Ronald AdamFilmography

The Ruling Class

Actors: Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim, Arthur Lowe, Harry Andrews, Coral Browne

Synopsis: An institutionalized schizophrenic with a Messiah complex inherits the position of an English Earl in this cutting satire of British society, based on a play by Peter Barnes. The film's irreverent tone is established with the disturbingly hilarious death of the thirteenth Earl of Gurney during a Read More

Zeppelin

Actors: Michael York, Elke Sommer, Peter Carsten, Marius Goring, Anton Diffring

Synopsis: Set during World War I, Zeppelin stars Michael York as Geoffrey Richter-Douglas, a British defector who goes to work in the fledgling German airship industry. In truth, Richter-Douglas is a spy, who has feigned defection in order to steal the plans for the revolutionary new Zeppelin. Our hero goes Read More

Song of Norway

Actors: Toralv Maurstad, Florence Henderson, Christina Schollin, Frank Porretta, Harry Secombe, Robert Morley

Synopsis: This musical biography of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (Torval Maurstad) is based on the play of the same name. Living in poverty after graduating from a music conservatory, Grieg scandalizes his family by marrying his cousin Nina (Florence Henderson). Grieg has an affair with a former Read More

Who Killed the Cat?

Synopsis: Three elderly spinsters become amateur detectives when someone poisons their beloved cat in this strange drama. The three determine the murder was committed by their mean old landlady. With an eye-for-an-eye attitude, they decide to poison her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Tomb of Ligeia

Actors: Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd, John Westbrook, Oliver Johnston, Derek Francis

Synopsis: Once again Vincent Price stars for director Roger Corman in The Tomb of Ligeia, the last of Corman's eight Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, a film graced by a script by Robert Towne and moody cinematography by Nicolas Roeg. Price has the creepy lead role of Verden Fell. In 1821, when Verden's wife Read More

Avengers: Second Sight

Synopsis: Steed is assigned to transport a shipment of live corneas to Switzerland to be used in a delicate eye-graft operation. But when one of the surgeons involved is murdered, Steed and Cathy uncover a sinister plot involving a sightless millionaire (John Carson). Also figuring in on the proceedings is Read More

The Haunting

Actors: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, Lois Maxwell

Synopsis: One of the most highly regarded haunted house films ever produced, Robert Wise's The Haunting (based on Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House) weaves the dark tale of a questionably sane young woman and a sinister house which holds a terrifying past. Invited to join anthropologist Dr. Read More

The Golden Rabbit

Synopsis: Timothy Bateson stars as a timorous bank clerk who fancies himself a brilliant scientist. Experimenting with alchemy in his spare time, Bateson stumbles across a method of manufacturing gold. Naturally, a group of unscrupulous businessmen gets wind of Bateson's marvelous discovery, and do their Read More

Satan Never Sleeps

Actors: William Holden, Clifton Webb, France Nuyen, Athene Seyler, Martin Benson

Synopsis: Director Leo McCarey returned to the religious themes of his classics Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) for this action drama, his final film. William Holden stars as Father O'Banion, a Catholic priest assigned to relieve the retiring Father Bovard (Clifton Webb) at a mission Read More

Postman's Knock

Actors: Spike Milligan, Barbara Shelley, John Wood, Archie Duncan, Wilfred Lawson

Synopsis: In this routine, slapstick, frenetic tale, British comic Spike Milligan stars as Harold Petts, a rural mailman with a sudden promotion that ends up getting him into a lot of trouble. Harold is supposed to be trained behind the scenes at London's busiest post office but even after his first day in Read More

Two Letter Alibi

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a TV star tries to prove that her lover did not murder his boozy wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Three on a Spree

Actors: Jack Watling, Carole Lesley, Renee Houston, John Slater, Colin Gordon

Synopsis: In this comedy, a young man stands to inherit a vast fortune, but first he must spend a small fortune in two months. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Offbeat

Actors: William Sylvester, Mai Zetterling, John Meillon, Anthony Dawson, Neil McCarthy

Synopsis: In this mystery, a Scotland Yard agent must break up a ring of jewel thieves. He goes undercover and successfully infiltrates the gang, but trouble begins when he finds himself falling for one of the late gang members' widows, and she learns his real identity. She threatens to expose him until he Read More

Shoot to Kill

Synopsis: In this spy thriller clever reporters outfox Communist spies who have come to Geneva to learn more about Western nuclear science. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

And the Same to You

Synopsis: An A.P. Dearsley stage play was the basis for the seven-reel British comedy And the Same to You. Brian Rix stars as the pugnacious nephew of clergyman Sydney Mullett. Stuck with the name "Dickie Dreadnought," Rix feels he has no choice but to pursue a career as a boxer. To mollify his uncle, Rix Read More

Snowball

Synopsis: A little boy learns the dangers of chronic lying the hard way in this thriller. He is only eleven when he tells a story that causes a neighbor, an ex-POW with amnesia, to die. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Please Turn Over

Actors: Ted Ray, Jean Kent, Leslie Phillips, Julia Lockwood

Synopsis: Please Turn Over is an updated British variation on a theme put forth by the old Hollywood film Theodora Goes Wild. A bored young teenage girl (Julia Lockwood) causes a scandal when she pens a torrid bestseller. Those close to the girl recognize themselves as characters in the book; all they can Read More

Carlton-Browne of the F.O.

Actors: Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Luciana Paluzzi, Thorley Walters, Ian Bannen

Synopsis: This is an uneven though occasionally hilarious comedy about a remote British colony and diplomatic blunders. Terry-Thomas as a British diplomat and Peter Sellers as a nasty, vile Prime Minister on the island, tend to overshadow the roles they are playing. Carlton-Browne (Terry-Thomas) is sent to Read More

The Man Who Could Cheat Death

Actors: Anton Diffring, Hazel Court, Christopher Lee, Arnold Marle, Delphi Lawrence

Synopsis: After emerging as a potent force in the genre with Horror of Dracula, Hammer Films added their handsome Gothic touch to this lesser-known remake of the 1944 suspenser The Man in Half Moon Street (itself adapted from a play by Barre Lyndon). Anton Diffring stars as a century-old artist who Read More

Kill Me Tomorrow

Synopsis: In this sad drama, a boozy reporter must cope with a series of personal disasters begin with the death of his wife in a car crash. Next he loses his job. Finally he learns that his son must have a $5,000 eye operation in Switzerland. In desperation he decides to ask his old boss for his job back. Read More

The Inbetween Age

Actors: Lee Patterson, Mary Steele, Linda Gray, Ronald Adam

Synopsis: In this lightweight drama, an adventurous couple endeavors to open a coffee bar and record production company. They begin searching for a recording star to promote. Their first choice is their own handyman, a bit of an amateur singer. He and some of the other new singers for the company hit the Read More

Million Dollar Manhunt

Synopsis: The British Assignment Redhead stars Hollywood's Richard Denning as a devil-may-care secret agent. The blonde Denning is, of course, not the redhead of the title: that honor goes to luscious nightclub vocalist Carole Mathews. The girl is up to her pretty neck in intrigue, thanks to a $12 million Read More

Carry on Admiral

Actors: David Tomlinson, Peggy Cummins, Brian Reece, Eunice Gayson, A.E. Matthews

Synopsis: The grass is always greener.... In this British comedy, two drunken comrades find out the truth of that saying when they decide to trade places for a while. One of the boozers is a public relations man who knows nothing about sailing, while the other is a captain for the Royal Navy. Riotous comic Read More

The Surgeon's Knife

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a surgeon overcomes his humble beginnings to become a renowned physician. His success is threatened when he messes up during an operation and a patient dies. To save his career, the desperate doctor kills the two assistants who saw the mistake. He then prepares to murder his Read More

Sea Wife

Actors: Joan Collins, Richard Burton, Basil Sydney, Cy Grant, Ronald Squire

Synopsis: In this melodramatic adventure set after the British evacuated Singapore in 1942, a ship is torpedoed and only four people survive. They are a nun, an RAF officer, a godless bigoted business magnate, and a black purser. The four drift for days before getting themselves washed up on a small desert 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

Cash on Delivery

Actors: Shelley Winters, John Gregson, Peggy Cummins, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Mona Washbourne

Synopsis: Time is of the essence in this comedy when an American cabaret singer learns that she is in line for a large inheritance. The money will be hers if her ex-husband cannot produce a son by a given date. She immediately takes off to London to find him. Unfortunately, she discovers that his new wife 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

Tons of Trouble

Synopsis: In this comedy, a custodian names the apartment boilers he maintains "Mavis and Ethel." The trouble begins when he loses his job and then finds himself sought after by a wealthy man who needs him so he can close an important deal. Meanwhile, temperamental Ethel begins to go haywire. Fortunately 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

Reach for the Sky

Actors: Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow, Lyndon Brook, Lee Patterson, Alexander Knox

Synopsis: One of the many inspirational true stories told about WWII, this is the story of Douglas Bader, an undauntable character who was involved in an accident which cost him both of his legs. Despite this, he became a WWII squadron commander and was a hero during the Battle of Britain. Shot down over Read More

A Private's Progress

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Terry-Thomas, Ian Carmichael, Peter Jones

Synopsis: The Boulting Brothers enjoyed one of their biggest box-office successes of the 1950s with the wry service comedy Private's Progress. Though billed fourth, Ian Carmichael plays the central character, feckless British soldier Stanley Windrush. Interrupting his college education to serve his country Read More

Escape by Night

Synopsis: In this action-filled crime drama, a tough journalist relentlessly pursues a fleeing racketeer. When the gangster realizes that he is being pursued, he captures the reporter and then goes after his moll whom he suspects of ratting on him. The reporter escapes and rescues the girl. Meanwhile, the Read More

Front Page Story

Actors: Jack Hawkins, Elizabeth Allan, Eva Bartok, Derek Farr, Michael Goodliffe

Synopsis: In this newsroom drama, a workaholic editor refuses to take a vacation with his wife. Instead he remains in his office and deals with a series of fascinating stories. They include: four children tossed out of their home, a woman accused of euthanasia, an alcoholic journalist's search for an atomic Read More

Johnny on the Spot

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a man wrongfully convicted of murder goes back home to find the real killer and clear his name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide 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

Circumstantial Evidence

Synopsis: In this courtroom drama a doctor's plan's to marry are thwarted by blackmail. He is expected to take the fall for the murder of his intended's ex-husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Million Pound Note

Actors: Gregory Peck, Jane Griffiths, Ronald Squire, Joyce Grenfell, Reginald Beckwith

Synopsis: Released in the US as Man With a Million, The Million Pound Note is a satisfying adaptation of a satirical short story by Mark Twain. Gregory Peck plays Henry Adams, an impecunious American living by his wits in London. Henry becomes the object of a wager between millionaire brothers Oliver and Read More

The Malta Story

Actors: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Steel, Muriel Pavlow, Flora Robson, Renée Ashershon

Synopsis: The Malta Story stars Alec Guinness as WW II camera reconnaissance pilot Peter Ross. Crash-landing in Malta, Ross presents his photographs to the resident air officer (Jack Hawkins). The photos reveal that the Italians are planning a major invasion of the island. Low on fuel and men, the officer Read More

Flannelfoot

Synopsis: The title is explained during the course of the British Flannelfoot. We'll just say here that the film stars Jack Watling as a crime reporter, hot on the trail of a jewel thief. When his informant is murdered, Watling goes after the crook himself. He proves a thorn in the side to investigating Read More

Holiday Week

Synopsis: Jenny, a pretty, independent, factory worker takes a holiday in Blackpool with her friend Mary. She has a week-long affair with Alan, the mill-owner's son, and attempts to conceal it with the collusion of her roommate. This stratagem backfires when Mary is killed. When both sets of parents learn Read More

Mr. Potts Goes to Moscow

Actors: George Cole, Oscar Homolka, Nadia Gray, Frederick [Fritz] Valk, Geoffrey Sumner

Synopsis: Top Secret gets under way when George (George Cole), a janitor in a research plant, accidentally comes into possession of the plans for a revolutionary atomic weapon. As George embarks on his annual vacation, the research security team embarks on a nationwide search for the hapless broom-pusher. Read More

Angels One Five

Actors: Jack Hawkins, Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, Andrew Osborn, Cyril Raymond, Humphrey Lestocq

Synopsis: "Angels One Five" is the cognomen bestowed upon a group of WW II British fighter pilots. The squadron leader is Tiger Small (Jack Hawkins), who is taken out of commission after an accident. Despite the protests from his fellow flyboys, Tiger insists upon taking to the air again, thereby setting Read More

The Lavender Hill Mob

Actors: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass, Marjorie Fielding

Synopsis: Charles Crichton directed this Ealing caper comedy, with a witty script by T.E.B. Clarke that won an Academy Award. Alec Guinness is Henry Holland, an unassuming transporter of gold bullion who, after working for twenty years with no rewards in sight for his faithful service to his company Read More

Fortune in Diamonds

Actors: Jack Hawkins, Peter Hammond, Dennis Price, Gregoire Aslan, Charles Paton

Synopsis: The Adventurers is set in South Africa at the end of the Boer war. Commando Pieter Brandt (Jack Hawkins) comes across the dead body of a diamond courier. Brandt buries both the courier and his valuable cache of diamonds then heads back to his regiment. After the cessation of hostilities, Brandt Read More

Laughter in Paradise

Actors: Alastair Sim, Fay Compton, Guy Middleton, George Cole, Hugh Griffith, Beatrice Campbell

Synopsis: Four relatives find themselves going to unusual lengths to inherit a fortune in this British comedy. Henry Russell (Hugh Griffith) was a practical joker all his life, and his sly sense of humor is hardly stilled by his death; when his four closest relatives gather for the reading of the will, they Read More

The Obsessed

Actors: David Farrar, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Roland Culver, Jean Cadell, Mary Merrall

Synopsis: Obsessed was based on the William Dinner-William Moray play The Late Edwina Black, which also served as the film's original British title. The play had a cast of four: a Scotland Yard inspector, a schoolteacher, the schoolteacher's illicit lover, and his late wife's housekeeper. The film expands 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

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

Captain Horatio Hornblower

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

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

I'll Never Forget You

Actors: Tyrone Power, Ann Blyth, Michael Rennie, Beatrice Campbell, Dennis Price

Synopsis: I'll Never Forget You is an updated remake of 1933's Berkeley Square; both films used John L. Balderston's stage play as a launching pad. Tyrone Power stars as an American atomic scientist working in London. He lives in an ancestral home which dates back to the 18th century. Late one rainy Read More

Seven Days to Noon

Actors: Barry Jones, Olive Sloane, Andre Morell, Sheila Manahan, Hugh Cross

Synopsis: Barry Jones stars as an idealistic British professor working on atomic research. Upset by the apocalyptic ramifications of his work, Jones constructs his own bomb and threatens to blow up London within one week. His terms: Stop the atomic research or suffer the consequences. As London is Read More

Operation X

Actors: Nora Swinburne, Peggy Cummins, Richard Greene, Finlay Currie, Ronald Adam

Synopsis: Denied steady work in the U.S. because of his alleged left-wing political beliefs, Edward G. Robinson was obliged to seek out film roles elsewhere in 1950. My Daughter Joy stars Robinson as self-made businessman George Constantin, whose ruthlessness knows no bounds. In fact, Constantin hopes to Read More

Shadow of the Past

Synopsis: In this murder mystery, a woman pretends to be her murdered sister's ghost in an effort to catch the killer. She is assisted by a stranger. Later the two discover that it was the brother-in-law who committed the crime and together they get their revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Christopher Columbus

Actors: Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, Francis L. Sullivan, Linden Travers, Kathleen Ryan, Derek Bond

Synopsis: Reverent to the point of tedium, Christopher Columbus stars Fredric March in the title role, and he's welcome to it. March's wife Florence Eldredge co-stars as Queen Isabella, who finances Columbus' expedition to find a westward route to India. After several reels devoted to table-top miniatures Read More

Under Capricorn

Actors: Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding, Sr., Margaret Leighton, Cecil Parker

Synopsis: Returning to his old Elstree Studios headquarters in England, Alfred Hitchcock did his best with Hume Cronyn's adaptation of the James Bridie novel Under Capricorn. Costume drama was never Hitchcock's forte, as proven by his disappointing Jamaica Inn (1939), but Capricorn does have its moments. Read More

Black Magic

Actors: Orson Welles, Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff, Frank Latimore

Synopsis: Gregory Ratoff is listed as sole director of the 1949 Orson Welles starrer Black Magic, but it is now common knowledge that Welles directed most of this lavish costumer himself. Told in flashback, the film recounts the life and times of notorious 18th-century hypnotist/magician/scam artist Read More

Obsession

Actors: Robert Newton, Sally Gray, Naunton Wayne, Phil Brown, Michael Balfour

Synopsis: Blacklisted in Hollywood, director Edward Dmytryk managed to find work in England. Dmytryk's Obsession is based on Alec Coppel's suspense play A Man About a Dog. Robert Newton stars as Dr. Clive Riordan, the insanely jealous husband of unfaithful Storm Riordan (Sally Gray). Aware that Storm is Read More

The Bad Lord Byron

Actors: Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Mai Zetterling, Sonia Holm, Linden Travers

Synopsis: George Gordon, aka Lord Byron, the clubfooted 19th-century poet with the uncontrollable libido, is played by Dennis Price in this lavish British chocolate-box epic. From the vantage point of his deathbed, Byron recalls his life and many loves, imagining that he's pleading his case before a Read More

If This Be Sin

Actors: Roger Livesey, Myrna Loy, Peggy Cummins, Richard Greene, Elizabeth Allan, Gerard Heinz

Synopsis: The British That Dangerous Age is based on Autumn, a play by Margaret Kennedy and Ilya Surgutchoff. Myrna Loy heads the cast as Lady Brooke, the wife of famed barrister Sir Brian Brooke (Roger Livesay). Neglected by her husband, Lady Brooke inaugurates an affair with a younger man. Meanwhile Read More

The Case of Charles Peace

Synopsis: This British crime drama offers a freely adapted account of the notorious, daring burglar who became a killer and later paid for his crimes with his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Diamond City

Actors: David Farrar, Honor Blackman, Diana Dors, Niall MacGinnis, Andrew Crawford

Synopsis: Diamond City is a British "western", set not in Australia as was often the case but in the wilds of South Africa. David Farrar is a lawkeeper sworn to lawkeep in the diamond mines. The poachers thereabouts try their luck at circumventing Farrar, but he's too fast for them. The final shootout isn't Read More

All over the Town

Actors: Norman Wooland, Sarah Churchill, Cyril Cusack, Ronald Adam, Bryan Forbes

Synopsis: Norman Wooland, who in 1948 made an excellent impression as Horatio in Olivier's Hamlet, is awarded top billing in the 1949 British comedy All Over the Town. A gentle satire of provincial politics, the film stars Wooland as ex-soldier Nat Hearn, who returns to his newspaper job after the war. Read More

Counterblast

Synopsis: Nazi war criminal Bruckner (Mervyn Johns) manages to escape capture at the end of WW II. Bruckner sets up shop in England, where he continues his diabolical germ-warfare experiments. Murdering an Australian physician, the regenerate Nazi assumes the dead man's identity to escape detection. His Read More

Take My Life

Actors: Hugh Williams, Greta Gynt, Marius Goring, Francis L. Sullivan, Henry Edwards

Synopsis: Cinematographer Ronald Neame made his directorial debut with the 1947 murder melodrama Take My Life. When a Covent Garden violinist is found murdered, her ex-lover, show business manager Nicholas Talbot (Hugh Williams) finds himself under suspicion. The only person who believes that Talbot is Read More

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Actors: David Niven, Margaret Leighton, Morland Graham, John Laurie, Judy Campbell

Synopsis: In one of his rare visits to his home turf, British actor David Niven essayed the title role in Bonnie Prince Charlie. The film's principal challenge was to transform 18th-century Scottish Prince Charles into a sympathetic character, which, patriotism aside, he most decidedly was not in real life. Read More

The Phantom Shot

Green for Danger

Actors: Alastair Sim, Leo Genn, Trevor Howard, Sally Gray, Rosamund John, Judy Campbell

Synopsis: At a World War II emergency hospital, a postman dues under anesthetic during a relatively minor operation. One of the nurses who was present announces that the man's death was no accident, but a murder -- and then she, too, is murdered. The police are called in, led by Inspector Cockrill (Alastair Sim Read More

Journey Together

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Richard Attenborough, Hugh Wakefield, Jack Watling, David Tomlinson, Ronald Squire

Synopsis: Filmed in 1945 and released in the US the following year, the Anglo-American Journey Together is a tribute to the Royal Air Force, with several members of the RAF (and the acting profession) in prominent roles. The story follows the progress of two aspiring RAF pilots, cockney David Wilton (Sgt. Richard Attenborough Read More

Pink String and Sealing Wax

Actors: Mervyn Johns, Mary Merrall, Gordon Jackson, Sally Ann Howes, Googie Withers

Synopsis: The title is whimsical, but the storyline isn't. Googie Withers plays the frustrated wife of a 1880s Brighton tavern keeper, looking for an easy way out of the relationship. Withers entices a chemist's son to act as accomplice in a tricky murder scheme. She is certain that no one will suspect that Read More

Escape to Danger

Actors: Eric Portman, Ann Dvorak, Karel Stepanek, Ronald Ward, Ronald Adam

Synopsis: In this espionage film, a Danish double-agent is assigned by the Nazis to sneak into to England and abscond with the secret plans for a European invasion. Unbeknownst to the Nazis, the man is really and agent for the Allies. He is pursued by an English agent who exposes him. She then takes part in Read More

The Foreman Went to France

Actors: Tommy Trinder, Constance Cummings, Clifford Evans, Robert Morley, Gordon Jackson

Synopsis: Set near the beginning of WW II, this exciting war drama follows a courageous British factory foreman as he makes a dangerous foray into occupied France to recover three machine parts that will be vital to the Allies. He is accompanied by a pair of tough British soldiers and an American girl. Read More

House of Mystery

Actors: Kenneth Kent, Judy Kelly, Peter Murray Hill, Walter Rilia, Ruth Maitland

Synopsis: The modest but intriguing British melodrama At the Villa Rose was released in the U.S. by Monogram and given the more prosaic title House of Mystery. A gang of clever thieves kill a wealthy woman in hopes of stealing her gems. But the thieves aren't clever enough to ascertain the location of those Read More

The Lion Has Wings

Actors: Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, Flora Robson, Robert Douglas

Synopsis: The semidocumentary war film The Lion Has Wings states its case in broad strokes, juxtaposing images of rampaging German-dictator Adolf Hitler and appeasing British prime minister Neville Chamberlain with stock shots of bleating sheep. The film then depicts Great Britain as a great lion, willing Read More

Inspector Hornleigh

Actors: Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, Miki Hood, Wally Patch, Steven Geray

Synopsis: Inspector Hornleigh was the first of three lively British crime films inspired by the popular BBC radio serial "Monday Night at Eight". Hornleigh is played by Gordon Harker, while Alastair Sim assumes the comic-relief responsibilities inherent in the character of Sergeant Bingham. The "maguffin" Read More

Too Dangerous to Live

Actors: Sebastian Shaw, Anna Konstam, Reginald Tate, Greta Gynt, Ronald Adam

Synopsis: It took two directors to bring this modest British thriller to the screen. The story concerns a gang of international jewel thieves, headed by a "mystery man" who is never seen and who communicates with his minions through a microphone. Rival criminal Jacques LeClerq (Sebastian Shaw) gains the Read More

The Missing People

Actors: Will Fyffe, Kay Walsh, Lyn Harding, Ronald Shiner, Patricia Roc

Synopsis: Long after the company went out of business in the US, Grand National Pictures thrived in England, turning out such bread-and-butter features as The Missing People. Scottish comedian Will Fyffe once again plays Mr. Reeder, the seemingly bucolic Scotland Yard detective who's a lot shrewder than he Read More

Maxwell Archer, Detective

Actors: John Loder, Leucen MacGrath, Athole Stewart, Marta Labarr, Ronald Adam

Synopsis: Maxwell Archer, Detective was adapted from Hugh Clevely's novel Meet Maxwell Archer. John Loder plays the famed ficitional private detective whose greatest pleasure in life is to second guess Scotland Yard. Superintendent Gordon (Athole Stewart) calls Archer in to solve an apparently unsolveable Read More

Clouds over Europe

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Valerie Hobson, George Curzon, George Merritt

Synopsis: This British spy thriller concerns the theft of valuable aircraft secrets by enemy agents. Laurence Olivier plays a firebrand test pilot who falls under suspicion when several planes disappear. Costar Ralph Richardson steals the film as a seemingly befuddled secret service operative assigned to Read More

Hell's Cargo

Actors: Walter Rilia, Kim Peacock, Robert Newton, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Geoffrey Atkins

Synopsis: Filmed in 1935, the British Hell's Cargo finally received a US release in 1939, capitalizing on the recent outbreak of war in Europe. Most of the story takes place on a cargo ship, slowly inching its way through treacherous waters with a cargo consisting of a top-secret poison gas. When the ship's Read More

Kate Plus Ten

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a police inspector pursues a Lord's secretary suspected of stealing his gold bullion. She is the prime suspect because she is the leader of an infamous gang of thieves. The cops do not realize that the gang acted on their own accord. The secretary and the inspector then team Read More

The Drum

Actors: Sabu, Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Valerie Hobson, David Tree

Synopsis: The Drum is an opulent Technicolor "British India" epic, based on a story by A.E.W. Mason (of Four Feathers fame). Teenaged actor Sabu stars as a young East Indian prince educated in England. By rights, his loyalties should lie with his countrymen, but in typical "Sun Never Sets" fashion most of Read More

Strange Boarders

Actors: Tom Walls, Renée Saint-Cyr, Googie Withers, Ronald Adam, C.V. France

Synopsis: In this detective drama, a secret service agent is assigned to investigate the death of a bag lady who was discovered to be carrying highly classified airplane blueprints. He ends up taking a room at the boarding house where she lived. There he soon discovers that all of her housemates are part of Read More

Song of Freedom

Actors: Paul Robeson, Elisabeth Welch, George Mozart, Esme Percy

Synopsis: Along with The Emperor Jones, Song of Freedom is arguably the best of Paul Robeson's starring features. Robeson plays London dockworker John Zinga, obsessed with the urge to return to his African "roots" (this was nearly 40 years before Alex Haley!) Discovered by an operatic impresario, John Read More