Howard Lang
This seven-hour British-Italian adaptation of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 epic, set against the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and previously filmed in 1935, and in 1960 was a vehicle for muscleman Steve Reeves, was trashed by the critics as the campiest of sword and sandal sagas to emerge in years. This despite its reported $19-million price tag, the nobility of its cast that includes Laurence Olivier, Siobhan McKenna and Anthony Quayle, and its rather unspectacular special effects. The central figures are Nicholas Clay as Glaucus, the noble Athenian; Olivia Hussey as the high-born Ione, his love, who is seduced by the Egyptian, Arbaces (Franco Nero), a religious fanatic; Duncan Regehr as Lydon, the champion gladiator; and Linda Purl as the blind slave Nydia, who is torn between Glaucus and Lydon.
The Winds of War is a 1983 miniseries that follows the book of the same name by Herman Wouk. Just as in the book, in addition to the lives of the Henry and Jastrow families, much time in the miniseries is devoted to the major global events of this period. Adolf Hitler and the German military staff with the fictitious general von Roon as a major character is a prominent subplot of the miniseries. Winds of War also includes segments of documentary footage narrated by William Woodson to explain major events and important characters. According to the DVD-featurette "From Novel to Television," The Winds of War became a smashing television success, and a US national television event as never seen before. It was followed by a sequel War and Remembrance in 1988, also directed by Dan Curtis.
The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham. The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin. Around this central theme are the lives of his family, most notably his brother and partner, shop owner Robert, and his sister Elizabeth, giving insight into the lifestyle and customs at the time, not only at sea, but also ashore. The series also illustrates some of the changes in business and shipping, such as from wooden to steel ships and from sailing ships to steam ships. It shows the role that ships played in affairs like international politics, uprisings and the slave trade.
The deputy manager of a London bank has worked out a way to rob the branch of £200,000. When he becomes involved with the attractive Lady Dorset he decides to go ahead with his plan. He needs her help and that of her philandering spendthrift husband. It all comes down to a matter of trust.
Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, two humble teachers during 1963, discover a genius student's grandfather, simply known as "the Doctor", and his police box time machine. Deciding that the pair knows too much about his otherworldly origins, they are whisked away on a journey through time and space.
Sir Francis Drake was a British adventure television series starring Terence Morgan as Sir Francis Drake, commander of the sailing ship the Golden Hind. As well as battles at sea, sword fights, the series also deals with intrigue at Elizabeth's court, often caused by Spaniard, Mendoza.
When an undersea volcano sends tremors throughout the Atlantic, aquatic creatures come out of hiding. Merchant seamen Joe Ryan and partner Sam Slade harness the most unusual of the lot, a massive beast that looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The enterprising sailors deliver their quarry to a British circus, but it turns out that the animal is a newborn. And, when his much larger mother arrives in London to rescue her son, the city feels her wrath.
Marine atomic tests cause changes in the ocean's ecosystem resulting in dangerous blobs of radiation and the resurrection of a dormant dinosaur which threatens London.
Judah Ben-Hur, a Palestinian Jew, is battling the Roman empire at the time of Christ. His actions send him and his family into slavery, but an inspirational encounter with Jesus changes everything. He finally meets his rival in a justly famous chariot race and rescues his suffering family.
An 1840s British surgeon, experiments with anesthetic gases in an effort to make surgery pain-free. While doing so, his demonstration before a panel of his peers ends in a horrific mishap with his patient awakening under the knife; he is forced to leave his position in disgrace. To complicate matters, he becomes addicted to the gases and gets involved with a gang of criminals, led by Black Ben and his henchman Resurrection Joe.
O.S.S. was a Buckeye Productions and Associated Television co-produced wartime television drama series. It ran for 26 half-hour monochrome episodes during the 1957-1958 season and was distributed by ITC Entertainment and networked in the United States by ABC. The series followed the adventures of Frank Hawthorne, an agent with the American Office of Strategic Services, who operated behind Nazi lines in occupied France.
A clerk sees his big chance to escape a humdrum existence, but his resolve is tested as many unexpected obstacles arise.
Returning from a business trip, toy salesman Simon Scott is caught attempting to smuggle a wristwatch bought for his wife's birthday through Customs. He is arrested and, due to a bungled defence by his solicitor, obliged to serve a three-month prison sentence. It is only the beginning of his woes; his employer, Colonel Wilson, is understanding, but he is ultimately forced to sack Simon, who discovers that finding another job under such circumstances is extremely difficult. But Colonel Wilson is determined to help his former employee find a solution.
When she has a fight, with her husband, Lucy runs out of the house, and into a night of terror. She heads for the local cinema, and in doing so, becomes the only eyewitness to a couple of crooks, who are robbing the cinema's safe. In her haste to escape the thieves, she is knocked down by a passing bus, and is taken to the local hospital. The two crooks follow, and wait for a chance to finish her off, and thus eliminate the only person who can tie them to the robbery.
An insurance investigator in London attempts to thwart smugglers trafficking stolen lambskins infected with anthrax.
Having been sent a picture of her husband, a war hero killed in France, Meg Elgin is led to believe he is still alive and arranges a meeting at a London railway station. When she arrives there with the police accompanying her, she catches sight of a man in the distance wearing an old coat of her husband's. When he is pursued and captured, he turns out to be Duds Morrison a former soldier and out-of-work actor recently let out of prison. He refuses to tell them anything, and having nothing they can charge him with, the police release him. His interest aroused by the pictures sent to Meg, her new fiancé Geoffrey Leavitt follows Morrison and tries to demand an answer from him about his sudden appearance masquerading as Meg’s dead husband.
The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. When the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Brietner, a family friend is caught up in the turmoil.
Magazine editor Margot Merrick pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from male colleagues. Unfortunately, things don't go to plan when Jeff Thompson, a potential suitor, uncovers the deception and decides to show up at Margot's family home posing as her husband!
