Ralph Richardson

Documentary about the famed Hollywood director.

8.6/10

A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. Soon after, a family of apes stumble across the house and in the ensuing panic, both parents are killed. A female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.

6.4/10
7.3%

Having written the music and screenplay for this film, Paul McCartney also plays himself in the leading role. When the mastertape of McCartney's latest album is misplaced, he must discover its whereabouts in less than 24 hours or else risk losing his recording company to the lowlife Mr. Rath (John Bennett). McCartney performs three new songs, along with classic Beatles' tunes. Co-starring are former Beatles mate Ringo Starr as the drummer in Paul's band, Ringo's real-life wife Barbara Bach, McCartney's then wife Linda and Tracy Ullman.

5.3/10
2.1%

A huge panorama of Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by the besotted King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth.

7.7/10

An American student arrives in England for the wedding of his room-mate's sister.

5.5/10

Sir Wilfred Robarts, a famed barrister is released from the hospital, where he stayed for two months following his heart attack. Returning to the practise of his lawyer skills, he takes the case of Leonard Vole, an unemployed man who is accused of murdering an elderly lady friend of his, Mrs. Emily French. While Leonard Vole claims he's innocent, although all evidence points to him as the killer, his alibi witness, his cold German wife Christine, instead of entering the court as a witness for the defense, she becomes the witness for the prosecution and strongly claims her husband is guilty of the murder.

7.2/10

The sorcerer and his apprentice Galen are on a mission to kill an evil dragon in order to save the King’s daughter from being sacrificed in accordance to a pact that the King himself made with the dragon to protect his kingdom. A fantasy film from Disney Studios that exhausted all possible visual effects of the time.

6.7/10
8.4%

Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.

7/10
9%

Charlie Muffin, top British Intelligence operative, has just broken up a major Soviet spy network in England. However, a new Director with new ideas takes over and wants Charlie out. But then a high-ranking Soviet spy-master hints that he wants to defect, and both British Intelligence and the CIA want him and will do anything to get him. Charlie may be the only man who can bring the defection off successfully, but is the whole thing an elaborate set-up? And when your so-called allies are stabbing each other and you in the back to get this prize, whom can Charlie trust on either side?

6.8/10

When the warren belonging to a community of rabbits is threatened, a brave group led by Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry and Hazel leave their homeland in a search of a safe new haven.

7.6/10
8.2%

'No Man's Land' is a play by Harold Pinter written in 1974 and first performed in 1975. In this 1978, TV adaptation, a seedy poet shows up at the home of a rich writer and they start reminiscing about the 'past,' in a menacing, Pinteresque fashion.

8.8/10

Dramatizes the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus largely according to the Christian Bible's New Testament Gospels.

8.5/10

The story of Louis XIV of France and his attempts to keep his identical twin brother Philippe imprisoned away from sight and knowledge of the public, and Philippe's rescue by the aging Musketeers, led by D'Artagnan.

6.7/10

In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.

6.6/10
6.6%

Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed lives in fear of her husband's finding out and of the shame such a revelation would bring to his career. But when the truth comes out, Nora is shocked to learn where she really stands in her husband's esteem.

5.9/10

This sprawling, surrealist musical serves as an allegory for the pitfalls of capitalism, as it follows the adventures of a young coffee salesman in modern Britain.

7.7/10
7.8%

1815. A soldier becomes the governor of St. Helena and jailer of Napoleon

5.9/10

An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters.

5.8/10

Five people find themselves in a tomb. The Crypt keeper explains why they are there through a series of frightening stories. Based on the classic comic book.

7/10
8.9%

Lady Caroline Lamb, dissatisfied in her marriage, has an affair with the dashing Romantic poet Lord Byron.

5.6/10

David Storey's adaptation of his award winning play for the BBC's Play for Today series.

7.8/10

A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.

6.2/10
6.3%

Drama describing the story of the building of Saint Peter's Cathedral, Vatican, Rome.

6.7/10

From the John le Carre novel about a British spy who sends a Polish defector to East Germany to verify missile sites.

5.9/10

Satire about the First World War based on a stage musical of the same name, portraying the "Game of War" and focusing mainly on the members of one family (last name Smith) who go off to war. Much of the action in the movie revolves around the words of the marching songs of the soldiers, and many scenes portray some of the more famous (and infamous) incidents of the war, including the assassination of Duke Ferdinand, the Christmas meeting between British and German soldiers in no-mans-land, and the wiping out by their own side of a force of Irish soldiers newly arrived at the front, after successfully capturing a ridge that had been contested for some time.

7.1/10
7.9%

Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Ralph Richardson and Joan Plowright star in this merry on-stage mix-up of identity, gender and love in Tony Award-winner John Dexter’s production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Originally broadcast on Britain’s ITV, this classic performance captures all the slapstick, puns and double entendres that have amazed and amused audiences for over four hundred years.

7.2/10

A veteran secret service officer from Britain hijacks a government shipment of $15 million of gold out of an irritation for never being knighted.

4.9/10

In 1940, the Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle against the might of the Luftwaffe for control of the skies over Britain, thus preventing the Nazi invasion of Britain.

7/10
6.7%

In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.

6.2/10
6.4%

A made for TV movie of the Charles Dickens' classic novel, turns Dickens' picaresque tale into an extended flashback, with David Copperfield Robin Phillips as a young man, brooding on a deserted beach, recalling his youth. The characters are all trotted out in choppy flashbacks as David remembers his life as a young orphan, brought to London and passed around from relatives, to guardians, to boarding school.

5.8/10

In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other—or can be made to have seemed to do so.

6.8/10
8.8%

English General Charles George Gordon is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.

6.8/10
10%

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

8/10
8.4%

The career of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff as roistering companion to young Prince Hal, circa 1400-1413.

7.8/10

When David Lean made his film Doctor Zhivago (1965), he realized that it would be impossible to do location shooting in Moscow. Instead, he found a location on the plains outside Madrid, Spain and built a set to look like the Russian capital. This promotional film gives viewers a short look at the set under construction.

The Great War is a 26-episode documentary series from 1964 on the First World War. It was a co-production involving the resources of the Imperial War Museum, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The main narrator was Michael Redgrave, with additional readings by Marius Goring, Ralph Richardson, Cyril Luckham, Sebastian Shaw, and Emlyn Williams. Each episode is approximately forty minutes long.

8.8/10

Anthony Richmond schemes to get the fortune of his tyrannical, wheelchair-using tycoon uncle Charles Richmond by persuading Maria, a nurse he employs, to marry him.

6.8/10

A television interviewer is determined to get a coup on a dodgy cabinet minister.

8/10

Essentially true story of how Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of Greek Soldiers (300 of his personal body guards from Sparta) to hold off an invading Persian army now thought to have numbered 250,000.

6.6/10

The film follows one day in the lives of the Tyrone family, each member is troubled and has been damaged by alcohol and/or drugs. In addition, they have issues with each other that lead to fights and an inability to reconcile completely with one another.

7.6/10
9.4%

Hedda Gabler has just come back from her honeymoon, married to boring but reliable academic George Tesman. Refusing to tie herself down in life and name, Hedda is banking on George being appointed a professorship to secure a better life for the young couple, However, the arrival of cleaned up ex-lover Eilert threatens to destroy everything.

7/10

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.

6.7/10
6.3%

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.

6.9/10

Is a light hearted and satirical tale of political espionage and intrigue in pre-Castro Cuba.

7.2/10

Judith Wynter is a happily married novelist whose romantic works are eagerly devoured by scores of female readers. When Carlo, a handsome young Italian chauffeur, arrives to work for Judith and her husband, a professor currently recovering from an attack of paralysis, he causes quite a flutter; when he then reads the manuscript of Judith's latest novel, he jumps to a rather unfortunate conclusion... and life in the Wynter household becomes very complicated indeed!

6.1/10

Smiley Greevins is a cheeky, mischievous, imaginative little boy who lives in the small town of Murrumbilla in the Australian outback. His father Bill is a poor drover who is often away from home. Much to the exasperation of his overworked wife, Ma Greevins, Bill is also very fond of the drink. Smiley is determined to buy himself a push bike and so he takes on odd jobs in an effort to save up enough money. But Smiley always seems to get caught up in some sort of misadventure. Smiley is a classic Australian film that will delight audiences of all ages.

6.9/10

Having helped his brother King Edward IV take the throne of England, the jealous hunchback Richard, Duke of York, plots to seize power for himself. Masterfully deceiving and plotting against nearly everyone in the royal court, including his eventual wife, Lady Anne, and his brother George, Duke of Clarence, Richard orchestrates a bloody rise to power before finding all his gains jeopardized by those he betrayed.

7.4/10
8.4%

An English clergyman's neglect of his grown children, in his zeal to tend to his parishioners, comes to the surface at a Christmas family gathering.

7.5/10

Unable to recall the past 24 hours, a British bank clerk is the prime suspect for a robbery/murder.

6.7/10

Fictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight.

6.8/10
8%

After financial improprieties are discovered at the Eastern trading company where he works, Peter Willems flees the resulting disgrace and criminal charges. He persuades the man who gave him his start in life, the merchant ship captain Lingard, to bring him to a trading post on a remote Indonesian island where he can hide out.

6.9/10

Part of BFI collection "They Stand Ready."

Through the pattern of this film a ‘Test’ at Lord’s runs like a thread and a broadcast commentary on the match is imposed on the background of cricket as a game, a craft, an interest of a people, a piece of history. The craftsmen are shown who make the ball and the bat–that ‘fourth straight stick’ with which the batsmen defend ‘the other three’. The craftsmen are shown who play the game, from W. G. Grace in the ‘nets’ to D. G. Bradman and Denis Compton in the thread of the ‘Test’. The history of the game is epitomized in the Long Room shots at Lord’s and from there the camera moves to the village green; to the London side- street where the urchins play on a ‘bumping pitch’; to South Africa, and India, where in the ‘blinding light’ there is often ‘an hour to play and the last man in.

Dull and plain Catherine lives with her emotionally distant father, Dr. Sloper, in 1840s New York. Her days are empty -- filled with little more than needlepoint. Enter handsome Morris Townsend, a dashing social climber with his eye on the spinster's heart and substantial inheritance.

8.1/10
10%

Part of BFI collection "Portrait of a People."

7.1/10

Phillipe, the son of an ambassador in London, idolizes Baines, his father's butler, a kind of hero in the eyes of the child, whose perception changes when he accidentally discovers the secret that Baines keeps and witnesses the consequences that adults' lies can cause.

7.7/10
10%

Stefan and Dolly Oblonsky have had a spat and Stefan has asked his sister, Anna Karenina, to come down to Moscow to help mend the rift. Anna's companion on the train from St. Petersburg is Countess Vronsky who is met at the Moscow station by her son. Col. Vronsky looks very dashing in his uniform and it's love at first sight when he looks at Anna and their eyes meet.

6.7/10

Wartime tale of a group of British scientists efforts to develop the first radar system. They did it just in time for it to be used in the Battle of Britain against the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe. Without it the little island could well have been overrun.

6.5/10

World War II propaganda film.

6/10

Jaap van Leyden is in charge of a shipyard in newly occupied Holland. At first he collaborates with the Germans because it is the easiest course to follow. Later a child's rhyme reminds him of his patriotic duty, but how best to resist the Nazis without endangering his wife and fellow workers?

