The 39 Steps 1959  N/R, 93 min.
Genre: Drama / Thriller
aka: The Thirty-Nine Steps
Director: Ralph Thomas
Cast: Kenneth More, Taina Elg, Brenda De Banzie, Barry Jones, Reginald Beckwith, Faith Brook, Michael Goodliffe, James Hayter, Duncan Lamont, Jameson Clark, Andrew Cruickshank, Leslie Dwyer, Sid James, Betty Henderson, Joan Hickson
This is an entertaining remake of the 1935 Hitchcock classic. Richard Hannay (Kenneth More) inadvertently becomes involved in espionage and murder after attending a vaudeville show with a young nanny (Faith Brook). Violence erupts at the show, and Richard takes the nanny to his home where she is stabbed by an assailant and is killed–but not before telling Richard that he has only two days to stop an espionage plot. And the race against time begins.
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Clockwise 1986 PG, 96 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Christopher Morahan
Cast: John Cleese, Penelope Wilton, Alison Steadman, Stephen Moore, Joan Hickson, Sharon Maiden, Penny Leatherbarrow, Tony Haygarth, Peter Cellier
John Cleese plays a school headmaster who is obsessed with time. He becomes completely terrified when he realizes he has missed the train to an important conference and seeks other means of getting to the conference on time. Cleese, as often happens, is excellent.
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 Great Expectations 1981  TV, 300 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Julian Amyes
Cast: Gerry Sundquist, Derek Francis, Joan Hickson, Patsy Kensit, Colin Jeavons, Stratford Johns, Phillip Joseph, Graham McGrath, Tim Munro, John Stratton, Christine Absalom, Sarah-Jane Varley
This offering from the BBC TV miniseries focuses on the life and times of humble Pip (Graham McGrath as young Pip and Gerry Sundquist as older Pip) who dreams of grandeur and finds when he grows up that an unknown benefactor (Stratford Johns) has bestowed a fortune on him enabling him to become a gentleman in the Victorian world of the social elite.
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Murder She Said 1961 N/R, 87 min.
Genre: Mystery
aka: Meet Miss Marple
Agatha Christie's Murder, She Said
Director: George Pollock
Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, James Robertson Justice, Thorley Walters, Charles "Bud" Tingwell, Conrad Phillips, Ronald Howard, Joan Hickson, Stringer Davis, Gordon Harris
While sitting in her train seat, Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford) witnesses a murder taking place on a passing train. She alerts police, but they doubt her story. What does Miss Marple do? She begins her own investigation and obtains a job as a maid inside Ackenthorpe Hall, an estate in the area where the murder took place and searches the house for clues.
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Sea Wife 1957 N/R, 82 min.
Genre: Adventure / Drama
Director: Bob McNaught
Cast: Joan Collins, Richard Burton, Basil Sydney, Cy Grant, Ronald Squire, Harold Goodwin, Joan Hickson, Gibb McLaughlin, Roddy Hughes, Lloyd Lamble, Nora Nicholson, Ronald Adam, Beatrice Varley, Yvette Wyatt
In 1942, soon after setting sail from Singapore, four British survivors–a beautiful nun (Joan Collins), an army officer (Richard Burton), a bigoted business administrator (Basil Sydney), and the Black purser (Cy Grant)–reveal their true personalities as they struggle to survive under great hardships after their ship is sunk by a Japanese torpedo.
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Why Didn't They Ask Evans? 1980 TV, 180 min.
Genre: Mystery
Director: John Davies, Tony Wharmby
Cast: Francesca Annis, John Gielgud, James Warwick, Bernard Miles, Eric Porter, Leigh Lawson, Madeline Smith, Robert Longden, Connie Booth, Doris Hare, Joan Hickson
Based on the Agatha Christie novel, this complicated, made-for-TV film is long and, at times, hard to follow the convoluted plot. With some humor thrown in, it follows Lady Frances Derwent (Francesca Annis) and Bobby Jones (James Warwick) as they solve the mystery.
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Yanks 1979 R, 141 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: John Schlesinger
Cast: Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Chick Vennera, Rachel Roberts, John Ratzenberger, Joan Hickson, Arlen Dean Snyder, Annie Ross
American soldiers go to England during World War II and are met with varied reactions from British citizens. This film highlights stories of three American GIs as they meet and fall in love with local women.
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| 1. The 39 Steps (1959)
aka: The Thirty-Nine Steps
2. Clockwise (1986)
3. Great Expectations (1981)
4. Murder She Said (1961)
aka: Meet Miss Marple
aka: Agatha Christie's Murder, She Said
5. Sea Wife (1957)
6. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1980)
7. The Wicked Lady (1983)
8. Yanks (1979)
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