Peter Prowse Movies
- 1971
A young Zulu lad (Saul Pelle) is sent away from home by his mother so that he will not die from a witch doctor's curse. He travels through the countryside as inconspicuously as he can but still meets briefly with the Zulu Chief (played by Buthelezi, himself). Once in town, he is conned into becoming part of a gang of robbers but eventually winds up helping and being helped by a blind white man (Sidney James). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1965
The Informers of the title are a loose grouping of underworld types, upon whom Scotland Yard inspector Nigel Patrick depends for crucial information. Patrick gets in trouble with his superiors when he refuses to reveal the identity of his informants. He gets into even more trouble, when, while investigating the murder of one of his snitches, Patrick is framed on a corruption rap by trollop Margaret Whiting. The Informers was based on Death of a Snout, a novel by Douglas Warner. It was also released under the titles Underworld Informers and The Snout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nigel Patrick, Frank Finlay, (more)
- 1964
This fact-based, but exploitational drama, chronicles the sordid case of Christine Keeler. It opens with an actual interview with the woman who had just been released from prison. The story begins in London where Keeler worked as a model and a hostess. There she meets Barrymore and soon ends up living with him platonically. She falls for a West Indian musician and leaves Barrymore. She is at a crazy pool party when she encounters the British minister of war and the Russian naval attache. She gets involved with both of them and the musician gets mad enough to shoot through her door. Scotland Yard investigates and exposes the great scandal causing the minister to step-down, the Russian to return home, and Barrymore to kill himself. For her part in the trouble, Keeler spent 9 months in jail. The film was made when the whole mess was still in the public eye. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Cornel Wilde co-produces, directs, and stars with his wife Jean Wallace in this uneven version of fabled King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Wilde, a skilled fencer, is Lancelot and appropriately enough, Wallace is his lady-love Guinevere. This time around, their traditionally chaste romance (Guinevere marries King Arthur) takes on a more modern veneer as she and Lancelot become intimate. Aside from their love story, several battles on horseback keep the knights busy as King Arthur struggles to hold onto his throne in the face of a challenge from King Leodogran (John Longdon). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, (more)
- 1957
After years of faithful supporting service, British comic actor Ronald Shiner was finally rewarded with a few leading roles in the 1950s. In Not Wanted on Voyage, Shiner plays cockney ship's steward Higgins, who tends to the needs of the various passengers on a Tangiers-bound luxury liner. When a valuable necklace is stolen from one of the vacationing dowagers, Higgins and his buddy Hollebone (Brian Rix) decide to play detective, hoping for a huge reward upon recovering the missing item. Along the way, Higgins and Hollebone find it necessary to disguise themselves as Arabs, leading to a wacky slapstick chase. Even those filmgoers who'd seen and heard the wheezy gags in Not Wanted on Voyage in earlier films were amused by the breezy ridiculousness of the project. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix, (more)
- 1955
Julie Harris repeats her stage portrayal of the irrepressible Sally Bowles in John Van Druten's I Am a Camera. Set in pre-Hitler Berlin, the film details the curious, chaste relationship between Sally, an entertainer at a bawdy nightclub, and fledgling writer Christopher Isherwood (Lawrence Harvey). Shelley Winters co-stars as Natalia Landauer, whose impending marriage to a wealthy young Jewish man is imperiled by the anti-Semitism which envelops Berlin as the Nazis gain political power. If all this sounds familiar to you, it is because I Am a Camera is the non-musical precursor to the Broadway musical hit Cabaret. Both properties were based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Those familiar with the film version of Cabaret will notice that certain plot elements have been watered down in Camera. Examples: Isherwood's homosexuality is left unmentioned, save for Lawrence Harvey's opaque opening comment that he is "a confirmed bachelor;" and Sally Bowles' third-act abortion is changed into a false-alarm pregnancy. Also, Julie Harris' dynamic but rather overbaked interpretation of Sally is not nearly as memorable as Liza Minelli's Oscar-winning interpretation of the character in Cabaret. Still, I Am a Camera is well directed and deftly adapted for the screen (by John Collier); and even taking into consideration Ms. Harris' hamminess, she remains one of the most fascinating stage personalities of the mid-20th century. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Harris, Laurence Harvey, (more)
- 1952
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
