Sam Kydd Filmography

The Shillingbury Blowers

Actors: Trevor Howard, Robin Nedwell, Diane Keen, Jack Douglas, Sam Kydd

Synopsis: An old-fashioned drama about old-fashioned values in an old-fashioned town called Shillingbury, this conventional film may not be quite the ticket for a more cynical, demanding audience (whatever their age). Pop musician Peter (Robin Nedwell) and his wife Sally (Diane Keen) take refuge in Read More

Yesterday's Hero

Actors: Ian McShane, Suzanne Somers, Adam Faith, Paul Nicholas, Sam Kydd

Synopsis: Jackie Collins screenplay falters in this so-so melodrama about a soccer player and his road to fame and fortune. Rod Turner (Ian McShane) is a has-been soccer whiz who one day gets a second chance to reach for the brass ring. He joins a team owned by a playboy rock star (Paul Nicholas) and Read More

Confessions of a Window Cleaner

Actors: Carole Augustine, Elaine Baillie, Christine Donna, Porjai Nicholas, Christopher Owen, Claire Russell

Synopsis: The British "Confessions" film series was reminiscent of the "Carry On" series, albeit far, far dirtier. Many fans consider the first entry, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, to be the best of the batch. Based on a supposedly autobiographical novel by Timothy Lea, the film stars Robin Askwith as an 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

10 Rillington Place

Actors: Ray Barron, Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt, Pat Heywood, Isobel Black

Synopsis: 10 Rillington Place is the true story of British mass murderer John Reginald Christie, played with chilling "normality" by Richard Attenborough. Throughout the late '40s, Christie lures middle-aged women to his London flat promising to cure their ailments with nitrous oxide, then kills them Read More

Too Late the Hero

Actors: Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Henry Fonda, Ian Bannen, Harry Andrews

Synopsis: Filmed on location in the Philippines, Suicide Run is the alternate title of the British war thriller Too Late the Hero. Cliff Robertson stars as an opportunistic, mildly cowardly US navy lieutenant who is reluctantly recruited for a suicide mission. When his CO is killed, Robertson is forced into Read More

Moon Zero Two

Actors: James Olson, Catherine Schell, Warren Mitchell, Adrienne Corri, Ori Levy

Synopsis: A spaceman -- with a raygun -- for hire takes on a crooked land baron in this drama that moves Western themes into outer space. In the year 2021, Bill Kemp (James Olson), the first man to walk on Mars, is an astronaut for hire, renting his services to the highest bidder. J.J. Hubbard (Warren Mitchell Read More

Alf 'n' Family

Synopsis: The British television series Til Death Do Us Part was the forerunner to the American TV hit All in the Family. The original series' Archie Bunker was Alf Garnett, a bigoted, profane cockney played by Warren Mitchell. The "Edith" was the dimwitted Else, portrayed by Dandy Nichols. The British Read More

Till Death Us Do Part

Actors: Warren Mitchell, Dandy Nichols, Anthony Booth, Una Stubbs, Liam Redmond

Synopsis: This film is taken from the popular British television series. Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) is a middle-aged bigot who loves the Queen and all that for which the kingdom (or what is left of it) stands, right or wrong. He puts up with his dizzy wife, Else (Dandy Nichols), his liberated daughter (Una Stubbs Read More

Smashing Time

Actors: Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave, Michael York, Anna Quayle, Irene Handl

Synopsis: Smashing Time attempts to turn British actresses Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave into a female Laurel and Hardy. The film's second mistake is to prolong the joke for 96 minutes. Tushingham and Redgrave play a couple of dimwitted North Country girls who head to London, in hopes of breaking into Read More

The Projected Man

Actors: Mary Peach, Bryant Halliday, Norman Wooland, Ronald Allen, Derek Farr

Synopsis: An experiment gone wrong gives new meaning to the saying "you can't get there from here" in this sci-fi drama. Professor Steiner (Bryant Halliday) is a scientist working on a machine that will "project" matter from one place to another; while he's making considerable progress, the device is not Read More

Island of Terror

Actors: Peter Cushing, Edward Judd, Carole Gray, Eddie Byrne, Sam Kydd

Synopsis: At a cancer research lab off the coast of Ireland, a group of scientists dies under mysterious circumstances. Before anyone notices their demise, the human and bovine inhabitants of the island's lone, tiny village begin to turn up dead -- with their bodies the consistency of tapioca pudding. Read More

Smokescreen

Synopsis: In this thriller, an insurance detective looks into a car crash and discovers that it is part of a scam. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Young Detective

The Swingin' Maiden

Circus Friends

Synopsis: In this British children's movie, a circus owner gives his children's pet pony to pay for the rental of the farmer's field. The inventive children immediately steal it back. During the next performance the horsey does such a good job that the big top owner pays the farmer his due and the kids get Read More

