Geoffrey Unsworth Movies

Not a remake of the landmark 1903 Edwin S. Porter film, The Great Train Robbery is a dramatization of the famous first hold-up of a moving train in 1855 England. The conspirators in this undertaking are Edward Pierce (Sean Connery), Agar (Donald Sutherland) and Clean Willy (Wayne Sleep). Pierce is the brains, Clean Willy the brawn, and safecracker Agar provides the finesse. The scheme involves stealing a shipment of gold bars intended to be used in the payroll for the Army in the Crimean War. Lesley Anne Down co-stars as Miriam, the woman on the outside who arranges Connery's getaway. When released in England, this film was titled The First Great Train Robbery, so as not to be confused with Britain's embarrassing 1963 railroad heist. Director Michael Crichton adapted the story from his own, more-clinical novel on the same subject. Filmed in Ireland, The Great Train Robbery was dedicated to the memory of its director of photography, Geoffrey Unsworth, who died shortly after the production wrapped. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Donner's big-budget blockbuster Superman: The Movie is an immensely entertaining recounting of the origin of the famous comic book character. Opening on Krypton (where Marlon Brando plays Superman's father), the film follows the Man of Steel (Christopher Reeve) as he's sent to Earth where he develops his alter-ego Clark Kent and is raised by a Midwestern family. In no time, the movie has run through his teenage years, and Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet, where he is a news reporter. It's there that he falls in love with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), who is already in love with Superman. But the love story is quickly sidetracked once the villainous Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) launches a diabolical plan to conquer the world and kill Superman. Superman: The Movie is filled with action, special effects and a surprising amount of humor. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Singer and actress Liza Minnelli teamed up with her father, legendary director Vincente Minnelli, to make this evocative drama. Nina (Liza Minnelli) is a popular film star who, in the midst of a press conference, finds herself remembering her life before her big break, when she worked as a chambermaid at an Italian hotel which had seen better days. In the course of her duties, Nina meets Countessa Sanziani (Ingrid Bergman), an aging and eccentric woman who regales Nina with tales of her glamorous younger days. As the Countessa tells her more stories of her days of wealth and adventure, Nina imagines herself living out the same exciting stories, and soon the Countessa encourages her to find the courage to live out her own dreams. A Matter Of Time also featured another family team-up; Ingrid Bergman's daughter Isabella Rossellini has a small part as a nun attending to the ailing Countessa. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After several years at loggerheads with one another, director Blake Edwards and star Peter Sellers reteamed for the slapstick fiesta The Return of the Pink Panther. It looks as though wizard cat-burglar Sir Charles Litton, played by David Niven in the original 1964 Pink Panther but here essayed by Christopher Plummer, is back in business. Dispatched to the Swiss resort town of Gstaad by his long-suffering superior Inspector Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom), Clouseau adopts a series of easily penetrable (and hilarious) disguises to get the goods on Sir Charles and his wife Claudine (Catherine Schell). If you remember A Shot in the Dark, you'll recall that Clouseau's ineptitude turned Inspector Dreyfuss into a twitching homicidal maniac. The same thing happens here, paving the way for the sequel, The Pink Panther Strikes Again. And, as with all the "Panther" movies, we are treated to the insinuating theme music by Henry Mancini, and the animated opening and closing titles. Return of the Pink Panther earned $17 million on its initial release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like many of Agatha Christie's mysteries, Murder on the Orient Express is predicated on an actual event, in this case the Lindbergh kidnapping. In the movie, everyone on board the Orient Express seems to have concluded that hateful financier Ratchett (Richard Widmark) was behind the abduction and murder of the infant daughter of a famed aviatrix. Thus, when Ratchett is himself found murdered, everyone is suspect. Normally, the police would handle the investigation, but the train has been stalled by a snowslide halfway between Istanbul and Paris. Thus, it's up to the insufferable but brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (an unrecognizable Albert Finney) to activate his "little grey cells" and determine who's guilty. Among the suspects are colorful characters played by Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, Wendy Hiller, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, and Ingrid Bergman, whose performance won her a third Academy Award. (In her acceptance speech, Bergman apologized for her win, insisting that Day for Night's Valentina Cortese deserved the prize.) The first and best in a long line of contemporary Christie adaptations, the film scores on atmosphere, period detail, and richness of characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1971 under the title The Widower, Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing finally reached the screen in 1973. Set in Spain, the film stars Timothy Bottoms as the aimless son of doctor Charles Baxter. While bicycling through the Spanish countryside, Charles makes the acquaintance of much-older Lila (Maggie Smith.) He falls in love with her, but she is resistant. Eventually touched by Charles' clumsy sincerity, Lila invites him to bed. The film then wanders into Love Story territory when Lila is afflicted by a terminal illness. Director Alan J. Pakula completed Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing during the "cooling off" period between his more famous Klute (1971) and The Parallax View (1974). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Coburn stars as Robert Eliot, an opportunistic entrepreneur destined to become a key Presidential advisor -- if his murky past isn't brought to light first. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

This 1973 adaptation of the oft-filmed Miguel de Cervantes novel about an aging Spanish gentlemen attempting to relive the age of chivalry is actually a filmed record of the ballet version, created in 1869 by choreographer Marius Petipa and composer Ludwig Minkus. The ballet concentrates on a barber named Basilio, who wins the hand of his lady love with the help of knight-errant Don Quixote. The film was co-directed by Rudolf Nureyev and Robert Helpmann, who dance the leading roles of Basilio and Quixote. Others in the company are Ray Powell as Sancho Panza and Lucette Aldous as Kitty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally a 1966 Broadway musical, this groundbreaking Bob Fosse musical was in turn based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, previously dramatized for stage and screen as I Am a Camera with Julie Harris as Sally Bowles. Fosse uses the decadent and vulgar cabaret as a mirror image of German society sliding toward the Nazis, and this intertwining of entertainment with social history marked a new step forward for the movie musical. Michael York plays a British writer who comes to Berlin in the early 1930s in hopes of becoming a teacher. He makes the acquaintance of flamboyant American entertainer Sally Bowles, played by Liza Minnelli. Sally works at the Kit Kat Klub, a George Grosz-like Berlin cabaret where each night the smirking, androgynous Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey) introduces a jazz-driven "girlie show" to his debauched audience. Virtually all the film's musical numbers are staged within the confines of the Kit Kat Klub, and each song comments on the plot and on Germany's "progression" from hedonism to Hitlerism. Most of the Broadway score by John Kander and Fred Ebb was retained, with the welcome addition of "The Money Song." Although it lost Best Picture to The Godfather, Cabaret won eight Oscars, including awards to Minnelli, Grey, and Fosse. A heavily expurgated 88-minute version of Cabaret has been prepared for commercial TV presentations, regarded by many as dramatically inferior to the full cut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Writer Giles Cooper's Unman, Wittering and Zigo was first presented as a BBC TV drama in the 1960s, which later was telecast in the US on NET Playhouse. David Hemmings plays the new teacher in a macabre classroom where the boys seem demonically recalcitrant. Just after calling roll (Unman, Wittering and Zigo are the last names on the tally), Hemmings is advised by his class that he'd better leave them alone to do as they wish. Hemmings' predecessor had not heeded this warning, and ended up dying a rather nasty death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two 20 year old twins have a bizarre incestuous relationship. Julian (Martin Potter) and his sister Jacki (Judy Geeson) carry on the affair and only reveal their secrets to a stuffed teddy bear named Agamemnon. While their father is absent, they murder the housekeeper and run wild at night. Drugged out parties with transvestites and homosexuals leads to blackmail, debauchery and murder. Julian soon finds himself unable to escape the dark and strange world and finds his fantasies have becomes his worst nightmares. Michael Redgrave appears briefly as a member of Parliament. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This biography of Oliver Cromwell recalls the political and religious struggles of 17th century England. Cromwell (Richard Harris) is the Anglican religious fanatic who fights corruption and Catholicism with equal zeal, while King Charles (Alec Guinness) is the vacillating monarch who believes his crown gives him a direct pipeline to the wisdom of God. Also starring Robert Morley and Timothy Dalton, Cromwell won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design and was nominated for Best Original Score. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide