Peter Yates Movies
British director Peter Yates graduated from his early-'60s low-budget feature debut, the musical comedy Summer Holiday (1963), starring Cliff Richard and the Shadows, to the superb thriller Robbery (1967) with Stanley Baker. It was a short jump to the American thriller Bullitt (1968), starring Steve McQueen, the definitive cop thriller of its decade with the first car chase that anyone remembers in movies, through the streets of San Francisco. John and Mary (1969), starring Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow, was a big date movie at the end of the 1960s, and The Hot Rock (1972) was a groundbreaking comedy/thriller of its era, while The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) was a crime drama with one of Robert Mitchum's best performances. Since then, Yates has moved easily between genres, from the black comedy of Mother, Jugs, and Speed (1976) to the comic book-style action of Krull (1983), pausing along the way for the sensitive period drama The Dresser (1983) and the suspense of Eyewitness (1981). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1965
This farcical British comedy follows the eccentric misadventures of a family who have their own rather unusual way of doing things. Mr. Groomkirby (Eric Sykes) is redecorating his living room to resemble the courtrooms at Old Bailey, with a mind toward staging mock trials for fun. His wife, Mrs. Groomkirby (Alison Leggatt) hates to see leftovers go to waste, so she hires a woman to eat them. Their daughter Sylvia (Julia Foster) is fascinated by primates and spends much of her time at the zoo, and son Kirby (Jonathan Miller) believes that scales can have other uses rather than just weighing things -- they can be used to make music, too! Based on a popular novel, One Way Pendulum was directed by Peter Yates, who would go on to make Bullitt and Breaking Away. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Sykes, George Cole, (more)
- 1963
British filmmaker Peter Yates directs singer Cliff Richard in the starring role in this early 1960s pop music romp. Richard plays Don, a mechanic who, with three friends, is preparing to launch an offbeat European continental travel service using an old London double-decker bus. On a test run, they collide with a car occupied by a group of female rock musicians, demolishing it -- so they offer to give the girls a ride to Athens. They also pick up an American pop singer, Barbara (Lauri Peters), who is posing as a boy to hide from her press agent and mother, who refuse to allow her a vacation from a demanding tour schedule. Don and Barbara fall in love, but Barbara's mother accuses him of abducting her, and the bus and the music roll on to Greece after a series of comic misadventures. The cast includes the real rock group The Shadows. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff Richard, Lauri Peters, (more)
The guns of Navarone are huge Nazi cannons, installed on an Aegean island behind enemy lines. Anthony Quayle is the officer assigned by the British to lead a task force to put the guns out of commission. When Quayle is injured, the mission winds up in the relatively inexperienced hands of Gregory Peck. There's little love lost between Peck, explosives expert David Niven and Greek patriot Anthony Quinn, especially when it becomes known that there's a traitor in their midst. Resistance leader Irene Papas weeds out the traitor, but there's still those guns to take care of. Filmed on location in Rhodes and distinguished by Oscar-winning special effects, Guns of Navarone (based on Alistair MacLean's best-seller was a major box-office hit of 1961; less successful was the pared-down 1977 sequel, Force Ten From Navarone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, David Niven, (more)
