Andrew Mollo Movies
Andrew Mollo entered the movie business by accident rather than through any career plan, and became a co-director and co-producer on his first film project. Born in England in 1930, he displayed a keen interest in military history and uniforms during childhood, and later became an art student. In 1956, Mollo was approached by aspiring filmmaker Kevin Brownlow for assistance on a proposed feature film entitled It Happened Here. Brownlow planned to make a movie depicting what life in England would have been like had Germany successfully invaded the country in 1940. Mollo was supposed to advise Brownlow on matters of costume design, but proved so fascinated with and enthusiastic over the project that he ended up as Brownlow's collaborator, sharing the director and producer credits on the movie (as well as appearing in it), which took eight years to complete. When It Happened Here was finally shown in the mid-'60s, it was praised for many of its elements, including Mollo's work in costuming and his staging of the military scenes. Mollo subsequently served as a technical advisor on the military aspects of David Lean's Doctor Zhivago. He later collaborated with Brownlow on the movie Winstanley, set in the wake of the English Reformation, but during the 1970s Mollo left the movie business to write and publish a series of books devoted to military uniforms and history. He did find time to serve as a technical consultant on John Sturges' World War II thriller The Eagle Has Landed (1977), but was otherwise absent from the field for more than ten years. He returned to films as a production designer during the 1980s on such pictures as Dance With a Stranger (1985) and No Surrender (1985), and later worked on the feature-length made-for-television productions of Sharpe's Enemy, Sharpe's Honour, etc., based on Bernard Cornwell's fictional British Army hero of the Napoleonic era. He was also the production designer on the late-'90s Horatio Hornblower series that was shown on A&E in America. Mollo served as a military consultant on the movies Conspiracy (2001), The Grey Zone (2001), and The Pianist (2002). His younger brother is the Academy Award-winning costume designer John Mollo. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
The true story of one of World War One's deadliest air aces comes to the screen in this historical drama. Manfred von Richthofen (Matthias Schweighöfer) becomes fascinated with flying when he's just a boy, and as a young man he joins the German army and becomes part of their budding air force. Flying in a squadron with his best friend, Werner Voss (Til Schweiger), von Richthofen is a pilot with a great talent for aerial battle, but he also has a sense of honor and fair play, and he and his cohorts often pay tribute to fallen opponents by dropping wreaths over the wreckage of their planes. When von Richthofen and Voss discover a Canadian pilot, Capt. Roy Brown (Joseph Fiennes), who has been stranded in German territory, they rescue the flier rather than leave an enemy soldier to die, and while bringing him to safety Manfred meets Käte Otersdorf (Lena Headey), a military nurse who has devoted her life to helping those wounded by war. Manfred becomes deeply infatuated with Käte, but while she is also taken with him, she cannot abide his open embrace of the blood sport of war, and even as he becomes one of Germany's most decorated pilots, downing countless enemy planes, he comes to understand the true horror of war and the consequences of his actions. Von Richthofen gains an even greater perspective on war when he encounters Capt. Brown one last time. Der Rote Baron (aka The Red Baron) was shot in both German- and English-language versions, with the same cast appearing in both. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Matthias Schweighöfer, Lena Headey, (more)
In this historical drama produced for television, Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) is an officer in the British Army who has his own way of doing things, but has risen to a rank of power thanks to his bravery and steely intelligence under fire. Sharpe is a Captain of the Battalion of South Essex, a platoon of inexperienced soldiers Sharpe is trying to mold into an efficient fighting force. Much to Sharpe's annoyance, South Essex looses an important battle thanks to the incompetence of Sir Henry Simmerson (Michael Cochrane), and their regimental flag and standard is stolen from them by French forces. The same battle took the life of one of Sharpe's closest friends, so now he's determined to get his revenge by taking from the French their prized standard, a golden eagle. Sharpe's Eagle also features Assumpta Serna as Teresa, a feared Spanish terrorist who is also Sharpe's lover, and Katia Caballero as Josephina, a widow of Sharpe's acquaintance. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
In this action adventure, author Bernard Cornwell's fictional Major Sharpe is faced with the daunting task of teaching a ceremonial battalion to fight for real. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley, (more)
- 1988
- PG13
The year is 1908; after centuries of unchecked power, the Ottoman empire is rapidly crumbling. As a result, Turkey's secret agents--those that haven't already been eliminated by downsizing or death--operate in a vacuum, their superiors knowing little and caring less about their activities. One such spy is Ben Kingsley, a minor bureaucrat of no ambition. When ordered to help disreputable English citizens Charles Dance and Helen Mirren in the theft of a precious Greek artifact, Kingsley goes along without question. He is even prepared to follow orders and double-cross Dance the moment the robbery is pulled off. But as the film progresses, Kingsley becomes less and less of a by-the-book government functionary and more and more of an enigma--to Dance, to Mirren, to his country, to himself. More than your usual "caper" film, Pascali's Island has more layers than an artichoke. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ben Kingsley, Charles Dance, (more)
- 1986
This drama concerns a young woman who takes far too long to grow up. Nanou (Imogen Stubbs) skips out of England to bum around Europe and have some adventures. Leaving Geneva behind after a stint at waitressing, she meets and eventually moves in with a roust-about named Luc (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey). Luc is ostensibly a '60s revolutionary, spouting all the right jargon and apparently committed to noble but illegal activities that help the working masses. He involves Nanou in his shenanigans, which include anything from dashing off political grafitti to a plot to blow up a railroad track. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Imogen Stubbs, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, (more)
- 1986
- R
A moribund nightclub on the fringes of Liverpool's sprawl is the primary setting for this frenetic, dark, and confusing comedy done in a heavy regional "dialect" by director Peter Smith. Set on New Year's Eve, the film chronicles the rivalry between elderly Irish Catholic and Protestant attendees at a party held in a gritty pub in Liverpool. Mixed in with the warring oldsters are some shady types such as Billy the Beast, the killer of an Ulster terrorist. The club's new manager has a talent for dealing with mayhem and violence, but his first challenge lies in handling the punk rock band perversely scheduled to entertain the oldsters by the disgruntled former manager. After that challenge, he is faced with a magician on the verge of a nervous breakdown and other kinds of chaos that tear through the place. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Angelis, Avis Bunnage, (more)
- 1985
- R
This densely-packed film is based on a book by Tom Hart about the struggles of a young Yorkshire boy trying to come to grips with squabbling parents, a doctor who wants to institutionalize him because of his epilepsy, and a mother who refuses to accept that he is different in any way -- and that is only the half of it. The boy, Tim (Andrew Hawley), also acts as a go-between for his friend Carns (Liam Neeson) who is having an affair with a married woman (Miranda Richardson). Eventually, things start to sort themselves out, and Tim sees life getting more interesting when he and his friend Win (Kate Foster) slowly get a relationship going. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Bell, Liam Neeson, (more)
This darkly haunting slightly fictionalized film is a retelling of the life and death of Ruth Ellis (Miranda Richardson), the last woman to be executed in England. Ellis, a divorcee and ex-prostitute works as a "hostess" in a tacky nightclub. There she meets and begins an obsessive love affair with upper-class David Blakely (Rupert Everett), who eventually discards her. Still obsessed and jealous because of David's upcoming marriage to a woman of his own class, Ellis murders him. Miranda Richardson, in a stark, knock-out performance is outstanding as the cold, calculating Ellis, unscrupulous in her use of everyone to get what she wants. Ian Holm, in an often-overlooked performance, is superb as the man who loves Ellis, supporting her and her teenage son, without ever gaining her love. He is her mainstay and the surrogate father to her teenage son, who Ellis has little time for. In his own, quiet way he is as obsessed as Ellis. The screenplay, adapted by Shelagh Delaney remains faithful to the true story, taking only minor dramatic license. Dance With a Stranger is an uncompromising look at obsessive love and its consequences on others. The story is made even more poignant because of the sad life and eventual suicide of Ellis' real son. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, (more)
- 1983
- PG
Good performances (by Ralph Richardson as a befuddled pastor and Paul Nicholas as David, an unwitting bridegroom) help along this otherwise weak comedy-romance about David, an American who stands in for the groom at a wedding rehearsal -- only to later discover that the wedding was accidentally real. His "bride" is Lady Anne (Susan Brooks). After the "rehearsal," the unintended couple spend an idyllic week going on picnics, riding horses, and generally enjoying the countryside and each other's company. By the end of the week, Lady Anne has changed her mind about her actual, pending marriage -- and though it does not seem to be an issue, her pending marriage would only make her a bigamist after all. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, (more)
For those with a taste for the repugnant comes this gory blood-and-guts fest that tells the horrific story of a British fellow who gets kidnapped by aliens and three years later is returned carrying infectious spores that have transformed him into a kind of crab thingy that causes all kinds of perverse sexual and violent mayhem. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Philip Sayer, Bernice Stegers, (more)
Winstanley is the dramatized history of a Reformation-era religious sect called the Diggers. A nonviolent aggregation, the Diggers are devoted to tilling the soil that has been neglected by the British bluebloods. It isn't long before the landowners send their minions to burn out and kill the Diggers. Miles Halliwell heads the cast as Winstanley, the leader of the movement. Winstanley was directed by film historian/preservationist Kevin Brownlow and documentary maker Andrew Mollo, who redeploy the same documentary technique that they'd utilized on their classic 1964 film It Happened Here. The script, also by Brownlow and Mollo, was adapted from Comrade Jacob, a novel by David Caute. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Miles Halliwell
Fledgling filmmaker (and future film historian) Kevin Brownlow worked in collaboration with Andrew Mollo for nearly ten years to create It Happened Here. Shot on 16-millimeter stock in stark quasi-documentary fashion, the film is predicated on the postulation that Germany had invaded--and defeated--England in World War II. Brownlow and Mollo's vision of this nightmarish world is perfect in every detail, right down to the German road signs in rural Britain. The plotline is carried by Pauline Murray, playing a nurse who uncovers Nazi atrocities perpetrated on Polish and Russian hospital patients. Begun in 1957 when Brownlow was an 18-year-old editing apprentice, It Happened Here was finally completed in 1964, and released theatrically two years later. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pauline Murray, Sebastian Shaw, (more)
