Artro Morris Movies
- 1982
Clive Donner directs Oliver Twist, the 1982 made-for-TV version of the classic Dickens novel. Richard Charles plays Oliver Twist, an orphan boy who gets kicked out of his juvenile workhouse when he asks for some more food. He is sent to work as an apprentice, but he quickly escapes and joins a group of other orphaned boys. They spend the day pickpocketing and commiting petty street crime in order to survive and bring home earnings to their leader, Fagin (George C. Scott). Eventually, Oliver picks the pocket of the wealthy Mr. Brownlow (Michael Hordern), who takes him in as his ward. However, the evil Bill Sikes (Tim Curry) kidnaps him back to continue working with the other pickpockets. The barmaid Nancy (herie Lunghi) helps Oliver escape, but she ultimately suffers the concequences of her actions. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
In this made-for-television mystery (adapted from a novel by Agatha Christie) a man dying on a beach utters the question "Why didn't they ask Evans?" Amateur detectives Frankie and Bobby subsequently begin digging for an explanation for the enigmatic query, which leads them to an utterly surprising conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Welsh-born writer Emlyn Williams' 1938 play The Corn is Green originally starred Ethel Barrymore as L.C. Moffat, the strong-willed schoolteacher under whose guidance the illiterate Welsh teenager Morgan Evans matriculates as an honor student. Bette Davis played Moffat in the 1945 film version; this second filmization, made for television on location in North Wales, stars Katharine Hepburn. Morgan Evans is portrayed by newcomer Ian Saynor; the rest of the cast is populated by such old reliables as Bill Fraser and Anna Massey. Directed by George Cukor (his ninth collaboration with Katharine Hepburn), The Corn is Green premiered on January 29, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
- PG
This 1978 re-remake of The 39 Steps adheres more closely to the source novel by John Buchan than Alfred Hitchcock's better-known original, restoring the pre-World War I time frame of the Buchan story. Hannay (Robert Powell) is an innocent bystander, suspected by enemy agents of having intercepted their secret war plans. Pursued by both the spies and the police, Hannay runs for his life in the company of Alex (Karen Dotrice). The Thirty-Nine Steps ends with a "high and dizzy" sequence on the face of Big Ben, borrowed from the 1942 Will Hay comedy My Learned Friend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Powell, David Warner, (more)
This dark drama unfolds in an unnamed community outside of London, where a beleaguered and grief-stricken tavern owner named Jim Radford (James Booth copes with the rape and murder of his young daughter. The remainder of his family shares his distress, and in time, it begins to rip the clan apart. When the young man who is being tried for the crime is let off thanks to paltry connecting evidence, Jim grows desperate and teams up a buddy of his named Harry (Ray Barrett) whose daughter suffered from a like fate - presumably, though not definitively, at the hands of the same killer. The two hone in on the young man who they believe is responsible, kidnap him and torture him in a number of ways. Unfortunately, the youth will not talk and ends up dead. Moreover, in time it becomes apparent that this might not have been the correct individual. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Dom (John Thaw) is the 30-year-old pseudo revolutionary whose main goals are to sleep with women and spout Marxist and Leninist slogans. He is kidnapped by party members and, in a warehouse, is subjected to a trial by his peers. They believe he is only paying lip service to the movement and is not a true revolutionary. The trial is interrupted when word of an impending police raid reaches the gathering. Stock footage of the 1968 Paris riots is used judiciously to enhance the spirit of revolutionary fervor ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Thaw, Edina Ronay, (more)
- 1968
The Strange Affair is a fragmentary "'60s" interpretation of a straightforward Bernard Toms novel. Michael York plays a rookie London policeman, appalled at the corruption surrounding him. He does not find comfort in the fact that his own superior (Jeremy Kemp) is just as crooked as the crooks. Susan George is the obligatory "mod" girl with whom York conducts a brief affair. Like many British films of its period, it seems more concerned with inducing pop-art headaches than simply telling its story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael York, Jeremy Kemp, (more)
- 1966
Steed and Emma investigate when several top executives are murdered, and their secretaries are given major promotions. The cause of it all is an aggressively anti-male band of secretaries, led by a puppet named Henrietta. To flush out the villainesses, Steed poses as a big businessman, while Emma pretends to be. . .guess what? Written by Brian Clemens, "How to Succeed. . .at Murder" was originally telecast in England on March 19, 1966, then showed up on American television June 13, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Cathy poses as a journalist to find out why a circus clown (Robert Rietty) is trying to murder Steed. It turns out that the clown is a functionary of the Mafia, and that Steed is getting too close for comfort to the "organization's" American drug-smuggling operation. It also turns out that the clown wants to escape the clutches of the Mafia himself. . .or does he? Originally telecast in England on March 2, 1963 (and finally shown in America on February 27, 1991), "Conspiracy of Silence" was written by Roger Marshall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
