Michael Crawford Movies
Emerging onto the British show-business scene as a boy soprano, Michael Crawford sang in the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. Though he made a fleeting film appearance in 1950, Crawford would not become a full-fledged professional until dropping out of high school at age 15. His first important film assignment was the 1958 kiddie-matinee programmer Soap Box Derby. He enjoyed a flurry of film activity in the mid- to late '60s, playing such singing roles as Hero in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and Cornelius Hackel in Hello, Dolly! (1969). The best of his non-musical film appearances during this period was as the fatally ineffectual Goodman in How I Won the War (1967). His British TV-series assignments have included Sir Francis Drake (1962), Some Mothers Do Have 'Em (1974-1979), and Chalk and Cheese (1979). A familiar presence in West End theatrical productions from 1965, Crawford made his musical comedy bow as star of the London production of Barnum!. In 1988, he won a Tony award for his portrayal of the title character in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. Michael Crawford has since performed the score of Phantom, along with selections from other Lloyd Webber hits, as a solo concert artist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1965
A British sex farce, this movie stars Nyree Dawn Porter as a flirtatious young waitress, Eileen. Her seductive ways so arouse a young customer, Alan Crabbe (Michael Crawford), that he tries to seduce her. But he is so inept that she becomes bored and ditches him. Eileen goes off to a nightclub to find more experienced men. Alan hooks up with a shop clerk named Beth Crowley (Julia Foster). At a wedding of another friend, Alan sees Eileen and is again smitten with her, so much so that he gets into a fight with her boyfriend. The film is based on a coming-of-age novel, In My Solitude, by David Stuart Leslie. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Crawford, Nyree Dawn Porter, (more)
- 1961
Two Living, One Dead examines the pitfalls of hero worship, and the culpability of the media in fostering misguided adulation. A robbery and murder is committed in a British pub, during which Bill Travers, a friend of the dead man, apparently acts with rare courage. His companion Patrick McGoohan, also apparently, did not lift a finger to help during the holdup. Travers is lauded publicly as a hero, while McGoohan is condemned as a coward. When the truth comes out, Travers is exposed not only for his feet of clay but for his intimate involvement in the fatal incident. Two Living, One Dead is an undeservedly obscure work from a major British director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