The Risk

Actors: Tony Britton, Virginia Maskell, Peter Cushing, Ian Bannen, Raymond Huntley

Synopsis: The Risk is a mild melodrama concerning the political aspects of germ warfare. A group of British scientists led by Peter Cushing develop a means of wiping out the bubonic plague and typhus. Unfortunately the method is variable enough to run the risk of spreading the very diseases it is designed Read More

The Secret of Monte Cristo

Actors: Rory Calhoun, Patricia Bredin, John Gregson, Peter Arne, Sam Kydd

Synopsis: In this romantic adventure set in Italy around 1815, a courageous soldier endeavors to find a hidden treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. He then escorts the daughter of a murdered explorer on a quest to find the map they need to locate the loot. The daughter doesn't trust the soldier, but Read More

The Clue of the Silver Key

Actors: Bernard Lee

Synopsis: This Edgar Wallace-based second feature headlines Bernard Lee, the beloved 5 of the James Bond pictures. Here Lee is a Scotland Yard inspector, baffled by a seemingly unrelated string of murders. The link between these homicides is the silver key of the title, which yields surprising results. It Read More

Follow That Horse!

Actors: David Tomlinson, Cecil Parker, Richard Wattis, Mary Peach, Dora Bryan

Synopsis: This romp through the comedic world of spy-chase stories starts with Dick Lanchester (David Tomlinson), a less-than-brilliant British diplomat, taking an atomic scientist to a NATO meeting. A simple escort service turns into disaster when the so-called scientist steals major secrets and escapes Read More

The Price of Silence

Synopsis: When an ex-con changes his name and tries to make a new start, everything seems to conspire against him in his efforts. First of all, he is trying to fend of the attentions of his boss' wife. Then, to make things worse, an ex-cellmate shows up and blackmails him by threatening to tell about his Read More

Life Is a Circus

Actors: Bud Flanagan, Teddy Knox, Jimmy Nervo, Jimmy Gold, Charlie Naughton

Synopsis: This zany film marks the screen debut of Britain's popular comedy troupe, The Crazy Gang. The story begins as the gang are busy sweeping up for the almost bankrupt circus they work for. The owner of a rival carnival endeavors to put them out of business for good. The Crazies manage to foil his Read More

Dead Lucky

Synopsis: Adapted from the book Lake of Darkness, the story concerns an innocent young man who tries his hand at gambling. After winning a bag of loot, he finds himself mixed up with a sorry bunch of undesirables. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

There Was a Crooked Man

Actors: Norman Wisdom, Alfred Marks, Andrew Cruickshank, Reginald Beckwith, Susannah York

Synopsis: In this British comedy, an amiable demolitions expert finds himself entangled with a band of criminals masquerading as doctors. In this guise, the thieves attempt to build a tunnel between the hospital and the bank next door. The expert successfully blows open the vault, and the criminals escape Read More

The House in Marsh Road

Synopsis: A short ghost story, this film is better than it looks at first glance. When Jean, the patient wife of novelist David, inherits a country house, it seems an ideal opportunity for David to complete his long-awaited book, even though the house harbors Patrick, a mischievous, family poltergeist. Read More

Strange Affection

Synopsis: An abused boy stands accused of killing his drunken father in this British drama. Fortunately two compassionate neighbors take him in and help to prove his innocence. The film is also called Scamp. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The 39 Steps

Actors: Kenneth More, Taina Elg, Brenda de Banzie, Barry Jones, Reginald Beckwith

Synopsis: This remake of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller does not have his flair for suspense, but director Ralph Thomas keeps the action moving, offers some comic highlights, and the story itself carries the 90-minute running time. Richard Hannay (Kenneth More) is at a vaudeville show when a shot rings out 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

I'm All Right Jack

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

Synopsis: Set in the 1950s in Britain, this award-winning social comedy by director and co-writer John Boulting features Ian Carmichael as the inept Stanley Windrush, a hopeless twit with -- we are to believe -- an Oxford degree. Unlike others in his social circle, Stanley wants to work. When he tries out Read More

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Actors: Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, Christopher Lee, Marla Landi, Miles Malleson, David Oxley

Synopsis: In the 17th century, the arrogant, cruel Hugo Baskerville (David Oxley) brutalizes a servant and prepares to turn the man's daughter over to his equally depraved companions, but she escapes. When he catches up with the girl in a ruined abbey, he kills her and then is attacked and killed himself by Read More

Law and Disorder

Actors: Michael Redgrave, Robert Morley, Ronald Squire, Elizabeth Sellars, George Coulouris, Joan Hickson

Synopsis: A father discovers that being a good role model for your son isn't always easy -- especially when you're a criminal -- in this bright British comedy. Percy Brand (Michael Redgrave) is an all-purpose con artist and small-time crook who makes a good living on the wrong side of the law but often Read More

Up the Creek

Actors: David Tomlinson, Peter Sellers, Vera Day, Liliane Sottane

Synopsis: Up the Creek is a mirthsome remake of the classic Will Hay comedy Oh, Mr. Porter (1937). Whereas the Hay film concerned an inept railroad stationmaster, the hero of the remake, Lt. Fairweather David Tomlinson, is an inept naval officer. Transferred to the HMS Berkeley, a decrepit WW2-vintage Read More

I Was Monty's Double

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

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

The Safecracker

Actors: Ray Milland, Barry Jones, Jeannette Sterke, Victor Maddern, Ernest Clark

Synopsis: Ray Milland doubles up as star and director of The Safecracker. Set during WW II, the film casts Milland as professional cracksman Colley Dawson, who is rescued from prison by Army major Adbury (Ernest Clark). Dawson is offered a deal: if he'll agree to embark upon a dangerous mission behind enemy Read More

Further up the Creek!

Actors: David Tomlinson, Shirley Eaton, Thora Hird, Lionel Jeffries

Synopsis: This hastily assembled sequel to the popular British service farce Up the Creek finds David Tomlinson returning in the role of Lt. Fairweather, skipper of the not-so-good ship Aristotle. This time, however, Fairweather's enterprisingly larcenous bos'un is played not by Peter Sellers but by Read More

Orders to Kill

Actors: Eddie Albert, Paul Massie, Lillian Gish, Irene Worth

Synopsis: The moral dilemma of a reluctant American spy is chronicled in this psychological drama. He becomes an agent after he, originally a pilot, is grounded during WW II. He is trained to assassinate a Paris lawyer suspected of colluding with the Nazis. During his rigorous training for the killing, the Read More

Happy Is the Bride

Actors: Ian Carmichael, Janette Scott, Cecil Parker, Joyce Grenfell

Synopsis: This soft-pedalled British comedy was adapted from Quiet Wedding, a play by Esther McCracken that had previous been filmed in 1940. On the eve of their nuptials, David (Ian Carmichael) and Janet (Janette Scott) have a serious falling out. It isn't really the couple's fault, however; as usual 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

Dangerous Exile

Actors: Louis Jourdan, Belinda Lee, Richard O'Sullivan, Martita Hunt

Synopsis: What if the Dauphin of France managed to escape the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution? That's the premise of the opulent British swashbuckler Dangerous Exile. Louis Jourdan stars as the Duc de Beauvais, who manages, at great personal sacrifice, to smuggle the son (Richard O'Sullivan) of Read More

The Smallest Show on Earth

Actors: Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Leslie Phillips, Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford

Synopsis: The Smallest Show on Earth is a gentle, frequently uproarious takeoff of Britain's neighborhood-cinema industry. Real-life husband and wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna star as Matt and Jean Spencer, a middle-class couple who inherit a decrepit movie house in a tiny railroad whistle stop. Read More

Just My Luck

Actors: Norman Wisdom, Jill Dixon, Leslie Phillips, Delphi Lawrence, Margaret Rutherford, Joan Sims

Synopsis: Norman Wisdom, Britain's much-funnier answer to Jerry Lewis, stars in Just My Luck. Wisdom plays a humble jewelry-store clerk who begins playing the horses, the better to raise enough money to buy a fancy gift for girlfriend Anne (Jill Dixon). Much to his surprise, Wisdom wins a fortune at the Read More

All at Sea

Actors: Alec Guinness, Irene Browne, Percy Herbert, Harold Goodwin, Maurice Denham

Synopsis: In this slapstick British comedy, a proud man from a family of seamen is so prone to seasickness that even the slightest aqueous movement makes him unbearably ill. The man's illustrious family history is witnessed from the Stone Age via flashback. To preserve his family's name and his own honor Read More

The Yangtse Incident

Actors: Richard Todd, William Hartnell, Akim Tamiroff, Donald Houston, Keye Luke

Synopsis: The Yangtse Incident is the saga of the Amethyst, a British vessel left stranded in China during the Communist takeover. The British government tries to reclaim the Amethyst, only to run up against a Great Wall of Red bureaucracy and propaganda. It is up to Lieutenant Commander Kearns (Richard Todd Read More

Jacqueline

Actors: John Gregson, Kathleen Ryan, Noel Purcell, Cyril Cusack

Synopsis: Jacqueline, played by Jacqueline Ryan, is the daughter of a Belfast shipyard worker Mike McNeil, played by John Gregson. The worker's worth is compromised by his crippling fear of heights. Dismissed from his job, he finds solace in the bottle. All seems hopeless until Jacqueline breaks through 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

Ramsbottom Rides Again

Synopsis: In this British parody of an American western, an Englishman travels to Canada to run the ranch he recently inherited from his grandfather, a crusty old sheriff. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hideout

Synopsis: In this thriller, a man discovers that the bank notes he has just received actually belong to someone else--a man who is attempting to save his near-bankrupt fur business by buying pelts infected with anthrax. Later the shady furrier is killed. The first man discovers that he was done-in by an Read More

Spin a Dark Web

Actors: Faith Domergue, Lee Patterson, Rona Anderson, Martin Benson, Robert Arden

Synopsis: Faith Domergue is the sweet-faced villainess in the murky British melodrama Spin a Dark Web. Domergue plays Bella Francesi, who with her brother Rico (Martin Benson) runs practically all illegal activities in London. The parallels between the Francesi and the Borgias are underlined at every Read More

It's a Wonderful World

Actors: Terence Morgan, George Cole, Kathleen Harrison, Ted Heath, James Hayter

Synopsis: No relation to the 1939 Claudette Colbert-James Stewart comedy of the same name, It's a Wonderful World is essentially a vehicle for British-based bandleader Ted Heath. The thinnish plot is set in motion by would-be songwriters Terence Morgan and George Cole, who manage to sell a tune by claiming Read More

Home and Away

Synopsis: In this comedy, the lives of two families get turned topsy-turvy when their respective young sons win a large football pool. The two share the winning ticket and the trouble begins when their parents get greedy and begin trying to devise way to get the hefty pot all to themselves. ~ Sandra Read More

The Third Key

Actors: Jack Hawkins, John Stratton, Dorothy Alison, Michael Brooke, Sam Kydd

Synopsis: Jack Hawkins is starred as a gruff, intensely dedicated Scotland Yard superintendent. Working as much by instinct as through scientific methods, Hawkins and rookie sergeant John Stratton tackle the case of a string of unsolved safecrackings, committed by the elusive Richard Leech. This Dragnet 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

The Ladykillers

Actors: Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Katie Johnson, Danny Green

Synopsis: Music professor Alec Guinness rents a London flat from sweet old lady Katie Johnson. He tells her that, from time to time, several other musicians will visit in order to rehearse. In truth, Guinness can't play a note, nor can his visitors: he's a criminal mastermind, holding court over a gang of Read More

Raising a Riot

Actors: Kenneth More, Shelagh Fraser, Mandy Miller

Synopsis: British actor Kenneth More's screen charisma helps smooth over the rough spots of Raising a Riot. More plays Tony, a young husband and father. When Tony's wife Mary (Shelagh Fraser) takes a trip to Canada, the hapless hubby is left in charge of their three precocious (to put it mildly) children. Read More

The Warriors

Actors: Errol Flynn, Joanne Dru, Peter Finch, Yvonne Furneaux, Patrick Holt

Synopsis: The Dark Avenger was the European-release title of the Errol Flynn swashbuckler The Warriors; 20th Century-Fox handled European distribution, while Allied Artists released the film stateside. Lensed on location in Hertfordshire, England, the film stars Flynn as Edward, the "Black Prince" of Read More

Passage Home

Synopsis: A Richard Armstrong novel was the source for the British sea melodrama Passage Home. Set in 1931, the film takes place aboard a merchant ship, briefly harbored in South America. A young woman (Diane Cilento) boards the ship as a passenger, resulting in disharmony among the superstitious crew Read More

A Kid for Two Farthings

Actors: Celia Johnson, Diana Dors, David Kossoff, Brenda de Banzie, Joe Robinson

Synopsis: In this sentimental comedy, Carol Reed tries for a bit of neo-realist whimsy that takes place in the London slums of Petticoat Lane. The film centers upon Joe (Jonathan Ashmore), a six-year-old London East-ender who believes strongly in the magical power of unicorns. Joe and his lonely mother Read More

You Can't Escape

Synopsis: In this thriller, a murderous writer kills his blackmailer and his ex-lover and then tries to convince his fiancee to help him hide the bodies. She does until she learns that he is planning to frame innocent people for his crimes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Constant Husband

Actors: Rex Harrison, Margaret Leighton, Kay Kendall, Cecil Parker, Nicole Maurey

Synopsis: Rex Harrison is The Constant Husband in this delightful British comedy. It all begins when amnesia victim Charles Hathaway (Harrison) tries to reconstruct his past with the aid of psychiatrist Llewellyn (Cecil Parker). Our hero would have been better off had his memory remained lost: Llewellyn Read More

The Quatermass Xperiment

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth, Margia Dean, David King-Wood, Gordon Jackson

Synopsis: A rocket crash-lands in England after a flight of more than 57 hours into deep space. The design of Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy), a forceful, misanthropic American scientist, the Q-1 had three astronauts aboard when it left Earth, but only one of them, engineer Victor Caroon Read More

The Glass Tomb

Synopsis: A carnival freak show provides the setting for this murder mystery. The trouble begins when the "Starving Man" the world's longest survivor of a fast is found dead inside his glass cage. It is later learned