Vladek Sheybal Movies

One of a handful of films Ken Russell made about the lives of famous composers, The Debussy Film stars Vladek Sheybal as a director who wants to make a movie about the title artist, portrayed by Oliver Reed. By having actors speak in the character of real historical figures, this film allowed Russell to push the envelope of what the BBC would allow in a historical drama. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Harry Palmer (Michael Caine), the reluctant secret agent from The Ipcress File (1965) and Funeral in Berlin (1966) -- both (like the source for this movie) based on novels by Len Deighton -- is back again in Ken Russell's Billion Dollar Brain. Having left Britain's espionage service, Palmer is scraping out a living as a private investigator, but he's still willing to give his old boss Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman) the bum's rush out of his office when he comes calling, offering a raise and promotion if he'll return. But Palmer ends up working for Her Majesty's government anyway -- a letter arrives, with a key and money, and telephoned instructions by a mechanical voice connect him up with a carefully sealed parcel (filled with what an x-ray reveals as eggs) that he must transport to Helsinki. No sooner does he get there than he discovers that an old friend, Leo Newbigin (Karl Malden), and his young lover Anya (Françoise Dorléac) are behind the trip, and that the man who was supposed to receive the parcel is dead. The eggs contain dangerous viruses stolen from a secret British laboratory, and England wants them back and wants to know why they were stolen. That assignment immerses Palmer in a deadly game of deception, double-dealing, and triple-crosses on all sides, as he finds that Leo is working for a privately operated intelligence network, set up by a rabidly right-wing Texas oil man, General Midwinter (Ed Begley Sr.).

The billion-dollar super-computer of the title, built by Midwinter, runs a network of spies and assassins aimed at the destruction of the Soviet Union. That interests Palmer's old friend, Soviet security chief Colonel Stok (Oskar Homolka, in an almost movie-stealing performance), very much, and he, too, wants to know what Palmer knows. And then there's Leo, who has taken millions from Midwinter, supposedly to establish a secret underground in Latvia, waiting for the signal to rise up against the Soviets occupying their country that will spread across the Baltics and beyond and bring down the Soviet government. He's taken the money, but all Harry find when he goes into Latvia is motley bunch of broken-down black marketeers whose orders are to kill him and make it look like the work of the Soviets. And there's Anya, who is sleeping with Leo, trying to seduce Harry, and seems to have an agenda all her own, but in whose interest? If it's all a little confusing, so was the book on which it was based, but there's enough striking visual material, courtesy of cinematographer Billy Williams, and engrossing performances (and a wry sensibility), courtesy of director Ken Russell and screenwriter John McGrath, that the leaps in plot, logic, and setting don't matter that much, and it is great fun. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this clunky suspense film, straining to be Hitchcockian, Michael Caine plays recovered alcoholic Henry Clarke, who finds himself enticed into the home of Fe Moreau (Giovanna Ralli), where he discovers an unusual arrangement -- apparently Fe Moreau would rather engage in a relationship with an ex-alcoholic than her husband Richard (Eric Portman). Seems Richard is an out-of-the-closet homosexual, complete with a young Spanish stud (Carlos Pierre) as a plaything. The staid home life heats up to a boil when the three misfits decide to steal jewels from a rich playboy. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A previously unknown planet is discovered within our solar system, orbiting on the far side of the sun exactly opposite the position of the Earth, and at precisely the same speed. The European space agency Eurosec, headed by Jason Webb (Patrick Wymark), whose solar probe made the discovery, decides to send a manned mission to investigate, teaming America's top astronaut Glenn Ross (Roy Thinnes) and British astro-physicist John Kane (Ian Hendry). Their voyage aboard the space vehicle Phoenix is supposed to take six weeks, but when the ship returns to orbit in only three weeks -- ending in a crash of their landing vehicle that kills Kane -- Eurosec can only conclude that Ross has engaged in some sort of sabotage. The astronaut is at a loss as to how they could have done a round-trip in just three weeks, until he makes a startling discovery -- that everything that he sees, from the layout of rooms and buildings to all of the writing around him, is reversed, left to right and right to left. It takes Ross, amid his confusion, to arrive at the only possible conclusion -- that he and Kane did, indeed, journey to the new planet, and that world is a duplicate of Earth (and visa versa) down to the last molecule, a perfect mirror-image; and that world dispatched its own mission, with its own Ross and Kane. He and Webb, and Eurosec, scarcely have time to absorb the implications of this discovery -- if true -- as they prepare for a return flight for Ross, despite enormous risks and some potentially very dangerous unknowns in getting him back to the Phoenix. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Women in Love is set in 1920s England, where free-spirited artist Gudrun (Glenda Jackson) and her schoolteacher sister Ursula (Jennie Linden) make the acquaintance of lifelong friends Gerald (Oliver Reed) and Rupert (Alan Bates). The foursome attends a picnic in honor of a pair of newlyweds, who put a damper on the proceedings (literally!) by drowning in a nearby lake. Evidently unscathed by this tragedy, Gerald and Rupert participate in a nude wrestling match later that evening (this was the sequence that got the most press, thanks to fleeting glimpses of the male stars' privates). Gerald marries Gudrun, Rupert weds Ursula, and the foursome embarks upon a Swiss honeymoon. The holiday is marred by infidelity and sudden death, leaving Rupert to wonder aloud just what it is that makes men and women "tick." An Academy Award went to Glenda Jackson, while nominations were bestowed upon screenwriter Larry Kramer and cinematographer Billy Williams (who received an uncredited assist from director Ken Russell). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Mosquito bomber was one of the more extraordinary developments of the Royal Air Force during World War II. A twin-engine plane made largely of wood, it flew faster than almost any fighter on the German side, carrying a maximum load of two bombs, and was employed on specialized missions that required pinpoint accuracy on a precise target -- obliterating a building or a small cluster of buildings rather than large tracts of enemy real estate. The men who flew them were among the elites of the Royal Air Force, some of the best of the best. Mosquito Squadron deals with such men and the kinds of missions they were assigned and the sacrifices they made. Quint Munroe (David McCallum) loses his oldest friend, Squadron Leader David Scott (David Buck), on a mission to destroy a group of German V-1 launchers -- he was like a brother to Scott, and must break the news to his wife Beth (Suzanne Neve), with whom Quint had once been involved. In the months that follow, he and Beth slowly rekindle their romance -- meanwhile, the German V-weapon program continues to advance, and they are getting ready to unveil the V-3. Quint is given the task of destroying the V-weapon plant at Charlon, a mission made possible by a new "bouncing bomb" called the "highball," invented by Dr. Barnes Wallis (of "Dambusters" fame). Just before the mission is to be undertaken, however, the Germans drop a film showing air prisoners, including a still-alive Scott, being moved to Charlon. Now the Mosquito crews will be killing their own colleagues and friends, and Quint must carry out his orders, which include hiding the fact that Scott is alive from Beth. The secret gets out to the squadron pilots, however, and a rebellion starts brewing in their ranks. Try as he might to find a way to save the lives of the prisoners, there seems to be no way for Munroe to avoid killing British pilots with British bombs. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The Boy Friend began life as Sandy Wilson's small-scale pastiche of British musical comedies of the 1920s. When the play was brought to America in 1954, its star was the
teenage Julie Andrews. Because The Boy Friend requires a minimum of sets, props, and costumes, it has become a favorite of amateur theater groups throughout the world. But director Ken Russell, notorious for his onscreen excesses, abandoned the film's simplicity. He fashioned a humongous parody of the Busby Berkeley film musicals of the 1930s, staged on a scale that made Berkeley seem stylistically modest. Fashion model Twiggy plays Polly Browne, an aspiring musical comedy star, working as stage manager of a production of The Boy Friend. She is transformed into a star when she replaces leading lady Rita Monroe (Glenda Jackson, unbilled), who twists her ankle seconds before the curtain goes up. Before the evening is over, Polly is scampering over outsized sets, and ducking around seemingly thousands of chorus girls and boys. Christopher Gable, who plays Polly's on-stage leading man, also choreographed the lavish musical numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Innocent Bystanders stars Stanley Baker as a Bondlike British secret service agent. In collaboration with fellow spies Geraldine Chaplin and Dana Andrews, Baker is sent behind the Iron Curtain to locate a Russian scientist who has escaped from Siberia. There's a likelihood that the scientist was permitted to escape so that he can spy on the Good Guys. Baker must decide if the escapee is to be rescued or eliminated. The level of sadism and bloodshed in Innocent Bystanders is such that at times it makes the James Bond films look like models of decorum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 1974, flanked by such filmic monuments to paranoia and corruption as Chinatown and The Parallax View, Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland tried to re-create the screwball nonchalance of their earlier M*A*S*H performances in this lightweight spy spoof, directed by Irvin Kershner. Gould and Sutherland play two CIA agents -- Griff and Bruland -- who are marked for death by their own agency after botching the defection of a Russian ballet dancer (Michael Petrovich). As they repeatedly mess up their assignments and wriggle out of tight corners, they not only find themselves pursued by the CIA, but also by the KGB, the Chinese Communists, and a terrorist group that wants to destroy the CIA. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This is one of the most surreal versions of the popular Shakespearian play on film. It approaches the story of the troubled prince from a Freudian perspective. Hamlet is seen a schizophrenic (played by identical twins). The Oedipal overtones of his relationship with his mother, Queen Gertrude, are stressed, and the film also contains broad hints of homosexuality. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this action-packed spy drama, a retired CIA agent reluctantly returns to espionage at the request of his treacherous student, who messed up and went to the Soviet side. Now the agent wants out, causing both the US and the USSR to send out their best hit men to get him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Screenwriter George Axelrod turns Alfred Hitchcock's classic comedy-thriller into a capering screwball comedy showcase for Cybill Shepherd and Elliot Gould in this style-less remake of The Lady Vanishes. On an express train traveling through pre-World War II Germany, Amanda Kelly (Cybill Shepherd) befriends a cute old nanny, Miss Froy (Angela Lansbury). But when Miss Froy disappears and the rest of the passengers profess no knowledge of the old woman, Amanda and Robert Condon (Elliot Gould -- the only person aboard who will believe her story about the missing woman -- search the train trying to find out what happened to Miss Froy. In the meantime, they uncover an insidious German plot and fall in love. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide