Leslie Parkyn Movies
- 1967
Based on an Edgar Wallace mystery, this puzzler centers on the attempts of a crook who goes to great lengths to steal another's fortune. It begins as an unjustly incarcerated heiress finishes a prison sentence. The crook wants to steal her father's money and so tries to convince the ailing tycoon that his own lover is really the rich man's daughter; the old fellow is not so easily gulled. In desperation, the crook kidnaps the real heiress in an attempt to force her to marry him. Fortunately for her, a Scotland Yard detective shows up to foil his plans. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maureen Swanson, Allan Cuthbertson, (more)
- 1964
In this lively British comedy, a newlywed couple's quaint country cottage becomes a nightmare of repairs as they try to fix it up themselves. They originally purchased the ramshackle pile to escape the influence of the new wife's meddlesome father. Unfortunately, the place needs more help than they are able to give and they must reluctantly get her father's help. He brings in a bumbling builder and things only get worse from there. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, (more)
- 1963
It's Hoppity Goes To Town with sex in this 1963 British version of the old chestnut concerning an innocent country lass who travels to the big city and becomes corrupted, in this film version of Patrick Hamilton's novel The Street Has a Thousand Skies. Janet Munro runs the gamut of emotions as Jennie, a young girl from Wales who, with her girlfriend, is seduced and abandoned by a couple of heartless creeps in London, where she is later befriended by a kindly bartender John Stride. But Jennie snubs the bartender and takes up with a an unfeeling playboy. However, Jennie has gone around the park one time too many and is now torn between going back home or committing suicide. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet Munro, John Stride, (more)
- 1963
The star of this slapstick comedy is not a person but an antique Bentley sports car, the source of several misadventures. Murdoch Troon (Stanley Baxter) is a simple civil servant who has his heart set on romancing Claire (Julie Christie in an early role), the daughter of wealthy businessman Charles Chingford (James Robertson Justice). As a part of his scheme to appear irresistible, Murdoch takes driving lessons so he will be able to impress Claire in the Bentley. Both the lessons and his driving test produce moments of hilarity, and as might be expected, there cannot be a movie featuring a car without a wacky, wild chase. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Robertson Justice, Stanley Baxter, (more)
This comedy features a 12-step Program for habitual hoods. The recovering criminal takes a job as a department store Santa, and again finds himself confronted with temptation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1962
In this crime drama, an ex-con goes looking for his late cellmate's hidden loot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In this spooky drama, newlyweds move into a charming old house and find that they share it with spirit who tells them of the house's grim, gory history. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In this adaptation of an Edgar Wallace mystery, two youthful hoods try to rob a bookie as he is leaving the track with his daily winnings. Unfortunately, the two find that the fellow has chained the loot to his wrist and they are forced to take him along with the cash. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Very Important Person is an amusing British comedy set in a German POW camp during World War II. Sir Ernest Pease (James Robertson Justice) is a self-important professor with a bloated ego and a lightning put-down. When he is flown over Germany disguised as a navy officer to check out the effectiveness of one of his radar inventions, his plane is shot down and he lands in the POW camp. All sorts of misunderstandings arise, since the other prisoners suspect him of being a spy. In the meantime, there are the expected clashes of wit between the British prisoners and their dour German captors and the inevitable camp-organized concert. In the midst of these activities, the professor is challenged to find a way to escape. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, (more)
One of a small cluster of creepy films to come from England's Amalgamated Studios in the late '60s, this lesser entry details the twisted practices of a deranged German plastic surgeon (Anton Diffring) who hides out in France after mutilating a patient and begins his work anew under an assumed name. Staying mobile by traveling with a circus troupe, Diffring offers his services to disfigured female criminals, who pay him for his services by joining the circus as performers -- and by catering to his perverse whims. Naturally, it's not long before the ladies' gratitude begins to wear thin, and they begin to plan their escape... only to meet horrible ends in carefully-orchestrated catastrophes while performing. Viewers may find themselves haunted by Gary Mills's "Look for a Star" several days afterward like a cloying advertising jingle; the performance of a rug-topped Donald Pleasence (as the show's former owner, who meets with a sticky end) is a nice touch. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anton Diffring, Erika Remberg, (more)
- 1960
In this melodrama, a mentally retarded young man inadvertently causes an auto accident and brings the injured woman driver back to the isolated farm he shares with his sister. The poor fellow is sure that the woman is his deceased mother. His sister and a helpful telephone lineman do their best to help him with the truth, but it backfires and the young man becomes equally obsessed with the idea that the lineman is his cruel, abusive father--who is also dead. The boy is so convinced that he becomes determined to kill him. Bloodshed ensues until the sister accidentally shoots her out-of-control brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1959
In this tragic drama, an imprisoned war hero worries about his wife who is just about to give birth to their first child. An old war buddy helps him escape and get to the hospital. There he creeps into his wife's ward. She gives birth to a healthy boy, but the trauma is too much for her and she dies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1956
In this British crime drama, an escaped killer heads for the French coast to find a mysterious treasure reportedly buried in a widow's mansion. The lonely widow is preparing to marry a man she doesn't love. Suddenly she begins receiving mysterious photos of her late spouse; they seem to suggest that he is alive. Frightened, she takes the pictures to the cops; they then implicate the fugitive and just as they get to the widow's mansion, they find the crook holding an invaluable statue of the Madonna. The cops inform the cornered thief that the statue is useless to him because no one will buy it from him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, (more)
- 1955
Comparatively little known, the British A Woman for Joe is an excellent showcase for leading lady Diane Cilento (later better known as Mrs. Sean Connery). The actress is cast as Mary, a carnival performer hired by fairground impresario Joe Harrap (George Baker). Mary was employed at the behest of midget George Wilson (Jimmy Haroubi), the real brains behind Harrap's sideshow. Mary is instantly attracted to Joe, which does not rest well with the jealous, manipulative George. The plot is resolved by a sudden death during one of George's performances. What could have been an exercise in tawdriness is redeemed by the colorful camerawork of Georges Perinal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Cilento, George Baker, (more)
- 1954
In this charming 1954 feature, Harry and Davy are two orphans living with their grandparents in Nova Scotia. Their autocratic grandfather gives them a "spare the rod spoil the child" kind of upbringing. All the boys really want is a dog, all the other kids have them, but their grandfather won't let them have one. As luck would have it, the boys find a baby orphaned as they are, and decide to hide it. They then must conceal it from their grandfather while discovering the love that was missing from their lives. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Duncan MacRae, Jean Anderson, (more)
- 1952
...And it ended in London. This backstage yarn stars Jane Hylton as a talented dress designer who lets nothing get in the way of her success. As she rises in the fashion world, she loses contact with her own humanity. She also forgets that you meet the same people on the way up as on the way down. It Started in Paradise is a unusually plush, Lana Turner-esque production to come from a British studio in the early 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martita Hunt, Jane Hylton, (more)
