Patrick Blackwell Movies
- 1993
The checkered career of a man who has for years pulled off an imposture of being a dentist, despite his disastrous record with patients, is at the center of this offbeat comedy. "Doctor" Gordon Fairweather (Greig Pickhaver) has skipped town just ahead of the British police, who would love to get their hands on him. His story is told by his most loyal patient's daughter Vanessa (Jacqueline McKenzie), who worked as his nurse and wanted to marry him, and by his much-abused patient and potential father-in-law George Prestcott (Patrick Blackwell), who eventually had a mouth only a (real) dentist could love. It seems that Fairweather started out in Australia and had a bit of mental trouble before he struck out for Britain. It is amusing to note that the director of this movie, Chris Kennedy, is himself a former dentist. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline McKenzie, Maggie King, (more)
This spy outing hones in on secret agent Magnus Pym (Peter Egan). Having impersonated so many different people during his career as a British spy, Pym eventually lost track of who he really was -- a confusion compounded by the fact that he knew nothing of his actual past. Ultimately feeling that he could trust no one -- not even his so-called friends -- Pym turned his back on the British and began trading secrets with the Enemy. Filmed on location in England, Europe, and the U.S., the seven-episode A Perfect Spy originally aired in the U.K. in 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Egan, Ray McAnally, (more)
In a novel and intriguing approach to storytelling, director David Hare has created an engaging mystery and human drama that ostensibly focuses on an innocent dinner party but is really about something else. Jean Travers (Vanessa Redgrave) is an old-maid schoolmarm who has lived in Wetherby, a small town in northeastern Yorkshire, all of her life. She is still haunted by memories of a passionate love affair with a young man who was later murdered while on military duty in Malaysia nearly 35 years ago in the '50s. One evening, Jean invites a group of friends over for dinner; the group is comprised of two couples, one of which spends the time sniping at each other. A young man, John Morgan (Tim McInnerny) is also in the dinner party. Jean thinks he was brought along by one of the couples; the couples, in turn, believe he was invited by Jean -- in short, he is a total stranger that everyone assumes is a friend of someone there. As the evening progresses, political topics of the moment are brought up and chewed over; Margaret Thatcher, Richard Nixon, and other notables of the era are discussed, and various comments are made on the laziness of today's youth. The dinner party ends, and the next day John Morgan comes back to visit Jean. While she is in the midst of preparing tea for them both, he takes out a gun and kills himself. The shock waves from his senseless act later reverberate among the dinner-party guests, as the police investigator tries to piece together the man's background and the dinner party itself. Questions are raised about his motives, and viewers see the dinner party again, moment by moment, in an entirely new light. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Holm, (more)
