Barry Shawzin Movies
- 1968
In this caper comedy, Duffy (James Coburn) is a shaggy bohemian living in Tangiers who is approached for a less-than-legal business proposition by two half-brothers, carefree Stephane Calvert (James Fox) and stuffy businessman Antony Calvert (John Alderton). Though Stephane and Antony had different mothers, they share the same father, and they both hate him; Charles Calvert (James Mason) is a mean-spirited multi-millionaire who shows his sons little affection and isn't very interested in cutting them in for the family fortune. Charles plans to transport several million dollars in banknotes by ship from Tangiers to Marseilles, and the brothers want Duffy to help them liberate the money from the ship. While the Calvert Brothers are persuasive, Stephane's beautiful girlfriend Segolene (Suzannah York) is even more so, and Duffy finds that he not only wants to steal the cash from Charles, but the girl away from Stephane. Duffy was scripted by Donald Cammell, who gained a cult reputation for his first directorial effort, the Mick Jagger vehicle Performance. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Coburn, James Mason, (more)
- 1962
This drama by director Anthony Asquith, a noted lynchpin in British cinematic history, may wear too many hats to be identified as either an adventure, a treatise on non-violence, a psychological study, or whatever. It is all of these things as it starts out in the midst of a revolution in a fictional South American country. David Niven is Tom Jordan, the sometimes disagreeable manager of a British plantation. When it becomes apparent that the leader of the country will be forced to flee for his life, Tom and his wife Claire (Leslie Caron) end up chauffeuring the wounded President Rivera (David Opatoshu) out of there. Tom and Claire are in the midst of marital troubles -- which tend to pale when their car lands in quicksand in a river bed, or when she is unexpectedly threatened by a frightening band of young men while out exploring an abandoned village. And for the pacifist Tom, the worse is yet to come when he is forced to either kill or be killed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leslie Caron, David Niven, (more)
- 1962
In this British costume adventure, a courageous knight foils the plans of a baron to steal the treasure of King Henry III. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1959
Popular British film starlet Betta St. John essays a dual role as Toni and Terry Trent, twin entertainers hired to perform for the USO in Britain. After witnessing a murder, Terry abruptly vanishes, whereupon Toni asks Peter Brady to locate her missing sister. It is up to Brady to pull out his patented invisibility tricks to fool the gangsters holding Terry captive--but there's more to the intrigue than meets the eye (or in this case, doesn't meet the eye). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1959
Filmed not long after the launch of Russia's Sputnik satellite, First Man Into Space benefited from a surface realism made possible by enhanced public knowledge of space-travel jargon and paraphernalia. Dashing astronaut Lt. Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards) disappears from view when his experimental spacecraft vanishes in a mysterious cloud. The space capsule returns to Earth, covered in a bizarre extraterrestrial coating. Shortly thereafter, a hulking, half-human creature raids a blood bank, killing the nurse on duty and gulping down the supplies. More bizarre, unexplained events occur before Prescott's older brother Cmdr. C.E. Prescott (Marshall Thompson) concludes that the monster is actually his missing brother, transformed by his experiences in space into a mutant, vampiric beast. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, (more)
After emerging as a potent force in the genre with Horror of Dracula, Hammer Films added their handsome Gothic touch to this lesser-known remake of the 1944 suspenser The Man in Half Moon Street (itself adapted from a play by Barre Lyndon). Anton Diffring stars as a century-old artist who maintains a youthful appearance by regularly replacing certain glands -- in transplants that he receives thanks to the unwilling participation of healthy donors. Despite his outward physical vitality, his advanced years lead to an increasing mental instability, evinced by his mad obsession with an old flame (Hazel Court) whose newfound love for a suave doctor (Christopher Lee) compels Diffring to commit acts of diabolical cruelty that ultimately become his grisly undoing. Directed by Hammer regular Terence Fisher, who applies a high polish to this atmospheric period thriller. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anton Diffring, Hazel Court, (more)
