Raymond Stross Movies

John Dexter's film explores the struggles faced by a young British man who wants to live as a woman and considers a sex change operation. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

A disgruntled British secret service officer and an aspiring author turn to crime when they are again passed over for prominent career advancements. John Pedley (Fred Astaire) is the agent who has been passed over for knighthood one too many times for his liking. He proposes a plan to university professor Mike Warden (Richard Crenna), who has been fired for taking part in a peace demonstration. With the help of Sylvia Giroux (Anne Heywood), they recruit a retired SS officer and a former Italian fascist as they attempt to hijack a fortune in gold bricks from the British crown. Pedley deals with double-crossing opportunists who covet the gold for themselves. Sir Ralph Richardson, Roddy McDowell and Cesar Romero also star in this engaging crime drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The Anglo-Czech coproduction 90 Degrees in the Shade stars British actress Anne Heywood as a grocery clerk embroiled in an affair with manager James Booth. Though she knows that Booth is good for nothing, she remains with him because of the intensity of their physical relationship. Company auditors Rudolf Hrusinsky and Donald Wolfit make life miserable for Heywood, who cannot bring herself to reveal the fact that Booth has been stealing from the store. Her subsequent suicide humanizes the strictly-business auditors, but the unrepentant Booth merely shrugs and casts about for another willing young woman. The title is a succinct assessment of the film's sex scenes, which were as hot as it was possible to get in a mainstream movie of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dot (Rita Tushingham) is a girl who marries motorcycle maven Reggie (Colin Campbell) to escape her parents' influence. The marriage gets off to a rocky start and completely slides downhill after the honeymoon is plagued by bad weather. Dot refuses to have anything to do with household responsibilities and cooks only canned beans. Reggie loses interest in sex with Dot because of her actions, and after moving in with his grandmother, he begins to hang around Pete (Dudley Sutton). The two friends ride their motorcycles and begin to spend even more time together, and eventually Reggie realizes that Pete is a homosexual. Dot tells Reggie she is pregnant in an attempt to get him back -- with no result, but when Reggie comes home to find his wife in bed with another man, he decides to go off to sea with Pete. Pete leaves Reggie shaken and alone when he goes off with a group of sailors out to satisfy their same-sex lust. The film was controversial at the time of its initial release. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Guy Green's social drama stars Stuart Whitman as the title character, a man whose unhealthy childhood has left him bewildered by sex. After an affair with a woman his own age ends badly, Mark finds himself increasingly drawn to young girls, who he feels do not pose the same threat of emasculation that adult women do. When he is charged with kidnapping a ten-year-old girl in order to molest her, his conviction results in a three-year prison sentence. With the help of Dr. Edmund McNally (Rod Steiger), a prison psychiatrist, Mark comes to terms with his urges and is released from prison a changed man. Soon after, he gets engaged to Ruth Leighton (Maria Schell), a widow with a ten-year-old daughter of her own. After Mark is seen in the vicinity of a recent molestation incident, a journalist digs into his background and his past is brought to light, destroying not only his relationship with Ruth but his fledgling career as well. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Robert Aldrich (Kiss Me Deadly) directed this cloak-and-dagger yarn (based on a bestseller by Leon Uris), filmed on sumptuous locations in Greece. Set in Athens in 1941, before the Nazis overran the country, Robert Mitchum plays American war correspondent Mike Morrison, who has come into the possession of a list of 16 Greek underground leaders that he agrees to deliver to British intelligence in London for a $20,000 fee. Trying to keep him from getting there is the local Gestapo chief Conrad Heisler (Stanley Baker) and fifth columnist Tassos (Theodore Bikel). Morrison also becomes involved with a group of Greek freedom fighters -- particularly the beautiful Eleftheria (Gia Scala). But then Morrison comes down from the mountains and back to Athens, where he finds himself trailed, not only by the Nazis, but by charming widow Lisa Kyriakides (Elisabeth Muller). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This once-notorious British expose film now seems as innocent as a community choir rehearsal. Based on the real-life activities of London's Messina gang, The Flesh is Weak tells the story of a decent girl named Marissa Cooper (Milly Vitale) who is inveigled by a family of pimps into a life of prostitution. When she tries to break away from her sordid surroundings, her "protectors" have her thrown in jail on a phony assault charge. It takes the intervention of journalist Lloyd Buxton (William Franklyn) to rescue Marissa and convict the man responsible for her downfall. John Derek heads the cast as Tony Giani, a ruthless young punk with a smooth line and movie-star looks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A bellboy gets sweet revenge upon the employers at the hotel where he once worked after he inherits a lot of money in this lively British comedy. The sweetest revenge of all comes when he and the other lackeys team up to scam the wealthy, who look down upon them, hoping to get them to finance his attempt to buy the posh establishment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Not quite a full-fledged musical, As Long as They're Happy can be described as a romantic comedy with song-and-dance interludes. Adapted from the London stage hit of the same name, the film stars Jack Buchanan as stockbroker John Bentley, whose household is thrown into a tizzy when popular singing star Bobby Denver (Jerry Wayne) visits his home. Bentley's three daughters Gwen (Janette Scott), Pat (Jeannie Carson) and Corinne (Susan Stephen) are immediately smitten by Bobby, though each reacts to his presence in a different manner. Mrs. Bentley (Brenda de Banzie), hoping to loosen up her staid hubby, pretends to be likewise enamored with the singer. The film did the most amount of good for recording artist Jeannie Carson, who landed her own American TV sitcom as a result of her appearance herein. Also well cast in As Long as They're Happy are sex-symbol Diana Dors in an extended cameo role, and "Carry On" regular Joan Sims as a comic maid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Scripted by Eric Ambler from a novel by Geoffrey Household, the British Rough Shoot top-bills Hollywood stars Joel McCrea and Evelyn Keyes. McCrea plays Taine, an American colonel stationed in England. When he spots what appears to be a prowler, Taine tries to scare the fellow away with a round of buckshot. The prowler immediately falls to the ground -- dead. Assuming that he's responsible, Taine hides the body, an act that sparks a chain reaction of sinister events, resulting in the colonel's involvement in an Iron-Curtain spy ring and an exciting finale at Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Evelyn Keyes' role as Colonel Taine's wife is overshadowed by the scene-stealing performances of supporting actors Herbert Lom and Marius Goring. Rough Shoot was originally released in Great Britain as Shoot First. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop was the source for the grim British drama Tall Headlines. The son of a middle-class family is executed for murder. The family does its best to kick over all the traces, moving to a different community under an assumed name and never speaking of their son. All of these preventative measures seem futile when the dead man's younger brother begins evincing the same antisocial traits that eventually destroyed his sibling. All suspicions seem to be confirmed when the brother's wife turns up dead. There are several plot twists that would lose their value if they were repeated in this space. An excellent all-character-actor cast includes Flora Robson and Andre Morrell as the grieving parents, Michael Denison as the brother and Mai Zetterling as the initial murder victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide