Brock Williams Movies
Britain's Brock Williams was active in films from 1932 to 1955. As a screenwriter, Williams churned out dozens of programmers and quota quickies, along with a few prestige items like Contraband (1940) and The Prime Minister (1941). As a director, he came up with the brooding melodrama Root of All Evil (1947). And as a "scenario editor," Brock Williams collaborated on the exotic romance Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1964
In this thriller, an carefully engineered bank robbery goes awry. The plan is masterminded by an American visiting Britain; his accomplices are three unstable fellows. Things go wrong when they must kill the night watchman and kidnap his daughter. They then flee to their secret lair to await the getaway boat. Two days pass and the boat does not come. More trouble ensues when the American finds himself deeply attracted the young woman, and she to him even after he rapes her. He then begins trying to protect her from the others. This makes the men feel slighted; enraged, they decide to steal the loot and a fight ensues. It is a brutal battle and as they tussle, the old building begins to collapse. All of the criminals die. The American dies while saving the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1964
The British town of Warlock is scandalized by Hazell's cottage-turned-tearoom with the local inspector found in a compromising situation and the marriage of Hazell to the mayor. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1962
In this British drama, a seventeen-year-old girl flees from her dreadful home and hitchhikes to London's Soho district. There, a carnival fortune teller befriends her and helps her get a job waiting tables. Her new boss makes sexual advances and the girl rejects him. She in turn makes a successful play for an aspiring singer. He impregnates her and they marry. They decide to move to Canada, but they need cash so the singer burglarizes their employer's home. Unfortunately, the employer awakens during the theft and shoots the singer. The wounded singer retaliates and kills his boss; he then steals a car, grabs his wife, and flees with the police in hot pursuit. They move in closer and the cornered killer tries to hold them at bay until he drops dead from blood loss. His wife sobs beside his crumpled form. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Ticket to Paradise is an innocuous romantic comedy predicated on a plot device that's probably older than dirt. Travel agent Emrys Jones and tourist Patricia Dainton fall in love in sunny Italy. Jones has led Dainton to believe that he's fabulously wealthy, and she has likewise deceived him. When the truth inevitably outs, it hardly matters, since hero and heroine now love each other for themselves rather than their bank accounts. At 61 minutes, Ticket to Paradise is just long enough to avoid boredom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
In this British crime drama, a gangster tries to escape the police and the crime boss he ratted on. He is temporarily assisted by a young woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1960
In this romantic comedy, three bunglers find jobs at a matchmaking service. None are pleased with their jobs until a beautiful con-artist, posing as an heiress appears to spice up their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Naked Fury is a 60-minute British crime quickie. Four robbers kill a night watchman while knocking over a warehouse. They kidnap the daughter (Leigh Madison) of the murdered man and hole up in a squalid shack. One of the robbers (Kenneth Cope) falls in love with the hostage, triggering a falling out with his fellow crooks. Final score: Hostage 1, Crooks 0. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
A talented director (Charles Saunders) and cast cannot do very much with this weak story about an odd double deception. Two con-men, former Commander Binham-Ryley (Richard Murdoch) and former Major Rory McQuarry (William Kendall), are just out of prison for their dubious money-making schemes. They decide to hook up together to see how to bilk the next mark, when they meet a wealthy widow who obviously cannot see through them, and she hires them to run a factory for her. What the two men do not realize is that the widow needs two fall guys in her own shady, profit-making scheme. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Murdoch, Maya Koumani, (more)
- 1957
In this crime melodrama, a car salesman (and suspected safecracker) saves his fiancee from those who would kidnap her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
In this British mystery, set backstage at a theater, a beautiful actress is starring in a successful playwright's newest hit. Unbeknownst to her, the writer is in love with her. Because he is jealous of all those who might steal her away, he refuses to allow her to break her contract and work in an American playwright's newest show. Trouble ensues when the jealous playwright is found stabbed with a pair of the actress's scissors. The American is afraid that she is being framed and so helps her move the body. When the police find it, everyone becomes a suspect until it is learned that the actress was guilty all along. The American, who also loves her, takes the rap for her crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dale Robertson, Lois Maxwell, (more)
- 1956
After a brief fling at Hollywood stardom, John Ireland set up camp in England and Europe. It was in England that Ireland was top-billed in Black Tide, aka Stormy Crossing. The bulk of the film's storyline is carried by villain Derek Bond. After murdering his lover, cross-channel swimmer Joy Webster, Bond attempts to do same to her other boyfriend, Sheldon Lawrence. Ireland plays an Interpol detective who stems Bond's homicidal hijinks. Black Tide was produced by Monty Berman in his pre-Saint days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ireland, Derek Bond, (more)
- 1955
In this comedy, a snooty socialite is so embarrassed by her father, an ex-con, that she tries to have him sent to Australia. That doesn't work so she locks him in an attic. That doesn't work either. In the end, the father gets a job as the governor's handyman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
In this crime drama, a man finds a rare stamp, takes it to an expert for appraisal, and finds that it is a forgery. This discovery leads the man to look for the counterfeiter. After grilling three suspects, he finally learns that the art expert was behind it all the time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
American actor Alex Nicol heads the cast of the British crime melodrama The Gilded Cage. Nicol and Michael Alexander play Steve and Harry Anderson, a pair of siblings who become involved in an art theft. Accused of leading the crooks, Harry is thrown into the pokey. Steve, a customs inspector, spends the rest of the film trying to prove his brother's innocence. Gilded Cage was produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman, the same team responsible for the TV adventure series The Saint. Veronica Hurst, an English actress best known for her work in the American horror melodrama The Maze, is the woman in the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1954
In this British comedy, a wealthy, hypochondriac gets unwittingly entangled in counterfeiters' plans when he comes to own the printing plates the gang is after. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Slim Callaghan, a fictional British private detective in the American "hard boiled" mode, was the central character in several popular Peter Cheyney novels, in a stage play by Gerald Verner, and in the 1948 movie programmer Uneasy Terms, which top-billed Michael Rennie. Meet Mr. Callaghan stars Derrick DeMarney, no stranger to detective films, in the title role. In this "pilot" for a proposed Callaghan movie series, Slim is required to solve the death of a much-hated rich man. Meet Mr. Callagahan made money (no surprise, since it cost practically nothing to make), but no sequels resulted. In the late 1950s, however, a French-made group of Slim Calaghan pictures went on the market, starring Eddie ("Lemmy Caution") Constantine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Mystery writer Gale assists the police in solving the mysterious death of a person found with 2 cigarette butts and an empty cigarette pack at the bottom of a cliff. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1953
The always welcome Greta Gynt plays a mystery writer in Three Steps in the Dark. Greta's uncle, millionaire Nicholas Hannen, calls his heirs together to announce a change in his will. Someone isn't pleased with this codocil, and Hannen is promptly done away with. Herself a suspect, Greta circumvents the cops to solve the mystery herself. With only 60 minutes at its disposal, this British meller dispenses with such inconsequentials as characterization and logic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1953
No relation to the 1924 D. W. Griffith film of the same name, Isn't Life Wonderful! is a bucolic British comedy which goes for quiet chuckles rather than bellylaughs. Set in a sleepy rural village in the early 1900s, the film centers around the efforts to transform sorry old sot Uncle Willie (Donald Wolfit) into a gentleman of prestige and property. It is all for the benefit of young Virginia (Dianne Foster), the American fiancee of Willie's prim-and-proper nephew Frank (Robert Urquardt). Set up by friends and relatives in the bicycle business, Uncle Willie continues his wastrelly ways, but somehow manages to make a success of his little shop. Somehow all this leads to a hectic finale at a health spa, replete with an amusing car chase. As a novelty, Isn't Life Wonderful! is told from the point of view of the film's youngest character, played by 6-year-old Peter Asher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cecil Parker, Eileen Herlie, (more)
- 1952
The Night Won't Talk is a short but not too sweet British second feature. A beautiful model is murdered; John Bailey, the girl's fiance, is the principal suspect. Later on, suspicion shifts to Bailey's current girl friend. Actress Hy Hazell, playing a seductive sculptress, gets top billing for a seemingly subordinate role. We all know what that means in a murder mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Heir Patric Doonan struggles with his disinherited family members in order to collect his grandfather's fortune and is assisted by Greta Gynt, window washer James Hayter and police inspector Hector Ross. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1951
This lightweight British satire on Freudianism stars Cecil Parker as a prominent doctor and Anne Crawford as his psychiatrist wife. Parker and Crawford are taken aback when their innocent young son Anthony Lang draws a picture of a horse, with all necessary reproductive equipment lovingly detailed. While Parker is all for paddling his precocious offspring, Crawford decides that the boy should be rewarded for so freely expressing his subconscious. This minor misunderstanding brews into a major brouhaha involving split-ups, supposed infidelity and tearful reconciliations. Tony Draws a Horse was adapted (and somewhat toned down) from a play by Lesley Storm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cecil Parker, Anne Crawford, (more)
- 1947
Hollywood films were linking up dance halls with criminal activities long before the British-made Dancing with Crime, which does not mean that this 1949 melodrama is any less worthwhile. Adding a contemporary twist, the criminals operating within the shilling-a-dance joint are black marketeers (wartime rationing would be in effect in Britain until the early 1950s). A wisecracking taxi dancer (Sheila Sim) gets wind of what's afoot. Working with the law, the girl tries to get the goods on the criminals but nearly catches a shiv in the rib cage. 1930s crime-film star Barry K. Barnes co-stars in Dancing with Crime, together with up-and-comer Richard Attenborough. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Barry Barnes, (more)
- 1947
Based on a novel by J. S. Fletcher, The Root of All Evil casts Phyllis Calvert as a grimly ambitious woman scorned. Jilted by wealthy Albert Grice (Hubert Gregg), farmer's daughter Jeckie Farnish (Calvert) vows to accumulate enough money so as to never again be dependent on any man's attentions. Suing Grice for breach of promise, Jeckie parlays her generous settlement into a sizeable fortune. She increases her riches by linking up with philandering mining-engineer Charles Mortimer (Michael Rennie). Though she and Mortimer accrue millions from oil wells, it simply isn't enough: the hard-hearted Jeckie has decided that she craves true romance after all. The moral of Root of All Evil is obvious from the first scene onward: it is up to Phyllis Calvert and her talented co-stars to wade through a sea of cliches and come up with something worth watching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phyllis Calvert, John McCallum, (more)
- 1945
A classic in gothic-romantic excess, Madonna of Seven Moons was one of the most successful British films of its genre. Though she doesn't know it at first, young convent-bred Rosalinda (Phyllis Calvert) has been born under a curse: before her life comes to a close, she will be wife, mother and mistress all in one. As a child, Rosalinda is raped by a gypsy, an experience that renders her a schizophrenic. Years later, she is the seemingly contented wife of prosperous Italian businessman Giuseppe (John Stuart) and the mother of attractive teenager Angela (Patricia Roc). From time to time, however, Rosalinda disappears from her home and retreats to the slums of Florence, where she assumes the identity of lustful gypsy girl Maddelina, the mistress of criminal leader Nino (Stewart Granger). Then she returns to her husband and daughter, completely unaware of her "other" self or even that she's been absent. Understandably curious about her mother's long absences, Angela follows Rosalinda during one of her sojourns into the Florentine underworld. Far from home and hearth, poor Angela is targetted for seduction by Sandro (Peter Glenville)--the very gypsy who'd assaulted the younger Rosalinda! And just when it seems that things can't get any more unbelievable?..well, this one is definitely better seen than described. Originally released at 100 minutes, Madonna of Seven Moons was expertly cut to 88 minutes for US consumption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, (more)
