Leon Griffiths Movies
The Masterpiece Theater production of Derek Robinson's Piece of Cake tells the tale of the RAF Hornet Squadron during the early days of the second world war. The film traces the love lives of as well the class differences between the soldiers and follows how a new leader takes the young men to battle in France. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Burlinson
- 1977
This Michael Apted-directed crime melodrama features Stacy Keach as Jim Naboth, a Scotland Yard cop on the skids, suffering from depression and alcoholism. He is summoned by Foreman (Edward Fox), a British security expert whose wife Jill (Carol White) and daughter are being held hostages by kidnappers until Foreman pays the crooks a million-dollar-plus ransom. Jim has to marshal his forces and regain his clarity to save Foreman's family. The pressure is even more intense for Jim, since Foreman's wife, Jill also happens to be his former spouse. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stacy Keach, Freddie Starr, (more)
The Grissom Gang is a remake of the notorious 1949 British melodrama No Orchids for Miss Blandish. Kim Darby plays a 1920s-era debutante who is kidnapped and held for ransom. Her captors are the Grissoms, a family comprised of sadists and morons, and headed by Ma Barker clone Irene Dailey. One of the Grissoms, played by Scott Wilson, takes a liking to his prisoner, which results in a bloody breakdown of the family unit. Both The Grissom Gang and the original No Orchids for Miss Blandish were inspired by the best-seller by James Hadley Chase, though neither film retains Chase's original ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Darby, Scott Wilson, (more)
- 1965
Though he is most fondly remembered by American moviegoers for his supporting-stooge work in the films of director Richard Lester, plump comic actor Roy Kinnear was even more popular in his native Britain by virtue of his many television appearances. Among Kinnear's regular-series assignments was the spoofish sitcom A Slight Case Of.... In this one, the actor was cast as seedy, disreputable private eye H.A. Wormsley, who solved the case at hand in each episode in spite of his ineptitude. The six half-hour installments of A Slight Case Of... were telecast by BBC2 from September 8 to October 10, 1965. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In this romantic adventure set in Italy around 1815, a courageous soldier endeavors to find a hidden treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. He then escorts the daughter of a murdered explorer on a quest to find the map they need to locate the loot. The daughter doesn't trust the soldier, but after he kills a few of their foes, she changes her mind. Finally, after many adventures, they find the valuable chest, but upon opening it, they find it to be filled with nothing but chains and ropes as the real treasure was aboard a different ship. Somehow the two seekers are not too disappointed as along the way, they have fallen in love. The film is also titled Treasure of Monte Cristo. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rory Calhoun, Patricia Bredin, (more)
- 1961
Although released in the United States as a 63-minute black-and-white film, this 93-minute British swashbuckler from the producer/directors of Jack the Ripper is actually a lush color spectacle which looks like one of the Hammer Films adventures of the time, even though it was produced by New World. The similarities are not only cosmetic, however, as the film was co-written by Hammer stalwart Jimmy Sangster and co-stars studio regulars Peter Cushing, Miles Malleson, the dwarf Skip Martin, and Adrienne Corri (the future Clockwork Orange starlet who has a discreet nude scene here with German actress Kai Fischer). The ridiculous story concerns Jason, the young son of the notoriously decadent pervert Lord Netherton (Andrew Faulds), leader of London's infamous sex den, the Hellfire Club. Jason's mother (Jean Lodge) flees with the child after he is viciously whipped for walking in on one of his father's orgies. Many years later, his parents have died and Jason (Keith Michell) has become a Dutch circus acrobat, but decides to return to England to claim the ancestral mansion which is rightfully his. Posing as a coachman to his evil, perverse cousin Thomas (Peter Arne), whose oversight of the Hellfire Club has lifted its kinky membership into being the de facto power behind King George II's rule, Jason tries to defeat the club, gain back his inheritance, and rescue his childhood love (Fischer), whom Thomas kidnaps. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Mania is the venerable Burke and Hare story, previously cinematized by producer Val Lewton as The Body Snatcher. Peter Cushing plays a respectable 19th-century Edinburgh doctor who needs fresh cadavers in order to continue his crucial research. Since the exhuming of bodies for medical purposes is illegal, Lee must rely upon grave-robbers George Rose and Donald Pleasance for his corpse supply. What Lee doesn't know is that Rose and Pleasance frequently cut out the middleman by "creating" their own corpses. The good doctor catches on when the latest cadaver turns out to be his own fiancee. Its excessively violent climax has prevented Mania from being shown completely intact on commercial television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Cushing, June Laverick, (more)
