John Pennington Movies
In this made-for-television mystery (adapted from a novel by Agatha Christie) a man dying on a beach utters the question "Why didn't they ask Evans?" Amateur detectives Frankie and Bobby subsequently begin digging for an explanation for the enigmatic query, which leads them to an utterly surprising conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square was the original title of this British caper film. David Niven does his suave 'n' blase bit as a criminal mastermind planning a giant bank heist. Richard Jordan co-stars as an American ex-con tapped to oversee the operation. Gloria Grahame, in one of her last roles, masticates the scenery as Jordan's rude-and-crude mom. The Big Scam picked up a third title when it was released to video as The Mayfair Bank Caper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Following his successful foray into swashbuckler comedy with The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, director Richard Lester made what has proved to be one of the few quality films from the disaster craze that dominated filmmaking in the mid-'70s. Juggernaut is the pseudonym of a madman (Freddie Jones) who plants several steel drums aboard a luxury liner and calls the company's officials once the boat has put out to sea, demanding a large sum of money in exchange for instructions on how to defuse bombs inside the drums. Anthony Hopkins plays one of the company officials whose wife and children are aboard the ship, Omar Sharif is the ship's captain, Shirley Knight is a passenger who is also his mistress, and Richard Harris and David Hemmings are two members of the bomb disposal team, which is helicoptered onto the ship to defuse the explosives. As in many of Lester's best works, humor pops up in unexpected places; particularly memorable are Harris as the weary but wisecracking top dog among the explosives experts and Lester regular Roy Kinnear as a bumbling entertainment director desperately trying to distract the apprehensive passengers. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, (more)
