Val Guest
Interviews and overview of the making of the original 1967 James Bond film.
Explore the most legendary horror studio of all time with this fascinating, frightening journey hosted by terror titans Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. England's most successful independent film company, the "fear factory" of Hammer Studios, has a history filled with feuds, censorship battles and streaks of luck both good and bad. Now the legacy of horror returns, featuring interviews with such Hammer legends as Raquel Welch, Veronica Carlson, Caroline Munro, Ingrid Pitt, Jimmy Sangster, Hazel Court, Martine Beswicke, Freddie Francis, Val Guest and Ray Harryhausen. Plus you'll be treated to behind-the-scenes home movies and nonstop shock scenes from over 40 classic films, including Horror of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein, The Devil Rides Out, Curse of the Werewolf and many more! It's the definitive study of one of the greatest names in horror!
A family awakens to find themselves trapped in their own home, all windows and doors sealed by impenetrable walls.
A terrified couple becomes trapped in what seems to be a replay of a sinister event that happened in their apartment in the past. This 75-minute TV movie first aired on the "Fox Mystery Theater" series.
Sgt. Cannon (Tommy Cannon) and PC Ball (Bobby Ball) run the police station in the quiet town of Little Botham. When the station is threatened with closure due to a lack of crime, they decide to invent some crimes to justify their existence. When they try to steal a painting from a local rich businessman (Roy Kinnear), they accidently stumble across a gang of real art thieves who have just stolen £1 million worth of paintings. It is up to the two bungling cops to stop them escaping with their haul.
An attractive young widow thinks that she is investing in a respectable riding school, only to find out she has bought a brothel.
When D. C. Dangerous Davies, not held in high regard by his superiors, is assigned to find a notorious criminal kingpin, he uncovers the details of 15 year old cold case.
Shillingbury Tales was a British television sitcom comedy-drama series made by ATV for ITV and broadcast 1980-81. Comprising a single feature length pilot and six one-hour episodes, the series deals with life in an idealised fictional English village and stars Robin Nedwell, Diane Keen, Nigel Lambert, Jack Douglas, John Le Mesurier, Bernard Cribbins and Trevor Howard. It was preceded by a feature length pilot episode The Shillingbury Blowers starring Trevor Howard, broadcast 6 January 1980 The series was written by Francis Essex and directed by Val Guest. Unusually for a British situation-comedy at that time it was recorded entirely on location on 16mm film and consequently there was no laughter track. Much of the filming took place in the village of Aldbury in Hertfordshire. The show ended when ATV lost their licence to broadcast and their replacement Central declined to continue production of the series. The series was broadcast in a number of countries around Europe.
A small English village is in turmoil with the arrival of a pop star and his wife. He soon becomes the conductor of the local brass band after the previous conductor is criticized for the false notes played by the brass band.
Head of company security, Harry Webb, fears that a diamond theft is about to take place at their major mining complex deep in the desert. He quickly manages to become very unpopular, particularly with Claire Chambers, a celebrated cover girl, daughter of the mine administrator. She is visiting the man she loves, Mike Bradley, who is responsible for security at the mine. Nelson, the mine administrator, gives Bradley a curious mission - to steal a diamond. He wants to implicate Bradley in order to bring him into contact with a certain Lewis who is preparing to rob the mine with the aid of a group of mercanaries and a local accessory known as Father Christmas. Webb, not being informed of the deceit, relentlessly pursues Bradley, who is contacted by Lewis. With the mercanaries in the process of penetrating the mine. Bradley reveals himself to be Father Christmas, the organiser of the entire operation...
Our heroes find themselves at the famed Cannes Film Festival to help foil a plot to murder a former American union boss cum government witness, Kyle Sander. Suspects include the beautiful Marissa and boyfriend, who have a few surprises in store. Lord Sinclair and Danny then travel to Switzerland, where they have to help an elderly Duchess protect her jewels by finding proof of past marriage to a prince.
Young Timmy starts as a window cleaner in the little company of his brother. Soon he learns that some female customers expect additional service. Young and curious as he is, he reluctantly accepts the juicy duty. However his heart belongs to Liz, who demands the highest commitment until she lets him go all the way.
Two episodes of the TV series "The Persuaders" joined into a movie. Two playboys, Roger Moore, Tony Curtis, investigate crimes along the French Riviera.
Two episodes of the TV series "The Persuaders" joined into a movie. Two playboys, Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore) and Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis), investigate crimes along the French Riviera.
Four sexy young foreign girls come to England as au pairs and quickly become quite intimate with their employers, host families, and just about everyone else they encounter.
The Adventurer is an ITC Entertainment TV adventure series created by Dennis Spooner that ran for one season from 1972 to 1973. It premiered in the UK on 29 September 1972. The show starred Gene Barry as Gene Bradley, a government agent of independent means who poses as a glamorous American movie star.
An English aristocrat and an American millionaire come together to tackle crime.
Hammer Film’s follow-up to the successful One Million Years B.C. is set in an ancient past when humans and dinosaurs co-exist. Athletic cavewomen and hairy men wander around, grunting, sweating and occasionally sacrificing evil blonde babes to the sun in return for protection from stop-motion beasts. The fun-loving, energetic Sanna (Victoria Vetri), one of the sacrificial offerings, manages to escape during a ritual and joins another tribe where she says ‘necro’ a lot and falls in love with a surprisingly hairless guy.
Philip Scott, the boss of a toy company, is secretly also the chief of a British spy organization. Scott's cover is destroyed when enemy agents kidnap his girlfriend to force him to reveal the identities of his fellow spies.
Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH, James thinks up the ultimate plan - that every agent will be named 'James Bond'. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle.
A local doctor is recruited as a cold war spy to fulfill a very important secret mission in the Middle East, only to experience that his mission is complicated by a sexy female double agent.
A doctor's already-shaky marriage is tested to an even greater extent when he has to contend with a smallpox epidemic.
British reporters suspect an international cover-up of a global disaster in progress... and they're right. Hysterical panic has engulfed the world after the United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously detonate nuclear devices and have caused the orbit of the Earth to alter, sending it hurtling towards the sun.
Encompassing three hugely popular double acts, The Crazy Gang were one of Britain's best-loved, most enduring variety troupes – their antics delighting audiences for over three decades from the early 1930s and their career taking in numerous Royal Command performances. Their efforts to save a struggling circus provide the laughs in this uproarious comedy, also starring Goldfinger icon Shirley Eaton and featuring Flanagan and Allen's rendition of their greatest hit, Underneath the Arches. The Crazy Gang have been jacks-of-all-trades with Joe Winter's Monster Circus for almost as long as Joe has been on the road, and they're still hoping for a big break. But Joe has hit hard times: his equipment is mortgaged, most of his acts have deserted him and even the elephants have walked out. So the Gang set about finding a way to save the circus... and come up with a typically novel solution!
Set in Manchester, heartland of England's industrial north, Don Starling escapes from jail becoming England's most wanted man. Ruthless villain Starling together with his cronies engineered a robbery that resulted in the violent death of a young girl. Detective Inspector Martineau has been assigned to hunt him down and bring him in. From seedy barrooms, through gambling dens the trail leads to an explosive climax high on the rooftops of the city.
British film, released in the United States as "Stop Me Before I Kill!". A few hours after their wedding, international racing driver, Alan Colby and his new wife Denise, are involved in a horrific car crash. Alan's physical injuries heal but the mental blackouts continue. Denise suggests a delayed honeymoon in the south of France and it is here that eminent psychiatrist, Dr. Prade, promises a complete treatment to cure Alan's suffering. The couple accept his offer unaware that it comes from a mind more hideously disturbed and psychologically unbalanced than Alan's.
The misfortunes that befall three dental students when they become unwitting accessories to a burglary.
Set during the Burma Campaign of World War 2, this is the story of courage and endurance of the soldiers struggling at close quarters against the enemy. The film examines the moral dilemmas ordinary men face during war, when the definitions of acceptable military action and insupportable brutality become blurred and distorted
A seedy London promoter turns a naive, working-class teenager into a pop singing sensation. Director Val Guest's 1959 British drama stars Laurence Harvey, Cliff Richard, Sylvia Syms, Yolande Donlan, Hermione Baddeley, Susan Hampshire and Avis Bunnage.
Set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II, the film focuses on the brutality and horror that the allied prisoners were exposed to as the Japanese metered out subjugation and punishment to a disgraced and defeated enemy. This harrowing drama concentrates on the deviations of legal and moral definitions when two opposing cultures clash. Although fictional, this was one of the earliest films to deal realistically with life and death in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during the Second War.
The sequel to 'Up The Creek' sees David Tomlinson return as bumbling navy boffin Lieutenant Humphrey Fairweather. This time he is skipper of the ship Aristotle and, together with his second-in-command (Frankie Howerd), Fairweather wreaks havoc when he is ordered to deliver the Aristotle to its new owners in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.
Bumbling navy officer Lieutenant Humphrey Fairweather (David Tomlinson) is transferred to HMS Berkeley, an old World War II destroyer, to keep him out of harm's way. But together with Chief Petty Officer Doherty (Peter Sellers), Fairweather gets into more trouble than might be thought possible, with events coming to a riotous conclusion when the Admiralty turn up for an inspection of the ship.
In England, a group of space scientists, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space.
A kindly English botanist and a gruff American promoter lead an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti.
A boy accidentally shoots a friend with a gun he found in the rubble of a destroyed building. The gun turns out to be a clue in a ten-year-old murder case.
Two friends get drunk and decide to switch identities. One is a Parliamentary Secretary, and the other is the captain of a ship. The former's lack of sea knowledge causes several catastrophes, including torpedoing the First Lord of The Admiralty. The grass is always greener.... In this British comedy, two drunken comrades find out the truth of that saying when they decide to trade places for a while. One of the boozers is a public relations man who knows nothing about sailing, while the other is a captain for the Royal Navy. Comic mayhem ensues as the hapless "captain" tries to run his ship and follow orders.
Seeking the whereabouts of international gangster Nick Randall, the US State Department contacts Scotland Yard, as his girlfriend, Angela Booth, is currently in a British prison. Angela has refused to give Nick up to the law, so the combined authorities arrange for Angela to escape, aided by stoolie Gran' Ramsey who is at the same prison. The police will then follow Angela to Nick. Gran' stages the getaway, and the two women, accompanied by a third convict, Marguerite, whose prison-born baby is about to be turned over to welfare authorities. It is up to Gran' to keep the police informed of Angela's movements without being detected by the escapees, until Angela contacts Nick. This film is a reworking of principal footage from the UK film WOMEN WITHOUT MEN (1955), q.v., which, with added new footage (including scenes with original star Beverly Michaels), significantly revises the plot and central characters from a story about a wrongly imprisoned waif to one about a gangster's moll.
Two aspiring songwriters finally manage to sell a tune by claiming that it was composed by a reclusive musical genius. When the tune hits the top of the charts, they find themselves having to produce the "real" composer.
In love with a man who wants to marry her after he returns from a trip to sea, chorus girl Angela Booth tries to quit her seamy job and become a model citizen. When her employer refuses to dissolve her contract, though, they quarrel and she accidentally hits him. He presses charges, claiming she hit him deliberately, and she is convicted and sent to prison. As her fiance is at sea and out of contact, she is terrified he will think she has jilted him when she does not keep a New Year's date. A kindly old convict, Gran', notorious as a prison-breaker, agrees to engineer an escape for Angela...
The second in the series of films about the Lyon family, based on the BBC radio series Life With the Lyons. Ben Lyon appears to have forgotten his wedding anniversary making his wife Bebe furious. When his son sees him dining with a glamorous French singer he thinks the worst. But Ben has laid false evidence in order to surprise the whole family with a trip to France. Only, once in Paris, all the day's previous misunderstandings pail into insignificance at the compromising situations the Lyons get themselves into.
The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is first lost from radar, then roars back to Earth and crashes in a farmer's field, and is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis.
A murderer hopes to escape his death sentence by identifying the leaders of a spy ring.
An adventurer is hired by a German millionaire to help a Polish scientist escape to the West.
Based on their hit radio show, Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon starred in this British "Ozzie and Harriet" type show about "Life with the Lyons" with their two children, Barbara and Richard. On radio and TV, this series ran from 1950-61.
Robin Hood is persuaded by two nobles whom he believes to be loyal to King Richard to recover secret plans attaining to the rescue of the king from captivity in Germany. Though disguised as a troubadour, Robin is betrayed and captured. Lady Alys and the merry men help him escape in time to foil an intended ambush on King Richard as he returns from the Crusades.
When a ballerina's career is ended after she's injured in a traffic accident, her husband decides to try and turn their young daughter into a ballet star. Drama.
When heavy fog prevents any flights from leaving London Airport, a group of passengers are put on a bus driven by Percy Lamb (Frankie Howerd in his first starring role) to drive to another airport. The fog is that heavy Percy doesn't know where he is going or that he is carrying stolen gold bullion that the robbers and police are relentlessly pursuing.
A tiny European country which for years has survived financially only through evading its bills and smuggling is finally facing bankruptcy, when a rich American agrees to save the place by buying it. But before, the deal is closed, he dies. His nearest relative and heir turns out to be a young woman with high ethical and democratic standards, but no experience with money, or affairs of state, or Europe. A charming young English visitor helps her to muddle through. Comedy and romance follow.
Mr. Drake and his wife live a nice, quiet life on their Sussex farm, until one of their ducks lays a radioactive egg made of uranium! When the government finds out about this, the Armed Forces storm onto the farm in a frantic search for the duck responsible.
B.G. Bruno, a rich bachelor, the head of a successful greeting-card company in Scotland, is essentially a kind man but respectable to the point of stodginess and extreme stuffiness. An American troupe visiting Edinburgh wants to produce a musical in town but has trouble getting backers. Bruno meets several of the leading ladies of the show; through a misunderstanding he doesn't correct they think that he's a newspaper reporter. He falls in love with one of the women, who reciprocates; he grows more lively and friendly, to the surprise of his employees. After a series of mishaps and comic incidents comes a happy ending: a successful show and true love.
Novelist Janet Frobisher, lives in an isolated house, having been separated for years from her criminal husband. She has fallen in love with her secretary's fiancé and when her estranged husband unexpectedly appears, Janet poisons him, but just as she's about to dispose of the body, one of her husband's criminal cohorts also shows up.
A cabaret artist sees on her television set after viewing hours, a plot being discussed to murder Michael Rennie. Although her friends are sceptical she warns Rennie, but things are not what they seem.
Paper Orchid is a 1949 British crime film directed by Roy Ward Baker, with a script written by Val Guest. It featured Hugh Williams, Hy Hazell and Garry Marsh. It is perhaps most notable for an early film appearance of Sid James, later to find success through the Carry On series.
An exchange factory worker from New Jersey joins a plot to save a village from the Town and Country Planning Act.
A man watching a musical show at the Windmill theatre is shot apparently from the stage. The cast continues the performance so that the detective can solve the murder.
An officer's wife has a romantic dream about her husband's man (servant) and comes to believe it is true. Meanwhile the husband has asked his servant to help him, after the war, to suggest ways to ignite the romance he and his wife had before the war, as well as find a way to make money in a post-war economy.
William Brown attempts to secure more pay and shorter hours for schoolboys.
Shaw is the south end of a horse for an ice show, but she longs to be a ballerina. It looks like she will achieve that goal, but will her oversized ego get in her way?
In turn-of-the-century London a young music publisher fights both competitors and piracy in a time where author's royalties were still unprotected.
Set just after the end of WWII (but filmed in the middle of it) in a time of general euphoria at having won the war, with full employment and general happiness for all (or nearly all). Peter, the young wastrel son of a hard working hotel owner doesn't like the idea of having to work for a living. He discovers a society of "White Elephants" who are quite willing to be poor as long as they don't have to work. They are protected and guided by Nina (Margaret Lockwood) and her precocious sister Heidi (Jean Simmons).
Classic comedy starring Arthur Askey. Askey plays a pilot who bales out over Paradise Island, not knowing that he is about to land in a bee-worshipping colony of women and that he is about to become a drone for the queen bee. When he finds out that, as custom demands, he is due to be sacrificed two months after the honeymoon, he soon starts thinking about escape. The women of course have other ideas.
Askey stars as a man trying to save his flagging escort agency. A new partner suggests getting some new girls in, just in time for the soldiers' leave. The film also features the English singing favourite of the forties, Anne Shelton.
Jilted by his fiancee, Arthur Pilbeam gets a job as far away from women as possible. Alone in a lighthouse, he soon finds that 12 other people end up living on the tiny island. Thirteen is an unlucky number; and one-by-one they disappear ...
Arthur King joins the army, and soon starts fantasizing about King Arthur and his knights.
Third and final film in the series of ‘Inspector Hornleigh’ comedy-thrillers. Inspector Hornleigh (Gordon Harker), disappointed at not being handed an important spy case, is assigned by Scotland Yard to an army barracks to investigate the mundane thefts of supplies from the stores. This accidentally leads Hornleigh and Sergeant Bingham (Alastair Sim) to a nest of fifth columnists when his dim-witted assistant carelessly talks to a girl in the cafeteria – and that night, news of Hornleigh and Bingham’s arrival is embarrassingly transmitted back to Germany.
It's war time London and the Crazy Gang (Flanagan & Allen, Nervo & Knox, Naughton & Gold) are doing their bit for the war effort by running a fish and chip stall using their platoon's barrage balloon for advertising. Their Sgt Major is not happy about this and orders them to take the balloon down, but a freak heavy wind accidentally carries the gang away to Nazi Germany. They are captured and placed in a detention camp where they meet an elderly prisoner named Jerry, who possess a map for the location of a secret weapon which will win the war! Fortunately Teddy Knox's impersonation of Hitler lands him the spot of pretending to be the Fuhrer at a gala dinner and the gang are allowed out of the camp. However the Nazis have other ideas for their substitute leader.
Classic comedy starring Arthur Askey. The perils, humiliations and humour of trying to run a second-rate theatrical company are further compounded when financial aid, given by the former famous music-hall star Lady Randall (Lily Morris), is withdrawn. Not to be defeated, the stars decide the show must go on and devise a plan to persuade her to reinvest
The mirthful adventures of Police-Sergeant Samuel Dudfoot and his two constables, Albert Brown and Jeremias Harbottle, who stage a fabricated crime-wave to save their jobs---and then find themselves involved in the real thing.
Dr. Benjamin Twist (Hay) and his pupils become involved with art thieves on a trip to Paris. Hay’s seamy schoolmaster act is supported by a fine cast including Charles Hawtrey and Lilli Palmer.
Irresponsible playboy Arthur Rawlings is sent by his uncle to work as a waiter at a hotel in the South of France. Arthur arranges for shop assistant Frances Travers, with whom he has fallen in love, to win a fairground lottery and stay in the hotel as a prize. Complications arise!
A henpecked husband is mistaken for a famous toreador while holidaying in Spain!
Life in the fast lane becomes deadly for Wilde and Sinclair when the mob tries to "fix" the sport of high-speed racing. Wilde then finds himself mixed up with lady luck and a network of communist killers.
