Michael Winner Movies

As originally screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, at the Cannes Film Festival, and on Turner Classic Movies, the mammoth, epic-length documentary Brando chronicles in encyclopedic detail (and with a consistently reverent overtone) the life and career of the man widely regarded as the most formidable American actor of the 20th century - famous for not only reshaping, but reinventing the craft of film acting and teaching audiences how to view a motion picture performance. Divided into chronological, thematically-unified segments, the film first treats Marlon Brando's dysfunctional upbringing - his alcoholic mother, his abusive father, his stint at a military academy - before charting his acting tutelage at the behest of Stella Adler and his early cinematic and theatrical roles, including work for Elia Kazan, who famously made many aggressive (and unsuccessful) attempts to discipline the headstrong actor onscreen. Throughout this segment, many Hollywood A-list actors appear - among them, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and Robert Duvall - expostulating at length on Brando's influence over their approaches to performance, and attempting with great effort to define the elusive style known as "method acting" that Brando helped to create. The second half of the documentary moves into Brando's career during the '70s, '80s and '90s, covering the production of The Godfather, the actor's noteworthy political activism, and his tumultuous personal life. Francis Ford Coppola, who of course teamed with Brando for the first Godfather installment and for Apocalypse Now, is noticeably absent from the proceedings. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Joan Collins camps it up in this pretentious art-house virago written, directed, and starring Steven Birkoff. In a satirical thrust at British upper-class values, in which the characters spout out dialogue in rhyming couplets, Collins and Birkoff portray snobbish British aristocrats and then, in contrast, a couple of East-enders in a British suburb. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A hectic caper flick with farcical overtones, Bullseye! doesn't quite hit the....oh, you know. Government scientist Michael Caine and his titled pal Roger Moore plan to auction off a cold fusion formula to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, a pair of con artists-also played by Caine and Moore-impersonate the scientist and his friends in hopes of getting a piece of the action. This leads to an unending supply of comic complications, deadly encounters, wacky recurring characters and Sennett-style chases. Is louder and faster really funnier? You be the judge (but you'll have to catch the film on home video, since it never received a US theatrical release). Roger Moore's real-life daughter Deborah Barrymore shows up as a CIA agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alan Ayckbourn's riotously funny play about a small-time acting troupe in the sticks is brought to the screen by director Michael Winner. Jeremy Irons plays Guy Jones, a mild-mannered flunky for an electronics firm who finds himself transferred to the British seaside town of Scarsborough. Bereft after the death of his wife and seeking a diversion, he tries out for a local amateur opera company's production of The Beggar's Opera. This local company is lorded over by the scabrous and slightly insane Welshman Dafydd Ap Llewellyn (Anthony Hopkins). Dafydd is in a constant rage because of his resentment at having to deal with these rank amateurs who merely try out for his production to pass the time. But his ranting and raving dwindles the number of his cast members with the result that Guy's part in the play is forced to grow larger and more important. But as Dafydd snorts and fumes, he is oblivious to the fact that Guy's increased stature in the production has made him a local lothario. Not only does Guy find himself in the passionate embraces of Fay (Jenny Seagrove), who plays a prostitute in the production, but he also falls into the arms of Dafydd's frumpy and frustrated wife Hannah (Prunella Scales). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Eager to escape her high-society life among the English elite, a woman falls in love with a young musician. Her husband, however, has other plans for her. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Faye Dunaway stars in Michael Winner's labored re-make of the 1945 swashbuckler, which was co-scripted by Leslie Arliss, the original director of the 1945 film. Dunaway is Lady Barbara Skelton, a lady of the royal class, who becomes a highway robber, taking up with Captain Jerry Jackson (Alan Bates), a highwayman and her lover. Because of a notorious whiping scene in which Lady Barbara and Jackson's girlfriend (Marina Sirtis) take horsewhips to one another, tearing their clothing to strategically-placed ribbons, the film was held back from release because Winner refused to cut the salacious footage. After corralling author Kingsley Amis, and directors John Schlesinger, Karel Reisz, and Lindsay Anderson to attest to the redeeming social value of the scene, the scene stayed in the film. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Set in the Caribbean, Firepower is one of those "celebrity salads," featuring a glittering all-star cast. Sophia Loren heads the ensemble as Adele, the widow of a murdered chemist. Believing that a multimillionaire industrialist is the culprit, Adele determines that she can expect no help from the authorities. Thus she engages the services of retired professional assassin Jerry Fanori (James Coburn), who in turn enlists the aid of troubleshooter Catlett (O.J. Simpson). Watch for Jake LaMotta, the ex-prizefighter whose life was dramatized in Raging Bull, in a supporting part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This spoof makes fun of a certain famous German shepherd movie star from the 1920s. The mayhem begins when the head honcho of a financially struggling studio turns a lost dog into a legend. The story features a number of old stars making cameo appearances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This drama about a man who takes the law into his own hands was wildly controversial upon first release, sparking much debate about the perceived pro-vigilante stance of the story, and established Charles Bronson as a major box office draw in the United States. Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is a liberal architect living in New York City. One day, a group of drug-crazed thugs break into his apartment while he's gone, killing his wife Joanna (Hope Lange) and brutally raping his married daughter, leaving her comatose. When the police are unable to find the culprits, Kersey arms himself and begins patrolling the streets, killing muggers and thieves as he encounters them. While his obsessive search for street justice sickens him at first, in time Kersey begins to enjoy it and becomes a hunted man himself, as Police Detective Frank Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia) tries to find the man who is doing the police's job for them, and a bit too well. Jeff Goldblum made his screen debut as one of the lunatics who attacks Joanna. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The John Gardner novel A Complete State of Death became this bloody crime flick that united frequent action genre collaborators Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner. Bronson stars as Detective Lieutenant Lou Torry, a grizzled undercover New York City cop who ruins his career when he is caught going violently overboard while apprehending a ghetto punk. As punishment, Torry is banished all the way to the L.A. Police Department, where he begins investigating a mysterious chain of events involving ex-soldiers that seem to be Mob related. It turns out that Don Alberto Vescari (Martin Balsam), an aging Mafia chieftain, is planning the use of mentally disturbed Vietnam vets as assassins in a campaign of murder. With one broad, gory stroke, Vescari schemes to wipe out his underworld enemies, retaliating for a massacre that wiped out a generation of Sicilian mobsters 40 years earlier. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In Lawman, Burt Lancaster is Jered Maddox, a dedicated marshal with an inflexible adherence to upholding the law at all costs. Riding into a nearby town to pick up a group of local carousers who, during a drunken spree, killed an old man, Maddox meets up with Vincent Bronson (Lee J. Cobb). Bronson is the local town boss, and Maddox discovers that the men he is looking for work for him. Unlike most western heavies, Maddox, although he is powerful and unscrupulous, abhors violence. But violence is something Maddox cultivates. A major confrontation between the reluctant Bronson and the intransigent Maddox builds -- particularly when Maddox enlists the help of weak-willed local sheriff Cotton Ryan (Robert Ryan). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Charles Bronson stars in this revisionist western directed by Michael Winner. The film concerns an Apache half-breed, Pardon Chato (Charles Bronson), who finds himself pursued by a relentless posse, headed by Joshua Everette (Jack Palance), after Chato has killed a white sheriff. But when members of Everette's posse rape Chato's wife, Chato stops running. Instead, Chato reverses course and begins to hunt down the posse, seeking vengeful retribution for the rape. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Hannibal Brooks (Oliver Reed) is a British prisoner of war assigned to care for an elephant in a zoo in Munich. Along with an American (Michael J. Pollard) and an Austrian (Helmut Lohner), the trio escapes with the elephant and heads for the Swiss border. They use the elephant to tear down a sentry post and gain access to the border crossing. They are betrayed by a Polish girl who aligns herself with the Nazis as the trio of escapees and their pachyderm protector evade the enemy in their attempt to escape. Comical moments are provided by the animal and James Donald who plays a captured British Army chaplain in this World War II adventure feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide