Michael Coles Movies

In this mystery a journalist is contacted by an enigmatic woman claiming that she is being blackmailed by a respected politician. Soon the reporter finds himself up to his neck in mystery and danger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

British glam rock superstars Slade made their collective acting debut in this downbeat drama about a pop group's struggles with success. In the late '60s, Barry (Dave Hill), Paul (Jim Lea), and Charlie (Don Powell) are musicians who are barely making a living playing pub dates, weddings, and socials backing up egocentric vocalist Jack Daniels (Alan Lake). One night, the boys find themselves opening for a ghoulish show band called The Undertakers, and a prank played on their lead vocalist, Stoker (Noddy Holder), backfires and leads to a car chase which lands both groups in jail for the night. After a long night of thinking, Barry, Paul, and Charlie decide that they have no future with Daniels, and bring new pal Stoker aboard as their singer. Calling themselves Iron Rod, the new quartet clicks musically, but manager Ron Harding (Johnny Shannon) doesn't care for their new style and stops booking the group. Robert Seymour (Tom Conti), a marketing man from a wealthy family who thinks there's quick money in pop music, enters the picture and informs the band that he can make them major stars. Wary of Seymour but eager for success, the group signs a new management deal, and after Seymour changes their name to Flame and gives them an image makeover, the band scores a hit record and is soon playing a series of sold-out shows. But as fame beckons, tensions rise between the musicians and is not at all helped when Harding reenters the picture. Slade members Jim Lea and Noddy Holder wrote a set of original songs for the film, two of which ("Far Far Away" and "How Does It Feel") became hit singles in the U.K. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Hammer Studios attempted to inject new blood into their Dracula series by setting their next installment in ultra-mod '70s London, where the Count is revived after 100 years by a gang of devil-worshipping swingers led by the not-so-cleverly-named Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame), and later joined by Jessica (Stephanie Beacham), granddaughter of the legendary vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing, returning to the role after more than a decade). After the group manages to resurrect the Count, he sets about the task of destroying the house of Van Helsing once and forever, leading to a battle in a de-sanctified cathedral. Despite some well-staged scenes, a thrilling prologue (involving a tense battle between Lee and Cushing aboard a runaway coach) and the presence of the stunning Caroline Munro, this is definitely one of the weaker entries in the series, and the script gives Lee very little to do with the hissing, red-eyed villain. Lee may have been bored with reprising the role altogether, as he would only return for one more sequel, The Satanic Rites of Dracula. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Also titled A Touch of Love, this British drama concerns a woman who decides to keep and raise a baby born out of wedlock. Sandy Dennis stars as Rosamund Stacey, a graduate student who has an affair with a television broadcaster, George (Ian McKellen). When she learns that she is pregnant, her friends advise her to have an abortion, but after some confusion she decides to have the child. She doesn't tell George about it, and they drift apart. Her child is born, but the little girl has a heart condition and must undergo delicate surgery. Her life is saved, and Rosamund returns to school to complete her doctoral degree. Her daughter is a year old when Rosamund meets George again and invites him to her home. The story was written by Margaret Drabble from her own novel The Millstone. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Dr. Who was/is the longest-running entertainment series ever to run on the BBC, and for a variety of reasons, including its sassy humor, delightfully idiotic sets and special effects, and some first-class star-turns by a series of usually underrated actors in the title role, it generated a fanatic and devoted following in the U.K. One of the earliest "Doctors" in the movies was the great horror favorite Peter Cushing, and in this movie he saves the universe and, not incidentally, our dear old earth, from domination by the mostly robot and decidedly anti-biological Daleks (predecessors of the Borg, no doubt), a group of endearingly awfully designed (and made) A-frame shaped robots which, when massed together, appear to be engaged in a bumper-car race. No matter, the story races along at a furious and improbable pace, punctuated by wisecracks and gags, most of them from the almost-wise Doctor himself as he races about in his infinitely large (on the inside) antique London telephone booth known as "the Tardis" (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), protecting the innocent. Fans of the series will be delighted with the film, but as is so often the case, newcomers to the series will wonder what all the fuss is about. The cumulative cheesiness of the whole Dr. Who concept does take quite a bit of getting used to, and any attempt to take the series or this movie seriously is doomed to failure. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A surgeon seeks his revenge on his unfaithful wife's lover by convincing him that he must have a deadly heart operation. ~ All Movie Guide

Damn the Defiant! is an 18th-century seafaring drama from director Lewis Gilbert. Alec Guinness plays the stern but compassionate captain of a British warship, engaged in the Napoleonic wars. Guinness is popular with his men, which is more than can be said for his new second-in-command Dirk Bogarde. When Guinness tries to modify Bogarde's sadistic adherence to discipline, Bogarde responds by mistreating Guinness' cabin-boy son, knowing that the captain cannot intervene under the edicts of British maritime law. During an incipient mutiny, Bogarde is accidently killed, and Guinness knows that the crewmen responsible must hang once they reach shore. But after these same men perform courageously in battle, Guinness suffers a crisis of conscience: How can he condemn these fearlessly patriotic men to death, as he knows he must? Based on the novel Mutiny by Frank Tilsley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide