Monte de Lyle Movies
One of the stars of Walt Disney's Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke, is re-united with that film's composer and lyricist, Richard M.Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, in this big budget and bloodless children's fantasy musical, based on the children's book by James Bond author Ian Fleming. Van Dyke plays Caractacus Potts, a failed inventor who lives in a big house with his two children -- Jemima Heather Ripley and Jeremy Adrian Hall -- and eccentric father Lionel Jeffries. Potts has to raise 30 shillings so his children can buy a broken-down racing car from the junkyard. After a disastrous attempt to sell his invention of whistling sweets to Lord Scrumptious (James Robertson-Justice), the local candy maker, he finally gets enough money for the car by doing a Dick Van Dyke dance routine at the county fair. Potts takes the car and miraculously transforms the vehicle into a shiny new car named Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. While on a picnic with the children and Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes), Lord Scrumptious' beautiful daughter, Potts concocts a fantasy tale about the magical powers of the car, which can now float on water and fly. In the tale, Baron Bomburst (Gert Frobe) wants the car for himself and kidnaps the automobile and the inventor. But Bomburst captures Grandpa by mistake along with the wrong car, so Potts, Truly, and the children have to enlist Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on a rescue mission to Bomburst's lair to save Grandpa. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, (more)
- 1968
Written by David Tomblin and Ian L. Rakoff, "Living In Harmony" briefly whisks Number Six away from The Village and plunks him into the American West circa 1870. Forced by a "Roy Bean"-style judge (David Bauer) to accept the job of sheriff, Number Six discovers that his first assignment is to protect to beautiful Cathy (Valerie French) from a vicious outlaw known as The Kid (Alexis Kanner). This places the protagonist in an uncomfortable position: How can he fulfill his new responsibility while keeping his self-promise to never again use a gun? Harmony, by the way, is the name of the town where all this takes place --- or does it? Originally slated as Episode 12 of The Prisoner, "Living In Harmony" was seen as the series' 14th installment when it originally aired in England on January 14, 1968. Curiously, this episode was not shown in America where The Prisoner was first networkcast in the summer of 1968 (reportedly, it contained too much violence --- or, possibly, too much of the leading lady's cleavage), though it was included in the Prisoner package syndicated in the US in the fall of 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
This uneven black comedy went into production as My Last Duchess. It then went through three title changes, representing, in the words of historian Leslie Halliwell, "a descending order of wit": Arrividerci, Baby, Drop Dead, Darling, and You Just Kill Me! Tony Curtis plays a charming contemporary Bluebeard who murders a succession of wives in order to fatten his bank account. At the beginning of the film, the 42-year-old Curtis, decked out in Buster Browns, does in his own stepmother. The remaining murders alternate between moderately amusing and just plain silly; our favorite scene is the disposal of Zsa Zsa Gabor, but that's just on basic principles. Curtis finally meets his match in a much-married widow who plots his demise (a plot point which, incidentally, was planned and abandoned for Chaplin's far superior Monsieur Verdoux). Director Ken Hughes and Ronald Harwood based their screenplay upon the Richard Deming novel The Careful Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Rosanna Schiaffino, (more)
- 1956
His career as a western star having recently come to an end in the US, Wayne Morris is the star of the British The Dynamiters. Morris plays an American insurance investigator, trying to get the goods on an elusive gang of London thieves. The crooks invariably wipe out all evidence by dynamiting the places they've plundered. While snooping around, Morris takes a break in a nightclub, where a musical number called "Soho Mambo" is thrust upon us. One nice side effect of The Dynamiters was that, by working in London, Wayne Morris was available to co-star in Stanley Kubrick's prestigious antiwar drama Paths of Glory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Sandra Dorne, (more)
- 1953
Originally released in England as Counterspy, Undercover Agent stars Dermot Walsh in the title role. When the film begins, however, Manning (Walsh) isn't a spy, but a mild-mannered accountant. Asked by a mysterious stranger to deliver a package, ostensibly containing compromising love letters, Manning arrives at the appointed address, only to stumble across the body of a murdered man. Upon discovering that the package contains the secret plans for a revolutionary new jet, Manning is forced to take it on the lam, lest he be the next victim. Future "scream queen" Hazel Court is the film's nominal (and inconsequential) leading lady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dermot Walsh, Hazel Court, (more)
- 1952
In this detective story, based on a novel by John Creasey, a smooth-talking detective helps a young woman solve her uncle's murder. When the Robin Hood-like thief accused of the crime is proved innocent, everyone breathes a sight of relief. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1948
In postwar London, Chicago-raised fashion reporter Linda Medbury, working for a British newspaper, runs across a crime story that's too good to pass up -- all about Sugiani (Joseph Calleia), a racketeer who has quietly amassed a fortune, and near-total control of vice in London, through counterfeiting, black marketeering, and smuggling, all backed by strongarm men who've got everyone he does business with scared. Linda insists on running the story, even though one woman and two writers who previously gotten in Sugiani's way have either disappeared, been killed, or blinded. Her fiance, sportswriter Jumbo Hyde (Derek Farr), an ex-commando captain just back from the service, wants to protect her and enlists the aid of the boxers at a gymnasium where he's well known. But Linda is moving too fast for his efforts, and Sugiani is already tying up loose ends, including eliminating one talkative witness (Ruth Nixon). And when Sugiani and his right-hand man Bar Gorman (igel Patrick) discover that they can't buy or charm Linda off her crusade, they prepare to take more drastic action -- Sugiani sends out his personal enforcer, "the barber" (Hay Petrie). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Landis, Joseph Calleia, (more)
- 1944
The Caryl Brahams-S. J. Simon novel The Elephant is White is the basis for the British Give us the Moon. Comic actor Vic Oliver delivers a broad performance as Sascha, a dour suicide-prone chap who belongs to an "I won't work" club. The organization was founded by Nina (Margaret Lockwood) on behalf of those who have no intention of ever making a living, and who make no bones about it. Romance enters the picture when the industrious son (Peter Graves) of a hotel owner poses as a member of the idle rich, the better to be close to Nina. To take the curse off an "unemployment" comedy in the middle of WW2 (when everyone was expected to "do their bit"), Give Us the Moon is set in a fanciful postwar London. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Lockwood, Vic Oliver, (more)
- 1937
When his Hollywood starring career dried up in the mid-1930s, matinee idol Charles Farrell headed to England, where he played newspaper reporter Brian Gaunt in the fast-paced meller Midnight Menace. The storyline acknowledges the fact that Television was firmly established in England in 1937, with the BBC beaming out programs on a regular schedule. On this occasion, however, a TV device is being used for nefarious purposes by a gang of foreign munitions manufacturers, operating out of a stationery shop in Soho. Head villain Peters (Fritz Kortner) intends to destroy a London disarmament conference in a midnight air raid, all the while posing as the head of a pacifistic organization. The fearless Brian Gaunt gets wind of this scheme and races against time to avert disaster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Farrell, Fritz Kortner, (more)
- 1936
In this espionage thriller, a scientist develops a nonflammable fuel. Fearing that his life and the formula are in jeopardy, he photographs the formula and sends the picture to the League of Nations where it will be safe. Sure enough, the spies close in and kidnap his sister so he will be forced to give up the formula. Fortunately, the villains are thwarted and the formula is safe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
Hollywood's Conrad Nagel heads cast of the British Ball at Savoy. The tux-garbed Nagel plays a baron who, while vacationing in Cannes, falls in love with opera star Marta Labarr. The prideful Labarr will have nothing to do with Nagel because of his wealth, so he poses as a waiter. When he's accused of being a thief, Nagel learns that there's two sets of justice, one for the rich, another for the poor. This 1936 remake of an earlier German film, was based on a novel by Alfred Grunwald and Fritz Lohner-Beda. Distribution of Ball at Savoy was handled in Britain and the US by RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Nagel, Marta Labarr, (more)
- 1936
In this romantic comedy, a plucky gypsy travels to London with her lover, a captain of the guard masquerading as a musician. She does not know that he is a fugitive from prison incarcerated for dueling with a high official. In London, the musician organizes a gypsy band that begins playing in a small cafe. They are soon spotted by an American promoter who believes that he can take them to the States and make them stars. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lupe Velez, Alfred Rode, (more)
This chiller speculates upon a haunting real-life mystery that occurred off the English coast on December 5, 1872 where the American ship Marie Celeste was found drifting with her sails set at half-mast with absolutely no one on board. According to the film, the crewmen were murdered by captain Anton Lorenzen, whose lust for vengeance against a mutinous first mate six years before drives him insane. The film is also titled Mystery of the Marie Celeste. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bela Lugosi, Shirley Grey, (more)
