John Dunbar Movies
John J. Dunbar was a busy character and supporting actor from the 1940s through the mid-'90s. Later in his career, Dunbar appeared in many television movies, including Deadly Whispers and Project ALF. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1995
Connie Sellecca portrays another 1990s woman in peril in this made-for-television thriller. Sellecca stars as Sharon Blake, a successful career woman who has a passionate affair with a possessive man (Gregory Harrison). When she tries to break off the relationship though, she uncovers the dark side of her former lover, who starts stalking and harassing her. Harrison (Trapper John, M.D.) is effectively creepy as the obsessed, spurned ex-lover. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Connie Sellecca, Gregory Harrison, (more)
- 1995
A fairly faithful remake of Disney's earlier feature of the same name, this version first aired on television. Gaby Hoffman stars as Annabelle, a girl who thinks her mother has an easy life. Her mother Ellen (Shelley Long) thinks Annabelle's life is the better of the two, and after an argument one Friday morning, the two magically switch personalities. After much mayhem and confusion, the two learn that the grass is not really greener on the other side of the fence. Actress-turned-director Melanie Mayron directed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Long, Gaby Hoffmann, (more)
- 1993
An affair turns murderous when a student becomes obsessed in this made-for-television drama. Susan Lucci stars as Vivian Conrad, the philandering and spoiled wife of a businessman (Barry Bostwick). After having a fling with a college student named Mark Templeton (Patrick Van Horn), Vivian becomes the focus of his dangerous obsession. When her husband Justin finds out and forces the two to end all contact, Mark's love-hate rage comes to its full fruition. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Lucci, Patrick Van Horn, (more)
- 1992
- Add Calendar Girl, Cop, Killer? The Bambi Bembenek Story to QueueAdd Calendar Girl, Cop, Killer? The Bambi Bembenek Story to top of Queue
This fact-based drama follows the flight of a Milwaukee woman wrongly convicted for murdering her husband's ex-wife. Hoping to have a chance for a re-trial she escapes from prison and heads for Canada. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Made for television, Love Among the Ruins was a precious one-time-only collaboration between stars Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Oliver, and director George Cukor. The scene is Victorian London, where wealthy widow Hepburn is being sued for breach of promise by her much-younger ex-fiance. Olivier is the highly respected barrister engaged to defend Hepburn in court. The usually reserved Olivier relishes the opportunity to see Hepburn, who 40 years earlier had been his lover. He is driven to hilarious distraction by Hepburn's adamant insistence that she has never seen him before in her life! Written by Emmy-winning TV veteran James Costigan, Love Among the Ruins was first telecast March 6, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the novel by Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie stars Maggie Smith in the title role. Smith won an Academy Award for her delicately textured portrayal of an eccentric teacher at an exclusive Scottish girl's school. Miss Jean exhorts her "gels" to follow their hearts and never lose their youthful idealism. Unfortunately for her, she also stumps for her favorite political figures: Mussolini and Franco. In addition, she can't keep the innermost details of her private life a secret, and in fact boasts about her sex life to her students. Her prize pupil (Pamela Franklin) becomes so much a clone of Miss Jean that she ends up a threat to the teacher. Ultimately, Miss Jean loses her position, but not the hearts of her students. The box-office success of Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was due in great part to the popularity of the title song, as recorded by Rod McKuen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, (more)
- 1966
Britisher Trader Faulkner goes on his honeymoon with new bride Marla Landi. Little does he suspect that Landi is conspiring with ex-husband Ken Scott to murder Faulkner for his money. Faulkner tumbles to their little scheme, and plots a revenge. The plotters get their just desserts, but Faulkner ends up just as dead as he would have been had he never caught on. Filmed in England, The Murder Game was released in the US by 20th Century-Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Scott, Marla Landi, (more)
- 1964
In this spooky horror film set in an old English village, the trouble begins when a man endeavors to dig up a cemetery containing the charred bodies of witches burned at the stake 300 years before. The warlock who looks after the family cemetery tries to stop him, but cannot. As soon as their graves are disturbed, the witches arise and strange things begin to happen to the family of the man who dug them up. Later the true culprit behind the mayhem is revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lon Chaney, Jr., Jack Hedley, (more)
- 1964
Pat Boone plays Stephen Cole, a young Irish man who believes himself to be worthy of a promotion from his employer. Believing that his boss instead is practicing nepotism, giving the promotion to his own nephew, Stephen writes--and mails--the company a caustic letter. Before long, however, Stephen finds that he has, indeed, just been named general manager/junior partner rather than the nephew. Now he must rush to London to intercept the letter before it reaches its initial destination. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat Boone, Milo O'Shea, (more)
- 1964
Tomorrow at Ten stars Robert Shaw as a desperate criminal who kidnaps a small boy. He locks his victim in a room with a time bomb set to go off at 10 AM, then posts his ransom demands. When the police catch up with the kidnapper, he dies without revealing the bomb's location. With precious little time left, the police attempt to retrace the criminal's steps, rescue the boy, and keep half of London from being blown to bits. The plot for 1964's Tomorrow at Ten has since been lifted bodily for use in several American TV programs, notably The FBI (in which the kidnapee was a teenager, played by singing idol Bobby Sherman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
The star of this slapstick comedy is not a person but an antique Bentley sports car, the source of several misadventures. Murdoch Troon (Stanley Baxter) is a simple civil servant who has his heart set on romancing Claire (Julie Christie in an early role), the daughter of wealthy businessman Charles Chingford (James Robertson Justice). As a part of his scheme to appear irresistible, Murdoch takes driving lessons so he will be able to impress Claire in the Bentley. Both the lessons and his driving test produce moments of hilarity, and as might be expected, there cannot be a movie featuring a car without a wacky, wild chase. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Robertson Justice, Stanley Baxter, (more)
- 1963
Tony Hancock, as big a comedy star as it was possible to be in the Britain of 1963, decided to pull a "Charlie Chaplin" with The Punch and Judy Man. He plays an end-of-pier seashore entertainer who is loved by children but reviled by adults. Hancock's efforts to establish himself as a man of importance invariably end in disappointment and despair. Not even Tony Hancock's legion of fans could be persuaded to drink up the bathos ladled out in The Punch and Judy Man. Ironically, Hancock in real life ended up committing suicide in 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Hancock, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1962
Based on Anthony Kimmins' stage success The Amorous Prawn, this British light comedy stars Joan Greenwood as the wife of an Army general (Cecil Parker). Having fallen upon hard times, the wife hits upon a scheme to raise some quick cash. She opens her husband's highland headquarters to visiting salmon fishermen, a circumstance that displeases the general when several of those anglers turn out to be handsome young men. On the assumption that American audiences would think The Amorous Prawn was a film about shrimp instead of salmon, the US distributor added the "Mr." to the original. When filmgoers failed to respond, the picture was re-retitled The Playgirl and the War Minister, a shameless attempt to exploit the then-current Profumo political scandal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Carmichael, Joan Greenwood, (more)
- 1961
It's probably no surprise that Invasion Quartet has four leading actors; what might be surprising, especially to the unwary war-film fan, is that film is a comedy. British funster Spike Milligan joins the sobersided Bill Travers, John LeMesurier and Gregoire Aslan; the foursome are undercover agents, travelling by train behind Nazi lines. It's all part of a plan to disarm a huge German gun that is aimed at the port of Dover. Just so the audience knows it's supposed to be laughing, the creators of Invasion Quartet pile joke upon joke by having the Nazis portrayed as bumbling buffoons. What works for Hogan's Heroes does not necessarily add to the effectiveness of Invasion Quartet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Travers, Spike Milligan, (more)
This shockingly violent yet engaging crime drama is about a bitter battle for survival in the lingering poverty of post-World War II London. Richard Todd plays optimistic but ineffectual soap and shampoo salesman John Cummings whose job becomes even harder when his new car is stolen. The theft triggers an unraveling of Cummings' life, and he channels his desperate energy toward retrieving his stolen vehicle. He first tracks it down through young tough Tommy Towers (pop star Adam Faith), who actually stole the automobile, and then to his boss Lionel Meadows (Peter Sellers), who heads the car thief ring. Meadows hides his sadistic tendencies behind the facade of a legitimate business. Above the garage he uses as a front, he has locked Tommy's girlfriend, Jackie (Carol White), in his apartment and appropriated her as his moll. Cummings tries to get the police involved, but they cannot act for lack of any evidence. He then earns the trust of Tommy and Jackie to get better knowledge of how Meadows operates his business. In his naïve attempts to confront the car ring, Cummings is at first treated as an annoyance, but as his intention to destroy Meadows' business and livelihood becomes clear, the crime boss vows to destroy him in turn. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Todd, Peter Sellers, (more)
Michael Powell's controversial meditation on violence and voyeurism effectively destroyed his career when it was first released, but later generations have come to regard it as a masterpiece. Karl Heinz Boehm stars as Mark, the son of a psychologist who kept a video journal of the boy's upbringing for research purposes. The constant intrusions profoundly affected the boy, who grew up to be a photographer himself; but his principal subject matter consists of women whom he murders before the camera. He then runs the films of his victims in their final throes so that he can study their reactions to death--a perverse extension of his father's experiments, which tormented Mark to analyze his reactions to raw fear. The British press had long been hostile to the unorthodox films of Powell and his partner Emeric Pressburger; when Peeping Tom came around, they used the film to castigate him as "sick" and tawdry. The passage of time has proven Peeping Tom as profound and accomplished as any of Powell's earlier films, and it ranks with Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958) as a landmark exploration of the links among voyeurism, violence, and male sexual desire. Powell himself plays the evil father in the flashback sequences, and his son Colomba plays Mark as a child. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Heinz Böhm, Moira Shearer, (more)
- 1958
This WWII espionage drama is based on the true tale of a British spy, as told in the story by J. Alvin Kugelmass. Alex Schottland (Jack Hawkins) is a career agent for England, having served during WWI. He is assigned to Nazi Germany and rises to the rank of general as WWII breaks out. His contact is Cornaz (Felix Alymer), who pretends to be a clock seller. But Cornaz's identity is discovered, and he is brutally murdered. Schottland overcomes suspicions and makes contacts with a new British agent, Lili Geyr (Gia Scala), who is a nightclub singer. His love for her is first feigned as part of the spy game -- then becomes real. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Hawkins, Gia Scala, (more)
- 1958
If official documentation didn't exist, we'd never believe a fantastic yarn like I Was Monty's Double. Actor M.E. Clifton James plays himself, a British stock-company actor who becomes an unsung hero during World War II. It seems that James, serving his country as a junior officer, is the exact double of General Montgomery. Major John Mills trains James to impersonate Montgomery to the last detail, then sends the actor on a tour of North Africa, the better to divert the German's attentions away from the real "Monty." Based on James' own written reminiscences, I Was Monty's Double was released in the U.S. under the baffling title Hell, Heaven or Hoboken! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Cecil Parker, (more)
- 1955
In this drama, a convicted killer serves his time and after his release sets off in search of those who framed him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
The Devil's Harbor is a second-string British melodrama starring American film vet Richard Arlen. Arlen is the captain of a small boat that is commandeered by narcotics smugglers. Though he himself is ignorant of the drug traffic, Arlen is hounded by an insurance investigator (Donald Huston). The skipper and the detective team up to track down the crooks who, much to the investigator's discomfort, turn out to have powerful allies in his own insurance company. Devil's Harbor was issued in the states by 20th Century-Fox, in order to free up some of the studio's "frozen funds" in England. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Greta Gynt, (more)
