Peter Croft Movies

In this drama, set after the war, a WW II flying ace and hero comes to the aid of a hooker who is being harassed by a policeman. He pushes the abusive cop away during the tussle; the cop falls, hits his head, and dies. The former flier is promptly tried and given a three-year prison sentence. He escapes one night during a heavy fog. He is taken in by a caring woman who tries convincing him to surrender. The fugitive at first refuses, but then after seeking sanctuary in a church relents because he does not want the parson to have to lie on his behalf. His surrender is made easier by the knowledge that the woman will wait for him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Future action-film expert Basil Dearden cut his directorial teeth on The Goose Steps Out, a wartime espionage comedy. The star (and co-director) is Will Hay, a major British comedian of the era whose stock in trade was playing pompous, inefficient schoolmasters. This time Hay and his confederates cross the path of a gang of Nazi spies, operating covertly in London. Using his wits (such as they are), Hay collars the Nazis and preserves the Empire. The popularity of Will Hay did not extend to American audiences, who couldn't see anything funny in such a pathetic character, but The Goose Steps Out was a big moneyspinner in Britain. The film also served as the screen debut of 20-year-old Peter Ustinov. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the wake of Abbott & Costello's Buck Privates, every studio in Hollywood began cranking out service comedies. Warner Bros.' contribution to this trend was You're in the Army Now, featuring the unlikely but undeniably chucklesome duo of Jimmy Durante and Phil Silvers. The stars are cast as Jeeper and Breezy, erstwhile vacuum-cleaner salesman who stage a demonstration at a local army camp, only to end up in uniform themselves. Thanks to their ineptitude and chronic inability to follow orders, our heroes spend most of their training period in the guardhouse. They try to atone for past misdeeds during maneuvers, only to end up trapped in a remote cabin which teeters perilously on a mountain ledge (the whole routine was borrowed-actually, stolen-from Chaplin's The Gold Rush). Not teamed in the traditional sense, Durante and Silvers are permitted to perform their solo specialties, with both comedians coming out fairly even in terms of laugh delivery. As a bonus, this is the film in which nominal romantic leads Regis Toomey and Jane Wyman performed the longest screen kiss in movie history (Leonard Maltin clocked it at three minutes, five seconds)-a feat that reportedly led Wyman's then-husband Ronald Reagan to wonder aloud why he couldn't keep his wife's interest that long! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Yank at Oxford was filmed in England at MGM's "sister studio", Elstree. Robert Taylor plays Lee Sheridan, an arrogant young American scholar/athlete who intends to show the "Brits" a thing or two while attending Oxford University. His abrasive attitude grates against the Oxonian students, who retaliate by subjecting Sheridan to a rather humiliating hazing. Romance enters the picture in the form of Molly Beaumont (Maureen O'Sullivan), the sister of Sheridan's chief academic rival Paul Beaumont (Griffith Jones). When Paul faces disgrace over a breach of student ethics, Sheridan nobly shoulders the blame, simultaneously endangering his own future at Oxford and proving that he's really a "right guy" underneath. All is forgiven during the annual rowing competition against Cambridge, with Sheridan coming through in jolly good fashion. Cast as campus vamp Elsa Craddock is the stunningly beautiful Vivien Leigh, still two years away from Gone With the Wind. A Yank at Oxford was remade in 1984 as Oxford Blues, and mercilessly lampooned by Laurel & Hardy in 1940's A Chump at Oxford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Winding up his Hollywood film career in 1935, venerable British stage star George Arliss returned to his homeland for his last movie assignments. In East Meets West, the 68-year-old Arliss dons turban and monocle to portray an Eastern sultan who is inordinately proud of his son. The young man bids fair to break his father's heart by conducting an affair with the wife of a notorious criminal. Arliss exercises his usual third-act prerogative of tying up all loose plot ends and providing confusion unto his enemies. East Meets West was based on an old George Arliss stage vehicle, Edwin Greenwood's The Lake of Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This lush historical drama chronicles the brief reign of the late Henry VIII's successor, Lady Jane Grey. After only nine days on the throne, she was beheaded at the behest of the treacherous Mary Tudor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide