David Deutsch Movies

William Masters (Gabriel Byrne), an aloof and analytical young man studying the life of Sir Isaac Newton, takes up residence in a cottage on a family estate and then becomes involved with the family's own troubles. Masters is secretly enamored of the lady of the house who is burdened with an alcoholic husband, but he has an affair with her niece. This is a prescription for disaster, especially given the young man's tendency to strait-jacket his feelings. Director Kevin Billington has also used an aloof and analytical approach to the story, as a reflection of Masters' own perspective -- yet that treatment does not effectively bring out the psychological turmoil that underlies the restrained behavior of the protagonists -- and distances the audience as well. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The plight of an English couple struggling to raise a disabled child is given a darkly humorous treatment in this English comedy. Based on the successful stage play by Peter Nichols, the film centers on the parents of Jo, nicknamed "Joe Egg," a mentally challenged invalid subject to violent seizures. The couple (played by Alan Bates and Janet Suzman) attempts to maintain a stoic and occasionally cheerful facade in the face of their daughter's condition, but they find themselves unable to cope with the strain. Faced with the imminent collapse of their marriage, they eventually agree that euthanasia may be the answer to their troubles. Some viewers may consider the subject matter inappropriate for comedy, but the film mines its uneasy laughter not from the child's plight but from the eccentricities of the parents' reactions. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Stefan Zelter (Oskar Werner) is a classical orchestra conductor who is sued for libel after statements made in a newspaper interview. He finds himself blacklisted and out of work and leaves his wife Antonia (Virginia Maskell) to be with the reporter Sally (Barbara Ferris). His wife nobly tells him he must never give up his music even though the two may never reconcile. This dramatic, romantic tearjerker has music by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff performed by the British Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Comedian John Cleese has a straight role as a television publicist and Donald Sutherland plays the role of a mutual friend whose marriage is on the rocks. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of Kind Hearts and Coronets (49), Nothing But the Best is a sparkling British "comedy of murders." Alan Bates stars as a lowly real estate clerk who wants to crash the British upper class. To that end, Bates hires down-and-out gentleman Denholm Elliott to "train" him for the noblesse. The clerk is a fast learner, and is soon wooing the daughter (Millicent Martin) of his blueblood boss. Just as he's on the brink of becoming one of the "better people," his mentor Elliot disdainfully threatens to reveal the truth about Bates. With nary a moment's hesitation, Bates strangles Elliot with his own school tie, and hides the body in Elliot's own school trunk. From this point forward, Bates moves onward and upward, and since the high-class folks in this film are shown to be shallow phonies, the audience is half rooting for Bates to get away with his little murder. The film ends just as Bates' old lodgings are about to be demolished--leaving Our Hero waiting in wry, bemused anticipation for that incriminating trunk to be uncovered. Frederick Raphael based his screenplay for Nothing But the Best on Stanley Elkins' black-humor masterpiece The Best of Everything. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Award-winning director Joseph Losey guides this suspenseful mystery through its paces, beginning with an apparently guilty Dutch artist, Jan Van Rooyen (Hardy Kruger), caught in an upscale cottage where a woman lies murdered. Hard-nosed, irritable Inspector Morgan (Stanley Baker) is certain Van Rooyen is guilty and begins to grill him about his story. The artist finally admits that he and the dead woman, Jacqueline Cousteau (Micheline Presle), had met by accident and eventually began a love affair. She was married, so they kept their liaison a secret. Inspector Morgan then informs him that the woman was single but involved with a high-level diplomat. So what is going on? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide