Peter Madden Movies

This well-wrought romance takes place in Lancashire, England in an industrial area where Vic (Alan Bates) and Ingrid (June Ritchie) work in the same factory. He is a draftsman who wants only a physical relationship with the woman of his choice (Ingrid), and she is a typist who wants true love with the man she is interested in (Vic). In carefully handled scenes throughout, Vic and Ingrid get together but with consequences neither could have foreseen. Ingrid becomes pregnant, and that one indisputable fact tests the mettle of their relationship more than anything else they could have imagined. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Unbeknownst to Keel, Steed uses him as the courier for a new medical formula, printed on a tiny microdot. Arriving at a Swiss medical convention, Keel hands over his conference card (containing the microdot, of course) to a young lady of his acquaintance. Thus the girl finds her life in danger, while Keel comes face to face with the person who framed him for murder in the previous week's episode. First telecast April 29, 1961, "One for the Mortuary" was written by Brian Clemens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Missing for two years, a scientist suddenly returns to his home, only to immediate vanish again. Aware that the poor man had been brainwashed, perhaps by the Chinese, Steed goes undercover to get to the truth. He ends up in the hotel owned by Max Chessman (Paul Whitsun-Jones). Meanwhile, Emma is herself waylaid by the bad guys and subjected to their hideous "mind-control" procedure. Written by Roger Marshall, "Room Without a View" originally aired in England on January 8, 1966, and was shown in America on June 27 of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This follow-up to the 1960 Danger Man TV series was also known as Secret Agent in the U.S. As portrayed by Patrick McGoohan, John Drake, special operative for the British Secret Service, brings his own distinctive style and sense of fair-play to bear upon a variety of daring and dangerous missions full of political intrigue and complex deceptions. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide

Not to be confused with David Hewitt's abominable Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors (AKA The Blood Suckers), this clever horror omnibus is one of the better early anthologies from Amicus Productions, thanks to Freddie Francis' stylish direction and a tongue-in-cheek approach from writer Milton Subotsky (who would later apply the same sardonic treatment to the EC Comics-based productions Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror). The framing story is set in a train car, where five passengers have their fortunes told by the all-seeing Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing), who refers to his ominous tarot deck as his "House of Horrors." Their respective stories involve all manner of occult happenings: a jazz musician's involvement with a voodoo curse; an estate haunted by a werewolf; a doctor (Donald Sutherland) who suspects that his wife has become a vampire; a cottage besieged by a monster kudzu vine; and the most entertaining segment, in which arrogant art critic Christopher Lee is avidly pursued by a snubbed artist's severed hand. In the end, it doesn't take a jaded horror buff to deduce Schreck's true identity or the ultimate destination of the train passengers, but it's a fun ride nonetheless. Not all of the stories work (the vampire story's "twist" ending is rather silly, the voodoo tale painfully dated), and the effects are generally sub-par, but Francis keeps the pace snappy throughout, giving the entire film a throwaway, Halloween spook-house feel. Hammer horror fans will certainly find this a keeper on the strength of Cushing and Lee's performances. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This sci-fi horror cult classic is based in and around a U.S. long-range radar installation in the Canadian wilderness, where soldiers and civilians alike are being struck dead by an unseen force. At first, the base commander believes these murders may have been the work of spies operating out of the woods -- a theory supported by unexplained fluctuations in power output from the base's nuclear plant. Because of the proximity of this reactor, residents of the nearby town begin to suspect the deaths are due to a radiation leak. The real answer turns out to be far more insidious. Autopsies reveal that the victims' spinal fluids have been sucked dry through holes at the base of their skulls. The bizarre murders are eventually linked to the work of psychic researcher Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves), whose experiments materializing human thoughts have not only been causing the power fluctuations, but have resulted in the creation of invisible brain-monsters. When the creatures attack the plant operators, a massive surge of radiation is released, revealing the creatures in all their hideous glory -- depicted by marvelous stop-motion animation -- as leaping, tentacled brains with wriggling antennae. This leads to the film's notoriously gory final act, in which the brain-things surround our heroes in a mountain cabin, descending in droves as the dwindling band of survivors hack, chop, and blast away at the beasts. After a slightly sluggish start, this intelligent and well-crafted thriller kicks out all the jams for a horrific climax, distinguished by some of the goriest effects seen in any film from the 1950s. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Hammer Studios followed up Evil of Frankenstein with this entertaining sequel, again starring Peter Cushing as the quintessential mad scientist obsessed with the reanimation of dead bodies and the creation of superhuman creatures. His latest project involves transferring the mind of a wrongly-executed man into the body of his lover (former Playboy centerfold Susan Denberg), whose own suicide left her horribly disfigured. After restoring her beauty, the Doctor performs the mind-transference, which comes off without a hitch... until the lust for revenge against his executioners begins to surface. He/she then pursues this vendetta by seducing and murdering those who wronged him. Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher directs this quirky entry with his usual flair -- aided considerably by a decent budget -- and spices things up with a fair share of titillation (courtesy of Ms. Denberg). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Tom Bell stars in this tight little British thriller as a mercurial cat burglar. So long as things are going his way, Bell is calm and collected. Let anything upset his equilibrium, and he's an accident waiting to happen. Bell's one chance at redemption is his romance with pretty social-worker Judi Dench. When she rejects him, Bell returns to his crime spree, telling Dench to get lost when she offers to give him a second chance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Henry VIII and His Six Wives is a feature film based upon the 1971 BBC miniseries The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Keith Michell weathers several makeup changes as the much-married titular monarch. While the miniseries was able to explore the political and personal reasons for the selection (and sometimes rejection) of the wives, the shortened version concentrates chiefly on such highlights as the birth of Queen Elizabeth and the execution of Anne Boleyn. The film is constructed in flashback form, with an aged Henry recalling his marital record. Side note: Donald Pleasence appears as Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII and His Six Wives; Pleasence's daughter Angela had played Katherine Howard, Bride No. 5, in the original Six Wives of Henry VIII. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unseen Heroes, along with Missiles from Hell, represented the US titles of the British The Battle of the V1. Set in wartime Poland, the film involves the secret Nazi missile installation at Peenemunde. British guerilla fighter Michael Rennie leads a group of Polish partisans on a mission to destroy the base and cripple the German war effort. The basic storyline is a good one, though it is muddied by several arbitrary plot transitions. Further undermining Unseen Heroes is the editing, which at times seems to have been accomplished with a paper shredder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this patriotic but romantic musical comedy, a young teacher runs a day school for the workers at a munitions factory. As she makes arrangements to locate the school in the empty home next to her apartment building, she falls in love with the property owner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One of the key "angry young man" films which helped define the British "Kitchen Sink Drama" style of the late 1950's and early 60's, this story centers on Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay), a bitter young man from a working-class family. Uninterested in school and determined not to follow his father into factory work, Colin and his friend Mike (James Bolam) make their pocket money through petty crime, until they're arrested after the robbery of a baker's shop and sentenced to Borstal (British reform school). The Governor of the school (Michael Redgrave) takes a keen interest in Colin, but he cares less for his rehabilitation than his gifts as a broken-field runner; Colin finds himself torn between the need to please his captors and his determination not to play along with what he sees as a corrupt system. The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner was the first film for Courtenay, whose performance earned him the "Most Promising Newcomer" prize at the 1962 British Film Academy awards. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide