Julian Curry Movies

Jordan Frieda, the son of British pop singer Lulu, plays the title role in this made-for-TV biopic. The film covers three years in the life of the young and handsome Prince of Wales, from the death of his mother Princess Diana in 1997, to his entry into St. Andrew's College in 2000. The young Prince's predilection for irreverence and mischief is duly noted, as is the pathos attending his strained relationship with his father Prince Charles (Martin Turner) and grandmother Queen Elizabeth (Rosemary Leach), and his inability to maintain any sort of private life (he has only to kiss a girl on date for every photographer on earth to crawl out of the bushes). The bulk of the film chronicles William's efforts to keep his mother's memory alive, and to come to terms with his "second mother", the controversial Camilla Parker Bowles (Carolyn Pickes). Because of its mildly anti-Royal sentiments, as well as a melodramatic subplot intimating that "sinister forces" intended to do William harm, the film garndered a huge amount of attention from both Buckingham Palace (who refused to give official sanction to the production) and the British tabloids. Filmed in Ireland, Prince William made its ABC network debut on September 29, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A scientist finds himself walking a fine line between reason and fantasy in this family-oriented drama. Dr. Jonathan Dempsey (Ted Danson) is an American scientist who has devoted his career to searching out the truth behind contemporary legends and psudeo-scientific phenomena like Bigfoot, which has not gained him much credibility among his peers. Dempsey's superior, Dr. Mercer (Harris Yulin), has a new project that would seem to be right up his alley -- Mercer wants Dempsey to travel to Scotland to prove once and for all that there is no such thing as the Loch Ness Monster. Dempsey takes the assignment and settles into a small hotel near the Loch run by Laura MacFeteridge (Joely Richardson), a single mother with a young daughter, Isabel (Kirsty Graham). Isabel strikes up an immediate friendship with Dempsey while her mother soon takes a more mature interest in the American scientist, but most of the locals don't take kindly to the notion of an outsider flying in to prove that Nessie isn't real, especially the town's self-proclaimed monster expert the Water Bailiff (Ian Holm). What Dempsey does learn about Nessie surprises him a great deal -- and so does his decision about what to do with his findings. Jim Henson's Creature Shop pitched in for the special effects sequences with Nessie. Loch Ness was released theatrically in Europe, but had its American premiere as a network television presentation. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The gorgeous and graceful Lady Frances Carfax has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) suspects foul play, but he has only minimum evidence to go on. With his customary brusqueness and diligence, Holmes pinpoints Lady Frances' whereabouts. We can't give away anything here, though we'll observe that the story is seasoned with a dash of Edgar Allan Poe. Running a compact 50 minutes, "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" was an entry in the British Casebook of Sherlock Holmes teleseries. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The fifth season of the iconoclastic British legal series Rumpole of the Bailey delivers six fresh new episodes, originally telecast over ITV1 from November 23 through December 28, 1988. In the opening episode "Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation" it is a libel case that keeps the irascible barrister Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern) busy, to say nothing of a rather embarrassing rift between his married colleagues Phyllida (Patricia Hodge) and Claude (Julian Curry). In "Rumpole and the Barrow Boy", a supposedly reformed member of the redoubtable Timson criminal family calls upon Rumpole to defend him from charges of insider trading, In "Rumpole and the Age of Miracles", the client is our hero's own nephew, a clergyman. The Timsons again invade Rumpole's sanctitutude in "Rumpole and the Tap End", which also finds Rumpole's domineering wife Hilda (Marion Mathie) seriously considering a return to her own legal career. In "Rumpole and Portia", Rumpole must plead his case before Phyllida, the Old Bailey's newly appointed recorder. The season closes with "Rumpole and the Quality of Life", wherin a case of mercy killing dominates the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Eight years before the dinosaur mania created by Jurassic Park, Bill L. Norton released this more dinosaur-friendly story about a 10-foot baby dinosaur in dire straits in Africa because Dr. Eric Kiviat (Patrick McGoohan), an evil paleontologist, is after it with a vengeance. He is the nemesis of Dr. Susan Matthews-Loomis (Sean Young) -- determined to save the baby from its hunters -- and her husband George Loomis (William Katt), a sportswriter who shares her protective instincts. Kiviat has recruited a revolutionary army to help him capture the baby's mother -- which they manage to do without killing her. The army has already shot down the father dinosaur, and so their own instincts are far from protective. As the husband and wife and baby dinosaur are united at last in their attempts to survive, the next step is to recapture Mom dinosaur and get away from the army and Kiviat, not an easy feat. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Michael Palin wrote and stars in this comedy as The Reverend Charles Fortescue, an unassuming missionary called back to England after spending ten years in Africa teaching children in a native village. Upon arriving in London, he finds that his new assignment is to take charge of a slum mission for prostitutes. He obtains money for the running of the mission from a wealthy woman, Lady Ames (Maggie Smith), whom he meets on the boat sailing to England from Africa. Lady Ames guarantees Fortescue the money on the condition that he take it upon himself to add a little spice to her dormant sex life. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Season Two of the British legal comedy-drama series Rumpole of the Bailey serves up six new episodes, initially telecast by ITV1 from May 29 through July 3, 1979. First on the docket is "Rumpole and the Man of God", in which gloriously irreverent barrister Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern) defends a vicar who though accused of shoplifting refuses to offer any defense for his alleged crime; at the same time, Rumpole's old friend George Frobisher (Moray Watson) pays a heavy price for loving neither wisely nor too well. The second episode, "Rumpole and the Case of Identity" finds the title character in court during the Christmas season, defending a man whose alibi on a murder charge depends upon a most untrustworthy witness. A trip to the North Country results in Rumpole exercising his declamatory skills to save an actress from a murder sentence in "Rumpole and the Showfolk". Then in "Rumpole and the Fascist Beast" the lifelong-liberal barrister works on behalf of a notorious racist politician charged with inciting a deadly riot. "Rumpole and the Course of True Love" concerns not only a schoolteacher charged with seducing an unwilling pupil, but also an embarrassing incident in the past life of Rumpole's lovely colleague Phyllida (Patricia Hodge. And in "Rumpole and the Age for Retirement", Rumpole's son Nick urges his father to hang up his wig and move to Maryland (of all places!) after wrapping up his defense of an accused art thief. As a coda of sorts to Season Two, a special two-hour episode, "Rumpole's Return", in which our hero emerges from retirement to tackle a particularly lurid murder case involving a sinister cult, was telecast on December 30, 1980, and has since been added to the standard Rumpole of the Bailey rerun package. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Three years after the property was introduced as a one-shot on BBC's Play for Today, the seriocomic British legal series Rumpole of the Bailey officially launched its first season of six weekly episodes on April 3, 1978. In the opener "Rumpole and the Younger Generation", iconoclastic barrister Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern) defends a youthful member of the unsavory East End Timson gang when the boy is framed for robbery by a rival gang. Then in "Rumpole and the Alternative Society", the delightfully unkempt lawyer takes time off from visiting a former RAF colleague to plead on behalf of a woman accused of selling marijuana. Next up is "Rumpole and the Honourable Member", wherein his client is a politican charged with raping a party worker, a situation which places Rumpole at odds with his son's fiancé. For "Rumpole and the Married Lady", series creator John Mortimer draws upon his own father's experiences as a divorce lawyer. In "Rumpole and the Learned Friends" Rumpole acts as junior assistant to his bumbling colleague Guthrie Featherstone (Peter Bowles) in defense of a safecracker who may have been set up by a crooked cop. Rounding out the season is "Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade" in which Rumpole again rises to the defense of the disreputable Tilsons to protect a man charged with murder thanks to a preponderance of suspiciously "airtight" evidence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Smashing Time attempts to turn British actresses Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave into a female Laurel and Hardy. The film's second mistake is to prolong the joke for 96 minutes. Tushingham and Redgrave play a couple of dimwitted North Country girls who head to London, in hopes of breaking into the mad, mod world of fashion modeling. Instead they spend most of their screen time getting in each other's way and wreaking havoc on innocent pedestrians. The comic "highlight" of Smashing Time is supposed to be a mammoth pie fight; but outside of one cute throwaway gag involving a street minister, the sequence makes one wish, in the words of Laurel and Hardy buff Leonard Maltin, that Smashing Time "had been handled by someone other than [director] Desmond Davis." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi