Eileen Herlie Movies

This 199-minute Broadway production of Shakespeare's classic tragedy was directed for the stage by John Gielgud, who also provides the voice of the Ghost. Richard Burton plays the lead in Hamlet, the dramatic and tragic tale of a Danish prince whose obsessive desire for certainty is his ultimate undoing. The entire production was filmed by director Bill Colleran in Electronovision, employing 15 cameras to film the action with no interruptions. Burton gives one of the best stage performances of his career as the ill-fated prince of Denmark. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this gently humorous farce, an unwed Irish mother who has six children by some of the town's finest fathers finds herself bedeviled by the townsfolk who find her a liability to their sterling reputations. They try different ploys to get her to pack up her illicit clan and move. Then they pool their resources and buy the woman a farm far away from town, but before they have to move, mysterious Fate intervenes, and in the end all involved are happy, including the free-spirited young mother. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

No relation to the 1924 D. W. Griffith film of the same name, Isn't Life Wonderful! is a bucolic British comedy which goes for quiet chuckles rather than bellylaughs. Set in a sleepy rural village in the early 1900s, the film centers around the efforts to transform sorry old sot Uncle Willie (Donald Wolfit) into a gentleman of prestige and property. It is all for the benefit of young Virginia (Dianne Foster), the American fiancee of Willie's prim-and-proper nephew Frank (Robert Urquardt). Set up by friends and relatives in the bicycle business, Uncle Willie continues his wastrelly ways, but somehow manages to make a success of his little shop. Somehow all this leads to a hectic finale at a health spa, replete with an amusing car chase. As a novelty, Isn't Life Wonderful! is told from the point of view of the film's youngest character, played by 6-year-old Peter Asher. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Eileen Herlie, a German girl of Jewish heritage, is in love with Norman Wooland, but at her family's insistence marries Basil Sydney. Wooland's reaction is swift and decisive: he commits suicide. Years later, Hitler comes to power. Once more, Herlie's fate is in the hands of others. This time, however, she makes up her own mind as to what her future holds in store. An unpleasant, relentlessly unhappy tale, brilliantly acted by a top-drawer cast. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The misery caused by a long-term feud between two Irish families provides the framework in this drama based on a book by Daphne du Maurier. The saga begins in 1840 as the father of the Donovan clan rebels against the Brodrick family, the owners of the copper mine located on what was formerly Donovan land. In the ensuing conflict, the mine is destroyed and the eldest Brodrick son is killed. His younger brother then becomes the clan leader. He cares not a fig for mining; instead he would rather spend his time wooing a beautiful local girl whom he marries. They have four children and when the brother dies, his eldest son succeeds him. The new patriarch and his mother are terribly greedy and eager to take control of the mine. His mother is distraught when her son suddenly rejects her. The unwanted woman goes to London where she soon gets involved with gambling and drugs to ease her broken heart. One day, her son travels to the city and runs into her. To ease his aching conscience he asks her to return home. Just as she gets there, the eldest son is killed by another Donovan during a labor dispute. She then has one Donovan arrested. An aging servant manages to talk the bereaved mother into dropping the charges so that the feud may finally end. She does. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi