Frances Bennett Movies

Based on Babs H. Deal's novel The Walls Came Tumbling Down, Friendships, Secrets and Lies is about...just what the title says it's about. An old college building is bulldozed, revealing the skeleton of a newborn baby stuffed in the air shaft. Forensic tests prove that the infant died twenty years earlier, at which time the building had served as a girl's sorority house. Seven students were living in the house at the time of the death, and all currently live in the same city; at least six of these ladies had opportunity, and possibly motive, for the baby's murder. With the notable exception of the director of photography, virtually the entire cast and crew of Friendships, Secrets and Lies was female. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When actor Lionel Jeffries turned to directing in the 1970s, he exhibited a preference for whimsy, as witness The Railway Children. Jeffries' Baxter is a notable exception to this rule, though, as with his other directorial efforts, he shows a keen sensitivity for the travails of troubled youngsters. Scott Jacoby plays Baxter, a boy with a marked speech impediment. His affliction worsens as his parents' marriage disintegrates. Patricia Neal plays a dedicated speech therapist who realizes that Baxter's problems go deeper than his inability to speak normally. Baxter was scripted by "Golden Age" TV veteran Reginald Rose. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A strange bet provides the basis of this comedy, a British theater producer decides to make some easy money by betting a psychiatrist, whom he overheard telling a colleague that he could create the perfect child by hypnotizing a pregnant woman, that the shrink has as many holes in his theory as he did in his head. The wager is made, and the producer then talks an actress friend into masquerading as the pregnant woman to ensure his win. Unfortunately for him, the actress and the doctor fall in love. Seeing that her sweethearts theories are being derided by his peers, she decides to help him out and get pregnant for real. To do this, she gets drunk, staggers over to the producer's apartment and demands that he satisfy her right then and there. Unfortunately in the middle of it all, the doctor shows up. Then the producer's fiancee pays a visit and the whole scam falls apart in his living room. Fortunately happiness ensues when the doctor and the actress marry and decide to try the experiment for real. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide