Amy Dalby Movies

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, All Movie Guide

When the Soviet Prime Minister accepts a beautiful English bulldog as a gift from the British government, he has no idea that the dog has a highly sensitive bug in its stomach. This lively British espionage farce follows what happens after the dog becomes sick. It's a sticky situation, for if a Russian vet examines the creature, he will surely find the device. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

At the beginning of The Secret of My Success, dimwitted Arthur Tate (James Booth) is a local village bobby who always follows his mother's advice to "help other people, and never look for the evil in them" -- perhaps not the best advice for an officer of the law. Tate soon finds himself investigating a murder case involving the husband of a local dressmaker Stella Stevens. She uses her wiles to trick Tate into unwittingly disposing of the body -- but Tate's mother uses her own wiles to discover a connection between the dressmaker and the local magistrate. With this knowledge, she secures a promotion for her inept son. Tate next becomes involved with a baroness Honor Blackman who it turns out is breeding vicious, gigantic spiders. Tate's mother once again intercedes behind the scenes, and soon her son finds himself working for the President of a Latin American country -- and also involved with a revolutionary Shirley Jones, who is plotting to overthrow the President. Tate's mother again secretly comes to her son's aid, and as the film end, Tate has become the country's new ruler. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

One of the most highly regarded haunted house films ever produced, Robert Wise's The Haunting (based on Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House) weaves the dark tale of a questionably sane young woman and a sinister house which holds a terrifying past. Invited to join anthropologist Dr. Markway (Richard Johnson), ESP expert Theodora (Claire Bloom), and probable heir to the estate Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) in order to dispel the near mythical tales that surround the house, unstable Eleanor Vance (Julie Harris) agrees to spend a few nights in the house following the death of her mother. As they slowly begin to discover, the horrific and seemingly unbelievable tales may hold more truth than the skeptical guests might have previously expected. With a seemingly unstoppable supernatural force lurking in every shadow, the probability of anyone escaping the evil clutch of the cursed mansion seems increasingly remote. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This hastily assembled sequel to the popular British service farce Up the Creek finds David Tomlinson returning in the role of Lt. Fairweather, skipper of the not-so-good ship Aristotle. This time, however, Fairweather's enterprisingly larcenous bos'un is played not by Peter Sellers but by music-hall favorite Frankie Howerd. The plot finds the Aristotle being sold to a mythical middle-eastern country. Assigned to deliver the vessel to its new owners, Fairweather discovers that his faithful bos'un has once again sold tickets to passengers, in direct violation of regulations. The resulting comic complications are as predictable as they are hilarious. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this detective drama, an investigator from an insurance company is hired to look into the mysterious murder of a wealthy client's mistress. Meanwhile, the deceased's wife hires a gumshoe too. The trouble begins when the insurance detective begins suspecting the wife and her detective of being behind the killings. Eventually the insurance dick corners the private eye, who attempts to kill him. Instead the wife kills her own detective and ends up leading the insurance detective to the mystery's solution. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

There's dirty work backstage in the British melodrama My Sister and I. Sally Ann Howes plays Robina Adams, an aspiring actress who lands a job at the provincial repertory company managed by Miss Havisham-like Mrs. Camelot (Martita Hunt). Still carrying a torch for her late husband, Mrs. Camelot makes everyone's life miserable until she is found dead of gas poisoning. The solution to the murder is hinted at in the film's title, which is all that can be revealed for now. A subplot concerns the romantic tug-of-war between Robina and her two would-be swains, actor Graham Forbes (Dermot Walsh) and lawyer Roger Crisp (Patrick Holt). ies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, set during the reign of King Charles II, the aristocratic Lady Skelton (Margaret Lockwood) attempts to relieve the tedium of her day-to-day life by secretly acting as a highway robber. Meeting up with the rogue Captain Jerry Jackson (James Mason), the two begin a relationship. When her private and public lives begin to interfere with one another, however, Lady Skelton finds herself caught up in a tangled web of romance, danger, and jealousy. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Whenever one sees a title like The Gentle Sex, one braces oneself for an ironic switcharound. The supposedly gentle girls of the title--seven in all--are actually determined young British moderns who go into military service during World War II. In true "Army bomber crew" fashion, the film explores the widely varied backgrounds of the ladies involved, showing the events which led them to their patriotic commitment. As propaganda, Gentle Sex served its wartime purpose; as entertainment, it holds up reasonably well after five decades. The film was coproduced and codirected by actor Leslie Howard, who functions as narrator and (according to one source) can be glimpsed from behind in a couple of scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Terror House is the prosaic American title for the taut British chiller The Night Has Eyes. James Mason plays Stephen Deremid, one of those brooding, secretive young men so beloved of wartime melodramas. He lives in a remote Yorkshire mansion surrounded by a boggish moor. A young British girl (Joyce Howard) and her wisecracking American friend (Dorothy Black) are forced to seek shelter in Stephen's home during a thunderstorm. The friend disappears; perhaps Stephen is responsible, or perhaps it's his Mrs. Danvers-like housekeeper (Mary Clare). And then there's the harmless, helpful Wilfred Lawson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old reliable plot device known as premarital hanky-panky was the basis of the Esther McCracken stage play Quiet Wedding. The film version, scripted by Terence Rattigan and Anton de Grunewald, tones down some of the more censorable elements of the play, though not enough to completely mollify American censors. Margaret Lockwood stars as bride-to-be Janet Royd, who is driven crazy by the well-meaning interference of friends and family in the hours prior to her wedding. Sensing that she'll never have a moment alone with her fiance Dallas Chaytor (Derek Farr) even after they're married. Janet agrees to slip away with Dallas the night before the Big Event for a few hours of uninterrupted bliss. Nothing much really happens, at least not on screen, but the censors weren't able to blot out the gleam in the groom's eye-or the bride's, for that matter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide