Joan Collins Movies
British actress Joan Collins, daughter of a London theatrical booking agent, made her showbiz bow in a production of The Doll's House -- in a male role. She was 9 years old then, and it would be the last time there would be any doubt as to her gender. With the sort of glamorous countenance that prompted people to ask "why aren't you in movies?", Collins first appeared before the cameras in a small role as a beauty contestant in Lady Godiva Rides Again (1953). She made an auspicious American debut as an Egyptian temptress in Land of the Pharoahs (1955). This assignment led to a contract with 20th Century-Fox, where despite a few good dramatic parts (Girl on the Red Velvet Swing [1955] in particular) and an adroit comic characterization in Rally Round the Flag, Boys (1958), she was written off by critics as decorative but nothing more. She was perilously close to "perennial starlet" status in the 1960s, and by the 1970s was the uncrowned queen of "B" pictures. Offscreen she cut quite a swath through the tabloid headlines; if her autobiography, Past Imperfect is to be believed, she dallied with virtually every male actor in Hollywood except Wile E. Coyote. Her maturation from mere personality to superstar came about when she was cast in 1981 as glamorous and predatory Alexis Carrington on Dynasty. Despite professional and personal setbacks, Collins has managed to survive in an industry that swallows up lesser starlets on an average of ten per hour. Nor is Joan the only Collins with talent and charisma; her sister Jackie Collins is a highly successful romance novelist, whose books The Bitch and The Stud were turned into films, both starring sibling Joan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1951
In this drama, a reporter helps prove the innocence of a man wrongfully incarcerated for dealing drugs. The reporter learns of the situation when the convict's vagabond pals, with his influence and support, justice soon prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1951
Despite its lighthearted title, Lady Godiva Rides Again is a fairly potent indictment of the darker side of beauty contests. Waitress Marjorie (Pauline Stroud) enters one competition after another, hoping for fame and fortune. She manages to make the finals of a "Lady Godiva" contest, never suspecting that the outcome has been rigged. By accident, Marjorie wins First Prize, a huge sum of money and a movie contract. Alas, she hasn't the talent to parlay her win into a lasting career, and soon Marjorie is scrounging around for any "girlie show" job she can find. Only when reduced to performing nude in a French cabaret review is Marjorie rescued by her Australian boyfriend Larry Burns (John McCallum), who makes her promise to stop all this nonsense and settle down to domesticity. The well-chosen cast includes Dennis Price as a lascivious movie star and Stanley Holloway and Gladys Henson as the girl's nonplused parents. Featured in smaller roles are such future leading ladies as Kay Kendall, Diana Dors, Dagmar (later Dana) Wynter and, in an uncredited bit, Joan Collins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Price, John McCallum, (more)
- 1952
Inspired by the recent success of The Blue Lamp, I Believe in You is a multiplotted British drama about parole officers. Several short character vignettes pass our way as the film studies the various methods employed by the officers in dealing with their charges. The film settles upon Cecil Parker, a compassionate official who takes special interest in the parolees. Parker tries simultaneously to reform a hardened criminal, and to dissuade a budding juvenile delinquent from a life of perdition. The semi-documentary approach established early in I Believe in You gives way to sentiment as the film winds down. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cecil Parker, Celia Johnson, (more)
- 1953
This drama chronicles the nasty exploits of a young London punk and his thuggish gang as they mug passersby and seduce innocent young girls. Their story is used to comment upon the state of London society and is based on Bruce Walker's play. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1953
Sadie (Joan Collins) is marooned on a desert island. Stranded along with Sadie are three men; no, not Gilligan, the Skipper and the Professor, but instead Kenneth More, George Cole and Robertson Hare. The two least likely suitors (Cole and Hare) actively pursue Sadie, while the one she's truly interested in (More) ignores her. When the foursome is rescued, Sadie gets to marry the man of her dreams--only to be shipwrecked again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, George Cole, (more)
- 1953
The British Cosh Boy was unsubtly but appropriately retitled The Slasher in the U.S. James Kenney plays Roy Walsh, one of the most thoroughly unpleasant characters ever to appear on screen. When he's not busy beating and robbing the aged and infirm, Roy enjoys slapping around his lady friends. And then one day, he goes too far. Based on a stage play by Bruce Walker, in which James Kenney also starred, Cosh Boy makes few concessions to taste and propriety; as a result, it was in for quite a going over when released stateside. Among the women abused by the "hero" in the course of the film is Joan Collins in one of her first important roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Kenney, Joan Collins, (more)
- 1953
Director Hugo Fregonese and writer George Oppenheimer do the unthinkable: they manage to transform Giovanni Boccaccio's bawdy -- and downright raunchy -- medieval tales of martial discontent and infidelity into harmless white-bread treacle. Louis Jourdan plays Boccaccio in a framing story set in a villa in the Florentine hills. With a widowed woman and her sex-starved female wards hungrily hunched over listening to his every word, Boccaccio spins three tales of illicit romance involving a trio of medieval husbands and wives. All three tales feature Jourdan as the romantic male lead and Joan Fontaine -- spruced up in a collection of bright costumes -- as the misunderstood and mistreated women of the tales. The first story concerns the bored housewife, of a middle-aged husband, who willingly jumps into the arms of a roustabout. The second tale tells the story of a husband who is highly suspicious of his wife's fidelity and the wife's circumspect way of proving her virtue to her husband. The third story is an ineffectual lark about a wife who fools her indifferent husband into demonstrating his proper marital role. Boccaccio had to wait for Pier Pasolini in order to get the spirit of his Decameron right. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, (more)
- 1953
The contentious world of prizefighting provides the setting of this episodic drama that chronicles the lives of five different fighters. Each of the fighters explains their reasons for becoming professional pugilists. One of the fighters, Kid Curtis, ends up dead after a particularly brutal beating. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Warner, Robert Beatty, (more)
- 1953
Based on a novel by John Brophy, Turn the Key Softly takes place within a single day. The film follows the exploits of three newly released female convicts. Monica (Yvonne Mitchell) is full of hatred for the man who led her into a life of crime. Stella (Joan Collins) is an impulsive streetwalker who is determined not to return to her old lifestyle. And Mrs. Quillam (Kathleen Harrison), an elderly shoplifter, misses out on her chance to start anew in a most ironic fashion. Slightly hoked up with a rooftop chase, Turn the Key Softly is an otherwise straightforward psychological drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne Mitchell, Terence Morgan, (more)
- 1954
The Good Die Young is a psychological crime yarn, exploring the motivations of four participants in an armed robbery. American ex-GI Joe (Richard Basehart) hopes to use his share of the haul to bring his British wife to the US. Professional boxer Mike (Stanley Baker) finds himself unable to work in his chosen profession when his hand is broken, while his life savings are stolen by his disreputable brother-in-law. American airman Eddie (John Ireland) has deserted upon discovering that his wife (Gloria Grahame) is unfaithful. And shabby aristocrat Rave (Laurence Harvey) needs to pay off his wife's gambling debts. In other words, all four amateur criminals would have been better off staying single, which may or may not be the subliminal message of The Good Die Young. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, (more)
Having previously portrayed England's Queen Elizabeth I in 1939's The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Bette Davis reprises the role in the Technicolor-and-Cinescope costumer The Virgin Queen. Harry Brown and Mindret Lord's screenplay proposes that Elizabeth's relationship with adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh (Richard Todd) was somewhat more than cordial. Raleigh is depicted as a charming opportunist, who deliberate leads the Queen on in order to further his chances of heading an expedition to the New World. Complications ensue when Sir Walter falls in love with lady-in-waiting Beth Throgmorton (Joan Collins). Not to be believed for a single moment, The Virgin Queen works well on a swashbuckler level, with Davis outacting everyone in sight-even such veteran scene-stealers as Herbert Marshall, Dan O'Herlihy, and Jay "Caligula" Robinson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, Richard Todd, (more)
- 1955
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Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, the real-life personality so brilliantly (albeit briefly) portrayed by Elizabeth McGovern in Ragtime (1981), is given the full biopic treatment in 20th Century Fox's The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. Since the real Mrs. Thaw served as technical advisor for the film, it isn't surprising that the controversial Evelyn comes across as being more sinned against that sinning. Joan Collins stars as Evelyn, the gorgeous chorine and original "Gibson Girl" who becomes the romantic bone of contention between ageing architect Stanford White (Ray Milland) and slightly unbalanced young millionaire Harry K. Thaw. Setting up Evelyn in a plush apartment, the lecherous White insists that she "perform" for him on the red velvet swing of the title (allegedly, Evelyn swung naked above the slavering White, though she's fully clothed in the film). Eventually, Thaw marries Evelyn, but cannot prevent White from continuing his romantic overtures. Things come to a head in 1906, on the roof of Madison Square Garden. As Evelyn sings and dances in a stage musical, the insanely jealous Thaw walks up to White, pulls out a pistol, and, in full view of the audience, pumps several bullets into the older man. Though Thaw manages to avoid the gallows by pleading insanity (he was eventually released), Evelyn's reputation is permanently besmirched, leaving her little choice but to capitalize upon her notoriety on the vaudeville stage (actually, Evelyn pursued a moderately successful film career before losing all her money to bad investments in the 1920s). By purifying the character of Evelyn Nesbit and thoroughly vilifying Stanford White, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing is hardly 100 percent accurate; still, the film is immensely entertaining, thanks to the enthusiastic performances of the three stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, Joan Collins, (more)
"Nobody knew how a Pharaoh talked!" That's how producer/director Howard Hawks explained some of the sillier dialogue exchanges in the William Faulkner-Harry Kurnitz-Harold Jack Bloom script for Hawks' Land of the Pharaohs. Extravagantly produced with a cast of seeming millions (actually there were some 10,000 extras), the film speculates on the circumstances surrounding the construction of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Jack Hawkins plays the Pharaoh, who orders enslaved architect James Robertson Justice to build a magnificent, thief-proof tomb for him. At first, the people of Egypt willingly pitch in to construct the huge pyramid. But as the years roll by and the work shows no signs of abating, the Pharaoh begins relying upon forced labor from lands he has conquered. He also plunders the coffers of his neighboring countries. Cyprus can't pony up the necessary gold, so the country sends luscious Joan Collins (complete with a jewel in her navel) as a "present" for the Pharaoh. Fascinated by the spitfire Collins, the Pharaoh makes her his second wife. What he doesn't know is that Collins is just as much a predator as she would be in the TV series Dynasty. Hoping to gain all of the Pharaoh's kingdom and the riches therein, she stage-manages her husband's death. After the funeral procession, the Pharaoh is sealed in his tomb by a series of sand-operated weights, levers and pulleys (this speculation as to how the Pyramids were closed is the most fascinating part of the film). Collins watches in barely controlled glee; she isn't yet privy to the Egyptian custom of entombing the Pharaoh's widow alive, along with her husband's body--but she soon will be. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins, (more)
- 1956
The Opposite Sex is an opulent musical remake of Clare Booth Luce's The Women (1939). June Allyson stars in the old Norma Shearer role, playing the virtuous wife who loses her husband to scheming Joan Collins (as the Joan Crawford character). At first agreeing to a divorce, June decides to win hubby back by utilizing the same crafty feminine wiles that Joan had employed to lead him astray. Doloress Gray plays the counterpart to Rosalind Russell's vitriolic gossip. The original The Women boasted an all-female cast: the remake includes several male characters, played by the likes of MGM contractees Leslie Nielsen and Jeff Richards. Dick Shawn, Jim Backus and Harry James are also on hand, billed as "special guest stars." The satirical bite of The Women has been softened in The Opposite Sex, but musical fans should have a good time. Sammy Cahn, Nicholas Brodszky, Ralph Freed and George Stoll were among the songwriters; Collins, Allyson and Jeff Richards perform musical numbers in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- June Allyson, Joan Collins, (more)
- 1957
John Steineck's novel The Wayward Bus was retranslated into pop-entertainment terms for the screen. Most of the story takes place on the charter bus owned by driver Rick Jason. Travelling slowly through a treacherous California mountain region, the passengers -- including Jason's spiteful, alcoholic wife Joan Collins-- undergo a variety of life-altering experiences. The journey has its most profound effects upon an iconoclastic travelling salesman (Dan Dailey) and lonely stripper (Jayne Mansfield). This is one instance in which the oblong CinemaScope lens is inappropriate to the intimacy of the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, Jayne Mansfield, (more)
Political intrigue and romantic gamesmanship send an already torrid Caribbean community to the boiling point in this drama. Maxwell Fleury (James Mason) and David Boyeur (Harry Belafonte) are two men running for political office in a British-controlled island in the West Indies. Maxwell is the son of a wealthy and socially prominent white family, while David is a black labor leader with a groundswell of popular support but little money. A scandal erupts in the press alleging that Maxwell is of mixed racial ancestry, but Maxwell is actually pleased about the news, thinking that it may endear him to black voters. Maxwell is not pleased, however, when he hears that his wife Sylvia (Patricia Owens) has been having an affair with the urbane but rootless Carson (Michael Rennie), taking the matter seriously enough to murder Carson himself. Maxwell's younger sister Jocelyn (Joan Collins) is also in hot water, romantically speaking; she has set her sights on Eun Templeton (Stephen Boyd), the son of the Island's governor, and she hopes to snare him into marriage by allowing him to get her pregnant. Elsewhere on the island, David is secretly having an affair with a white woman, Mavis Norman (Joan Fontaine), while David's former girlfriend, Margot Seaton (Dorothy Dandridge), has become involved with a white man, Denis Archer (John Justin). Based on the novel by Alex Waugh, Island in the Sun also features songs from Harry Belafonte, including "Lead Man Holler" and the title tune. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mason, Joan Fontaine, (more)
- 1957
Novelist John P. Marquand's soft-spoken Japanese detective Mr. Moto was brought to the screen in an entertaining 1930s B-picture series by 20th Century-Fox. But when the same studio purchased Marquand's novel Stopover Tokyo in 1957, Mr. Moto was totally excised from the screenplay. The film's main character is an American intelligence agent, played by Robert Wagner. Assigned to protect the US ambassador to Japan (Larry Keating) from assassination, Wagner is stymied by the ambassador's refusal to cooperate. This makes it all the easier for communist spy Edmond O'Brien to set a time bomb in the embassy. Wagner races against time to neutralize the bomb, and in so doing loses the love of Joan Collins, who wants no part of the espionage racket. Stopover Tokyo was a rare excursion into directing by Oscar-winning screenwriter Richard L. Breen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Wagner, Joan Collins, (more)
In this melodramatic adventure set after the British evacuated Singapore in 1942, a ship is torpedoed and only four people survive. They are a nun, an RAF officer, a godless bigoted business magnate, and a black purser. The four drift for days before getting themselves washed up on a small desert island. Before they reach the shore, a shark consumes the purser. The other three safely land and struggle to survive. Time passes and the RAF officer falls in love with the nun, who never tells him that she is one. Later they are rescued, and the officer begins looking for her in vain. At one point he passes her dressed in her habit on a London street, but he doesn't recognize her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, Richard Burton, (more)
Brooding Gregory Peck arrives in a small western town to witness the hanging of the men whom he holds responsible for the murder of his wife (they've been arrested for an unrelated crime). Through the help of a duplicitous executioner, the gang escapes--taking Kathleen Gallant as hostage. The vengeful Peck hunts the fugitives down and kills them in cold blood. He is forced to ask himself if he's any better than the criminals when he discovers that the fugitives, though justly convicted of murder, had nothing to do with his wife's death. The Bravados is as grim and compelling as the earlier Henry King/Gregory Peck western The Gunfighter. And yes, that's "Curly" Joe DeRita, of Three Stooges fame, in the role of the menacing hangman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Joan Collins, (more)
Director Leo McCarey was clearly past his prime when he made this screen version of Max Shulman's comic novel Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys; still, the film was a success, no small thanks to the star power of real-life husband and wife Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. The scene is Putnam's Landing, Connecticut, where commuter Harry Bannerman (Paul Newman) is driven crazy by his wife Grace's (Joanne Woodward) insistence upon joining every civic committee known to man. When the government chooses Putnam's Landing as the location for their new missile base, Grace immediately joins a committee to halt this project-which causes no end of trouble for Air Force reservist Harry, who is expected to be the government's liason man for the new base. Adding to the dilemma is local vamp Angela Hoffa (Joan Collins), whose efforts to get her lunchhooks into Harry lead to a dizzying series of recriminations and misunderstandings. Satirical barbs are aimed at military stupidity (as personified by thick-eared Captain Hoxie, played by Jack Carson), small-town hypocrisy, and the teenaged "beat" craze. Among the supporting players are Dwayne Hickman and Tuesday Weld, cast respectively as Marlon Brando wannabe Grady Metcalf and nubile high-schooler Comfort Goodpasture (!); within a year of this film, Hickman and Weld would be reunited on the TV series Dobie Gillis, likewise based on a Max Shulman novel. Also appearing are reliable comedy foil Gale Gordon and an uncredited Murvyn Vye as Angela Hoffa's neglectful husband. Considered fairly racy in 1958, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys seems slightly childish and draggy today; one wonders how it would have fared had Leo McCarey been at the height of his powers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, (more)
Discredited professor Edward G. Robinson organizes a seven-person criminal gang. Robinson plans to steal a fortune from the underground vaults of the Monte Carlo casino. Despite a few tense moments, the plot moves like clockwork. Alas, Robinson isn't around long enough to enjoy the fruits of his labors. As for the other criminals, they find that fencing their stolen booty is next to impossible. All they come away with is $3000--won legitimately at the gaming tables. Those not interested in the male contingent of Seven Thieves (Robinson, Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach et. al.) are advised to feast their eyes upon leading-lady Joan Collins, in her considerable prime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger, (more)
Just over a decade before she would gain fame and some fortune as Alexis Carrington in television's Dynasty series, Joan Collins starred as Esther in this melodramatic, routine Biblical story. The setting is Persia in the 4th century BC, as Esther comes to the attention of the recently widowed King Ahasuerus. The king has been trying to stifle and defeat the campaign of hatred fomented against the Jews by his evil minister Haman (Sergio Fantoni). Before the King can pair off with Esther and defeat the villainous Haman, there are several intervening adventures and an additional, attractive woman who competes for attention. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, Richard Egan, (more)
This was the last trip in the "road" comedies that Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and a bevy of female stars that featured Dorothy Lamour once made famous. In this road to Hong Kong and parts far beyond, Chester and Harry (Hope and Crosby) are a couple of failed vaudeville stars looking for a way to riches in the confidence game. Chester's memory goes kaputz, and the two end up involved with Diane (Joan Collins), a spy looking for a secret formula, and a bunch of hoodlums who plan on sending up a rocket to the moon with special equipment allowing them to rule the planet earth. The pair of heroes gets caught in the rocket instead of the originally intended monkeys, and the monkey business continues in outer space -- where it seems to be all along. In this mixed collage of events, several stars pop up in cameo roles: Peter Sellers, Dean Martin, David Niven, Frank Sinatra among them. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
- 1964
In this caper comedy designed for international distribution, Jane (Joan Collins) and Don Giuliano (Vittorio Gassman) are part of a group of currency smugglers who are trying to get their gang's money over the border into Swiss banks. They are following a plan designed by their crafty mastermind Sandro (Jacques Bergerac), but one thing after another goes wrong. When it does, count on the conceited Don Giuliano to make it worse by trying to maintain his inflated sense of himself while he attempts to woo Jane. As is often the case in (Collins) vehicles, she looks glamorous, but viewers are advised that this feature contains an "overacting alert." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Joan Collins, (more)
