Dorothy Bouchier Movies

The Boy and the Bridge is a very slight tale based on an original American story by Leon Ware centered on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This adaptation by director and co-writer Kevin McClory is set on the Tower Bridge in London. The premise is simple and perhaps too much so for the 90-minute running time. A little boy named Tommy (Ian MacLaine) watches as his father is arrested after a bad brawl. Tommy believes his father must have killed someone and rather than return home, he heads to Tower Bridge to set up housekeeping there. The atmosphere and life around the bridge are a secondary protagonist in the story, introducing several interesting characters. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, police and crooks alike vie for possession of a wallet containing valuable microfilm which was tossed from a window. The wallet is found by a passerby who gives it to a dancer who gives it to a cashier. The cashier gives it to a clerk who uses it in a blackmailing scheme. In the end it returns to the passerby who ends up arrested. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Music-hall comedian Arthur Lucan first brought his "drag" character Old Mother Riley to the screen in 1937. Lucan went on to star in 14 films as the rambunctious Irish washerwoman, while Lucan's wife Kitty McShane co-starred as Old Mother Riley's daughter, who had a habit of bursting into song whether the audience liked it or not. The first series entry, aptly titled Old Mother Riley, found the title character put in charge of managing a huge luxury hotel. A jewel theft seriously compromises Mother Riley's new position, but everything is resolved in a climactic slapstick-fest, replete with pie-throwing. Perhaps because the character was too regional in her (his?) appeal, Old Mother Riley wasn't released in the U.S. until 1952, 15 years after it was made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Future Doctor Who star William Hartnell plays the leading role in the British second feature Murder in Reverse. Hartnell portrays a man who has spent 15 years in prison on a murder charge. Not only is he innocent, but the murder never took place. Once released, Hartnell tracks down his "victim" and kills him in full view of a crowded courtroom. He then laughingly dares the authorities to convict him again for a murder he's supposed to have already committed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Future "Doctor Who" star William Hartnell dominates the proceedings in the British drama Query. The story concerns a young stevedore who is falsely accused of manslaughter, and is shipped off to prison. Upon his release, the now-elderely protagonist wreaks vengeance on the man responsible for framing him. The legal question arising from all this is a delicate one: Is there truly such a thing as a justifiable murder, and can a man successfully plead in court that it is his legal right to take the law in his own hands? It's a tricky premise, but one carried off with expertise by star Hartnell and writer-director Montgomery Tully. Based on a story by "Seamark", Query bears a strong (perhaps too strong) resemblance to the old Elmer Rice play It is the Law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this old-joke-filled farce, a married couple has to put up with an obnoxious mother-in-law whose husband gets caught necking with a young actress, a traveling salesman, and a piano being mistaken in a conversation for an illegitimate child. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

In this action drama, a war correspondent finds a gun-runners agent and ends up falling in love with her. To escape those that pursue him, the ring-leader pretends to suicide. Then to start a war, he sinks a ship. Later he is killed by his agent. Unfortunately, during the scuffle, she is mortally wounded. As the film fades out, she dies in the correspondent's arms. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this offbeat spy drama, an opera diva is suspected of leaking classified information for enemy spies. To see if this is true, a talented policeman is engaged to go undercover as a chorus member. While there, he finds himself the object of another singer's affections. Trouble ensues because the diva also falls for him and the two singers become bitter rivals. Eventually the other singer proves that all suspicions were correct--the prima donna really is a spy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, a wandering troupe of English actors wend their way toward Spain. En route they toy with the father of one actor to prevent him from finding out that his boy has gone ahead and married the woman his father told him not to. To keep the daddy in the dark, the woman pretends to be married to her husband's best friend. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The son must pay for the crimes of the father when art-dealer Samson frames the son of the man who ruined his career. Samson sets the boy up to take the blame for the theft of $2,500--taken from Samson's gallery safe. Doubly unfortunate for Samson, the son has an alibi in Samson's wife, who is having an affair with the boy. ~ All Movie Guide

His Hollywood career a thing of the past, director Herbert Brenon returned to his native England in 1934, where he continued making films until his retirement in 1940. Brenon's first project upon his arrival in London was the feature-length documentary Royal Cavalcade. Covering a 25-year period, the film is an encapsulation of the comings and goings of the British empire since the 1910 coronation of King George V. The highlights, drawn from the newsreel files of several English and European archives, include Captain Scott's arrival at the South Pole (and the tragic aftermath), the First World War, the Roaring 20s, and the Depression. Of special interest to show-biz buffs is the footage of the first Royal Command Performance at the Palace in 1911, featuring such matchless performers as Anna Pavlova and George Robey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide