Leonard Sharp Movies

In this crime drama, three criminals break into a man's store so they can get into the bank next door. The trouble really begins when the store owner suddenly shows up. The robbers take him hostage. A man walks past, sees trouble, and tries to assist. Unfortunately, he too is captured. Fortunately, the police show up and capture the three crooks. They also arrest the owner and the passerby because they think they too are involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Music professor Alec Guinness rents a London flat from sweet old lady Katie Johnson. He tells her that, from time to time, several other musicians will visit in order to rehearse. In truth, Guinness can't play a note, nor can his visitors: he's a criminal mastermind, holding court over a gang of thieves, including the likes of punkish Peter Sellers, homicidal Herbert Lom and punchdrunk Danny Green. The gang uses Guinness' flat as headquarters as they conceive a daring 60,000 pound robbery. After pulling off the job, the gang stuffs the loot in a railway station locker. To avoid detection, Guinness convinces the ever-trusting Johnson to pick up the money. Through a series of comic complications, Johnson returns home with a police escort, with neither the woman nor the bobbies suspecting that she's carrying a fortune in her suitcase. Mistakenly believing that Johnson has ratted on them, the gang reluctantly plans to eliminate her. The Ladykillers won an Oscar nomination for William Rose's screenplay, and a BFA award for veteran character actress Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this murder mystery, a police detective begins suspecting that his sister's newest beau is a murderer. Unfortunately, he is dead wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Jack Hawkins plays a former British army officer who is surprised in his home one evening by a burglar. His surprise is compounded when the intruder turns out to be one of the men from his World War II army unit. With the straight-arrow diligence of a wartime commander, Hawkins delves into the unfortunate burglar's past, trying to discover why so promising a soldier hit the skids. The film is not so much a mystery but a genteel expose of the socioeconomic problems facing discharged servicemen in postwar England. The Intruder was adapted by Robin Maugham (son of Somerset Maugham) from his own novel Line on Ginger. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this melodrama, a Welsh storekeeper secretly dreams of becoming a songwriter. His dream comes true when he wins a contest and gets a contract with a big London publishing company. He moves to the city and leaves his beloved behind. Once there, he finds himself so lonely that he is unable to create. Fortunately, he has enough music already written to satisfy his publisher, but he is totally blocked for writing new material. After a great struggle, he manages to write a decent song, but a corrupt publisher steals it from him. Fortunately, the writer has kept the music. Later he and his lover are reunited. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this comedy, dishonest stable boys from Britain and France join forces in a smuggling operation. Using a horse blanket, the crooks stuff a horse blanket full of counterfeit money. Unfortunately the horse they've chosen to wear the blanket is hurt and taken out of the race and the bad boys must choose a replacement. He is the worst horse in the stable, Dunderhead. When the nag's jockey overhears the stablehand's scheming he stops them and manages to prove that there is more to his horse, indeed a champion, by winning the Big Race. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Future Avengers star Patrick Macnee stars in the 1951 British romantic drama The Girl is Mine. Macnee and Pamela Deeming play Hugh Hurcombe and Betty Marriott, part-owners of a charter boat. Their business success, and their budding romance, is threatened by vindictive dock owner James Rutt (Lionel Murton). American businessman Pringle (Arthur Melton) offers to help the young couple. Hugh accepts the offer, only to regret it later on when Pringle himself falls in love with Betty. The Girl is Mine was produced and directed by Marjorie Deans, one of a handful of female directors in England. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this realistic crime drama, a sadistic psychopathic killer, who works as an organist in a theater, is found guilty of murdering and hacking up a theater usher. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this British wartime comedy, a Mayor will do anything to save the Olympic Theater from further damage by the war. He decides to buy the rights to an alcoholic writer's newest play. He manages to evade the bill collectors and stage the show. Unfortunately he is unable to avoid the angered students of a dramatic academy that he cheated. They show up to destroy the show. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Released in the US as The Randolph Family, Dear Octopus was based on the internationally popular play by Dodie Smith. The story is motivated by the Golden Wedding anniversary of Charles and Dora Randolph (Frederick Leister, Helen Haye). As the relatives gather, each reveals his or her personal quirks and shortcomings. Caught in the middle is family secretary Penny Fenton (Margaret Lockwood), who has the unenviable task of sorting and smoothing out the family's many deep-set hostilities and jealousies so that a good time will be had by all. The basic premise of Dear Octopus is established early on; the rest of the film is variations on a single theme, albeit consistently amusing ones. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this British drama set in rural Devon, a preacher finds himself deeply ambivalent about having to marry his beloved off to another. While the clergyman wrestles with his mixed emotions, the local farmers have their own battle to fight. Many of their sheep have simply vanished. Only one farmer is able to keep his flock intact. In fact, on closer inspection, it seems to be growing. Later it turns out that the farmer has trained his unusually intelligent dog to steal sheep and bring them to his farm.. When the others learn about the theft, they drown the wicked farmer. Meanwhile, the sheepdog brings the newlyweds four sheep. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Sexton Blake, a British pulp-novel rip-off of Sherlock Holmes, was the principal character in several fast-paced programmers of the 1930s. George Curzon stars as Blake in Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror, but the histrionic honors go to chop-licking Tod Slaughter as "The Snake," the elusive head of a group of masked criminals. The scriptwriters contrive to allow the perfidious Slaughter to escape scot-free at the climax, paving the way for a sequel (that, worse luck, was never filmed). Greta Gynt plays another of the distressed-damsel roles she was saddled with before graduating to bigger-budgeted productions in the 1940s. Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror represented the last of George Curzon's three appearances as Blake; the character would resurface on screen in 1944 in the person of David Farrar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi