All Night Long 1961  N/R, 95 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Patrick McGoohan, Marti Stevens, Betsy Blair, Keith Michell, Richard Attenborough, Paul Harris, Bernard Beaden, Maria Velasco, Harry Towb
Good jazz is what makes this film work. Based on Shakespeare's "Othello," Othello is a bandleader and Desdemona is the singer while Iago rounds out the ensemble as the band's drummer.
|  | |
The Assassination Bureau 1969 PG, 106 min.
Genre: Action
aka: The Assassination Bureau Limited
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Curt Jurgens, Philippe Noiret, Warren Mitchell, Beryl Reid, Clive Revill, Vernon Dobtcheff, Annabella Incontrera, Jess Conrad, George Coulouris
Based on a Jack London story, this film is set on the eve of World War I and involves a journalist (Diana Rigg) who offers money to the head of the Assassination Bureau (Oliver Reed) to target himself as the next victim.
| | |
The Captive Heart 1946  N/R, 86 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Michael Redgrave, Rachel Kempson, Frederick Leister, Mervyn Johns, Rachel Thomas, Jack Warner, Gladys Henson, James Harcourt, Gordon Jackson, Elliott Mason, Margot Fitzsimons, David Keir, Derek Bond, Jame Barrett, Meriel Forbes
In his plot to escape the Gestapo, Czech patriot Karel Hasek (Michael Redgrave) takes the identity of a dead British officer, "Capt. Geoffrey Mitchell," and is jailed as a British soldier in a stalag. Now, he must send love letters to the deceased officer's widow Celia (Rachel Kempson) to ensure that his real identity will not come to light. After enduring many hardships and finally winning his freedom through repatriation, Karel must now square matters with Celia.
| | |
Dead of Night 1945  N/R, 104 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer
Cast: Mervyn Johns, Roland Culver, Mary Merrall, Frederick Valk, Sally Ann Howes, Anthony Baird, Basil Radford, Miles Malleson, Michael Redgrave, Googie Withers, Robert Wyndham, Ralph Michael
Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) has very odd dreams AND they seem to relate to dreams of fellow guests at a British farmhouse. Each of the guests tell their bizarre stories. A classic chiller.
| | |
The Green Man 1957 N/R, 80 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Robert Day, Basil Dearden
Cast: Alastair Sim, George Cole, Terry-Thomas, Jill Adams, Avril Angers, Raymond Huntley, Colin Gordon, Eileen Moore, Dora Bryan, John Chandos, Cyril Chamberlain, Richard Wattis, Vivien Wood, Marie Burke
In his spare time, watchmaker Hawkins (Alastair Sim) is a professional assassin. He is hired to kill Sir Gregory Upshoot (Raymond Huntley) and tracks him to the run-down seaside Green Man hotel, but vacuum cleaner salesman William Blake (George Cole) catches on to Hawkins' plot and is determined to save Sir Gregory.
| | |
Khartoum 1966 N/R, 134 min.
Genre: Adventure / Drama
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Charlton Heston, Richard Johnson, Ralph Richardson, Alexander Knox, Laurence Olivier, Hugh Williams, Nigel Green, Johnny Sekka, Michael Hordern, Ralph Michael
This drama recreates the 19th-century defeat of the British in the Sudan. It highlights General Gordon (Charlton Heston) and his Christian forces as they fight the Mahdi (Laurence Olivier) and his Muslim tribesmen.
| | |
The League of Gentlemen 1960 N/R, 114 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey, Richard Attenborough, Bryan Forbes, Kieron Moore, Terence Alexander, David Lodge, Patrick Wymark, Robert Coote
To aid in his efforts to rob a bank, ex-Army Colonel Hyde (Jack Hawkins) recruits former officers and uses military discipline with great success.
| | |
The Man Who Haunted Himself 1970  PG, 94 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Roger Moore, Hildegarde Neil, Alastair Mackenzie, Hugh Mackenzie, Kevork Malikyan, Thorley Walters, Anton Rodgers, Olga Georges-Picot, Freddie Jones, John Welsh
Harold Pelham (Roger Moore), a successful businessman, has a car accident. Surgery is successful but it appears that his alter ego is released. When Harold gets out, he finds that his "other" self has been acting much differently from him, including a sexual awakening and making different business decisions.
| | |
 Masquerade 1965 N/R, 102 min.
Genre: Comedy
aka: Operation Masquerade
A Shabby Tiger
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Jack Hawkins, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli, Bill Fraser, Charles Gray, John Le Mesurier, Felix Aylmer, Christopher Witty, Tutte Lemkow, Ernest Clark
This spoof of spy stories, based on the Victor Canning novel "Castle Minerva," has Robertson and Hawkins hired to abduct the young heir to the throne of a Mid-Eastern nation. Clever and pretty well done.
| | |
The Mind Benders 1963 N/R, 99 min.
Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Mary Ure, John Clements, Michael Bryant, Wendy Craig, Harold Goldblatt, Geoffrey Keen, Terry Palmer, Norman Bird, Roger Delgado
After a scientist commits suicide, his friend and colleague, Henry (Dirk Bogarde), tries to convince authorities that the man had been brainwashed by a new technique intended to extract secret information. In order to convince doubters, Henry agrees to undergo the revolutionary brainwashing, which has bad consequences. Eerie, but interesting.
| | |
Saraband for Dead Lovers 1948 N/R, 96 min.
Genre: Drama / Romance
aka: Saraband
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Stewart Granger, Joan Greenwood, Flora Robson, Francoise Rosay, Frederick Valk, Peter Bull, Anthony Quayle, Megs Jenkins, Michael Gough, Jill Balcon, Cecil Trouncer, David Horne, Miles Malleson, Allan Jeayes, Guy Rolfe
Based on historic fact, this film tells the story of the ill-fated marriage of Prince George Louis (Peter Bull), who would later become King George I, and Sophie Dorothea (Joan Greenwood). Sophie fell in love with the dashing Count Philip Konigsmark (Stewart Granger) and made plans to flee the scene. But when their affair was discovered, the Count was assassinated, and Sophie was imprisoned in an isolated castle.
| | |
The Ship That Died of Shame 1955 N/R, 91 min.
Genre: Adventure / Drama
aka: PT Raiders
Director: Basil Dearden, Michael Relph
Cast: Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Owen, Virginia McKenna, Roland Culver, Bernard Lee, Ralph Truman, John Chandos, Harold Goodwin, John Longden, Stratford Johns, David Langton
World War II has ended when three shipmates (Richard Attenborough, George Baker, and Bill Owen) get together looking for something to do with their empty lives. The solution: buy their old gunboat, which will enable them to set up a smuggling operation.
| | |
The Smallest Show on Earth 1957 N/R, 81 min.
Genre: Comedy / Drama
aka: Big Time Operators
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Leslie Phillips, Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, Bernard Miles, Francis De Wolff, Sid James, Sam Kydd, June Cunningham, George Cross, George Cormack, Stringer Davis, Michael Corcoran, Lynne Roberts
Matt and Jean Spenser (Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna) inherit a dilapidated movie theater in a small British town. Also included in the deal are the drunken ticket-taker/projectionist Percy (Peter Sellers), former silent-movie organist Mrs. Fazackalee (Margaret Rutherford), and janitor Tom (Bernard Miles) who are determined to keep their beloved theater open. Matt and Jean try to make the theater look like a successful business but encounter more than a few problems–until Tom comes up with a plan to torch the competing theater. Lots of fun.
| | |
Victim 1961 N/R, 90 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price, Anthony Nicholls, Peter Copley, Norman Bird, Peter McEnery, Donald Churchill, Derren Nesbitt, John Barrie, John Cairney, Alan MacNaughtan
Homosexuality was illegal in England in the 1960s, and this film is one of the first to influence the "opening up" of the discussion on the subject. Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde) is a married lawyer who had demonstrated homosexual tendencies in the past and had a male lover. Being illegal, such people were often blackmailed, and Melville gets involved with the issue when he takes on the blackmailing in court.
| | |
Who Done It? 1956 N/R, 85 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Benny Hill, Belinda Lee, David Kossoff, Garry Marsh, George Margo, Ernest Thesiger, Denis Shaw, Frederick Schiller, Thorley Walters, Nicholas Phipps, Gibb McLaughlin, Ernest Jay
Popular British TV comedian Benny Hill makes his screen debut playing the role of Hugo, an ice-rink sweeper, who wins money in a contest. His ambition to become a detective is fulfilled when he uses the money to open a detective agency. But he gets more than he bargained for when he quickly gets involved in an assassination plot. For Benny Hill fans only.
| | |
Woman of Straw 1964  N/R, 117 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Gina Lollobrigida, Sean Connery, Ralph Richardson, Johnny Sekka, Peter Madden, Alexander Knox, Michael Goodliffe, Andre Morell, Edward Underdown, Douglas Wilmer
A wheel-chair-bound millionaire (Ralph Richardson) is murdered, and more than one person has a motive for the killing.
| | |
| 1. All Night Long (1961)
2. The Assassination Bureau (1969)
aka: The Assassination Bureau Limited
3. The Bells Go Down (1943)
4. The Captive Heart (1946)
5. Dead of Night (1945)
6. The Green Man (1957)
7. Khartoum (1966)
8. The League of Gentlemen (1960)
9. The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)
10. Masquerade (1965)
aka: Operation Masquerade
aka: A Shabby Tiger
11. The Mind Benders (1963)
12. Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948)
aka: Saraband
13. The Ship That Died of Shame (1955)
aka: PT Raiders
14. The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)
aka: Big Time Operators
15. Victim (1961)
16. Who Done It? (1956)
17. Woman of Straw (1964)
In The News
|
