Carol Cleveland Movies

A series of elaborate practical jokes result in humilation for a number of top British and Iron Curtain officials. When one of the jokes turns deadly, Steed and Emma are called upon to investigate. It turns out that the cause of all the trouble is an exclusive organization known as the Hellfire Club, obliging Steed to join up while Emma provides support from the sidelines. Written by Brian Clemens, "A Touch of Brimstone" was originally telecast in England on February 9, 1966. The episode was never shown on American network television, due in great part to the very provocative outfits worn by Emma Peel when she poses as "The Queen of Sin." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles Chaplin wrote, directed, and scored this old-fashioned romantic comedy, which proved to be his last film. Wealthy American diplomat Ogden Mears (Marlon Brando) is sailing from Hong Kong to Hawaii, where he hopes to meet and reconcile with his estranged wife Martha (Tippi Hedren). However, while the ship takes on passengers in Hong Kong, a stowaway slips into Mears' suite. Natascha (Sophia Loren) is a White Russian countess who was forced to flee the country following the revolution and ended up in Hong Kong, where she earns a meager living as a dime-a-dance girl in a sleazy ballroom. When Mears discovers that Natascha is an uninvited guest in his quarters, she begs him to help her emigrate to the United States; when he refuses, Natascha tries a new tack, threatening to tell Martha that they've been sharing a stateroom if he doesn't cooperate. Mears grudgingly allows Natascha to stay with him and keep her secret until he can figure out a clever way to get rid of her. Margaret Rutherford has a showy supporting role as an eccentric passenger, and Chaplin gives himself a silent cameo as a bumbling porter (no fewer than four of his children also appear). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Created in 1969 as the British Broadcasting Corporation's answer to America's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (one of its guiding forces was BBC executive and former Laugh-In writer Barry Took), Monty Python's Flying Circus was both the title of the series and the name of the comedy troupe appearing in the show. (The name was chosen precisely because it didn't mean anything!) The cast -- Cambridge and Oxford graduates all -- included John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. A sixth Python, American-born Terry Gilliam, provided the series' zany, non sequitur animated sequences and occasionally appeared on camera. Most of the female roles were handled by Connie Booth (Cleese's then-wife) and Carol Cleveland. Virtually indescribable to anyone who hasn't seen it, the series (which opened each week to the tune of John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March") was a wild, irreverent collection of open-ended comedy sketches, sometimes tenuously tied in with a single theme. The individual sketches were usually connected only by the sonorous announcement, "And now for something completely different," which also served as the title for the group's first theatrical feature film. Favorite Python targets included dull BBC talk shows and documentaries, idiotic legal restrictions, bean-counting bureaucrats, incomprehensible foreigners, and venerated British traditions. For some curious reason, all of the Pythonites enjoyed dressing up in women's clothing, usually portraying frumpy, strident-voiced suburban housewives. Among the series' more famous bits were "The Pet Shop," "The Lumberjack Song," "The Spanish Inquisition," "Department of Silly Walks," "The World's Deadliest Joke," "Hell's Grannies," "The Annual Twit of the Year Awards," and a lengthy science fiction movie parody in which evil aliens (who looked like French pastries) transformed all British subjects into Scotsmen, the better to win the annual Wimbledon tennis match (a premise which, in context, makes perfect sense). Though the 45-episode series enjoyed an enormous following in England, it didn't arrive in America until 1974, when the package was picked up by PBS (ABC had evinced interest in the property, but insisted upon cutting all the "naughty bits" and arbitrarily inserting commercials). In addition to making stars out of virtually all its cast members, Monty Python's Flying Circus has spawned several comedy record albums, movie spin-offs, and many solo projects like Fawlty Towers. In 1999, the series, long available on videocassette, was picked up for yet another go-round by the Arts and Entertainment cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this espionage film, an American detective becomes part of a British spy organization's attempt to free a Russian expatriate hidden away in England. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

From its opening multi-language titles (that sure looks like Swedish) to the closing arrest of the entire Dark Ages cast by modern-day bobbies, Monty Python and the Holy Grail helped to define "irreverence" and became an instant cult classic. This time the Pythonites savage the legend of King Arthur, juxtaposing some excellently selected exterior locations with an unending stream of anachronistic one-liners, non sequiturs, and slapstick set pieces. The Knights of the Round Table set off in search of the Holy Grail on foot, as their lackeys make clippety-clop sounds with coconut shells. A plague-ridden community, ringing with the cry of "bring out your dead," offers its hale and hearty citizens to the body piles. A wedding of convenience is attacked by Arthur's minions while the pasty-faced groom continually attempts to burst into song. The good guys are nearly thwarted by the dreaded, tree-shaped "Knights Who Say Ni!" A feisty enemy warrior, bloodily shorn of his arms and legs in the thick of battle, threatens to bite off his opponent's kneecap. A French military officer shouts such taunts as "I fart in your general direction" and "I wave my private parts at your aunties." Rabbits are a particular obsession of the writers this time around, ranging from the huge Trojan Rabbit to the "killer bunny" that decapitates one of the knights. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin collaborated on the script and assumed most of the onscreen roles, while Gilliam and Jones served as co-directors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On a midnight clear 2,000 years ago, three wise men enter a manger where a babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes. It is an infant called Brian...and the three wise men are in the wrong manger. For the rest of his life, Brian (Graham Chapman) finds himself regarded as something of a messiah -- yet he's always in the shadow of this other guy from Galilee. Brian is witness to the Sermon of the Mount, but his seat is in such a bad location that he can't hear any of it ("Blessed are the cheesemakers?"). Ultimately, he is brought before Pontius Pilate and sentenced to crucifixion, which takes place at that crowded, nonexclusive execution site a few blocks shy of Calvary. Rather than utter the Last Six Words, Brian leads his fellow crucifixees in a spirited rendition of a British music-hall cheer-up song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." The whole Monty Python gang (Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam) are on hand in multiple roles, playing such sacred characters as Stan Called Loretta, Biggus Dickus, Deadly Dirk, Casts the First Stone, and Intensely Dull Youth; also showing up are Goon Show veteran Spike Milligan and a Liverpool musician named George Harrison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl consists of "concert" footage of the nonsensical British Monty Python troupe. This 77-minute collection of skits and blackouts features stalwart Pythoners Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, together with semi-regulars Carol Cleveland and Neil Inness. The troupe's stream-of-consciousness humor transfers well to the L.A. stage; even the most familiar and time-worn bits -- including a TV quiz show featuring such contestants as Marx, Lenin and Mao -- elicits loud laughter from the enthusiastic audience. Originally lensed on videotape, Live at the Hollywood Bowl was transferred to film for theatrical distribution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Paul Theroux's Doctor Slaughter, Half-Moon Street is motivated by the moneymaking schemes of the heroine, PhD researcher Laura Slaughter (Sigourney Weaver). Stuck in a low-paying government job in London, Laura decides to increase her bank account by working for what is euphemistically termed an "escort service." It is understood that her duties go above and beyond mere handholding, and Laura has no problem with this. Michael Caine enters the scene as Lord Bulbeck, a high-ranking British diplomat with whom Laura forms a "special" bond. Little does she know that she is being set up in a power-grabbing scheme masterminded by oil-rich sheik Karim Hatami (Nadim Sawalha). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide