspish advertising executive who wishes to escape the problems caused by his Read More

The Virgin Soldiers

Actors: Lynn Redgrave, Hywel Bennett, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Patrick, Rachel Kempson

Synopsis: This situation comedy finds rookie soldiers of the British Army trying to cope with military life while stationed in Malaya. Brigg (Hywel Bennett) is a young clerk who falls for the local school teacher Phillipa (Lynn Redgrave), the daughter of Royal Sergeant Major Raskin (Nigel Patrick). Brigg Read More

Suspect

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Actors: Trevor Howard, Vanessa Redgrave, John Gielgud, Harry Andrews, Jill Bennett

Synopsis: During the ill-fated charge of British troops at Balaclava in the Crimean War, loyal soldiers who blindly followed orders were led to certain death. This is the fifth time the story has been told on film, but the actual event is an afterthought to the main plot. Snobbish aristocrats and Read More

The Jokers

Actors: Michael Crawford, Oliver Reed, Harry Andrews, James Donald, Daniel Massey

Synopsis: Two brothers looking to avoid becoming pawns of the establishment come up with a better way of making a living -- through theft -- in this satiric comedy. David Tremayne (Oliver Reed) is a successful London architect, and his younger brother Michael (Michael Crawford) is weighing his options after Read More

Georgy Girl

Actors: James Mason, Alan Bates, Lynn Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling, Rachel Kempson

Synopsis: Georgy Girl is a bittersweet comedy drama about Georgy (Lynn Redgrave), a slightly overweight, working-class virgin in her early twenties who shares an apartment with the gorgeous, promiscuous Meredith (Charlotte Rampling). Georgy has never been the subject of the desire for any man until the Read More

Grand Prix

Actors: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Toshiro Mifune, Brian Bedford

Synopsis: There's a few million dollars' worth of star power and a nickel's worth of plot in the lavish race-car melodrama Grand Prix. Among the participants in this annual cross-continent competition are characters played by James Garner, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, and Antonio Sabato. Interested parties Read More

The Curse of the Fly

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Carole Gray, George Baker

Synopsis: This horror movie, the third and final entry in "The Fly" series, features a failed teleportation device, a mad scientist, a fugitive from a looney bin, and a closet full of mutants. The trouble begins again after a young woman escapes from a mental institution and ends up at the home of the Read More

The Third Secret

Actors: Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough, Diane Cilento, Pamela Franklin

Synopsis: TV commentator Stephen Boyd doesn't believe the official verdict of suicide in the death of a famed London psychiatrist. Boyd tries to get to the truth by studying a list of the shrink's patients. While interviewing three of these worthies (Jack Hawkins, Diane Cilento and Richard Attenborough) Read More

Tom Jones

Actors: Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood

Synopsis: Tony Richardson's adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel was one of the most critically acclaimed and popular comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film follows Tom Jones (Albert Finney), a country boy who becomes one of the wildest playboys in 18th Read More

The Sea Shall Not Have Them

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

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

The Captive Heart

Actors: Michael Redgrave, Rachel Kempson, Frederick Leister, Mervyn Johns, Jack Warner, Rachel Thomas, Basil Radford

Synopsis: The Captive Heart is set in a German POW camp for British soldiers. Michael Redgrave plays a Czech patriot, who has assumed the identity of a deceased British officer to avoid being executed by the Nazis. When captured and placed in the camp, the British prisoners suspect the still-incognito Redgrave Read More

A Woman's Vengeance

Actors: Charles Boyer, Ann Blyth, Jessica Tandy, Cedric Hardwicke, Mildred Natwick

Synopsis: A Woman's Vengeance concerns a "likely" murderer, Henry Maurier, played by Charles Boyer. It is no secret that Maurier is enamored with young Doris (Ann Blyth), but is his love for the girl motive enough for Maurier to murder his invalid wife? Only family friend Dr. Libbard (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) Read More

Jeannie

Actors: Barbara Mullen, Wilfred Lawson, Phyllis Stanley, Michael Redgrave

Synopsis: Barbara Mullen stars as Jeannie, a spirited Scots girl who comes into an inheritance. She heads for her family castle after encountering numerous adventures on a Continental holiday. Jeannie also finds romance in the form of handsome washing machine salesman Stewart Granger, who wins out over the Read More