A Christmas Carol 1951  N/R, 86 min.
Genre: Fantasy / Drama
aka: Scrooge
Director: Brian Desmond Hurst
Cast: Alastair Sim, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Patrick Macnee, Peter Bull, Michael Hordern, Miles Malleson, Ernest Thesiger, George Cole, Francis De Wolff, Michael Dolan, C. Konarski, Glyn Dearman
This popular version of Charles Dickens' classic story "A Christmas Carol" stars Alastair Sim as the miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, whose life is turned around one Christmas Eve when he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future (Michael Dolan, Francis De Wolff, and C. Konarski). After their visit, Scrooge reassesses his treatment of Tiny Tim (Glyn Dearman) and his family. Sim is great and makes this film a must for everyone.
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Corridors of Blood 1958  N/R, 86 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Robert Day
Cast: Boris Karloff, Betta St. John, Finlay Currie, Christopher Lee, Nigel Green, Francis Matthews, Adrienne Corri, Francis De Wolff, Frank Pettingell, Charles Lloyd Pack
A doctor (Boris Karloff), addicted to drugs, resorts to grave robbing to satisfy his needs.
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Devil Doll 1964 N/R, 80 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Lindsay Shonteff, Sidney J. Furie
Cast: Bryant Haliday, William Sylvester, Yvonne Romain, Sandra Dorne, Karel Stepanek, Nora Nicholson, Francis De Wolff, Philip Ray, David Charlesworth, Alan Gifford, Guy Deghy, Ray Landor
The Great Vorelli (Bryant Haliday) is a successful ventriloquist and hypnotist whose act includes a unique dummy. When a journalist (William Sylvester) sets out to uncover the duo's past, the truth comes out that Vorelli had killed his partner some years earlier and transferred the partner's mind to the dummy. Now he intends to add a female dummy: the journalist's girlfriend (Yvonne Romain). Interesting.
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 From Russia with Love 1963  PG, 118 min.
Genre: Action / Adventure / Thriller / Romance
Director: Terence Young
Cast: Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw, Pedro Armendariz, Bernard Lee, Eunice Gayson, Walter Gotell, Francis De Wolff, Lois Maxwell, George Pastell, Nadja Regin, Aliza Gur, Vladek Sheybal, Martine Beswick
James Bond (Sean Connery) is back in his second film and discovers that he is on the Russian "hit list." While in Istanbul to "pick up" a secret de-coding machine from Russian cipher clerk Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), Bond runs into trouble with a capital "T." A deadly trap has been set involving enemy agent Red Grant (Robert Shaw) who is assigned to take the machine from Bond and kill him. A fight to the death ensues between Bond and Grant aboard the Orient Express.
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 The Hound of the Baskervilles 1959  N/R, 88 min.
Genre: Mystery / Drama / Horror / Thriller
Director: Terence Fisher
Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Andre Morell, Marla Landi, Miles Malleson, Francis De Wolff, Ewen Solon, John Le Mesurier, Sam Kydd, David Oxley, Helen Goss, Michael Hawkins, David Birks, Judi Moyens, Michael Mulcaster
Peter Cushing delivers an excellent performance as Sherlock Holmes coming to the aid of Sir Henry Baskerville (Christopher Lee) who is under the spell of an evil curse. His father has been killed under mysterious circumstances, and Sir Henry asks Holmes to investigate. Holmes sends his assistant, Dr. Watson (Andre Morell) to the Baskerville estate on the Devonshire moors to look for clues. Meanwhile, Holmes hides in the moors gathering information, and, almost too late, Watson and Holmes save Sir Henry from the fate that his father suffered.
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 Ivanhoe 1952 N/R, 106 min.
Genre: Action / Adventure / Drama / Romance
aka: Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, Robert Douglas, Finlay Currie, Felix Aylmer, Sebastian Cabot, Francis De Wolff, Norman Wooland, Basil Sydney, Harold Warrender, Patrick Holt, Guy Rolfe
Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) is a knight whose quest is to save King Richard the Lionhearted (Norman Wooland) who has been captured during his return home from the Crusades. King Richard is imprisoned in Austria, and Ivanhoe plans to enter a tournament to raise ransom money to rescue him when Ivanhoe's evil brother Prince John (Guy Rolfe) refuses to pay for Richard's release. The lovely Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor) pays Ivanhoe's entry fee for the tournament because Ivanhoe had rescued her Jewish father Isaac (Felix Aylmer) from the anti-Semites. But, Prince John's cohort De Bois-Guilbert (George Sanders) wants Rebecca for himself and kidnaps her. Action and chivalry abound, and, by story's end, good overtakes evil.
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King's Rhapsody 1955 N/R, 93 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Herbert Wilcox
Cast: Anna Neagle, Errol Flynn, Patrice Wymore, Martita Hunt, Finlay Currie, Francis De Wolff, Joan Benham, Miles Malleson, Reginald Tate, Lionel Blair
British actress icon Anna Neagle teams with Errol Flynn in this ho-hum musical/drama based on Igor Novella's musical play. A prince (Flynn) falls in love with a commoner (Neagle) and decides to go into exile to be with his love. But when his father, the King, dies, he returns to take the throne and the obligatory bride (Patrice Wymore-Flynn's wife at the time). When he is finally free his true love rejects him, knowing his people need him more.
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The Little Kidnappers 1953 N/R, 95 min.
Genre: Family
Director: Philip Leacock
Cast: Jon Whiteley, Vincent Winter, Duncan Macrae, Adrienne Corri, Theodore Bikel, Francis De Wolff, Jean Anderson, Jameson Clark, John Rae, Jack Stewart
Two children (Jon Whiteley and Vincent Winter) bring home an abandoned baby after their grandfather refuses to allow a dog in the house. Set in early 1900s Nova Scotia, this is an entertaining children's story. Both of the boys, Jon Whiteley and Vincent Winter, received Honorary Oscars for Outstanding Juvenile Performances.
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The Man Who Could Cheat Death 1959  N/R, 83 min.
Genre: Drama / Horror / Thriller / Sci-Fi
Director: Terence Fisher
Cast: Anton Diffring, Hazel Court, Christopher Lee, Arnold Marle, Delphi Lawrence, Francis De Wolff, Michael Ripper, Ronald Adam, Gerda Larsen, Middleton Woods, Denis Shaw, Ian Hewitson, Frederick Rawlings, Charles Lloyd Pack, Marie Burke
In this remake of "The Man in Half Moon Street" (1944), Dr. Georges Bonnet (Anton Diffring) uses transplant surgeries involving the removal of a gland from living victims who die during the surgery. The surgeries have stopped Georges' aging, and, although he is 104-years old, he appears to others as a 35-year-old man. Now, his obsession with Janine (Hazel Court) who has fallen for his aide Dr. Pierre Gerrard (Christopher Lee) will lead to Georges' ultimate undoing.
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The Master of Ballantrae 1953 N/R, 88 min.
Genre: Adventure
Director: William Keighley
Cast: Errol Flynn, Roger Livesey, Anthony Steel, Beatrice Campbell, Yvonne Furneaux, Felix Aylmer, Mervyn Johns, Charles Goldner, Ralph Truman, Francis De Wolff
This film is based (loosely) on Robert Louis Stevenson's story of the Scottish rebellion. Errol Flynn fights against the British monarchy–and his own brother (Anthony Steel) for the woman he loves.
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The Savage Innocents 1959  N/R, 110 min.
Genre: Adventure / Drama
Director: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Yoko Tani, Carlo Giustini, Peter O'Toole, Marie Yang, Anna May Wong, Lee Montague, Francis De Wolff, Marco Guglielmi, Kaida Horiuchi, Andy Ho
Canadian Eskimo Inuk (Anthony Quinn) hunts in the frozen tundra, and this is the life he understands. Eskimo hunting rituals extend to Eskimo customs when Inuk offers his wife Asiak's (Yoko Tani) sexual favors to a priest. But, when the offer is refused, Inuk kills the priest–an act that results in the pursuit of Inuk by two Mounties (Peter O'Toole and Carlo Giustini), his capture, and defying severe weather on the return.
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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.
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The Three Lives of Thomasina 1963 N/R, 97 min.
Genre: Family
Director: Don Chaffey
Cast: Patrick McGoohan, Susan Hampshire, Karen Dotrice, Vincent Winter, Denis Gilmore, Laurence Naismith, Finlay Currie, Jean Anderson, Wilfrid Brambell, Francis De Wolff
Thomasina is a Scottish cat that is loved by its mistress, Mary MacDhui (Karen Dotrice), and undergoes numerous crises in this enjoyable Disney film.
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Tom Brown's Schooldays 1951 N/R, 93 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Gordon Parry
Cast: John Howard Davies, Robert Newton, Diana Wynyard, Hermione Baddeley, Kathleen Byron, James Hayter, John Charlesworth, John Forrest, Michael Hordern, Max Bygraves, Francis De Wolff, Amy Veness, Brian Worth, Rachel Gurney, Michael Brennan
In this remake of Thomas Hughes' novel, John Howard Davies takes on the role of Tom Brown, a first-year student at Rugby School. Tom must deal with his new surroundings at boarding school and makes friends with East (John Charlesworth). Unfortunately, Tom and East must deal with bully Flashman (John Forrest) who adds stress to their lives. The new headmaster Dr. Arnold (Robert Newton) tries to deal with the problem but is ineffective–until matters rise to a head, and Dr. Arnold expels Flashman from Rugby.
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Treasure Island 1950 N/R, 96 min.
Genre: Family / Adventure
Director: Byron Haskin
Cast: Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton, Basil Sydney, Walter Fitzgerald, Denis O'Dea, Ralph Truman, Finlay Currie, John Laurie, Francis De Wolff, David Davies, Geoffrey Wilkinson, Geoffrey Keen, John Gregson, Andrew Blackett, William Devlin
Bobby Driscoll is delightful as young, cabin boy Jim Hawkins, whose treasure map is coveted by a band of pirates headed by one-legged Long John Silver (Robert Newton). Jim must contend with Long John Silver and the pirates who are also aboard the ship. A good Disney version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic.
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The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll 1960 N/R, 88 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
aka: House of Fright
Director: Terence Fisher
Cast: Paul Massie, Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee, David Kossoff, Francis De Wolff, Norma Marla, Magda Miller, Oliver Reed, William Kendall, Helen Goss
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story is altered to give an up-dated motive for the change of Dr. Jekyll into the sinister Mr. Hyde.
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Under Capricorn 1949 N/R, 116 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding, Margaret Leighton, Cecil Parker, Denis O'Dea, Jack Watling, Harcourt Williams, Francis De Wolff, Ronald Adam
The Huskys, a 19th-century family, live in Australia. Honorable Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) becomes attracted to Lady Henrietta Husky (Ingrid Bergman) and begins to unravel a family secret. Not one of Hitchcock's best.
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| 1. A Christmas Carol (1951)
aka: Scrooge
2. Corridors of Blood (1958)
3. Devil Doll (1964)
4. From Russia with Love (1963)
5. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
6. Ivanhoe (1952)
aka: Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe
7. King's Rhapsody (1955)
8. The Little Kidnappers (1953)
9. The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
10. The Master of Ballantrae (1953)
11. The Savage Innocents (1959)
12. The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)
aka: Big Time Operators
13. The Three Lives of Thomasina (1963)
14. Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951)
15. Treasure Island (1950)
16. The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
aka: House of Fright
17. Under Capricorn (1949)
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