John Turner Movies
- 1998
- Add Merlin to Queue
This four-hour fantasy miniseries, elaborating on the Arthurian legend and filmed in England and Wales, offers a portrait of the wizard Merlin (Sam Neill), following his life as a youth (Daniel Brocklebank) to his later conflicts with the evil Queen Mab (Miranda Richardson) and his love for Nimue (Isabella Rossellini), who is kidnapped by Lord Vortigern (Rutger Hauer). Amid battles and displays of magic and mysticism (courtesy of London's Framestore and the Jim Henson Creature Shop), Merlin strides the English countryside encountering Excalibur, the unbreakable sword, and a Camelot cast of colorful characters including the morphing manservant Frik (Martin Short), Morgan le Fey (Helena Bonham Carter), King Arthur (Paul Curran), Lancelot (Jeremy Sheffield), and Guinevere (Lena Heady). Premiered April 26, 1998 on NBC. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
- 1996
- R
Rasputin is a dramatization of the life story of one of the most intriguing figures in all history. A crude peasant from Siberia, Rasputin (Alan Rickman) was a self-styled charismatic holy man who traveled widely, openly engaging in drunkenness, sexual indulgences, and general debauchery. In the early part of the 20th century Rasputin made his way to the troubled Russian capital of St. Petersburg, a hotbed of political discontent due to widespread poverty under a repressive government. There Rasputin met Czarina Alexandra (Greta Scacchi), and the film focuses on how he exercised power over her and her loving husband, Czar Nicholas II (Ian McKellen), by virtue of his mystical ability to stop the bleeding of their hemophiliac son. But in a nation beset by internal and external problems, Rasputin's uncouth presence at the opulent imperial court, coupled with his scandalous antics around the capital, came to symbolize the weak leadership of the czar. The movie goes on to show the tragic consequences that resulted from this volatile situation. Originally made for cable television, the film features Emmy-winning performances by Rickman and Scacchi. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Rickman, Greta Scacchi, (more)
John G. Avildsen, director of Rocky and The Karate Kid, adapts Bryce Courtenay's compassionate novel about the coming of age of a white anti-apartheid activist during the years of World War II in South Africa. Avildsen cumbersomely grafts Courtenay's tale of fighting apartheid onto a Hollywood-style fight-for-the-championship bout. Seven-year-old P.K. (Guy Witcher) is a white South African raised on his family's farm by his Zulu nanny. When his mother takes ill, he is sent away to an Afrikaner boarding school, where he is picked on and nearly killed by the school bully during a pep rally for Hitler. P.K. survives and is sent to live with his grandfather. He befriends Doc (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a jailed German musician, and a black inmate (Morgan Freeman), who teaches P.K. how to use his fists for some quick boxing moves. At 12, P.K. (now played by Simon Fenton), witnesses black inmates being cruelly humiliated by their racist white jailers. Taking note of P.K.'s fluidity for languages, his black mentor spreads the word that P.K. is the incarnation of the mythic Rain Maker, a messianic liberator who is destined to unite all the African tribes. By the time he's 18 years old, P.K. (now played by Stephen Dorff) is becoming the Great White Hope for the black Africans, boxing his way into their hearts and minds. He joins up with an old boxing foe (Alois Moyo), who is now a township activist, and takes up the apartheid struggle. But things get confusing when P.K. falls in love with the daughter (Fay Masterson) of an apartheid leader. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Dorff, Morgan Freeman, (more)
Girls School Screamers is a sleazy, obnoxious, and derivative slasher offering from those purveyors of "Z-movie" schlock at Troma (namely executive producers Lloyd Kauffman and Michael Herz). The story plays the basic Old Dark House riff, involving six curvaceous coeds who plan to spend a weekend taking inventory at a lavish remote mansion left to their school by a deceased millionaire. By the end of the first night, the girls are hunted down and slaughtered by an unseen interloper lurking within the house. That's the premise for what amounts to 80 minutes of naked flesh and hardcore splatter before the killer's identity is revealed in the contrived "surprise" climax, by which time viewers will likely have tuned out. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mollie O'Mara, Sharon Christopher, (more)
- 1976
Filmed in Austria, this British-made musical retells the story of Cinderella as it is found in books of fairy tales. The Prince, Edward, is played by Richard Chamberlain, Cinderella by Gemma Craven. In her role as the Prince's witty mother, Dame Edith Evans provides many of the movie's highlights. The musical score and songs written by Richard Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, who also provided the music to the movie Mary Poppins, were nominated for Academy Awards. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Chamberlain, Gemma Craven, (more)
- 1970
In this thriller, a British lord and his lady attempt to stay alive after their estate is invaded by a psychopathic killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1969
This suspenseful sea story from Herman Melville takes place in the tradewinds of the Caribbean. An American captain comes to the aid of Spanish Captain Benito Cereno (Ruy Guerra) when the ship seems to be in trouble. An expedition to the ship reveals an uneasy situation where Cereno is ill and being cared for by an over-anxious slave. The sailors give furtive looks to the visitors but remain silent. Cereno explains that his crew has taken ill with scurvy, including the human cargo imported from Africa, and they are down to only a few healthy men. The American sends for more food and water to help the stricken Spaniard. Tension mounts on board until the new supplies arrive. When the rescue boat is ready to leave, Cereno makes a mad jump for the boat. He tells a harrowing tale of a slave revolt that resulted in the death of his partner and owner of the ship. After the owner was killed, his body was tied to the prow of the boat and left to rot as a macabre trophy and constant warning to others. The body was covered with burlap whenever another ship approached. The slaves are tried for their crimes and hung as pirates, but the relationship between Cereno and his over-attentive charge is never fully explained. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- G
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City thrusts several "name" actors into the specialized world of Jules Verne. Six 19th-century shipwreck victims are rescued by a modernistic submarine. The skipper is Captain Nemo (Robert Ryan), who had not died at the end of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as viewers had been led to believe. Instead, he has installed a fantastic underwater city, using this subterranean metropolis as a base of operations for his war against mankind. The ambitions of the screenwriters and director are defeated by the tackiness of the film's model and miniature work. Captain Nemo and the Underwater City represented MGM's first Jules Verne epic since its 1929 spectacular Mysterious Island. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Ryan, Chuck Connors, (more)
Bearing only a passing connection to King Kong -- and even that probably came to promoters as an afterthought -- this phenomenally silly Italo-Spanish sci-fi foolishness (originally titled Eva, La Venere Selvaggia) seems to have been conceived more as a vehicle for the frequently nude Esmerelda Barros. Barros plays Eva, a sultry jungle girl raised by apes, who is captured by a mad scientist (gangster-movie veteran Marc Lawrence) and his cohorts. The fascist-leaning loonies have been busily rounding up the island gorillas, planting electronic transmitters in their brains with the intent of creating an unstoppable remote-controlled army of robotic ape soldiers. To Eva's aid comes a lusty explorer (Brad Harris), whose intentions seem something less than noble. Eventually a disgruntled King Kong-like super-ape arrives to avenge his smaller kinfolk and stomp the daylights out of the evil homo sapiens. Silly but fun, in an Ed Wood sort of way. Also known simply as Kong Island and Eva the Wild Woman. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Harris
This staid British thriller stars John Turner as 18th-century nobleman Sir John Fordyce, whose blissful honeymoon holiday is cut brutally short by angry locals who accuse him of raping a woman from the village. Worse, they claim to have seen the ghost of his first wife riding through town on horseback, shrieking that she had died by her husband's hand. Despite Sir John's protestations of innocence, the hand of fate seems to be closing in, as more violent acts are perpetrated -- including the death of his father -- and his new bride (Heather Sears) is prepared to shoot him dead if he comes near her. All is revealed in the contrived climax -- which plays out like a Gothic version of a "Scooby-Doo" episode. The filmmakers tried to punch things up with a plethora of cheap spook-house gimmicks but fail to disguise the threadbare plot. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Turner, Heather Sears, (more)
- 1963
Released in the US as A Boy Ten Feet Tall, Sammy Going South is a rugged youngster's-eye-view adventure set in South Africa. 10-year-old orphan Sammy (Fergus McClelland), who resides in Port Said, tries to locate his only relative, who lives 5000 miles away across the desert in Durban. After the death of his first guide, an erstwhile peddler, Sammy is rescued by a wealthy tourist (Constance Cummings). Not anxious to return to Port Said, Sammy escapes his benefactress and links up with a crafty old hunter/diamond smuggler (Edward G. Robinson), whose life is saved by the boy. When the police search for Sammy, they arrest the old man, who has been a fugitive for years. When Sammy is finally united with his Aunt (Zena Walker), he learns that the old smuggler has willed him his fortune. Released in the US at 88 minutes, Sammy Going South was restored to its full 118 minutes for television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Fergus McClelland, (more)
- 1962
A horrific storm forces two ballerinas to take shelter in a spooky castle owned by a beautiful but ravenous lady vampire. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helene Remy, Tina Gloriani, (more)
- 1962
Dr. Paul Vernon (Tony Britton) is a gynecologist who is estranged from his wife in this situation comedy of errors. He gets drunk at a party, picks up a pretty French girl and takes her home for a night of pleasure. The perplexed physician wakes up to find the French femme has spent the night in the other room. He then decides to offer her a job as his housekeeper. Things go smoothly until wife Lisa (Anne Heywood) shows up and announces she is pregnant. To complicate matters, the French maid is also with child. The noble doctor devises a plan to have his wife claim both children, keeping the single maid from shame. Lisa agrees to pretend she will give birth to twins. The plan goes haywire when the doctor discovers both women are pregnant with twins. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Britton, Anne Heywood, (more)
- 1961
Any movie with a title like Petticoat Pirates would be hard to dislike--and equally hard to believe. Anticipating the "feminist" films of the 1970s, the plot concerns a group of female officers in the British Navy. Angered by the sexism inherent in the Admiralty, the uniformed ladies stage a mutiny, taking a timorous male stoker as a sort of hostage. Not terribly credible to begin with, the film ultimately veers off into fantasy. Petticoat Pirates is both innocuous and inconsequential; you may have seen it, but chances are you don't remember it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Drake, Anne Heywood, (more)
A perennial of the "Shock Theatre" TV circuit of the 1950s, The British The Giant Behemoth owes a great deal to the earlier American sci-fier The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. A Cornish fisherman is found covered with what looks like radiation burns. Before he dies, the fisherman utters the word "behemoth," citing a monster alluded to in the Bible. It isn't long before England is besieged by a dinosaur-like monstrosity, evidently the by-product of atomic fallout. Only a high-powered torpedo stands between the Giant Behemoth and the helpless British citizenry. The film's stop-motion animation is pretty good, considering the tight budget; all the title character lacks is the distinctive personality of a King Kong, Godzilla or Gorgo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Turner
- 1958
Maggie Smith makes her film debut in this outing as an aristocrat whose sheltered existence is shattered by the arrival of George Nader. Nader is a fugitive from justice who can expect no help from his fellow criminals. He takes refuge in Smith's home, entreating her to shield him from the police. She draws closer to Nader after the latter is accidentally shot. The film was adapted from a novel by Donald McKenzie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Nader, Bernard Lee, (more)
- 1944
Filled with lots of WW II-era propaganda, this tuneful war drama tells the syrupy tale of a strong and beautiful Scottish lass who works in a Glasgow factory while her true love is in the Navy. One day she receives word that her beau is missing in action and presumed dead. Unable to believe this she continues her war-efforts, saving the factory from a strike and making efforts to boost the workers' flagging spirits on the stage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
