Richard Murdoch Movies

Tipping the scales on the Monty Python-esque side of broad comedy, this outrageous and classically British farce is a series of episodes involving the U.S., a small Caribbean nation, the British government, and the military. The American president is a former clown who dies after asking someone to punch him in the stomach to prove how strong he is. The vice-president (Loretta Swit) takes over and heads for trouble right away. A British island has been invaded by a Caribbean dictatorship and the gay British admiral sent to command naval operations takes a warm-hearted, 1940s-style leave of his "spouse." A Princess working as a nurse overdoes it when asked to shave a sailor for an operation. The British Prime Minister decides that if the unemployment situation could be easily solves if the employed would only jump off a cliff. And so it goes on and on, with some of the skits delving into more violent and sacrilegious themes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Season two of The New Avengers begins with another revenge-motivated episode. Ten years ago, John Steed (Patrick MacNee) was forced to shoot down his old friend and fellow agent Mark (Clive Revill), who had defected to the East. Since that time, Mark has been slowly dying from his wound, as the bullet works its way towards his heart. But before he cashes it in, Mark intends to wreak vengeance by destroying everyone and everything that Steed holds near and dear--and, of course, Purdey (Joanna Lumley) falls into this category. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A talented director (Charles Saunders) and cast cannot do very much with this weak story about an odd double deception. Two con-men, former Commander Binham-Ryley (Richard Murdoch) and former Major Rory McQuarry (William Kendall), are just out of prison for their dubious money-making schemes. They decide to hook up together to see how to bilk the next mark, when they meet a wealthy widow who obviously cannot see through them, and she hires them to run a factory for her. What the two men do not realize is that the widow needs two fall guys in her own shady, profit-making scheme. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister, Magic Box contends that Friese-Greene was the true father of motion pictures, and not such upstarts as W. K. L. Dickson and Thomas Edison. Told in flashback, the film details Friese-Greene's tireless experiments with the "moving image," leading inexorably to a series of failures and disappoints, as others hog the credit for the protagonist's discoveries. The huge cast includes such British film luminaries as Joyce Grenfell, Miles Malleson, Michael Redgrave, Eric Portman, Emlyn Williams, Richard Attenborough, Peter Ustinov, Cecil Parker, Kay Walsh, and, best of all, Laurence Olivier as the confused bobby who witnesses Friese-Greene's first motion picture demonstration. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The "Soho" invoked in the title is not the New York City artistic colony but a seedy section of London. What happened was a series of murders, committed by a modern Jack-the-Ripper type. Reporter Richard Murdoch turns detective in hopes of getting a swell story. Meanwhile, Murdoch's girlfriend Patricia Raine nearly becomes a strangling victim herself (gee, really?) It Happened in Solo transpires in a busy 55 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the late 1930s-early 1940s, diminutive British music-hall and radio comedian Arthur Askey enjoyed a popularity commensurate to that of Hollywood's Abbott & Costello; accordingly, Askey's earliest starring films were all box-office bonanzas. In I Thank You, Askey and his perennial straight man Richard Murdoch are cast as Arthur and Stinker, members of a nearly bankrupt theatrical troupe. To raise some much-needed money, our heroes hire on as servants for Lady Randall (Lily Morris), who'd been an entertainer herself before marrying into the Upper Crust. When Lady Randall learns of Arthur and Stinker's plight, she bankrolls a major stage production for the boys' fellow performers, leading to the inevitable big-production-number finale. Way, way down the cast list of I Thank You is distinguished Shakespearean actor Felix Aylmer, who was seen to rather better advantage as Polonius in Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Band Waggon was the BBC radio series that catapulted diminutive comic Arthur Askey to stardom as "Big-Hearted Arthur". This filmization adds a modern touch by taking place during a television broadcast (the BBC was beaming out a regular schedule of TV programs until the War broke out). Askey and his stooge Richard Murdoch take over an ancient castle to convert it to a video center. Jack Hylton's band is to be the main attraction-and in 1940, Hylton was a far bigger name than Askey, so guess who got top billing on most marquees. The castle is alleged to be haunted, but the nocturnal disturbances are actually the handiwork of Nazi spies. From here on, it's every man for himself. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This film is an adaptation of the Brandon Thomas stage perennial Charley's Aunt, starring bespectacled British radio comedian Arthur Askey. Since Askey's professional nickname was "Big-Hearted Arthur", and since another Charley's Aunt starring Jack Benny went before the cameras in 1941, the title was slightly altered for its limited American release. Otherwise, the story is the same as ever. Dizzy Oxford student Lord Fancourt Babberly (Askey) is persuaded to pose as his pal Charley Wyckham's elderly aunt, in order that Charley's and Jack Chesney's girlfriends will have a proper female escort when they come to visit. The charade is complicated by the presence of Jack's father and of one of the girl's guardians, Stephen Spettigue, both of whom are required by the plotline to "romance" the phoney aunt. Further gumming up the works is the arrival of the genuine Aunt, with Lord Fancourt Babberly's erstwhile lady love in tow. Charley's Big-Hearted Aunt was updated and expanded to allow for the characteristic verbal patter of the then-popular Arthur Askey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The old Ben W. Levy war-horse play Evergreen proved to be an excellent film vehicle from British music-comedy star Jessie Matthews. Our heroine plays a popular music hall thrush of the early 1900s, whose impending marriage into nobility is destroyed by the arrival of her long-thought-dead lover. When the latter demands "hush money," Matthews disappears from public view, but not before leaving her infant daughter in the care of her maid. Flash-forward to 1924: the daughter, also played by Matthews, is seeking work as a chorus dancer. An old associate of Matthews' mother, amazed at the resemblance between the two women, decides to pass her off as her long-lost parent, making a big publicity fuss over her "ageless" beauty. The younger Matthews confesses the ruse when she falls in love with a man who claims to be the older Matthews' son. Are you following all this, or do you need a road map? Anyway, if you catch a complete print of Evergreen, you'll be able to enjoy five songs performed by Jessie Matthews, one of them by no less than Rodgers and Hart. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi