David Crowley Movies

Noted novelist and sometime film director James Clavell, wrote, directed, and produced this adaptation of J.B. Pick's novel, set during the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648. During the chaotic confrontations and shifting alliances of the war, a hidden valley protected from the outside world becomes an oasis of peace. Vogel (Omar Sharif), a one-time school teacher now on the run, travels into the peaceful valley. Following Vogel a short time later is a rag-tag and exhausted army, led by The Captain (Michael Caine). Utilizing Vogel as a mediator, the Captain arranges a truce with the valley population -- pledging to protect the people of the valley from invasion in return for food and shelter during the cold winter months. At the end of the season, the army leaves to fight another battle, Vogel is asked to depart from the hidden valley, and the valley and its population continues on and endures. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Comparatively little known today, Republic's Laughing Anne was a Late Late Show perennial in the early 1960s. One of several Republic features lensed in England in collaboration with producer Herbert Wilcox, the film stars Margaret Lockwood in the title role. A well-known Parisian cabaret singer, Laughing Anne travels to the South Seas with her ex-prizefighter boyfriend Jem Farrell (Forrest Tucker). Here she falls in love with schooner captain Davidson (Wendell Corey), but she eventually breaks off the relationship, fearing reprisals from the brutish Jem. Years later, fate brings Davidson, Anne and Jem back together, and the results are disastrous for at least two of the three. Laughing Anne was loosely based on a story by Joseph Conrad. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this British crime drama, an honest railroad signalman finds himself sorely tempted when he witnesses a murder and later finds $20,000 floating in the harbor. The trouble begins when he decides to take the money and leave town with his daughter and a gold digger. The killer is in hot pursuit when the railroadman kills him. In the end, the signalman's conscience erupts and he returns the stolen loot. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Australian-born comic actor Vic Oliver was usually at his best on-screen when teamed with an unusually talented leading lady. Oliver's vis-a-vis in the British I'll be Your Sweetheart was film favorite Margaret Lockwood. Set in the early 1900s, the film concerns the trials and tribulations of musical-hall diva Edie Story (Lockwood), whose happy-go-lucky partner is one Sam Kahn (Oliver). Halfway through the film, Kahn is shunted to the background when Edie falls in love with aspiring songwriter Bob Fielding, played by up-and-coming Michael Rennie. The outcome of the plot is predicated on a Parliamentary decision which rescued songwriters from being gypped out of their royalties by unscrupulous "pirate" publishers, which happens more than once in the early reels to the luckless Fielding. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi