Sophie Hardy Movies
- 1970
- R
Mara (Rita Hayworth) is the lonely owner of a gas station on a remote road leading to Salina, Mexico in this psychodrama. A young hippie (Robert Walker Jr.) is mistaken for her son who had left four years earlier. He is encouraged to stay and develops an amorous relationship with his supposed sister Billie (Mimsey Farmer). He looks into the family history and discovers Billie may have killed her own brother and Mara could very well be covering up the crime. Warren (Ed Begley) and Mara dance the frug in this feature, the last for Begley who died in April, 1970 and the second to last film for legendary screen siren Hayworth. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rita Hayworth, Mimsy Farmer, (more)
- 1969
- PG
A Scotland Yard inspector is called on to investigate a series of unsolved robberies in The Trygon Factor. Inspector Cooper-Smith (Stewart Granger) ends up at the country manor of a respectable English family. Livia Emberday (Cathleen Nesbitt) is the mistress of the house who has turned to crime to help bolster the finances of the once-monied family. With help from a group of bogus nuns, stolen goods end up in the warehouse of Hamlyn (Robert Morley), supposedly a respectable businessman. This 1966 feature also stars Susan Hampshire as Trudy, the daughter of the manor who is unaware of the criminal enterprise under her very nose. There are plenty of twists in the storyline of this often complex mystery feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, Susan Hampshire, (more)
- 1969
In this crime drama, a painter finds himself entangled in a murder plot when he gets involved with a pretty girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Americans in 1968 seemed to prefer long, campy film titles. Thus it was that the British Taste of Excitement was rechristened Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Girl Like You? The girl in question is Jane Kerrell (Eva Rienzi), who is somehow involved in an assassination plot. The hero, artist Paul Hedley (David Buck), agrees to help Jane when he's told that the intended victim is a traitor. But who's telling the truth here? Director Don Sharp co-adapted the screenplay from Ben Healey's novel Waiting for a Tiger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
This entertaining spy comedy marks the first appearance of suave secret agent Al Pereira, portrayed here by actor-singer Eddie Constantine, best known as the similar Lemmy Caution in Alphaville and other films. Cult director Jesus Franco's final black-and-white film has Pereira on the trail of robotic hitmen murdering a series of important people. The agent romances a go-go dancer (Sophie Hardy) and breaks a Chinese espionage syndicate headed by the wily Lee Wee (Vicente Roca) before being kidnapped. The real culprits are Sir Percy (Fernando Rey) and his lover Lady Cecilia (Francoise Brion), who plan to turn their Rh-negative victims, including Pereira, into robot assassins. This clever, fast-paced adventure was revamped by acclaimed screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, whose witty dialogue enhances the film greatly. The Al Pereira character returned in Franco's Les Ebranlees (1972) and numerous other films. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Constantine, Françoise Brion, (more)
- 1965
In this musical, two youngsters are thrilled to meet their favorite Italian movie star and end up spending a day squiring her about London. The star is a little eccentric and asks them to steal some hats for her collection. The star-struck youths agree until they learn that she wants a bobby's helmet, a businessman's bowler, and the bearskin cap of a palace guard. Mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Brown, Sophie Hardy, (more)
- 1965
The crime novels of Englishman Edgar Wallace have been adapted into several dozen movies, possibly more in Germany where they were enormously popular for a very long time. Though the author died in 1935, he has been given "screenwriter" credits on a great many of these films. Der Hexer is based on one of his more popular and critically acclaimed works, The Squeaker, which also gave rise to an English film in 1930. In the story, a supposedly respectable man is forced to murder his lovely secretary when she finds out too much about his real business, which is white slavery (forcing women into prostitution). The girl's brother comes from Australia to find out what happened to her and goes on a rampage against the criminals, confounding the increasingly dismayed functionaries in Scotland Yard. Not only is he impinging on their turf, but they are unable to discover who he is. Meanwhile, he must evade not only the police, but the powerful criminals he is working against. Thanks to some fancy plotting by the filmmakers, even readers of the original novel will not be able to guess his identity. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfred Vohrer, Herbert Reinecker, (more)
- 1965
American actor Lex Barker and Frenchman Pierre Brice are teamed once again in the Teutonic western Winnetou, Part III. The noble Indian Winnetou and his friend Old Shatterhand battle settlers who have been duped by an unscrupulous land grabber into a war with the Apaches. They team up against the scheming Rollins (Rik Battaglia) who initially causes the controversy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, (more)
- 1965
Based on an Edgar Wallace story, this is the story of a psychopath known as "The Wizard." Thought to be dead by the Scotland Yard, murders with his exact mode of operation in London suggests that he is not. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
