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SPOILER WARNING
The reviews on this page are typically of the type that describe the plot in detail. So if you don't want to know then best avoid looking.



All the Way Up (1970)  
Writer/Producer: Philip Mackie / Director: James MacTaggart
Type: Comedy Running Time: 93 mins
Fred Midway is a highly ambitious social climber who is always on the lookout for opportunities to improve his professional status to snobbishly impress his neighbours. He works as a salesman for Starlight Assurances and has just had his immediate superior dismissed by means of an anonymous letter to the managing director exposing an illicit affair. The company is managed by Mr Driver who steadfastly holds high the company's exacting standards of faultless morality which extend not only to the employee but to all members of his family. Mr Driver gives Fred the executive position of Area Supervisor but warns him that for a trial period he will be keeping close tabs on him to be sure there are no family scandals.

At home Fred's ambitious ways permeate the entire family ethos and his grown up children's jobs and relationships are carefully considered to further their family status. Daughter Avril is married to Nigel who stands in line to inherit a large factory from his unmarried and childless uncle Mr Makepiece. Avril has been withdrawing Nigel's conjugal rites until he has ensured that his uncle has definitely nominated him in his will. And Fred's other daughter Eileen is the personal assistant to a managing director of an engineering company. The one loose cannon is Fred's son Tom who is more interested in motorbikes than presenting a respectable image.

Nevertheless Fred's sentiment has rubbed off on Tom who is pursuing certain ambitious avenues of his own. Tom's secret girlfriend Daphne has just learned she is pregnant and together they cook up a plan that she will flirt with the lecherous Mr Makepiece and after sleeping with him will convince him the pregnancy is down to him. The scheme works as planned and Mr Makepiece announces his engagement to her. However this destabilises the marriage between Avril and Nigel because if his uncle has a child then Nigel won't inherit the company and Avril considers this to be a disastrous development.

Lack of sex causes Nigel to go off the rails and he visits stripclubs and prostitutes and his marriage to Avril seems doomed which would be an immense social embarrassment. Meanwhile Fred discovers that Eileen is having an illicit affair with her married boss which could create another family scandal. These matters would be taken very seriously by Mr Driver and Fred would lose his job and so he has to shrewdly juggle matters to keep things private and get the situation back on an even keel.

Fred appears to have things carefully sewn up when Mr Driver returns from a business trip to give his assessment of Fred's probationary performance. But at the last moment Fred's carefully engineered fixes begin to unravel and he seems to be headed for disaster until he correctly guesses that Mr Driver himself may have been indiscreet with his statuesque female chauffeur and thus manages to secure his position.
Starring: Warren Mitchell (as Fred Midway), Pat Heywood (as Hilda, his wife), Elaine Taylor (as Eileen, daughter), Kenneth Cranham (as Tom, son), Vanessa Howard (as Avril Hadfield, married daughter), Richard Briers (as Nigel Hadfield, son-in-law), Adrienne Posta (as Daphne Dunmore, Tom's girlfriend)
Featuring: Bill Fraser (as Arnold Makepiece, Nigel's uncle), Frank Thornton (as Mr Driver, Fred's boss), Terence Alexander (as Bob Chickman, Eileen's boss), Lally Bowers and Clifford Parrish (as Nigel's parents)
Starlets: Valerie Leon (as Miss Hardwick, Mr Driver's chauffeur), Janet Montana (as Striptease Dancer)


During One Night (1961)  
Writer/Director/Producer: Sidney J. Furie
Type: Drama Running Time: 83 mins
Set during the Second World War. David is a 21-year-old American bomber co-pilot stationed in England. Every bombing mission he flies is fraught with danger with the possibility of death always only moments away as his squadron flies through heavily defended enemy skyways to deliver their payloads.

On the latest mission his friend and captain Mike is badly wounded and although Mike survives he loses his manhood and cannot bear the thought of continuing the rest of his life without ever being able to have a woman. This realisation hits David hard because he has never been with a woman either and with only one flying mission to go until his tour of duty ends he develops a crisis of confidence and a fear of dying without ever having proven his manhood. However he is shy and inexperienced in talking to girls and has no idea how to go about meeting them.

His base is near a small country village where the flightcrews go to drink and relax and David nervously visits a prostitute hoping the experience will quell his anxiety and allow him to regain his nerve. But he finds that for some reason he cannot become aroused despite the woman's best efforts. David goes to a dance hall to try and meet a local girl and thinks he has met a willing lass but she turns out to be part of a gang and leads him into a mugging ambush.

David goes to a small local pub to recover and gets talking to the landlady's daughter Jean. She is a soulful girl who seems to instinctively understand his anxiety and although she is sexually inexperienced herself she makes the decision to help him regain his confidence. After he has left the pub she engineers an encounter with him in a deserted barn where they can have sex. But David still cannot perform and does not understand what could be wrong with him. He thinks it is because Jean is too nice and he would be taking advantage of her. He decides his only choice is to go to London and find a different kind of girl. He seems not to care that this would make him a deserter and Jean tries to talk him out of it but he has made up his mind and he heads off down the road hoping to hitch a lift.

Back at the pub Jean makes the decision to tell her mother who notifies the American Military Police and they pick David up before he gets too far. Fortunately the Major in charge of the patrol is very understanding and manages to talk David out of his morose state and persuade him to come back to base with no more said about the matter. The Major allows David an hour to stop off and say goodbye to Jean and thank her for her part in saving him from the consequences of a bad decision.

As David and Jean talk they realise that they have fallen in love and their passion unfolds by the hearth fire of the pub and David finds he is at last able to perform as expected. Afterwards he realises he is the sort of man who has to truly love a girl in order to properly want her and with that understanding he loses his concern about his upcoming final mission.

Next morning Jean watches from the ground as David's squadron heads off. (Note: It ends there and we don't discover if David survives or if the couple ever get back together again).
Starring: Don Borisenko (as David), Susan Hampshire (as Jean)
Featuring: Sean Sullivan (as Major, military police), Barbara Ogilvie (as Jean's mother), Joy Webster (as Prostitute), Graydon Gould (as Mike, bomber-crew pilot), Tom Busby (as Sam, bomber crew), Alan Gibson (as Harry, bomber crew), John Bloomfield (as Military Police sergeant)
Starlets: Jackie Collins (as Girl who sets David up for mugging)
NOTES:

Made in Black and White

Don Borisenko and Susan Hampshire both receive "introducing" credits

The nudity in this film seems very unusual for such an early 1960s film. It is therefore possible that two versions of certain scenes were filmed with a tamer version for the UK market. If so then the version reviewed (as broadcast on BBC2 in 2008) may have been a "continental" version.


The Four of the Apocalypse ... (1975)  
Writer: Ennio De Concini / Director: Lucio Fulci / Producer: (not credited)
Type: European / Western Running Time: 104 mins
Set in 1873 in Utah during the Wild West. Stubby Preston is a smartly dressed card shark who travels around the state using his skills and marked cards to make money. But he arrives in the small town of Salt Flats on the wrong day. The sheriff immediately throws him in the cell with three others under what seems a harsh pretext. Stubby's three cellmates are:- a good-natured drunk called Clem; a negro simpleton called Bud; and a young fresh-faced prostitute called Bunny who is pregnant. However it turns out that the imprisonment is for their own protection because the town has decided to clean up its act and overnight rid itself of its gun-toting outlaw community with a decisive massacre to which the sheriff has agreed to turn a blind eye in order to free Salt Flats of the fear their lawlessness had created.

Next day, after a night of bloody violence, the outlaws are all dead and the sheriff releases his four prisoners and sends them on their way with a horse and wagon but no weapons. The four decide to travel together to the next nearest township called San City hundreds of miles away. They get along well and become a friendly unit with a common purpose. Along the trail they run into a sharp-shooting Mexican bandit called Chaco who decides to tag along with them for company and provide them with protection and hunted meat in return. Chaco is a dangerous killer and they are left with little choice but to accept his proposal. Stubby is basically a decent man with moral values but without weapons can do nothing against the bandit - but to help protect single-girl Bunny from Chaco's lust the group pretend that she and Stubby are married. After several days of travel Chaco shows his true colours and becomes vicious. He ties them up and rapes Bunny forcing 'husband' Stubby to watch seething with fury. Chaco then leaves the four with no weapons or transport and Clem with a wounded leg where Chaco shot him for trying to fight back. The four continue on foot with a feverish Clem being carried by stretcher. Along the way they find a wagon train of dead religious missionaries who have been massacred by Chaco for their supplies.

They reach an abandoned mining town and take shelter but Clem dies from his wound. Bud has become increasingly erratic living in his own inner world and he takes Clem's body away. Bunny and Stubby have become close during their journey and become romantic. Later Bud returns with some meat claiming to have bagged a large animal. The three cook it and tuck in. Only later does Stubby discover the meat came from Clem's body. Although disgusted he knows that Bud has lost reason and cannot be punished. He doesn't tell Bunny about it but decides to quietly leave town with her, abandoning Bud to the private world into which his mind had descended.

Stubby and Bunny meet up with a preacher friend called Reverend Sullivan and ride with him. To meet with the reverend's approval they continue the pretence of marriage. Bunny's pregnancy has reached its climax and they rush her to the nearest town of Altaville on a snow-capped mountain. Only men live there and have scant idea of what to do for a pregnant woman. They do their best and a baby boy is born although Bunny dies in childbirth. The townsmen take the baby to their hearts and they name him "Lucky". Stubby is still thought to be the husband and father but knows he cannot look after a baby and so allows the town to adopt the boy and bring him up - a duty which they heartily embrace.

Stubby continues on alone now with a horse and a gun donated to him by the town. Along the trail he comes across a resting Chaco with two bandit friends. Stubby knows that Chaco would better him in a fair contest so without warning he shoots the two sleeping companions dead and shoots Chaco in the arm rendering him helpless and caring little that Chaco calls him a coward. He gives Chaco sufficient time to realise he is defeated and then shoots him dead taking his cold-blooded vengeance for what the bandit did to Bunny and the missionaries. Stubby then continues on his way.
Starring: (The Four) Fabio Testi (as Stubby Preston), Lynne Frederick (as 'Bunny' O'Neill), Michael J. Pollard (as Clem), Harry Baird (as Bud)
Tomas Milian (as Chaco, Mexican bandit)
Featuring: Adolfo Lastretti (as Reverend Sullivan), Donald O'Brien (as Salt Flat's Sheriff), Bruno Corazzari, Giorgio Trestini and Charles Borromel (as Altaville townsmen)
NOTES:

Adapted from the stories by Brett Harte

This Italian film is reviewed here because of the co-starring role of British actress Lynne Frederick. The version reviewed was dubbed into English and had English credits. The original Italian title is I Quattro dell'apocalisse.


Hannie Caulder (1971)  
Writer: Z.X. Jones / Director: Burt Kennedy / Producer: Patrick Curtis
Type: Western Running Time: 81 mins
Set in the American Wild West in the latter 1800s. The Clemens brothers are a trio of coarse outlaws who rob banks and think nothing of killing innocent bystanders. After a heist they come across a horse farm from which they intend to steal food. They kill the ranch owner without hesitation and then discover he has a beautiful wife called Hannie who is scared out of her wits and totally helpless. They proceed to brutally rape her and then burn down the ranch before riding off.

Hannie Calder's life has been completely destroyed and she feels immense anger and frustration that she could not do anything to fight back or defend herself. Then a stranger called Thomas Luther Price turns up - he is a bounty hunter and Hannie persuades him to teach her how to use a gun and become a competent gunslinger. He is reluctant to try but sees how determined she is.

Thomas takes her to Mexico where a specialist gunsmith called Bailey makes her a special lightweight handgun whilst Thomas trains her on the skills necessary to excel as a gunfighter. At first she is useless but over a period of weeks her abilities gradually improve until she is of sufficient standard to hold her own and ready to vent her vengeance upon the outlaws who raped her and murdered her husband.

Hannie and Thomas follow the Clemens brothers trail and eventually come to the town where they are currently staying. Thomas knows Hannie is now technically proficient but has his doubts about whether she would be able to actually kill a man. He tries to spare her the trouble by confronting the brothers himself but he is unfortunately killed.

Hannie tactically singles out the brothers one at a time for a decisive confrontation to settle her scores. Much to all the brothers' misfortune they underestimate her abilities as Hannie Caudler repeatedly proves herself to be the better quick draw fighter whose thirst for vengeance overcomes any lingering qualms she had about killing. She collects the bounty on the outlaws' heads and pays for their funerals. THE END - The film does not go into what she does next.
Starring: Raquel Welch (as Hannie Caulder), Robert Culp (as Thomas Luther Price)
(Bandit brothers) Ernest Borgnine (as Emmett Clemens), Jack Elam (as Frank Clemens), Strother Martin (as Rufus Clemens)
Featuring: Christopher Lee (as Bailey, gunsmith), Stephen Boyd (as The Preacher, gunfighter), Diana Dors (as Saloon's brothel Madame, [small role only])
NOTES:

Based on characters created by Ian Quicke and Bob Richards; Original story by Peter Cooper

Despite the American cast and setting this film was made by a British company (Tigon). The only on-screen British element is the involvement of Christopher Lee in a featured role and Diana Dors in a passing cameo role


Hell Boats (1970)  
Writers: Anthony Spinner, Donald Ford, Derek Ford / Director: Paul Wendkos / Producer: Lewis J. Rachmil
Type: War Drama Running Time: 88 mins
Set in 1942 during the Second World War. British born American Lieutenant Commander Jeffords is a Royal Navy boat commander who until recently had been in charge of a gunboat protecting convoys from German attack in the English Channel. He has an impressive record and admiralty select him to command a special mission in Malta. The Germans have been using captured Italian submarine pens in Augusta to store an arsenal of weapons including a revolutionary remote controlled gliding bomb that is proving a formidable weapon against allied supply ship convoys. The destruction of these bombs is considered to be of the utmost importance to avoid losing the entire Mediterranean region to the Nazis.

The sub pens are built into the side of a mountain and impregnable to air strikes and the surrounding bay area is heavily fortified against attack. It is left up to Jeffords to come up with a workable plan to overcome these defences with the limited manpower and equipment at his disposal. The British base in Malta is commanded by Commander Ashurst who is under orders to afford Jeffords all resources he needs. Ashurst is a man who yearns for action himself but is tied to a desk job because his wife Alison made a special appeal to his father Vice-Admiral Ashurst to secure him with a safe assignment. Consequently their marriage has irreconcilably broken down and Alison feels trapped but is unable to leave because she is not eligible for evacuation.

As Jeffords plans for his mission he and his buddy Chief Petty Officer Adam Yacov first of all reccy the port of Augusta disguised as Italian fishermen and collect vital intelligence data about the placement of the enemy's seaward shore defences. The entire bay is protected by a boom stretching across the harbour entrance to deny access to any vessel not first cleared by a guard vessel.

Jeffords devises an ingenious plan of attack that first involves them capturing a German E-Boat (a fast moving surface gunboat) and then using this as a Trojan horse to launch a surprise attack once they have tricked the guard boat into opening the boom and granting them access to the bay. Ashurst jumps at the chance of assuming command of the E-boat. Whilst the Germans are busy defending against this surprise attack Jeffords and Yacov swim underwater and infiltrate the sub base and set high explosive charges on a timer. Jeffords and Yacov's return is delayed by guards but they eventually get away and are picked up by Ashurst who bravely waits longer than he was supposed to for the swimmers to return. As they withdraw to a safe distance the bombs detonate that the resultant explosive force of the stockpiles of ordnance completely destroys the mountain. Their mission ends successfully and all the main protagonists survive.

Back at the Malta base Alison waits fearfully wondering who will return alive and when she sees her husband has made it back she realises she is still in love with him and the cracks in their marriage are mended.
Starring: James Franciscus (as Lt Cmdr Jeffords), Ronald Allen (as Commander Roger Ashurst), Elizabeth Shepherd (as Alison Ashurst), Reuven Bar Yotam (as Chief Petty Officer Adam Ben Yacov)
Featuring: Mark Hawkins (as Lt Barlow), Magda Konopka (as Luciana, Resistance woman in Augusta), Takis Emmanuel (as Salvatore, Resistance man in Augusta), Moultrie Kelsall (as Vice-Admiral Ashurst, Roger's father)
Familiar Faces: Philip Madoc (as 'E' Boat Captain)


The Last Grenade (1970)  
Writer: Kenneth Ware / Director: Gordon Flemyng / Producer: Josef Shaftel
Type: War Drama Running Time: 92 mins
Major Harry Grigsby is leader of a group of highly trained British mercenary soldiers who help wage wars around the globe for money. 42-year-old Grigsby is an intense and determined man who only accepts jobs that he considers ideologically sound and takes no gratification in the necessary death and destruction that results. In their latest assignment in South Africa he and his men have been pinned down in a small town. Then unexpected rescue seems to be coming in the shape of their American team member Kip Thompson who has gotten hold of a helicopter and lands to airlift them to safety. But as the first wave of evacuees approach Thompson mows then down with a machine gun and proceeds to use the helicopter's armaments to totally devastate the town as he tries to kill Grigsby. His madness-tinged glee at the firepower he can unleash shows he has been sent over the edge and betrayed them to go independent and sell his services to a higher bidder.

Grigsby and his core-team survive and eventually make it back to London. Grigsby is a tuberculosis sufferer and spends some time recovering in a sanatorium. He hears that the maverick Thompson has moved on to China to help organise the Red Guard and the resulting unrest is threatening to destabilise the precarious situation of truce held with the British governed Hong Kong region.

Grigsby persuades the British government to hire him to go out there and deal with Thompson whom he considers himself to be in some way responsible for. Hong Kong's military commander General Charles Whiteley tolerates Grigsby's help only because his unofficial status allows him to ignore certain political restrictions that the regular army cannot - such as encroaching into Chinese territory.

Grigsby and his tight group of four men begin a strategy of trying to lure Thompson out from his secret camp somewhere in the vast open terrain across the border. Grigsby knows that Thompson will not be able to resist the opportunity to try and kill him and he attempts to lay several traps. But Thompson proves himself too wily to fall for Grigsby's ruses and is quite capable of equal cunning in return. Their personal conflict becomes a battle of will and skill which both men know will only be ended by the death of the other.

During this time when back in the city Grigsby has been getting to know General Charles' wife Katherine and she has fallen for his immense strength of character and they proceed to have an affair during a period that Grigsby spends recovering from his most recent close encounter with Thompson.

Eventually Grigsby's TB symptoms return and he realises he is going to have to give up chasing after Thompson. Katherine decides she will leave Charles to live with him when he recovers. She joins Charles in his official car on his way back from an important meeting to tell him of her decision which he takes stoically. But then the car is ambushed by an attack from a hillside bazooka and blown up. When Grigsby hears the news that Katherine is dead he realises that Thompson is responsible and was sending him the clear message that he has no intention of letting his opponent simply give up.

Full of anger and determination and not fully recovered Grigsby arms himself and goes alone into Thompson's territory ignoring all the rules of stealthy approach. He spots the ambush point and secretively primes a grenade holding it in his hand with the pin pulled out. Then he walks straight into Thompson's trap. Thompson gleefully cuts him down with his machine gun and walks over to the body with the satisfaction of having at last bettered his opponent. But as he turns Grigsby's body over to look at his face, the dead man's grip on the primed grenade relaxes and it explodes taking Thompson with it.
Starring: Stanley Baker (as Major Harry Grigsby), Richard Attenborough (as General Charles Whiteley), Honor Blackman (as Mrs Katherine Whiteley, general's wife), Alex Cord (as Kip Thompson, maverick mercenary), Ray Brooks (as Lt David Coulson, General's aide)
Featuring: (Grigsby's men) Andrew Keir (as Sgt Gordon Mackenzie), Rafer Johnson (as Joe Jackson), Julian Glover (as Andy Royal), John Thaw (as Terry Mitchell)
Philip Latham (as London minister), Gerald Sim (as Hong Kong hospital doctor)
NOTES:

Adapted for the screen by James Mitchell and John Sherlock; based on the novel The Ordeal of Major Grigsby by John Sherlock


The Liquidator (1965)  
Writer: Peter Yeldham / Director: Jack Cardiff / Producer: Jon Penington
Type: Thriller Running Time: 99 mins
Prologue. Towards the end of the Second World War during the liberation of Paris an American tank driver called Boysie Oakes saves the life of a British Intelligence Officer called Mostyn. The officer was being abducted by two insurgents but Boysie shoots them both dead with uncanny long-range accuracy which impresses Mostyn who promises to remember Boysie's help in the years to come. What Mostyn didn't realise however is that Boysie has an aversion to killing and only shot the activists by pure chance when he tripped over some debris and fired accidentally. End of Prologue.

Present day (1965). Colonel Mostyn is now head of the secret service section which is unfortunately being overrun by a series of embarrassing spy scandals. His Chief proposes a radical solution which only the two of them will know about. They will draw up a list of all government employees who they have suspicions about and then pre-emptively have them liquidated by means of "accidents" thus avoiding the embarrassing publicity that an arrest and trial will bring. For this they need a really special agent. Mostyn searches his memory and thinks of just the man for the job ... Boysie Oakes.

Fortunately Boysie remained in Britain after the war. He became a café owner and is very surprised to be offered a job by Mostyn to become a secret agent because he doesn't think he's the right type. But the playboy lifestyle of cars and beautiful women prove very tempting and so he undergoes the training to learn about spycraft. It is only when he is ready to become operational that Mostyn tells him what his role will be - an assassin. Mostyn dismisses his objections thinking that Boysie's disinclination is a clever front designed to hide the cold-blooded killer underneath.

Boysie's first task is to eliminate a female clerk who is known to be passing secret documents. He is told to push her in front of an underground train during her daily commute - but he can't bring himself to do it and is in a dilemma because he does not want to give up the new extravagant lifestyle which has brought him the attention of many glamorous women. So he subcontracts the task to a no-scruples killer-for-hire called Charlie Griffen to carry out the "job" for him while he carries on with his busy social life. This arrangement continues for a dozen or so liquidations for which Boysie takes the credit without having to do any of the dirty work.

Boysie is especially attracted to Mostyn's beautiful secretary Iris MacIntosh even though Mostyn has told him she is strictly off limits She plays hard to get which only makes Boysie more determined to successfully woo her. Eventually she agrees to go on a holiday weekend away with him to France. There he is contacted by a British agent called Quadrant who says he has new emergency orders from Mostyn and has the necessary codes and credentials to prove it. The orders are for Boysie to carry out a security test at an RAF airbase by attempting to assassinate a visiting VIP from the Royal Family. Boysie is told to do everything as if it was for real including aiming and firing although the rifle he will be given will be loaded with blanks.

However Quadrant is actually a Russian agent and the orders are bogus and the assassination will be for real. Mostyn gets wind of the plan and does his best to stop it by posing as the VIP. Boysie comes close to firing but is found and stopped just in time by security. Meanwhile in the confusion the Russian agents that accompanied Boysie to the airport carry out the real purpose of their plan which was to steal a new experimental aircraft from the airbase. Boysie manages to get aboard just as it is taking off only to discover the mastermind behind the whole plot is none other than Mostyn's own secretary Iris who is piloting the plane. He overpowers her but then cannot land the plane and has to be talked down by ground control. He makes a successful landing and all is well.
Comments: The film has a number of light comedy actors taking part and although the film occasionally shows signs of developing comedic situations it never goes far enough in that direction to be classed as a comedy or a spoof. For instance the idea of Boysie subcontracting his liquidations might have carried the entire film if fully developed but this idea is dropped without resolution once he goes on holiday and what turns out to be the main concluding plot emerges.
Starring: Rod Taylor (as Boysie Oakes), Trevor Howard (as Colonel Mostyn), Jill St John (as Iris MacIntosh, Mostyn's secretary)
Featuring: Wilfrid Hyde White (as Chief, Mostyn's boss), Derek Nimmo (as Martin, Mostyn's assistant), Eric Sykes (as Charlie Griffen, hitman-for-hire), David Tomlinson (as Quadrant, secret enemy agent), John Le Mesurier (as Chekhov, Russian agent), Akim Tamiroff (as Sheriek, foreign agent in France), Gabriella Licudi (as Corale White, foreign agent in France), Colin Gordon (as Agent dressed as Vicar), Richard Wattis (as Flying Instructor)
Starlets: Jennifer Jayne (as Janice Benedict, interior decorator), Heller Toren (as Miss Benedict's assistant), Suzy Kendall (as Judith, Mostyn's new secretary, [cameo at end]), Alexandra Bastedo (as Radio Operator, [uncredited bit part])
NOTES:

From the novel The Liquidator by John Gardner


Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)  
Writers: Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti, José Luis Martínez Mollá / Director: Lucio Fulci / Producer: Edmondo Amati
Type: European / Crime Drama Running Time: 103 mins
Set in London in 1970. Carol Hammond is a 30-year old woman who lives a well-to-do lifestyle married to a successful barrister called Frank. Carol's father Edmond is head of Frank's chambers and is hoping to start a political career.

The woman next door is called Julia Durer and is notorious for holding loud parties involving drug fuelled erotic orgies. The Hammonds' take no part in those debauched activities but Carol is so troubled by thoughts of the sinful activities which take place in her neighbour's apartment that she is undergoing psychotherapy for a series of disturbing dreams she has been having. These dreams involve her having a torrid sexual relationship with Julia even though in real life she says she doesn't even know the woman socially.

In her most recent nightmare from a few nights ago which she relates to her psychiatrist Dr Kerr, she dreamt of stabbing Julia to death in her gaudy apartment with a letter opener. Dr Kerr indicates that the slaying is probably her subconscious mind trying to at last free her of the strangulating erotic attraction towards degradation and vice that Julia symbolises and is a sign that Carol might be getting better.

But soon after this Julia Durer is found dead in her apartment. Her body had lain undiscovered for several days and it turns out that the circumstances and timing of her death exactly mirror those from Carol's dream. Carol is shocked and cannot understand how she could have dreamed the details so precisely. Police Inspector Corvin begins an investigation and all the evidence points to Carol being guilty - her coat was found at the scene and the murder weapon is Carol's own letter opener with her fingerprints on it.

Carol denies everything but her mental condition starts to deteriorate as she wonders if she could be suffering from a split identity. Her father Edmond suggests that someone is trying to frame her - someone who read the notes she made in preparation for her subsequent therapy session with Dr Kerr (which he had instructed her to do so she could recall the details of her dreams). Someone must have read those now missing notes and replicated the events exactly. Edmond tells the police that he recently received a suspicious phone call from a woman called Mrs Smith who claimed to know something which might embarrass him but he subsequently heard no more from her. The police believe Mrs Smith was actually Julia Durer making early overtures to blackmail him but one of her other blackmail victims must have meanwhile decided to get rid of her.

As events unfold Edmond commits suicide leaving a written confession saying it was he who killed Julia. But Inspector Corvin realises this confession was an attempt to save his daughter Carol from justice because he had at last realised she is the real murderess. Corvin puts his theory to Carol and she confesses. She and Julia were having a real affair and Julia was threatening to reveal that sordid fact to the newspapers unless Carol paid her. Carol knew the scandal would ruin her father's political career and so she began the psychotherapy sessions to build up her dream "alibi" so she could kill Julia and then claim it was a nightmare which someone else had duplicated to frame her. Carol is arrested by Corvin and taken away.
Comment: The plot ending does become a bit implausible and hard to fully resolve into a convincing sounding description. There is also a plot strand involving a hippy couple who are unwitting witnesses to the murder but are so drugged up that they actually saw nothing although Carol does not know this and is concerned they might remember. The hippies become so concerned they might be accused that the hippy man makes a determined effort to kill Carol in case she identifies them.
Starring: Florinda Bolkan (as Carol Hammond), Stanley Baker (as Inspector Corvin), Jean Sorel (as Frank Hammond, Carol's husband), Leo Genn (as Edmond Brighton, Carol's father), Edy Gall (as Joan Hammond, Frank's teenage daughter)
Featuring: Alberto de Mendoza (as Sgt Brandon, Corvin's junior colleague), Mike Kennedy (as Harry, hippy guy), Penny Brown (as Jenny, hippy girl), Anita Strindberg (as Julia Durer, murder victim), George Rigaud (Dr Kerr), Silvia Monti (as Deborah, Frank's mistress)
NOTES:

This Italian film is reviewed here because of the starring role for British actor Stanley Baker. Also it was set in London and the characters were all supposed to be British. The version reviewed was dubbed into English and had English credits. The original Italian title was Una Lucertola con la pelle di donna.

The overblown title "Lizard in a Woman's Skin" comes from a throwaway line when the hippy man is relating to the police his hazy LSD fuelled recollection of what he remembers about the murder he saw. At the time the film was made in Italy there was apparently a penchant for using animal references in film titles irrespective of how relevant it was to the story


Maniac (1963)  
Writer/Producer: Jimmy Sangster / Director: Michael Carreras
Type: Suspense Thriller Running Time: 82 mins
Jeff Farrell is an American who has ended up in a provincial town in Southern France after splitting with his girlfriend. He stays at an off-season hotel run by Eve Beynat and her 19-year-old stepdaughter Annette. Four years ago Annette's father Georges was committed to an insane asylum after using a blowtorch to kill a man who had raped Annette. Eve continues to visit her husband Georges every two weeks.

Jeff is attracted to both Annette and Eve and although he initially favours the company of the younger Annette, it is Eve who makes the stronger play for him. Jeff falls in love with Eve and they end up as a couple. Eve tells Jeff more about Georges and how he is actually no longer insane and that it was a temporary madness that overcame him in the wake of what was done to Annette. She tells Jeff that Georges has a plan to escape so he can be with his daughter again and she persuades Jeff to help by driving the getaway transport. After that Eve says she will be free of him forever with no ties or responsibility to look after Annette and she and Jeff can move away together.

Jeff agrees to help and after Georges escapes they help drive him to the port. Later on however Jeff discovers a body in the boot of the car which seems to be that of a prison guard that Georges killed during his escape. To cover up their involvement Eve and Jeff dispose of the body into a river. It turns out the prison guard had been Georges' accomplice in the escape.

A few days later Jeff notices some activity in Georges' old workshop. He investigates and is knocked out. When he regains consciousness he finds himself tied up and the prisoner of Georges who has returned along with the retrieved body of the dead guard. Georges says that he does not want to be forever on the run so he is going to blowtorch the guard's dead face in the manner of his previous crime and then set the acetylene tanks to explode. Jeff will be killed and when his body is found with the dead and mutilated guard the police will be forced to conclude from the "signature" methodology that it was Georges who died in an accident whilst carrying out a mad atrocity - and they will stop looking for him. (The action then skips forward a few hours so we miss seeing what happens next)

(When we return) The explosion has happened and Georges' plan seems to have worked. Eve spreads the word that Jeff suddenly left to go back to America before the incident. But Annette guesses the truth and says she will tell the police that she thinks it was Jeff who died in the explosion and not Georges. Eve says she will drive her stepdaughter to the police station to report it but instead takes a detour to a derelict warehouse where Georges is waiting. However (in a twist) it turns out that this man is not Georges at all but the prison guard. Eve hated her husband and during her fortnightly visits had fallen in love with the guard and planned this whole deception with him using Jeff as a convenient unwitting pawn. Georges was in fact the dead man believed to be the guard. Eve and the guard plan to run away together once both he and "Georges" were considered to be officially dead. Now the only loose end is for "Georges" to kill Annette because she knows too much.

However what Eve did not know was that Jeff is actually still alive after being pulled to safety by a hotel handyman before the explosion. The police suspected Eve and therefore told her a lie that two men had died in the explosion so she would think the plan had worked. Jeff has since been staying out of sight while the police played along with the deception waiting for Eve to make her move and rendezvous with "Georges".

Annette flees in terror onto to a high balcony shelf pursued by "Georges" - luckily he loses his footing and she pushes him to his death. The police then arrive to arrest Eve, and Jeff comforts Annette.
Starring: Kerwin Mathews (as Jeff Farrell), Nadia Gray (as Eve Beynat, hotel proprietor), Liliane Brousse (as Annette Beynat, Eve's stepdaughter)
Featuring: Donald Houston (as "Georges", Eve's husband), George Pastell (as Inspector Etienne), Norman Bird (as Gendarme), Justine Lord (as Grace, Jeff's girlfriend, [main opening scene only before she leaves him]), Arnold Diamond (as Rapist, [in prologue])
NOTES:

Made in Black and White


Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960)  
aka: Never Take Candy from a Stranger
Writer: John Hunter / Director: Cyril Frankel / Producer: Anthony Hinds
Type: Thriller Running Time: 81 mins
Set in Canada in the present day (1960). Peter Carter is a Canadian who has been living and working in England for many years as a teacher and has now returned to Canada along with his British wife Sally and their 9-year old daughter Jean. He has accepted the post of school principal in the prosperous go-ahead small town community of Jamestown. The town was founded many years ago on the back of the logging trade by Clarence Olderberry and now his rich family are the backbone of the society with influences everywhere. Clarence is now a semi-senile old man and during the day lives alone in the family mansion near the woods.

One day young Jean is out playing in the woods with her friend Lucille and they are invited into the Olderberry mansion for some candy. Later that evening Jean is quite innocently relating her day to her parents and tells them that as part of a game old Mr Olderberry asked them to dance naked for them in return for the candy.

The Carters are shocked and go to the police. But they find that the townspeople are reluctant to accept their version of events which don't sound all that bad anyway even if true. No one wants to speak out against the Olderberry's because many of their livelihoods depend on that family's businesses. Olderberry's son Richard is head of the family and highly defensive of his father. He cannot believe his father would have tried to harm the girls and anything that went on was either just a harmless game or a product of Jean's overactive imagination. But he warns Peter that if the matter comes to court his barrister will pull no punches in his cross-examination of Jean's story. The Carters discover that a few years ago Clarence Olderberry spent some voluntary time in a sanatorium for unspecified reasons and believe he is still ill and it is important to establish his guilt so that he can be properly looked after and other children will be protected. They therefore press on with the charges and a court case ensues.

As warned the Olderberry barrister uses verbal trickery to pull apart the 9-year old's account of events when she takes the witness stand. He suggests that she undressed of her own accord and should herself be psychologically assessed. The Carters drop the charges to protect Jean from any further upset and Clarence is therefore found not guilty. Richard is magnanimous in victory and tells Peter that he is welcome to stay in his job.

But the Carters decide to leave the area and on the day of the departure Jean is walking along a lane saying final farewells to Lucille when they are confronted by Clarence offering them more candy. They flee into the woods in terror and Clarence follows. When the Carters discover Jean is missing a police search is mounted with sniffer dogs and this leads them to the river where in an old trapper's hut they discover Clarence standing over the body of a little girl whom he has murdered. The dead girl turns out to be Lucille - Jean managed to get away to safety although she is left in shock at her terrifying experience. Richard arrives on the scene in total astonishment and incomprehension that his father has done such a terrible thing because he genuinely believed that the whole accusation had been without foundation.
Starring: Patrick Allen (as Peter Carter, Jean's father), Gwen Watford (as Sally Carter, Peter's wife and Jean's mother), Alison Leggatt (as Martha, Sally's mother), Janina Faye (as Jean Carter), Bill Nagy (as Richard Olderberry)
Featuring: Niall MacGinnis (as Mr Slade, defence counsel), Michael Gwynn (as Mr Duggan, prosecutor), Budd Knapp (as Captain Hammond, local police), Felix Aylmer (as Clarence Olderberry Sr), Frances Green (as Lucille, Jean's friend)
NOTES:

Based on the Pony Cart by Roger Garris

Made in Black and White

The version reviewed carried the title Never Take Candy From A Stranger. "Candy" is the North American word for "Sweets" and is actually more accurate here because although it is a Hammer production it is set in Canada and the word "Candy" is the one used in the dialogue.


The Night Porter (1974)  
Writers: Liliana Cavani, Italo Moscati / Director: Liliana Cavani / Producer: Robert Gordon Edwards
Type: Drama Running Time: 112 mins
Set in Vienna in 1957. Maximilian Aldorfer is an ex-Nazi who had been an officer in a concentration camp during the Second World War and was involved in the sexual abuse of prisoners. He is now working as a night porter in a hotel. He is being probed by a clique of his ex-Nazi peers to see how vulnerable he is to exposure from the war crimes commission - which to them is a dangerous organisation.

Max is confident that there are no witnesses left alive from those time. But then he is shocked to see a woman called Lucia arrive as a guest at his hotel. Lucia had been a camp prisoner who had become his own special project. He had devoted his efforts into turning her into his sexual slave and this resulted in an intense physical relationship between them in which he exercised his total domination of her. But he in turn was enslaved by his sexual need for her and an unusual love bond was created between them. He had believed her to be dead.

Lucia is now the rich wife of a successful orchestra conductor whom she is accompanying on a European tour. She had been getting on with her life but when she sees Max memories of those horrific days return. She begins to slip back into the mindset of the necessarily docile compliant woman she had been in those wartime days when she had become a sexual slave to this officer who had the power of life and death over her. Although built upon fear the subservient bond and desire to please him had become real and ingrained upon her psyche. Her feelings of need for him are still powerfully prevalent and however much she tries to resist them she finds herself compelled by her emotions to re-experience that complete overwhelming dominance he had over her fate.

With those feelings of desire reawakened in them both they resume their intense affair of unspoken sexual gratification which fills an emotional hole in their current lives which they had never expected to re-live and it becomes an overwhelming force which subverts their reason.

Max's colleagues are concerned that this woman could be called upon as a witness in any war crimes tribunal against him. But Max has lost all concern in his joy at having his "little girl" back. And Lucia has lost all sense of self-determination and has become fully reliant on his protection once more.

Max takes Lucia to his apartment to hide her from his ex-Nazi comrades but they find out and hold siege outside denying him supplies of groceries and power. After weeks of holding out on starvation rations, Max and Lucia attempt to make flight under cover of darkness. But the ex-Nazis have decided that their former comrade has become a serious security risk who can no longer be relied upon and the next morning as Max and Lucia walk across a bridge they are both killed by sniper fire.
Starring: Dirk Bogarde (as Maximilian Aldorfer), Charlotte Rampling (as Lucia Atherton)
Featuring: Philippe Leroy (as Klaus, ex-SS officer), Gabriele Ferzetti (as Hans, ex-SS officer), Isa Miranda (as Countess Margaret Stein, hotel guest), Nino Bignamini (as Adolph, hotel stud), Marino Masé (as Atherton, Lucia's husband, famous orchestra conductor), Amedeo Amodio (as Bert, ballet dancing former SS officer)
NOTES:

Story by Liliana Cavani, Barbara Alberti and Amedeo Pagani

This is an Italian film made in English which is reviewed here because of the starring roles of British actors Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling. The Italian title is Il Portiere di notte


Play It Cool (1962)  
Writer: Jack Henry / Director: Michael Winner / Producer: David Deutsch
Type: Music / Drama Running Time: 78 mins
Up-and-coming music combo Billy Universe and the Satellites have won a place in an international music competition in Brussels. But when they get to the airport the flight is postponed for a day because of bad weather and the boys have to abandon their trip. Also on the passenger list is a young heiress called Ann Bryant who was in the news recently for trying to run away with her pop star boyfriend Larry Grainger. Her stuffy father Sir Charles has a very low opinion of Grainger and was sending Ann to Belgium to distance her from him.

With their plane ticket money refunded Billy and the lads decide to spend the evening in London and suggest to the now-stranded Ann that she come with them and they might bump into Larry in a nightclub. They subsequently spend the evening touring various clubs and listening to some of the acts in addition to Billy and his group doing some impromptu performances of their own.

Eventually they locate Larry who is busy making out with another girl until he discovers Ann is still around and resumes his play for her. Billy realises that Larry is in fact an arrogant womaniser who is only interested in Ann because he snobbishly fancies the idea of increasing his social status. He is clearly no-good for her but Ann is oblivious to his faults and agrees to marry Larry immediately while she has the chance. Because Ann is too young to marry in England without her father's permission the couple plan to take the night train to Scotland and marry there where the age limits are different.

Billy decides he must help Ann avoid making a huge mistake and he persuades the young dancer whom Larry was canoodling with to tell Ann what Larry is really like. Ann is initially angry at Billy's interference in her personal affairs but eventually she is convinced about Larry's true motives and realises what a lucky escape she has had. The next day she resumes her journey to Brussels and her grateful father promises Billy and his group some work playing at one of his social functions.
Starring: Billy Fury (as Billy Universe, lead singer), Anna Palk (as Ann Bryant), Dennis Price (as Sir Charles Bryant, Ann's father), Peter Barkworth (as Skinner, newspaper reporter)
(Other Group members), Michael Anderson Jnr (as Alvin), Keith Hamshere (as Ring-a-Ding), Ray Brooks (as Freddy), Jeremy Bulloch (as Joey)
Featuring: Maurice Kaufmann (as Larry Grainger, Ann's pop star boyfriend), Richard Wattis (as Nervous airplane passenger), Bernie Winters (as Sydney Norman, songwriter, [uncredited]), Hugh Lloyd (as Taxi Driver, [cameo])
Starlets: Felicity Young (as Yvonne Pemberton, nightclub dancer)
Also: (as themselves, performing) Helen Shapiro, Bobby Vee, Shane Fenton [later known as Alvin Stardust], Danny Williams, Jimmy Crawford, Lionel Blair
NOTES:

Made in Black and White

The various guest singers perform as themselves although none of them sing "signature" songs for which they are best known


Radio On (1980)  
Writer/Director: Christopher Petit / Producer: Keith Griffiths
Type: Drama Running Time: 100 mins
Robert is a night-time disc jockey working in London. He gets a birthday gift from his brother from Bristol whom he hasn't seen for months. Then he receives a call telling him that his brother has killed himself and so he drives to Bristol to sort out his brother's belongings.

On his journey he picks up a hitchhiker whom he eventually abandons after the man becomes deranged; he meets an Eddie Cochran fanatic at a petrol station and has a sing-along; and when he gets to Bristol he helps a young German woman who is searching for her son. His brother turned out not to have much of a life and has very little in the way of possessions and his passing has made very little impact on anyone.

Robert wanders around a bit aimlessly, silently ruminating about things and contemplating matters then eventually gets the train back home after his car breaks down.
Comment: There is not really much of a story to this film - just a lot of Robert driving down a motorway listening to music and meeting various characters along the way. There is no particular resolution to anything or (to be perfectly honest) any seeming point to the film at all which sustains a dull and gloomy mood of generally depressed and listless characters throughout.
Starring: David Beames (as Robert), Lisa Kreuzer (as German woman)
Featuring: Sandy Ratcliff (as Brother's girlfriend?), Andrew Byatt (as Hitchhiker), Sue Jones-Davies (as Robert's girlfriend), Sting (as Eddie Cochran fan), Sabina Michael (as German woman's mother-in-law)
(Other parts played by) Katja Kersten, Paul Hollywood, Adrian Jones, Cyril Kent, Bernard Mistovski, Nina Pace, Joseph Riordan, David Squire, Kim Taylforth, Tilly Vosburgh, Sally Watkins
NOTES:

Made in Black and White

The cast were listed without character names so beyond a few which can be reasonably determined, the remainder cannot be matched to characters they played


Run a Crooked Mile (1969)  
Writer: Trevor Wallace / Director: Gene Levitt / Producer: Ian Lewis
Type: Thriller Running Time: 93 mins
The story starts in 1967 (two years before the present day). Richard Stuart is a mathematics teacher who is on his way back from the country home of the head of school governors, Sir Howard Nettleton, when his car is side-swiped by a speeding Rolls Royce. He follows to complain and this leads him to Buckley Manor House. Oddly there is a fallen tree across the driveway blocking his path although the other car seemed to get past it somehow. He walks to the house and sees the courtyard is full of expensive cars including the Rolls Royce and he notes the licence number. Rather than ring the front doorbell he decides to sneak inside via an open window. The house is dilapidated and shows no signs of occupancy until he comes to a gallery balcony where down below he sees a clandestine meeting of businessmen who are clearly up to something decidedly shady. One of the men seems to be having second thoughts and is on the point of resigning - but he is threatened at gunpoint by a third man - there is a struggle and the gun goes off killing the gunman. Richard is shocked and makes a hasty exit which the men hear and follow getting the number of his car as he speeds away.

Richard calls the local police to report the murder and returns to the manor with a policeman . But the driveway-blocking tree is no longer there, the cars are all gone and the meeting room shows no signs of a murder. With nothing to back up his claims, the policeman does not believe his story and the matter has to be dropped.

Back in London Richard hires a small-time private investigator called Peter Martin to trace the owner of the Rolls Royce from its number plate. The investigator finds out it belongs to a certain Lord Dunnsfield and Richard goes to see him. But when he arrives he is coshed on the head and loses consciousness ...

When he awakens he is in a hospital in Geneva and he finds his entire life is different. It is now 1969, his name is Tony Sutton, an international playboy who is married to a beautiful wife called Elizabeth and he is in hospital following a polo accident. But Richard remembers none of this - he only recalls his "proper" life. He suspects that everyone is in on some big conspiracy to make him doubt his own mind. His "wife" Elizabeth acts totally confused by his behaviour and his insistence that he is really someone else and not her husband. She and he have been married for two years but are on the verge of divorce because he is has become such an unpleasant person. Richard realises that the scale of the "conspiracy" is too vast and the explanation must be something far simpler. He concludes that back in 1967 the cosh to the head he suffered gave him amnesia and the cabal of mystery businessmen took advantage of this to set him up with this new identity which he had obviously totally believed in and has been living for two years oblivious to his old life. But then the polo accident wiped out his new memories and brought the old ones back.

Richard decides to trust Elizabeth and she starts to believe him. He seems so different and totally unlike her "Tony". She begins to fall in love with the new kinder man that Richard is. She tells Richard that he arrived in the area two years ago under the stewardship of an elderly doctor called Ralph Sawyer who said that "Tony" was recovering from a war injury. She now realises that it was Sawyer who told her the details of Tony's family history.

Richard confronts Sawyer who confesses but says he only became involved because he had been in debt. His job had been to oversee Richard's new identity because the cabal did not believe he turned up at that manor house by accident and have been waiting for his memories to return so they could question him on it. Sawyer then kills himself rather than suffer the consequences of betraying the cabal.

Richard returns to England with Elizabeth not knowing who to trust from amongst his old friends and colleagues who know him as Richard. He phones the Private Investigator Peter Martin who now has plush offices and seems to have done very nicely in the past two years. But Richard soon finds that this is because Peter has been recruited by the cabal and is working for them. Richard calls his friend and governor Sir Howard and asks him to call the police and have them waiting at the old manor house. Richard then goes there and finds the businessmen are meeting again. They are all high-powered financiers who are secretly colluding to manipulate the world's gold standard prices so they can make handsome profits.

Richard expects the police to arrive soon - but Sir Howard comes alone and Richard discovers he too is part of the conspiracy. Richard is captured and put in the basement along with Elizabeth who has also been taken prisoner. The businessmen all leave except for Sir Richard and Peter Martin who are left to decisively deal with Richard and Elizabeth. The couple manage to escape the basement and head down the driveway. They are quickly chased by the two conspirators in a car. But Richard has learnt that the fallen tree is actually a disguised mechanical barrier and as the pursuers pass underneath he activates it downwards and their car crashes into it.

The police are called and the conspirators are rounded up and arrested. Richard and Elizabeth decide to "re-marry" but now with him as Richard rather than "Tony".
Starring: Louis Jourdan (as Richard Stuart), Mary Tyler Moore (as Elizabeth Sutton, wife of "Tony"), Wilfrid Hyde White (as Dr Ralph Sawyer), Terence Alexander (as Peter Martin, private investigator)
Featuring: Alexander Knox (as Sir Howard Nettleton, school governor), Laurence Naismith (as Lord Dunnsfield, cabal member), Norman Bird (as Sgt. Hooper, local beat policeman), Ronald Howard (as Inspector Huntington, bogus detective), Stanley Holloway (as Caretaker of Buckley Manor), Ernest Clark (as Cabal Chairman), Bernard Archard (as Cabal member), Jean Anderson (as Sister Teresa, nun at Geneva hospital)
Starlets: Hilary Pritchard (as Peter Martin's 1st Secretary), Margaret Nolan (as Peter Martin's 2nd Secretary, [uncredited]), Norma West (as Nurse at Geneva hospital), Yutte Stensgaard (as Girl at party, [Uncredited cameo])


Ryan's Daughter (1970)  
Writer: Robert Bolt / Director: David Lean / Producer: Anthony Havelock-Allan
Type: Drama Running Time: 186 mins
Set at the time of the First World War in a small coastal community in Northern Ireland where the locals bitterly resent the presence of British troops that patrol their land. Local girl Rosy Ryan is the daughter of publican Thomas Ryan. She is a genteel oddity who is out of sorts with the typical social and behavioural attitudes of her age group. She has refined tastes and sensibilities and as a result has never found a suitable young man amongst her rough and ready community to be in courtship with. The only man she admires is the local middle-aged schoolteacher Charles Shaughnessy. With his classical education he too does not conform to the general way of things which is what Rosy finds appealing.

Virginal Rosy knows there is something important missing from her life, something that would automatically make her happy and fulfilled, but does not know what. She decides that marriage must be that lacking ingredient and persuades Charles to marry her. Charles is dependable but lacks passion and Rosy soon finds that married life with him is actually quite dull. Charles performs his husbandly duties at night but the fulfilment which Rosy had anticipated would come through a sexual union fails to occur.

Then a new British officer called Major Randolph Doryan arrives to take over the local garrison. He is an invalid from active frontline service who has been assigned this light duty after being injured in the trenches. The Major is young and strangely enigmatic as a result of being inwardly haunted by horrific memories of his battle experiences.

Rosy finds herself inexplicably drawn to the Major and soon they begin a passionate affair. With this man Rosy at last finds that missing dynamic she so craved. And for the Major his bad memories can be set aside somewhat with a new focus. However their affair has to remain secret for two reasons:- firstly because Rosy does not want to offend Charles, but also because the locals would consider her traitorous for consorting with a British soldier. The lovers continue their assignations throughout the coming weeks thinking they have successfully kept it secret. However Charles guesses Rosy is being unfaithful but decides to let the affair run its course and hopefully burn out. But unfortunately the townsfolk also find out about Rosy's shameful secret and she becomes snubbed.

A freedom-fighting activist called Tim O'Leary arrives in town seeking local help in scavenging crates of weapons and explosives that have been washed ashore in a violent storm. The weapons will be used in rebellious action to help rid their province of the British. The whole town turns out to help O'Leary whom they consider to be a brave hero fighting for a cause they believe in. But as O'Leary is set to go with his precious cargo, Major Doryan turns up with his troops to arrest him and seize the smuggled munitions.

The angry townsfolk believe that Rosy informed the Major although in fact she did not. When Rosy realises however that it was her father who informed she shoulders the blame knowing that as a man he would be shot as a traitor whereas as a woman she would merely have to undergo the humiliation of having her hair shorn.

Rosy ends her relationship with the Major who subsequently descends back into his dark mood of painful memories and blows himself as he destroys some newly scavenged explosives on the beach. Rosy and Charles decide to separate and leave the town where neither feel welcome. But not wishing to give the townsfolk the satisfaction of knowing their marriage is over they mutually agree to leave as a couple and only part once they reach Dublin. The local padre guesses their intention and asks them to consider giving their marriage another chance to work in a new place where they can make a fresh start. The film ends with them leaving on the bus and we don't find out what they decide.
Starring: Sarah Miles (as Rosy Ryan), Robert Mitchum (as Charles Shaughnessy, schoolteacher), Trevor Howard (as Father Hugh Collins), John Mills (as Michael, simpleton), Leo McKern (as Thomas Ryan, Rosy's publican father), Christopher Jones (as Major Randolph Doryan, Briths soldier)
Featuring: Barry Foster (as Tim O'Leary, revolutionary), Evin Crowley (as Moureen, young townswoman), Niall Toibin, Philip O'Flynn, Niall O'Brien and Owen Sullivan (as O'Leary's gangmembers)


Saturn 3 (1980)  
Writer: Martin Amis / Director/Producer: Stanley Donen
Type: Sci-Fi Running Time: 82 mins
Set in the far future. Scientists Adam and Alex are a man and woman living alone on a research station based on the third moon of Saturn. Their objective is to improve ways that food can be grown to ease the problem of food shortages on Earth. They are also lovers even though he is significantly older than she.

Because they are behind schedule Earth has sent some new equipment and this duly arrives along with Captain James who intends to stay for a time to help set things up. (However what we saw in a prologue is that Captain James was murdered and the man who arrives in his place is his killer - a man called Benson).

Benson (believed by Adam and Alex to be Captain James) is a no-nonsense individual who dislikes engaging in small talk and sets about immediately assembling a large robot called Hector which is intended to help them. Hector's unique ability is to learn and has at its heart a bio-mass of brain tissue which can draw knowledge directly from a connected human brain. Benson uses a terminal in his own cortex to feed Hector's learning banks.

Benson proves himself to be unstable and expresses to Alex his disapproval of her relationship with the older Adam and becomes aggrieved when she won't share her body with him as well which is the social custom on Earth. Benson says that Hector will make one of them redundant and he expresses his strong desire that Alex come back to Earth with him. Alex steadfastly refuses to accede to his desires which infuriates Benson.

Before long the powerful learning Robot is affected by Benson's psychopathic tendencies and becomes an unstoppable killer. Benson is killed and his personality absorbed so the previously speech-incapable Hector speaks with Benson's voice. Then it stalks the base's corridors hunting for Alex and Adam who have no weapons.

Hector seems capable of overcoming any traps that Adam lays to stop it and eventually Adam is left with no other choice but to use a blasting grenade to defeat it - although he has to sacrifice himself as well in order to get close enough to Hector to destroy it. With Adam dead Alex returns to Earth.
Comment: No explanation is given as to who Benson was and why he killed the real Captain James in order to take his place.
Starring: Kirk Douglas (as Adam), Farrah Fawcett (as Alex), Harvey Keitel (as Benson, [re-voiced by uncredited Roy Dotrice])
NOTES:

Story by John Barry

Although it is not an obviously British film in terms of cast, it is reviewed here because it is listed as a British film and was made in the UK


The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)  
Writers: Paul Dehn, Guy Trosper / Director/Producer: Martin Ritt
Type: Spy Drama Running Time: 107 mins
Alec Leamas is a British agent whose work involves running Britain's East German spies. He is recalled to London for a meeting with his boss who is known only as "Control". Leamas is offered the chance to retire to a desk job (known as "coming in from the cold") but he declines because he is a committed field agent. Control is pleased because he has a special job in mind. East Germany's head of counter-espionage is called Hans-Dieter Mundt and British Intelligence have an ingenious plan to try and stir up enough doubt about his loyalties that his second in command Fiedler will act to denounce him.

Thereafter Leamas is seemingly fired from the Secret Service. He becomes a drunkard, taking a lowly job as an indexer in a research library. There he meets fellow-indexer Nancy Perry who befriends him and they start going out together. She is a sweet-natured young woman although her political views are quite radical and she is a member of the British communist party. Leamas continues to drink heavily and when he assaults a shopkeeper he spends some time in prison.

When he is released he is contacted by someone claiming to represent an organisation that helps support newly released convicts. In fact Leamas is being approached by the other side and offered a considerable financial incentive for supplying certain information about his former profession.

It now becomes apparent to the viewer that Leamas has been working undercover all this time and his fall from grace has been a pretence to draw the enemy into sounding out his willingness to defect. Leamas has a meeting with a man called George Smiley who further briefs him on the task and Leamas asks only that Nancy is taken care of while he is gone.

Thus Leamas indicates his interest in the defection proposal and travels to Holland where he is thoroughly questioned about his job in the paymaster's office. The questioner is particularly interested in an unusual regular payment made to an agent so secret that only Control knew his identity. Leamas is taken onward to East Germany where he is questioned by Fiedler himself. Fielder has had his own suspicions that his boss Hans-Dieter Mundt might be leaking information to the British but has never had any proof with which to make such a dangerous allegation.

But now Leamas' "indications", whilst not proof in themselves, appear to fill in enough gaps in Fielder's suspicions to enable him to link seemingly unrelated things together with enough assuredness to make a firm accusation against his superior. Mundt is arrested and a tribunal is convened - if found guilty Mundt will hang for treason. Fielder's accumulated evidence appears to be damning but Mundt's defence alleges that Leamas is a false-defector who has effectively been sent as part of a British plot to "assassinate" the loyal counter-espionage chief with lies. However Leamas is unshakeable and sticks rigidly to his story and claims never to have met a man called George Smiley whom the defence believe is the mastermind behind the envisaged plot.

But then Nancy is brought in. She has been lured here by the communists upon the offer of an exchange trip and is brought before the tribunal and forced to give evidence. After a lot of badgering a confused Nancy reveals that Leamas did once meet a man called Smiley while they had been going out together. With that revelation Leamas' cover is blown and he admits everything about the plot to discredit Mundt. The charges are dropped and Fiedler is instead arrested for disloyalty and treason. Leamas is put in a cell.

Later that night he and Nancy are secretly released by Mundt. It turns out that Mundt IS in fact spying for the British and Fiedler's suspicions were all correct. This whole operation had been a double bluff to force Fielder to act so that Mundt could then discredit his suspicions as being a British plot and have him disposed of thus protecting Mundt as a valuable asset. Mundt gives them instructions on how to escape over the Berlin wall.

But at the wall there is a betrayal and as Leamas climbs over Nancy is shot. Someone clearly had decided she knew too much and could not be allowed to leave. Leamas has the chance to get safely over but Nancy's death, which was never part of the plan he agreed to, so disillusions him that he returns to the communist side and is also shot dead as an attempted escapee.
Starring: Richard Burton (as Alec Leamas), Claire Bloom (as Nancy Perry), Cyril Cusack (as Control, Head of British Intelligence), Oskar Werner (as Fiedler, Russian intelligence officer), Rupert Davies (as George Smiley, British masterspy)
Featuring: Sam Wanamaker (as Peters, enemy interrogator), Peter Van Eyck (as Hans-Dieter Mundt, head of Russian counter-intelligence), Michael Hordern (as Ashe, enemy agent), Robert Hardy (as Dick Carlton, enemy agent), Bernard Lee (as Patmore, shopkeeper), Anne Blake (as Miss Crail, stern librarian), George Voskovec (as Mundt's Defence Attorney), Beatrix Lehmann (as Tribunal President)
NOTES:

Made in Black and White

Based upon the novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré


This Is My Street (1963)  
Writer: Bill MacIlwraith / Director: Sidney Hayers / Producer: Jack Hanbury
Type: Drama Running Time: 90 mins
Margery Graham is a young woman who is unhappily married to an unambitious husband called Sid whom she had to wed when she fell pregnant. She has a 4-year old daughter called Cindy whom she adores but is bored by her life with Sid. Margery's whole life has been spent living in the same row of terraced houses - the only difference is that she now lives next door to her mother Lily rather than with her. Margery feels trapped by her circumstances unlike her younger sister Jinny who moved away to become a schoolteacher.

Harry King is a womanising jewellery salesman and night-club co-owner with a smooth line of chat who lodges at Lily's house and fancies Margery, but she finds his persistent badgering repellent and gives him no encouragement although he is never put off by her lack of interest.

One day when young Cindy goes missing Margery panics and Harry shows himself to be considerably level-headed in helping her find the girl who had wandered off whilst playing. Margery is grateful to Harry and finds herself reassessing him and she realises that beneath the cocky exterior he seems to actually be a pleasant and dependable man. Slowly but surely she starts to fall in love with him. This results in an affair and she becomes more and more needful of him thinking that she will end up divorcing Sid and marrying Harry instead. But Harry is not the marrying kind and is really only after a casual fling and she responds by becoming more and more possessive and demanding to try and change his mind. Harry spurns her and once again she is back to her stark reality of being trapped in a marriage to a man she does not love.

When Margery's sister Jinny comes back to stay Margery becomes increasingly jealous that Harry's attention seems to have shifted towards her sister and, even worse, before long the two of them have announced they are to get married. Margery is devastated and writes a confession letter about her affair and then makes a concerted effort to kill herself with her head inside a gas oven. Fortunately she is found and saved just in time but her letter is read and her secret affair with Harry is revealed.

Jinny decides she cannot marry Harry now she knows how he treated Margery and he is asked to leave his lodgings. Sid decides to make more of an effort to improve himself and get a better job. As the story ends time moves on a few months and Margery is back to full health and she and Sid are making another go of making their marriage work. They have even moved house - although only to the other side of the same street.
Comment: There is another minor side-plot about another young girl on the street called Maureen who calculatingly uses her good looks to have affairs with older married men and enjoy the expensive gifts they shower upon her. But one such man becomes possessively jealous and decides he does not want to share her and deliberately crashes his car at high speed while driving her home to kill them both. She survives but her face is scarred and she has to come to lower her expectations about the type of men who will want to go out with her.
Starring: Ian Hendry (as Harry King), June Ritchie (as Margery Graham), Avice Landon (as Lily, Margery's mother), Annette Andre (as Jinny, Margery's sister), Philippa Gail (as Maureen)
Featuring: Meredith Edwards and Madge Ryan (as Maureen's parents), John Hurt (as Charlie, youth who works in café with Maureen), Mike Pratt (as Sid, Margery's husband), Tom Adams (as Paul, Jinny's boyfriend), Robert Bruce (as Mark Clayton, married man having affair with Maureen), John Bluthal (as night-club manager), Derek Francis (as Mr Fingus, lecherous department store floor manager where Margery works) Sheraton Blount (as Cindy, Margery's young daughter)
NOTES:

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Nan Maynard

Made in Black and White

Coming Soon
The following is a list of films that are soon to be reviewed
Adolf Hitler - My Part in His Downfall (1972)
Albino (1976)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)
The Americanization of Emily (1964)
And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)
Anti-Clock (1980)
Are You Being Served? (1977)
Aria (1987)
The Beauty Jungle (1964)
Les Bicyclettes De Belsize (1969)
Black Christmas (1974)
Blonde Ambition (1981)
The Blood of Hussain (1981)
Bloodstream (1985)
The Bobo (1967)
The Body Beneath (1970)
Boom (1968)
Brannigan (1975)
Britannia Hospital (1982)
Brother Sun Sister Moon (1972)
Callan (1974)
Carry On Abroad (1972)
Carry On Behind (1975)
Carry On Cleo (1964)
Carry On Dick (1974)
Carry On Doctor (1967)
Carry On Follow That Camel (1967)
Carry On Henry (1971)
Carry On Loving (1970)
Carry On Matron (1972)
Carry On Screaming (1966)
A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967)
Clash of the Titans (1981)
The Collector (1965)
Conduct Unbecoming (1975)
Crooks and Coronets (1969)
Crooks in Cloisters (1964)
Daddy (1973)
Daddy Darling (1968)
The Day of the Triffids (1962)
Darker Than Amber (1970)
Dark of the Sun (1968)
A Day at the Beach (1970)
Deadlier Than the Male (1966)
Death May Be Your Santa Claus (1969)
Deceptions (1985)
De Sade (1969)
The Desperados (1969)
Doctor In The House (1954)
Don't Open Till Christmas (1984)
Double Exposure (1976)
The Double Man (1967)
Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966)
Drum (1976)
Dutch Girls (1985)
The Dwarf (1973) (aka Dvćrgen)
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
Educating Rita (1983)
Endless Night (1971)
Escape To Athena (1979)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)
The Fast Kill (1972)
Fear Is the Key (1972)
Fiend Without A Face (1958)
Find The Lady (1976)
The First Great Train Robbery (1979)
Flight of the Doves (1971)
The 14 (1973)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
Great Catherine (1968)
The Guardian (1990)
The Hand of Death (1988)
Hello-Goodbye (1970)
The Hireling (1973)
Hoffman (1970)
Hot Enough for June (1964)
Hot Millions (1968)
The House Where Evil Dwells (1982)
In Search of Gregory (1969)
Invasion (1966)
Invitation to Hell (1982)
Island of Death (1975)
Island of Terror (1966)
It! (1966)
It Happened Here (1965)
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Kidnapped (1971)
The Killer's Playground (1976)
Krull (1983)
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972)
The Lady Vanishes (1979)
The Last Night (1983)
The Last Word (1975)
Legend of a Hero (1986)
Lifeforce (1985)
The Lion in Winter (1968)
Living Doll (1990)
The London Nobody Knows (1967)
Loot (1970)
Lord of the Flies (1963)
The MacKintosh Man (1973)
Mahler (1974)
Mandingo (1975)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Mary Queen of Scots (1971)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
The Molly Maguires (1970)
The Monster Club (1980)
Monte Carlo Or Bust (1969)
The Nanny (1965)
Nearest and Dearest (1972)
Necromancy (1972) (aka The Witching)
Ned Kelly (1970)
The Night Caller (1965)
Night of the Big Heat (1967)
Nothing But the Best (1964)
Nude... si muore (1968)
Oliver! (1968)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970)
Only Two Can Play (1962)
The Orchard End Murder (1980)
The Other Side of the Underneath (1972)
Otley (1968)
Outland (1981)
Overlord (1975)
The Party's Over (1965)
The Passage (1979)
Paul Raymond's Erotica (1981)
The Pink Panther (1963)
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
The Pornbrokers (1973)
Power Play (1978)
Pretty Polly (1967)
The Private Eyes (1981)
Psyche 59 (1964)
The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Ransom (1975)
Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966)
Rawhead Rex (1986)
Rentadick (1972)
The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Scream and Scream Again (1969)
Second Sight (1992)
The Secret of My Success (1965)
Secret Places (1984)
Separation (1968)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)
Shout at the Devil (1976)
The Shuttered Room (1967)
Silver Bears (1977)
Some Girls Do (1969)
Spasmo (1974)
Spy Story (1976)
Staircase (1969)
Stevie (1978)
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977)
Suffer Little Children (1983)
Swallows and Amazons (1974)
Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960)
Symphony of Love (1978)
The Tempest (1979)
Tendre Dracula (1974)
The Terror of Dr. Hichcock (1962)
Theatre of Death (1966)
This Sporting Life (1963)
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960)
The Time Machine (1960)
Tom Jones (1963)
Too Late the Hero (1970)
A Touch of the Sun (1979) aka No Secrets
Torment (1990)
Torso (1973)
To Sir with Love (1967)
Tuxedo Warrior (1982)
12 + 1 (1969)
Two A Penny (1967)
Up Jumped a Swagman (1965)
A Walk with Love and Death (1969)
Warlords of Atlantis (1978)
The War Lover (1962)
West 11 (1963)
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? (1964)
Wonderwall (1968)
X The Unknown (1956)
Zeppelin (1971)


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