Widely considered to be the definitive of the many film versions of Charles Dickens' classic novel is this 1951 British adaptation, starring Alastair Sim (entitled "Scrooge" in its U.K. release). Sim plays Ebenezer Scrooge, a London miser who, despite his wealth, refuses to make charitable contributions and treats his sole employee, Bob Cratchit, ...
Adapted from the novel by John Wyndham, this intelligent British monster movie begins with a meteor shower so intensely bright that it blinds the majority of the world's population, rendering them vulnerable to attack from hordes of carnivorous plants known as "Triffidus Celestus" grown from meteor-borne spores. As the plant-monsters continue to ...
Generally forgotten today, Romeo and Juliet is a satisfactory, if perfunctory, adaptation of Shakespeare's immortal tragedy. Cast as the "star cross'd lovers" this time out are Laurence Harvey, who's quite good, and Susan Shentall, who isn't. Whether or not Shentall would have improved with experience is a moot point, since she retired from the ...
Considered the greatest horror anthology film, the classic British chiller Dead of Night features five stories of supernatural terror from four different directors, yet it ultimately feels like a unified whole. The framing device is simple but unsettling, as a group of strangers find themselves inexplicably gathered at an isolated country estate, ...
A prosaic filmization of George Orwell's cautionary novel, 1984 is set in a futuristic totalitarian society where individuality is forbidden. The ruler is the never-seen "Big Brother," whose minions have monitored and bugged the activities of the populace so that no one can harbor any "subversive" thoughts. Edmond O'Brien plays Winston Smith, a ...
The San Demetrio is a British Merchant Marine vessel, traversing the Atlantic shipping channels in early 1940. The ship is disabled at sea, and thus left at the mercy of marauding Axis U-boats. The courageous crew manages to keep the San Demetrio afloat and guide it out of harm's way. San Demetrio, London is stylistically linked to the ...
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 of being a spy. Only his conspicuous courage ...
Director Walter Forde, a past master at blending mystery, melodrama and comedy (vide The Ghost Train and Bulldog Jack), is at his best with Saloon Bar. Most of the action takes place during one busy evening in an English pub, with a rich variety of believable comic characters weaving in and out of the scene. A murder is committed, and everyone ...
The Oracle stars Robert Beatty as a weary British reporter sent on assignment to Ireland. While in a remote village, Beatty hears a man's voice emanating from a deep well. The voice turns out to be a modern-day oracle, gifted with the ability to foresee the future. Needless to say, the once-sleepy village becomes a hub of activity for fortune ...
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 her husband has been poisoned by a undetectable ...
Will Hay, he of the pince-nez, outraged sniff, and overall demeanor of dignified incompetence, stars in (and codirects) another of his popular British comedies. In My Learned Friend, Hay is a seedy lawyer, one of several people targeted for death by a vengeful escaped convict. As the criminal's victims pile up, Hay can't help but feel a bit ...
The Bells Go Down is a dramatization of London firefighting efforts during the 1940 Blitz. In structure, the film is very much like any other smoke-eating melodrama, with perhaps more emphasis on comedy than usual. The omnipresence of the Luftwaffe gives the film an urgency that others in its genre tend to lack. Making it all the more remarkable ...
This lightweight British satire on Freudianism stars Cecil Parker as a prominent doctor and Anne Crawford as his psychiatrist wife. Parker and Crawford are taken aback when their innocent young son Anthony Lang draws a picture of a horse, with all necessary reproductive equipment lovingly detailed. While Parker is all for paddling his precocious ...
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