6.8/10

Horse race tipster and journalist Metcalfe is picked for the job of foreign correspondent in Norway when Hitler invades Poland. On the way to Norway his boat is attacked by a German U-Boat, however when he tells the navy about it they disbelief him and, to make matters worse, he is removed from his job. When German forces invade Norway, Metcalfe returns determined to uncover what is going on and stop the Germans in their tracks.

6.1/10

An eccentric Scotland Yard inspector thinks something beamed from a spy ship is dropping planes.

6.5/10

A barber (Ralph Richardson) gives in to temptation and steals some money, leading to blackmail and murder.

6.5/10

A disgraced officer risks his life to help his childhood friends in battle.

7.5/10
10%

John Smith, a middle-aged married man, is made redundant by his employer; at a loss and despairing, his friend Harry Jones suggests applying to the Embankment Fellowship Centre, a charity that provides hostelling, retraining and help finding work for men in his position.

6.1/10
9.6%

This early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.

5.7/10

Andrew Manson, a young, idealistic, newly qualified Scottish doctor arrives in Wales takes his first job in a mining town, and begins to wonder at the persistent cough many of the miners have. When his attempts to prove its cause are thwarted, he moves to London. His new practice does badly. But when a friend shows him how to make a lucrative practice from rich hypochondriacs, it will take a great shock to show him what the truth of being a doctor really is.

7.1/10
8.9%

The morning after a London barrister lets a mystery woman stay in his suite, a friend files for divorce.

6.7/10

Winifred Holtby realised that Local Government is not a dry affair of meetings and memoranda:- but 'the front-line defence thrown up by humanity against its common enemies of sickness, poverty and ignorance.' She built her story around six people working for a typical County Council:- Beneath the lives of the public servants runs the thread of their personal drama. Our story tells how a public life affects the private life; and how a man's personal sufferings make him what he is in public. " Corruption, intrigue and romance in a Yorkshire setting. A country squire whose wife is in a mental hospital becomes attracted to a crusading local schoolmistress.

6.5/10

A visiting American engages in a bold business promotion, the likes of which the British have not seen.

6.2/10

An ordinary man, while vigorously asserting the impossibility of miracles, suddenly discovers that he can perform them.

6.9/10
6.3%

The story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.

6.7/10

While filling in for injured supersleuth Bulldog Drummond (Atholl Fleming), world-class cricket player Jack Pennington (Jack Hulbert) attempts to foil a criminal mastermind's (Ralph Richardson) impending heist that's targeting a valuable jewel necklace held within the British Museum. This comedic 1930s mystery features daring rescues, intense fistfights and an exciting edge-of-your seat finale aboard a runaway train.

6.4/10

The retired British captain forms a gang to rescue his wife and thwart his nemesis, Carl Peterson.

5.6/10

The port city of Bristol, England, in the 1800s is home to Java Head, a sailing ship line company. The owner has two sons. One, a handsome seafarer, is in love with a local girl, but cannot marry her due to a long-running feud between their fathers. After a lengthy voyage, he returns with a very exotic, noble Chinese wife, which scandalizes the conservative town. His other son, a "landlubber", seeks to convert to steamships, to the disgust of his father. Even worse, he is secretly dealing in contraband.

6.9/10
8%

British Egyptologist Professor Morlant finds a magic jewel in the tomb of an Oriental idol. This talisman is supposed to grant immortality to those who are buried with it. So Morlant arranges to have it put into his grave upon his demise. And woe to those who might double-cross him, for Morlant's spirit will arise to wreak vengeance on his betrayers...

5.9/10

It is pouring with rain at one minute to midnight on Friday the thirteenth, and the driver of a London bus is peering through his blurred windscreen as his vehicle sails down an empty road. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and a vast crane above topples into the path of the oncoming bus... Then Big Ben begins to wind backwards. Time recedes. And we discover the lives of all the passengers and the events that brought them to that late-night bus journey, from the con-man with a hundred-pound cheque to the businessman's distraught and elderly wife. Time flows on, inevitably, to the crash -- and past it, as some live and some die.

6.8/10