Annette Crosbie Movies

Nigel Cole directs the feel-good comedy Calendar Girls, based on the true story of a group of working-class British housewives who became overnight celebrities by posing for a nude calendar in order to raise more than 500-thousand pounds for a new leukemia unit. The film follows the adventures of best friends Chris Harper (Helen Mirren) and Annie Clarke (Julie Walters), both members of the charitable Rylstone Women's Institute in North Yorkshire. After Annie's husband John (John Alderton) succumbs to leukemia, the friends are motivated to take some action. They convince the group to craft a tastefully nude calendar featuring the usual ladies' activities of gardening and baking, as photographed by the young amateur Lawrence (Philip Glenister). Despite the disapproval of the Institute's leader Marie (Geraldine James), the calendar quickly becomes a best-seller and leads the group to Hollywood. Ciaran Hinds appears as Chris' husband Rod Harper. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

This 2000 television adaptation of Charles Dickens' Victorian classic was originally released as a six-hour, three-part miniseries on PBS. Adapted by Alan Bleasdale, this version of Oliver Twist gives viewers a new look at an old story, waiting 90 minutes to even introduce its eponymous hero (played by Sam Smith), and taking pains to establish the background of Oliver's parents, good-hearted Agnes Fleming (Sophia Myles) and all-around coward Edwin Leeford (Tim Dutton). All of the resolutely Dickensian touches are here, from greedy relatives to secret wills, to stolen lockets containing valuable information, and all are ably brought to life by a talented cast that includes Julie Walters as Mrs. Mann, Michael Kitchen as Mr. Brownlow, Lindsay Duncan as Elizabeth Leeford, Marc Warren as Monks, and Robert Lindsay as Fagin. As an added bonus, the miniseries' score, by Paul Pritchard, contains additional music by none other than Elvis Costello. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by mystery specialist P.D. James, the British drama series An Unsuitable Job for a Woman starred Helen Baxendale as the attractive title character. Employed by a seedy private detective agency, Cordelia Gray (Baxendale) was obliged to take over the business when her boss committed suicide. With next to no detective experience, Cordelia stumbled her way through a variety of life-threatening cases, managing to keep alive and to round up any and all culprits with the assistance of protective office assistant Edith Sparshott (Annette Crosbie). A co-production of Britain's HTV and America's WGBH-TV, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman debuted in England on October 24, 1997, yielding a total of six hour-long and two two-hour episodes as of 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Calling to mind the whimsical, swinging London comedies of the 1960s, such as the Blake Edwards Pink Panther films and the collaborations of The Beatles with director Richard Lester, this frantic romantic comedy is an airy, pop example of the British New Wave. Dylan Dan Futterman and Jez Stuart Townsend are friends from opposite sides of the Atlantic using their special skills -- Dylan is a slick-talking American, while Jez is a humble British computer expert -- to bilk England's wealthy. Both orphans, they plan to accumulate enough pounds to buy the luxurious mansion home they never had as children. Their scams include selling phony voice-recognition software and reinstalling the same insulation into various homes. Into their lives comes Georgie (Kate Beckinsale), a beautiful girl engaged to a rich jerk. Dylan and Jez hire Georgie as a secretary and both fall in love with her, though Jez's feelings are a bit more sincere. At first appalled by her employers' scams, Georgie believes their lie that they intend to give the money to the poor. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A priest discovers that being the leader of the Catholic Church can be hazardous to your health in this satiric comedy. Cardinal Rocco (Alex Rocco) and Monsignor Vitchie (Paul Bartel) are two high-ranking Vatican officials who have been using the church's business dealings to launder funds for Vittorio Corelli (Herbert Lom), a crime boss involved in illegal arms trading. After the death of the aging and infirm Pope, Rocco and Vitchie plan to nominate a successor who will go along with Corelli's schemes, but quite by accident, small town priest Giuseppe Albinizi (Robbie Coltrane) is named the new Pontiff. Albinizi is a reluctant spiritual leader who prefers cars, women, and rock & roll to church business, but when he discovers the level of Rocco's corruption, he has him removed from the Vatican. Rocco and Vitchie are not taking Albinizi's plans to clean up Vatican finances lying down, and they discover that the new Pope's has a not-so-little secret. Before he joined the priesthood, Albinizi fathered a son out of wedlock with Veronica Dante (Beverly D'Angelo); the boy grew up to be Joe Don Dante (Balthazar Getty), a rock star who's romancing Corelli's daughter. After complaints from Catholic groups in the U.S., the distributors of The Pope Must Die changed the title to The Pope Must Diet. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Agatha Christie and set in the late 1950s, this unevenly told film starts when Dr. Arthur Calgary (Donald Sutherland) comes back to England after two years on an Antarctic expedition and discovers that the man he is searching for has been executed for murder. At the beginning of his expedition he had given a ride one night to a hitchhiker and accidentally ended up with his address book. To his horror, the hitchhiker's mother was killed on that night, and he had been the alibi that would have saved him from execution. Spurred on by his sense of shock and guilt, Calgary makes contact with the family and is put off by their disinterest in finding the real killer. It seems that the mother had many enemies among her close family members: her husband was having an affair, there was a blackmail scheme in the works, and many felt that she had already excluded them from any inheritance. Although the acting is uneven and the plot may seem predictable or contrived to non-Christie readers, the story retains interest, and Dave Brubeck's jazz score adds a special dimension to the proceedings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Hawk the Slayer will appeal most to undiscriminating fans of the sword-and-sorcery genre. The title character, played by John Terry, is on a lifelong quest for "The Power", an enchanted flying sword. Alas, Hawk's evil brother Voltan (Jack Palance) likewise covets The Power. A plethora of violence ensues, culminating in a slow-motion duel to the death between hero and villain. Among Hawk's comrades are a dwarf and an elf, who are "R2D2 and C3PO" in everything except name and appearance. Hardly the best of its kind, Hawk the Slayer is redeemed by the unbridled hamminess of Jack Palance, who seems to be the only one who realizes that the whole affair is to silly to be taken seriously. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide