Leslie French Movies

About 350 years ago, the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) launched into space a statue made out of a deadly living metal called Nemesis. Now the statue has returned, threatening the universe in general -- and earth in particular -- with total destruction. Watch for a cameo appearance by British jazz great Courtney Pine. Written by Kevin Clarke, the first episode of the three-part story "Silver Nemesis" was originally shown on November 23, 1988. Appropriately enough, it was also the "silver" 25th anniversary of the very first Doctor Who telecast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With the notable exception of Pennies From Heaven, The Singing Detective was the best-known TV miniseries project of the iconoclastic, darkly humored Dennis Potter. A reworking of Potter's first novel Hide and Seek, the six-part series starred Michael Gambon as crime novelist Philip E. Marlow. Suffering from a hellish skin-and-nerve disease called psoriatic arthroparthy (a painful infliction which ultimately killed the real-life Potter), Marlow was confined to a hospital bed, where under the influence of numerous prescription drugs he began to imagine himself as the hard-boiled hero of his latest detective novel. While trying to solve a difficult case, Marlow continually drifted backward in time to his childhood in the Forest of Dean, occasionally bursting into song to express his emotions. As fantasy and reality merged into one, Marlow was forced into a tortuous session of self-analysis and personal discovery. Virtually everyone in the cast was seen in double and triple roles, including nominal leading ladies Alison Steadman and Joanne Whalley (aka Joanne Whalley-Kilmer). The series earned two BAFTA awards (the British equivalent of the Emmys), one for Best Actor to Michael Gambon. After its initial BBC1 run from November 16, to December 21, 1986, The Singing Detective was shown in the United States via public and cable television, where it picked up another award, the prestigious Peabody, in 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A handsome prince searches for love in this whimsical fairy tale. Prince Ramon (Omar Sharif) has been pledged to an arranged marriage by the Queen Mother (Dolores Del Rio), but he balks at marrying a woman whom he doesn't love, and rides away on his horse rather than face the altar. While riding in the woods, Ramon is thrown from his mount, and the wounded prince finds refuge at a nearby monastery presided over by Brother Joseph (Leslie French). Unlike most monks, Joseph has magical powers and can fly when the spirit moves him. The Prince confesses to Joseph that he's been unable to find true love, so the monk puts his powers to work; soon Ramon finds himself awestruck by the beautiful servant girl Isabella (Sophia Loren). Ramon and Isabella fall in love, but her status as a commoner would preclude a marriage between them -- that is, until Brother Joseph does some rummaging through his bag of tricks. More Than a Miracle (also released as C'era una Volta and Cinderella -- Italian Style) was Dolores Del Rio's last dramatic screen appearance for 11 years; she was to act in only one more film, The Children of Sanchez. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An organization specializing in extortion manages to extract money from nervous millionaires by demonstrating how easy it would be to commit murder. The mastermind behind these simulated killings is Nathaniel Needle (George Murcell), who makes it plain that he's just as capable of pulling off the "real thing." Steed and Emma dedicate themselves to stopping Needle's nasty little protection racket -- if they can avoid being murdered themselves. Written by Philip Levene, "You Have Just Been Murdered" premiered in England on October 28, 1967, and in America on January 24, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arguably Luchino Visconti's best film and certainly the most personal of his historical epics, The Leopard chronicles the fortunes of Prince Fabrizio Salina and his family during the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published posthumously in 1958 and subsequently translated into all European languages, the picture opens as Salina (Burt Lancaster) learns that Garibaldi's troops have embarked in Sicily. While the Prince sees the event as an obvious threat to his current social status, his opportunistic nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) becomes an officer in Garibaldi's army and returns home a war hero. Tancredi starts courting the beautiful Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), a daughter of the town's newly appointed Mayor, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa). Though the Prince despises Don Calogero as an upstart who made a fortune on land speculation during the recent social upheaval, he reluctantly agrees to his nephew's marriage, understanding how much this alliance would mean for the impecunious Tancredi. Painfully realizing the aristocracy's obsolescence in the wake of the new class of bourgeoisie, the Prince later declines an offer from a governmental emissary to become a senator in the new Parliament in Turin. The closing section, an almost hour-long ball, is often cited as one of the most spectacular sequences in film history. Burt Lancaster is magnificent in the first of his patriarchal roles, and the rest of the cast, especially Delon and Cardinale, become almost perfect incarnations of the novel's characters. Filmed in glorious Techniscope and rich in period detail, the film is a remarkable cinematic achievement in all departments. The version that won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival ran 205 minutes. Inexplicably, the picture was subsequently distributed by 20th Century Fox in a poorly dubbed, 165-min. English-language version, using inferior color process. The restored Italian-language version, supervised by cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, appeared in 1990, though the longest print still ran only 187 minutes. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Discovered lying on the side of a road, an auto crash victim turns out to have a fortune in diamonds hidden in his stomach. Following the trail of evidence, Steed and Cathy discover that the estate of a dying philanthropist is slowly and methodically being stolen and smuggled out of the country. First telecast November 17, 1962, "Death of a Great Dane" was written by Roger Marshall and Jeremy Scott. The episode was broadcast in America on February 5, 1991 -- and, some 23 years earlier, was refilmed as the "Mrs. Peel" episode "The 50,000-Pound Breakfast." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this uneven but well-acted mystery story with a few gaps in the plot here and there, Alec Guiness plays a double role. He is John Barratt, a British teacher on vacation in France who is conned into taking on another identity. The identity he assumes is that of his double, Count Jacques de Gue, who has none of John's upright, moral character. Once ensconced as the Count, John discovers that the Count's mother (Bette Davis) is addicted to morphine, his wife (Irene Worth) believes he is out to kill her, and the Count's brother-in-law (Peter Bull) is embezzling funds away from the family business. And those are just a few of his problems, alleviated somewhat by his mistress (Nicole Murray). Once John realizes how decadent and immoral the Count really is he feels duty-bound to challenge him to a duel. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, police and crooks alike vie for possession of a wallet containing valuable microfilm which was tossed from a window. The wallet is found by a passerby who gives it to a dancer who gives it to a cashier. The cashier gives it to a clerk who uses it in a blackmailing scheme. In the end it returns to the passerby who ends up arrested. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This period drama is based on the relationship between 18th-century British stage stars Peg Woffington and David Garrick. The story begins as Woffington leaves Dublin to be with her lover who is an aspiring actor. Unfortunately, by the time she arrives, he has found another, causing her to try her hand at acting which in turn gives her the chance to meet Garrick, a popular actor who becomes her mentor. Under his expert tutelage, she becomes a famous actress at the Drury Lane Theatre where they eventually fall in love. Unfortunately, Woffington has a weak heart and during a performance of Shakespeare's As You Like It collapses and dies soon afterward. Actually, Peg Woffington lived three years beyond the attack, but that isn't nearly as dramatic. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide