John Chandos Movies

A motor excursion with a childhood friend turns deadly for Emma when she arrives at the remote community of Little Storping in the Swuff. It soon turns out that every one of the local residents is a professional assassin. Assuming that Emma has been brought to the village as a potential victim, the locals obligingly get "down to business." Despite its grim overtones, "Murdersville" is essentially a comic episode, culminating in old-fashioned pie fight. Written by Brian Clemens and first shown in England on November 11, 1967, this episode made it to America on February 7, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this crime drama, a mugger accidently kills a man during a robbery and finds himself blackmailed into cracking a nightclub safe. The mugger escapes by double crossing the blackmailer by stealing the money and his girlfriend to boot. Unfortunately the police are in hot pursuit. They eventually capture him, but not before he kills an innocent tailor. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this crime drama, an innocent man is imprisoned and his 10-year-old son is left to suffer the consequences at the hands of his schoolmates who taunt him mercilessly. One day the boy witnesses the same type of crime that got his father in prison. To bring the real culprits to justice, the police use the brave boy as a decoy. Though his life is endangered for a time, the ruse works and his father is finally freed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Time Without Pity carried the name "Joseph Losey" on the credits -- the first time in three years that the blacklisted director was permitted to use his own name on a film. This British-made suspense film was based on a play by Emlyn Williams. Michael Redgrave stars an anguished father whose son (Alec McCowan) is accused of murder. With time running out, Redgrave struggles to prove his son innocent of the charge. The paranoia prevalent in Time Without Pity can be attributed to Losey's own experience at the hands of the HUAC, though this element never gets out of artistic control. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Widely regarded as one of the best and most intelligent British war dramas of the 1950s, The Battle of River Plate is the story of Britain's first significant naval victory in WW2. John Gregson heads the cast as Captain Bell, skipper of the Exeter, one of several vessels engaged in pursuit of the "indestructable" Geman battleship Graf Spee. Taking refuge in the neutral harbor of Montevideo, the Graf Spee is covertly protected by the Uruguayan government. Eventually, however, German captain Langsdorff (Peter Finch) is faced with a difficult decision: either stand his ground and fight a losing battle against the Exeter and its sister ships, or scuttle the Graf Spee and save the lives of his crew. Battle of the River Plate was released in the US as Pursuit of the Graf Spee. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Alistair Sim plays a mild, innocuous little watchmaker who spends his off-hours as a professional assassin. His present target is windbag cabinet member Raymond Huntley. After various misfire attempts, Sim plants a bomb in a small radio and waits for the tube to warm up--but the authorities by now are on to him. The Green Man has some excellent setpieces, notably a droll snatch of black humor involving a body stuffed in a piano. The film's only debit is that, in the play upon which it is based, Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's Meet the Body, Sim's character is secondary, almost peripheral. By reshaping the film into a star vehicle, much of the play's intimate (albeit ghoulish) charm is dissipated. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The recent Mau Mau uprising in Kenya served as story material for the 1955 British film Simba. White farmer Dirk Bogarde and his neighbors are targeted for extermination by the zealously nationalistic Mau Maus. Native doctor Joseph Tomelty, whose brother had earlier been killed under questionable circumstances, endeavors to help the whites escape the hordes, only to discover that his own father is the local leader of the insurrectionists. Given the cruelties of colonial rule in Africa, it is hard for any film to make the Mau Mau total villains, despite their own well-documented brutal treatment of their enemies. Simba downplays side-taking and ideology, choosing instead to concentrate on the adventure and suspense elements. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Steve Fisher, best known for I Wake Up Screaming, wrote the story and screenplay for the British melodrama Terror Street. Dan Duryea plays Bill Rogers, an American jet pilot, who comes to England to find out why he hasn't heard from his wife lately. Upon his arrival, he learns that his wife has been murdered, and that he's the prime suspect. With only 36 hours at his disposal, Rogers takes it upon himself to track down the actual killer. Such familiar British-movie faces as Erich Pohlmann and Kenneth Griffith share screen time with relative newcomers like Elsy Albin and Ann Gudrun. Running 83 minutes, Terror Street was originally released in England in an 80-minute version titled 36 Hours. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Mills followed his successful Gentle Gunman with the tensioned-filled meller The Long Memory. Convicted for a murder he did not commit, Davidson (Mills) spends 12 long years in prison. Upon his release, he vows to get even with the three witnesses who perjured themselves and clenched his conviction. Returning to the scene of the crime, he begins gathering clues as to the whereabouts of the witnesses. That's when he discovers that the alleged murder victim is alive and well! John McCallum co-stars as Inspector Lowther, who has spent the past dozen years mulling over the Davidson case, wondering if the man was innocent after all. For the sake of plot convenience, it turns out that Lowther is married to one of the lying witnesses! The Long Memory was based on a novel by Howard Clewes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Half affectionate parody and half enthusiastic tribute to the swashbuckling pirate epics of the 1930's and 40's, The Crimson Pirate stars Burt Lancaster as Captain Vallo, the smiling leader of a pack of unscrupulous pirates. While on the high seas, Vallo and his men spy a well-stocked merchant ship, and waste no time in relieving it of its contents. One of the passengers on the cargo vessel, Baron Gruda (Leslie E. Bradley), informs Vallo that a political revolt is shaking a island nation in the Caribbean to its foundations. The pirates set their course to the island, hoping to sell the arms they've just stolen to rebel leader Sebastian (Frederick Leister), while planning to later double their profit by turning him in to the Government leaders who are offering a reward for his capture. Vallo's plans change when he meets Sebastian's daughter Consuelo (Eva Bartok) and falls in love, while she teaches the pirate the wisdom of her father's philosophies. Vallo and his faithful sidekick Ojo (Nick Cravat) soon join Sebastian's men, and fight with them in a valiant struggle for freedom. Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat were once partners in their early days as circus acrobats, and they got to put their skills to good use in this picture; keep an eye peeled for an early performance by future horror movie great Christopher Lee. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Though it pales in comparison to the Royal Shakespeare Company's epic staging of the original novel in the early 1980s, this compact adaptation of Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby is most entertaining on its own terms. Derek Bond plays the title character, a resourceful young Britisher forced to protect his family against the demonic machinations of his wicked Uncle Ralph (Cedric Hardwicke at his most odious). Cast out into the cold cruel world, Nicholas Nickleby deals adroitly with friend and foe alike, eventually coming full circle to mete out just desserts to his unspeakable uncle. With only 108 minutes' running time at his disposal, screenwriter John Dighton (later a mainstay of the Ealing Comedies) was forced to eliminate several of the novel's 52 highly distinctive characters and intricate subplots. There is evidence that there was even more cutting after the film was completed; for example, the tatty touring theatrical troupe managed by the delightfully pompous Vincent Crummles (Stanley Holloway) appears only in a series of abrupt vignettes, while Crummles himself is confined to a mere handful of lines and gestures. Still, many of Dickens' colorful characters are vividly realized, especially the unfortunate, mentally challenged Smike (Aubrey Woods). When released in America, Nicholas Nickleby was pared down to 95 minutes, with surprisingly little damage to the continuity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The First of the Few is a dramatization of the life of R.J. Mitchell, the aeronautical engineer who designed the Spitfire fighter plane, which saved England in the Battle of Britain. Produced, directed by, and starring Leslie Howard, with David Niven as a pilot friend of the engineer, the movie starts with the 1940 Battle of Britain and flashes back, as wing commander Geoffrey Crisp (Niven) recounts his friendship with Mitchell and the years from 1918 to 1937, across which he helped move aviation into the modern age -- starting with racing competitions after the First World War, Mitchell is depicted as a design visionary, perceiving both the possibility and then the desperate need for faster and better aircraft. The latter becomes a matter of national survival, and he sacrifices the last years of his life to perfecting the plane that makes him a legend. As with most biographical films of this era, the picture does take some liberties with fact -- Mitchell did not spend time watching and talking dreamily of birds in flight, and comparing them to the box-like bi-planes of the early 1920s; and he never visited Germany in the early Hitler years and, thus, never heard first-hand hints (or threats) about glider clubs masquerading as training units for military pilots, an event depicted here as his motivation for designing the Spitfire; and the man's own son felt that Robert Donat, rather than Leslie Howard, would have been a more accurate portrayal of Mitchell. But in the main the movie -- which was made with the approval of Mitchell's widow and son, who were present for much of the shooting -- gets the essentials correct, and is surprisingly suspenseful for a bio-pic of this type. As a result of the presence of David Niven in the cast, The First of the Few was picked up for distribution in the US by Samuel Goldwyn, who had Niven under contract, and distributed by RKO in an edited 88 minute version under the title Spitfire, by which it is best known in the United States. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi