Jameson Clark Movies

In this drama, two young attorneys working for their uncle, find themselves facing off in court. One of the is defending a wife; the other, her husband who is suing for conjugal rights. As both lawyers are fresh from law school, things in court are often chaotic, and they suffer several fiascoes to the point where the judge is ready to disbar them. At the end of the tumultuous case, it looks as if the wife will win, when the other lawyer learns that the wife was afraid her husband would blackmail her if he found out that she was already married to a millionaire. Finally all is resolved and justice served. The two lawyers then decide to get married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this 1959 comedy, Robert MacPherson (Robert Morley) inherits his family's textile business in Edinburgh, Scotland, then hires American efficiency expert Angela Barrows (Constance Cummings) to bring the business into the modern age. The House of MacPherson has long been known as a manufacturer of fine Scottish tweed, and the company's mild-mannered head clerk, Mr. Martin (Peter Sellers), worries that the no-nonsense Barrows will ruin everything with her new-fangled ideas and eventually replace him and his co-workers with automatons. So after she installs the latest labor-saving devices, including intercoms and noisy adding machines, he sabotages them in a gradually unfolding scheme to persuade MacPherson that the old Scottish ways are still the best, that true craftsmanship requires a human touch. By this time, however, MacPherson has taken a fancy to Barrows romantically, and she can do no wrong. Then, horror of horrors, Barrows proposes that the company make synthetic tweed -- mass-produced synthetic tweed -- in an all-out effort to Americanize the Scottish firm. That's the last straw for Martin, and he thinks there is only one option left for him: to murder Barrows. Of course, meek Mr. Martin isn't exactly a natural-born killer, and he botches one attempt after another in a sequence of scenes that keep the action moving briskly along. But Martin has pluck and plenty of persistence, and he eventually hatches another plot to undo the meddlesome Barrows. The film, loosely based on a James Thurber story entitled The Catbird Seat, was directed by Charles Crichton, the same man who directed the highly successful Lavender Hill Mob. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

This remake of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller does not have his flair for suspense, but director Ralph Thomas keeps the action moving, offers some comic highlights, and the story itself carries the 90-minute running time. Richard Hannay (Kenneth More) is at a vaudeville show when a shot rings out and some commotion forces him to protect a young woman by bringing her home. His protection fails after she is stabbed by an assailant who escapes. She dies -- but not before she tells Richard there is a secret organization run by a man in Scotland, trying to smuggle some important plans out of the country. He must stop them, and as soon as she mentions 39 steps, she expires. Richard has only two days to find the head of the organization, get the plans, and foil this espionage attempt. Along the way to Scotland he is literally hooked up with an attractive schoolmarm after they are handcuffed together, and his misadventures continue with her in tow. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Key was adapted by Carl Foreman from Stella, a novel by Jan De Hartog. The time is WW2: The place, Plymouth England. Canadian tug captain David Ross (William Holden) and his British counterpart Chris Ford (Trevor Howard) pay a visit to Ford's lady friend Stella (Sophia Loren). Before the men leave, Ford is handed Stella's apartment key. It turns out that this key is harbinger of death; it has previously been held by Stella's former lovers, all tug captains, all dead. When Ford is killed in combat, Tennant comes into possession of the key, returning to Stella to commence a torrid love affair. However, she is unable to fall in love with Tennant, sensing that his demise is imminent. Eventually, she does fall for him, vowing that if he survives the war, she will never pass her key along to any other man. As a result, Tennant begins exhibiting hesitance in battle, as if determined to break the "jinx" at the expense of his fellow seamen. It would be the height of bad form to give away the ending at this point. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British mystery, set backstage at a theater, a beautiful actress is starring in a successful playwright's newest hit. Unbeknownst to her, the writer is in love with her. Because he is jealous of all those who might steal her away, he refuses to allow her to break her contract and work in an American playwright's newest show. Trouble ensues when the jealous playwright is found stabbed with a pair of the actress's scissors. The American is afraid that she is being framed and so helps her move the body. When the police find it, everyone becomes a suspect until it is learned that the actress was guilty all along. The American, who also loves her, takes the rap for her crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One of several British melodramas picked up for American distribution by Columbia in the late 1950s, The Long Haul stars Victor Mature and Diana Dors, two of the prettiest and most amply endowned screen personalities of the era. Mature is cast as American ex-GI Harry Miller, who takes a job as a truck driver to support his British war bride Connie (Gene Anderson). It isn't long, however, before Harry is blackmailed into joining a smuggling operation run by the conniving Casey (Liam Redmond). His resolved momentarily weakened by his obsession with gang moll Lynn (Diana Dors), Harry finally decides to turn honest again--if the other crooks will let him live that long. Director Ken Hughes adapted the screenplay from a novel by Mervyn Mills. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

X the Unknown is a well-crafted imitation of the Quatermass British sci-fi pictures of the 1950s. A group of soldiers on maneuvers in Scotland stumble across a gravel pit which emanates an unusual amount of radiation. Several deaths occur before the radioactive material is mysteriously stolen. Researcher Dr. Adam Royston (Dean Jagger) speculates that the thief is some sort of inhuman monstrosity dwelling at the Earth's core. He points out that past radioactive disturbances have been occurring at 50-year intervals, each followed by sudden deaths and the disappearance of the material. Royston suggests that the unknown monster has been resuscitated by humankind's recent atomic experiments. Sure enough, the monster manifests itself as a huge slab of glowing radioactive mud (laugh now if you must -- you won't laugh when you see it). X the Unknown works well within its limited budget; unfortunately, many TV prints have been truncated, robbing some of the best horrific moments of their full impact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this charming 1954 feature, Harry and Davy are two orphans living with their grandparents in Nova Scotia. Their autocratic grandfather gives them a "spare the rod spoil the child" kind of upbringing. All the boys really want is a dog, all the other kids have them, but their grandfather won't let them have one. As luck would have it, the boys find a baby orphaned as they are, and decide to hide it. They then must conceal it from their grandfather while discovering the love that was missing from their lives. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide

A small Scottish island has never paid its mandatory road tax. This brings forth an investigating committee of Parliament members, including the formidable Ronald Squire. The committee heads to the delinquent Hebridean isle, where they succumb to the easygoing charm of the residents. Cowritten by director John Eldridge, Laxdale Hall was an adequate imitation of the Ealing farces (notably Tight Little Island), with an overload of whimsy in place of originality. out to the Hebridean isle to check into this breach of law. The film made it to the States under the title Scotch on the Rocks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally released in Great Britain as Whisky Galore!, Tight Little Island is a comedy predicated on the notion that all Scotsmen are lushes. The tiny Scots Island of Todday suffers from a wartime whisky shortage. Luck of luck, a ship full of the precious liquid is wrecked on a reef. The islanders conspire to smuggle the whisky off the ship right under the noses of the pesky British revenue officials. Numerous clever comic complications occur before the happy ending--which, we are told by the narrator, was not so happy once all the whisky was consumed. Tight Little Island is regarded by devotees of British comedy as the best and most representative offering from the short-lived Ealing Studios. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Strange Illusion is really several movies in one, part dark psychological chiller, part unsettling murder mystery, and part breezy B-movie thriller, although most of its plot is derived from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Jimmy Lydon, best-known to audiences for his screen portrayal of Henry Aldrich during the early '40s, plays Paul Cartwright, the son of a respected judge who died under mysterious circumstances two years earlier. Paul is haunted by nightmares in which his father warns him of danger to his mother, and in which a mysterious stranger seems to threaten him and his family. He dismisses these dreams until his mother (Sally Eilers) introduces him to a new man in her life, Brett Curtis (Warren William), who says some of the very same things that Paul heard from the mystery man in his dream. There's a lot to dislike about Curtis despite his smooth, genial ways -- he seems too eager to please, and also offers an oily solicitousness to Paul's teenaged sister that's downright disturbing. Paul openly distrusts Curtis and opposes his mother's impending marriage to him. Most of those around him think Paul is overreacting and he is maneuvered into checking himself into a sanitarium run by a psychiatrist friend (Charles Arnt) of Curtis'. Trapped there and kept under constant surveillance, Paul is in danger, but he manages to find a clue that proves not only that his father's death was no accident, but that Curtis was involved in it. His discovery may be too late, however -- not only is his life in jeopardy, but it turns out that Curtis is really a career criminal that Paul's father had pursued from the bench for years, and that his real goal, having killed the judge, is to destroy the judge's family, including Paul's mother and sister. The plot of Strange Illusion works on many levels, as mystery and a dark psychological study, and it is told so smoothly and well by director Edgar G. Ulmer and his cast, that it may require multiple viewings to fully appreciate, though it is enjoyable on any level. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide