Susan Burnet Movies
- 1966
- PG
The System is a "Swinging London" comedy with an unsettling undercurrent of bitterness and cynicism. Oliver Reed plays a girlie-magazine photographer, the self-appointed leader of a group of handsome but unscrupulous bachelors who hang out in a British seaside resort. Their avowed goal is to seduce and abandon as many wealthy young girls as possible. One of the group, jealous of Reed's success, uses their "system" to hoist the leader on his own petard. Michael Winner solidified his reputation as a "mod" director in The System--and also displayed his utter contempt for the pretty young people he depicts. The film was released to the US under the more bankable title The Girl Getters. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Oliver Reed, Jane Merrow, (more)
- 1964
This unsavory British programmer stars Ian Hendry as a hustler who seduces anything in skirts. He launches his sexual adventures by trying to put the make on his married boarding house neighbor June Ritchie. She spurns him until he agrees to find her young daughter, who has wandered off. Hendry moves on to Ritchie's sister Annette Andre, but this affair is squelched by Ritchie, who threatens to kill herself and tell all to her husband. Hendry leaves to find new conquests elsewhere. A novel by Nan Maynard was the launching pad for This Is My Street. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- June Ritchie, Avice Landone, (more)
- 1960
Director Lewis Gilbert is best known for his other cinematic efforts, such as Educating Rita or in films in a wartime genre, Sink the Bismarck. This unexceptional comedy is about a bumbling searchlight unit during World War II. Ensemble acting creates a series of intertwining stories that involve the various soldiers assigned to this post. Lt. Ogleby (Ian Carmichael) is the cheerful, inept officer in charge, then there is the womanizer whose concept of birth control is limited, the lovesick soldier unhappy over a misunderstanding with his girlfriend, the Cockney cook, the father-figure, and several others. Their trials and tribulations provide the bulk of the comedy, such as it is. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ian Carmichael, Tommy Steele, (more)
In this witty music-business satire, Johnny Jackson (Laurence Harvey) is a talent agent down on his luck who thinks his tide may have turned when he spots a teenage rock & roll fan wailing away in a coffeehouse. Dubbing him "Bongo Herbert" (Cliff Richard, in a role the now knighted and born-again pop icon would probably prefer to forget), Johnny puts Herbert on the fast track to teenage stardom, using his record company and radio connections to make Herbert's first single a smash hit. Johnny then decides that a little image modification might make Herbert a bigger draw, so his follow-up is a treacly, inspirational tune, "The Shrine on the Second Floor," which hardly gibes with Herbert's newfound fondness for strippers and love-starved American actresses. But just when Johnny thinks he has a meal ticket for life, it's discovered that Herbert is really a minor, making his contract with Johnny null and void. Cliff Richard was at the height of his first wave of popularity as "The British Elvis" when Expresso Bongo was released, leading to a great deal of speculation about how closely it mirrored his own career (the answer probably is: not very much). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms, (more)
