Margi Clarke Movies

The two-part British miniseries Soul Survivors was all about second chances. Ian McShane was cast against type as Otis Cooke, a disc jockey on a Liverpool soul music station. After the cancellation of his radio program , Otis whimsically headed to America in hopes of reuniting his favorite soul band, The Tallahassees (whose big hit was, appropriately enough, "Pickin' Up the Pieces"). In bringing the singers back together, Cooke reasoned that somehow he'd give his own life some meaning. Real-life musician Isaac Hayes co-starred as the Tallahassees' contrary lead singer Vernon, while other roles were filled by Derrick O'Connor, Antonio Fargas, Taurean Blacque, and Scott Wilson. The two 90-minute installments of Soul Survivors were seen over BBC 2 in 1995, and later re-edited into a single 125-minute feature. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The title may be Blonde Fist, but that doesn't mean that the leading characters have yellow hair growing from their knuckles. This British actioner deals with the specialized world of female boxers. People essential to the action bear such monikers as "Crazy Sue" (Susan Atkins) and "Big Alice" (Jane Poter). Veteran Hollywood leading lady Carrol Baker shows up as a don't-mess-with-me promoter. There are some attempts at social satire, contrasting the female pugilists with "proper" British ladies, but Blonde Fist is essentially an excuse to show scantily clad women duke it out and sweat a lot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ian Bertram (Robert Lindsay) is a mathematical genius who works as an accountant for a multinational firm based in England. When he meets Cary Porter (Molly Ringwald), who recently started working for the same company, Ian immediately falls in love and quickly proposes marriage. Cary accepts, and they plan a modest wedding, but when Ian's accounting skills earn him the admiration of company head Herbert Dreuther (John Geilgud), Herbert offers to pay for a honeymoon in Monte Carlo and give them a ride back on his yacht. But while Mr. Dreuther means well, he has problems with his memory, and once Ian and Cary get to Monte Carlo, Herbert has forgotten all about them. Stuck at the hotel with a large bill that he can't afford, Ian works out a plan to win at roulette; his scheme works, and he earns enough to pay their bill, get them home, and have plenty left over. But his sudden success at the gambling tables makes Ian drunk with power, and Cary discovers that her new husband has turned into a power-hungry tyrant. Strike It Rich was adapted from the novel Loser Takes All by Graham Greene; it has been shown under the novel's title, as well as under the title Money Talks. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A romantic farce that enjoys but never makes fun of its protagonists, this is an entertaining story about the unlikely pairing of a Liverpool factory worker and a Russian sailor. The romantic Teresa (Margi Clarke)works in a chicken factory and looks forward to the men she might meet on the weekends. Her friend Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) is living on state aid and is fairly casual about how she can pick up a little extra cash. One weekend the two women set out for the dancehall with someone else's hard-earned money, lifted by Teresa, and there they meet two Russian sailors, Peter (Peter Firth) and Sergei (Alfred Molina). For Elaine and Peter, it is love at first sight, and they spend the rest of the night talking and the following day wandering around Liverpool, hand in hand. When the dreaded parting of the ways comes at last, Elaine is furious that a small thing like politics has to keep them apart -- so she writes a letter to Brezhnev, with surprising results. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi