John Wood Movies

Debuting in 1963, the British TV anthology The Victorians offered hour-long adaptations of eight famous 19th century plays. Episode titles included "The Rent Day," "London Assurance," "Society," "The Ticket of Leave Man," "Two Roses," "The Silver King," and "Still Waters Run Deep." In general, the same repertory troupe of actors appeared in all eight plays. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this routine, slapstick, frenetic tale, British comic Spike Milligan stars as Harold Petts, a rural mailman with a sudden promotion that ends up getting him into a lot of trouble. Harold is supposed to be trained behind the scenes at London's busiest post office but even after his first day in the city he is already in difficulties. He soon meets Jean (Barbara Shelley), a mediocre art student with big aspirations for her future. The duo eventually find themselves as top suspects in a mail-theft ring, with the police and the Post Office higher-ups close on their heels. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Zany British comedian Tony Hancock was briefly a major draw in the 1960s, with several popular TV series, sellout personal appearances, and a string of theatrical films to his credit. In The Rebel (released in the US as Call Me Genius), Hancock plays a middle-class businessman who decides to chuck it all and become a painter. He heads for Paris, there to starve in an attic until fame and fortune comes calling. Like many British comedies of the era, The Rebel has great fun at expense of modern art and bohemian artistes; Hancock takes full advantage of every humorous possibility, with suave George Sanders acting as his dignified foil. Alas, by the end of the 1960s, Tony Hancock was dead by his own hand, a victim of alcohol and acute depression. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Peter Sellers stars as an inmate in a "model prison" run by Maurice Denham. Though Sellers is disinclined to escape (he's never been as comfortable in his life), he is convinced to do so by phony vicar Wilfred Hyde-White, who breaks into jail to outline a robbery scheme. Hyde-White's plan is to have Sellers and his cellmates David Lodge and Bernard Cribbins take a brief "vacation" from jail, pull off a big-time robbery, then return undetected to prison, thereby establishing a perfect alibi. Within its 87-minute time span, Two-Way Stretch takes satirical potshots at political bleeding hearts, obese Middle Eastern potentates, and regulation-bound British police officials. One cannot be faulted for wishing that Peter Sellers had stuck to engaging small-scale British farces such as this and had never ventured into such unamusing big-budgeters as The Bobo and There's a Girl in My Soup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodramatic adventure set after the British evacuated Singapore in 1942, a ship is torpedoed and only four people survive. They are a nun, an RAF officer, a godless bigoted business magnate, and a black purser. The four drift for days before getting themselves washed up on a small desert island. Before they reach the shore, a shark consumes the purser. The other three safely land and struggle to survive. Time passes and the RAF officer falls in love with the nun, who never tells him that she is one. Later they are rescued, and the officer begins looking for her in vain. At one point he passes her dressed in her habit on a London street, but he doesn't recognize her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide