Martin Benson
Retrospective documentary on the making of Gorgo (1961).
Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the IRA, and when he does find money, he spends the money on drink.
A fanciful biopic of legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini as a very young man.
Arch of Triumph is a 1985 British made-for-television film based on the novel Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque, which was previously adapted in 1948 for a film of the same name with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Dr. Ravic (Anthony Hopkins) is an Austrian doctor who helps Jews escape from the Nazis. In 1939, he meets Joan Madou (Lesley-Anne Down), a woman he saves from suicide, and their relationship flourishes until he is arrested as a refugee without documentation and realizes he has some unfinished business with the Nazis. After a prolonged separation, without explanation, the two are finally reunited and struggle to put their relationship back on the right course as mayhem breaks out all around them.
In the 1930's, Alison starts a new boarding school and becomes embroiled in a sinister plot to dethrone the royal family of Bosnovia.
This true story follows the exploits of a top secret British military mission to destroy Nazi radio ships in a neutral harbor during WWII. The daring plan is led by British Intelligence officers Col. Lewis Pugh (Gregory Peck) and Capt. Gavin Stewart (Roger Moore). Since the ships are in neutral territory the British Military command, while encouraging the scheme, must deny any knowledge of it if it fails. Pugh and Stewart enlist the aid of retired officer Col. Bill Grice (David Niven) and some of his former soldiers. On the pretext of being on a fishing expedition, these seemingly drunken old men in civilian clothing must board and destroy 3 Nazi ships, whose radio transmissions have resulted in Nazi submarines sinking allied ships. While Stewart arranges a diversion on shore, Pugh and Grice carry out the dangerous raid on and destruction of the Nazi ships.
A low-ranking Secret Service agent is conned into supplying information to Eastern Bloc countries. Although he is not a suspect due to his unimportant position, when his office partner is hauled in as a suspect he realises he has got himself into very deep water.
Dramatizes the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus largely according to the Christian Bible's New Testament Gospels.
Handsomely-mounted historical epic concerns the birth of the Islamic faith and the story of the prophet Mohammed.
Light-hearted and occasionally unclothed adaptation of a British comic strip in the over-the-top, on-beyond-Bond spy fantasy vein. Based on the Daily Mail comic strip.
Two salesmen travel to a small South American Country to peddle their wares. However the country is in the middle of a major conflict between the Government led by Diaz and the rebels led by Torez. When Torez is accidentally killed the rebels mistaken pick up one of the salesmen, Eric, as he looks like Torez. Eric and Ernie are promised millions to carry on the charade once the rebels take charge. However once Eric takes charge he finds himself back in danger as scheming general Carillo plans to remove the impostor from his role.
An American businessman visiting Lisbon gets mistaken for a British secret agent who stole some diamonds. As a result, he has everybody in Lisbon after him.
Women (Shirley Jones, Stella Stevens) and his mother help an English constable (James Booth) rise to ruler of a banana republic.
World War II espionage in Lisbon with Allied safe-crackers cultivating a master spy and his wife so they can steal Japanese codes that are keys to Axis battle plans.
An American pilot assists the Portuguese colonial police who are battling a gang of criminals involved in drug smuggling from Lisbon to Mozambique to Zanzibar.
Special agent 007 comes face to face with one of the most notorious villains of all time, and now he must outwit and outgun the powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox -- and obliterate the world's economy.
A Shot in the Dark is the second and more successful film from the Pink Panther film series where both animated and real life sequences are mixed. A cult classic from Blake Edwards based on the play L’Idiot by Marcel Achard and Harry Kurnitz.
Manuel Artiguez, a famous bandit during the Spanish civil war, has lived in French exile for 20 years. When his mother is dying he considers visiting her secretly in his Spanish home town. But his biggest enemy, the Spanish police officer Vinolas, prepared a trap at the hospital as a chance to finally catch Artiguez.
A meek clerk is hunted by the counterespionage because he has a secret formula tattooed on his bottom.
A priest (William Holden) arrives at a mission-post in China accompanied by a young native girl who has joined him along the way. His job is to relieve the existing priest (Clifton Webb), who is now too old and weak to continue with the upkeep of the church. However, Communist soldiers arrive at the mission and seize it as a command post. Their leader rapes the native girl and impregnates her, only later to realise that Communism is no good for him. In the end, the foursome flee to the border, but are pursued by Communist forces along the way.
What secret lay behind the dreaded Marsh Phantoms, the ghostly riders whose silent approach in the darkness of the bleak, unwelcoming Romney Marshes causes men to die of fright? Are they a genuine manifestation or a cover for illegal smuggling activities. Perhaps Dr. Blyss, the benign vicar of the quiet village of Dymchurch, knows the truth about the ruthless pirate and smuggler who lies buried in the village graveyard and can unravel the phenomenon of the curse of Captain Clegg.
Health officials from the World Health Organization link a smallpox outbreak in Europe to oil drilling in the Middle East.
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.
The theme is the founding of the state of Israel. The action begins on a ship filled with Jewish immigrants bound for Israel who are being off loaded on Cyprus. An Intelligence officer succeeds in getting them back on board their ship only to have the harbor blocked by the British with whom they must negotiate. The second part deals with declaring independence and the resulting warring.
Yul Brynner plays a musical genius whose eccentricities are kept in check by his wife, until she discovers him "auditioning" a sultry young pianist. She walks out on him and his career promptly starts skidding. The temperamental maestro must again win his scorned wife.
Doctor Gulliver is poor, so nothing - not even his charming fiancée Elisabeth - keeps him in the town he lives. He signs on to a ship to India, but in a storm he's washed off the ship and ends up on an island, which is inhibitated by very tiny people. After he managed to convince them he's harmless and is accepted as one of their citizens, their king wants to use him in war against a people of giants. Compared to them, even Gulliver is a gnome.
England, 1891. Ascending writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) meets Lord Alfred Douglas, a young nobleman. Over the years, they will maintain an intimate relationship that will be openly criticized by Alfred's father, the Marquis of Queensberry, in such a harsh way that Wilde, instigated by Alfred, decides to sue Queensberry in 1895, accusing him of defamation.
An American engineer reaches Mombasa to finish the works of an African railroad and to find his predecessor, who has mysteriously disappeared. While the work continues, will have to face several obstacles, especially violent local tribes, Arabs slave traders and wild animals.
UK mystery about a reporter investigating the suicide of a seemingly insignificant hatcheck girl.
Near a small English village, a scientific team is conducting experiments with magnetic fields, the results of which may have military applications but the intensification of which seem to be connected to UFO reports, a series of murders, an enormous insect egg, and a strange visitor with exceptional scientific knowledge. Released in USA as THE COSMIC MONSTER.
A small British army team is sent deep behind enemy lines to destroy a German petrol dump as part of the preparation for a major attack in the North African campaign. Sea of Sand was distributed in the US in a shortened version, Desert Patrol.
Sword of Freedom was a 1958 drama adventure series for a family audience. Like several of its predecessors, it was produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and fitted into the same swashbuckler genre as previous productions. It ran for 39 half-hour monochrome episodes.
Spurred on by the death of his drug-addicted sister at the hands of ruthless narcotics kingpin Frank McNally, U.S. drug enforcement agent Charles Sturgis embarks on an investigation that takes him from New York to London, Lisbon, Rome, Naples and finally Athens in pursuit of McNally's shapely associate, Gina Broger.
International crook Armstrong flees post-war Tangier with priceless forgery plates and is pursued to London where he accidentally swaps coats in a barber's shop with film actor Chuck Collins, setting off a train of events.
Giani is a pimp who preys on the naïve, ‘just off the bus’ young women who come to post-war London for fortune.
The third of the "Doctor" films. Newly qualified doctor Simon Sparrow goes in search of a job. He applies for a surgery position at the hospital where he studied, but manages to insult the senior surgeon and one of the hospital's governors. So, instead he ends up as assistant to with a niggardly and rather scary GP with an amerous wife, followed by cushy but rather unmedical job with a Harley Street doctor, and then a job with a very nice GP whp is the opposite to the first one. But after getting the chance to rescue the hospital governor from a group of angry ladies at a resort in France, he finally lands a job at his beloved hosdpital.
Philip Hannon, a blind playwright living in London, overhears part of a conversation , that leads him into a desperate race, to find a kidnapped child. When he gets no help from the police, he along with his butler, and his ex fiancée, attempt to track down the crooks.
Widowed Welsh mother Anna Loenowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna and the King have a clash of personalities as she works to teach the royal family about the English language, customs and etiquette, and rushes to prepare a party for a group of European diplomats who must change their opinions about the King.
Set in 1931, the film takes place aboard a merchant ship, briefly harboured in South America. A young woman (Diane Cilento) boards the ship as a passenger, resulting in disharmony among the superstitious crew members. Virtuous seaman Anthony Steel protects the girl from the lecherous advances of captain Peter Finch.
Game warden Bob Payton (Anthony Steel) tracks a ivory smuggling ring through some of the most treacherous passages of the Zanzibar territory.
An Italian racketeer on the run in London holes up in a disused theatre with a hard-drinking journalist out to get the full story.
Kicked out of Oxford, a junk dealer's son (Dermot Walsh) joins a gang of thieves fenced by his father (Charles Victor).
A group of very strange men, refugees and casualties of the war, rally round when one of their number is framed by a drug racketeer. Co-opting a well-known journalist to their cause, they scheme to bring the racketeer to justice in a home-made "trial" in the crypt of a ruined church.
A greedy but successful professional gambler wants to join the British Establishment when he falls in love with a blue-blooded lady. But first he must mend his ways and then dump his nightclub singer girl friend. She's not so easy to get rid of, neither is his past.
In this crime drama, an escaped convict is recaptured and charged with killing two people in a lonely waystation during a snowstorm. Fortunately, a novelist is around to prove him innocent.
Antonio Riccardi, a rare stamp dealer who is secretly a hired killer, pays for the violin lessons of his gifted brother Giuseppe. To meet the expenses of Giuseppe s concert debut he accepts a further job, but his decision to do so provides Detective Inspector Carson, who has long hoped to ensnare Tony, with an opportunity hat might now enable him to bring about his downfall.
A partially blind Englishman retires to the French Riviera. He meets and falls for the Widow of a French Resistance fighter but is horrified when he discovers she is involved with smugglers and murderers.
The crew of a lighthouse rescues people they believe to be survivors of a shipwreck, only to find out that they are a gang of bank robbers on the run from the law.
Justice, the poets have it, is a blind goddess. Eric Portman stars as the lawyer defending a lord, Hugh Williams, accused by his secretary Michael Dennison of having diverted public funds for his own use.
