Richard Burrell Movies
- 1965
John Carson (not Johnny Carson, as listed in some source books) stars in the grim British programmer Act of Murder. Carson plays an actor who still carries a torch for his ex-mistress Justine Lord, even though she is now happily married to Anthony Bate. With cold-blooded resolve, the actor conducts a campaign to drive Bate to a nervous breakdown. Instead, the distracted husband is driven to commit murder. Act of Murder was given a limited American release by Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Justine Lord
- 1965
Michael Caine made his first appearance as novelist Len Deighton's bespectacled British-spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File. Palmer has no real love of espionage, but he doesn't really know any other life. With studied insolence, he takes on the case of locating missing doctor Radcliffe (Aubrey Richards), who has in his possession a valuable file that would prove injurious to the Free World should it fall in the wrong hands. The government also fears that Radcliffe will be brainwashed by the enemy, as has happened to two previous British scientists. While Palmer is off doing everyone else's dirty work, his superior, Nigel Green, is making a deal with duplicitous information "broker" Frank Gatliff to win Radcliffe's release. The price for this would seem to be Palmer, who is captured by the enemy and subjected to a grueling brainwashing session. Palmer escapes, whereupon he confronts a traitor in his midst in the climactic exchange of gunfire. Advertised as "The Thinking Man's Goldfinger, The Ipcress File offered a far more realistic view of the morally ambivalent world of espionage than did the like-vintage James Bond films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Nigel Green, (more)
- 1963
It's Bob Hope as phony explorer Matt Merriwether, who promotes himself as an expert on the dark continent, basing his exploration of the African subcontinent on old diaries of his uncle. When an American space capsule crashes in an uncharted region of Africa, Merriwether, based on his alleged expert knowledge of the region, is selected to recover the capsule. Joining Merriwether and his pre-Kervorkian suicide kit, is security agent Frederica Larsen (Edie Adams). Hot on their heels are Russian agents Luba (Anita Ekberg) and Dr. Ezra Mungo (Lionel Jeffries), who want to get to the space capsule first. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Anita Ekberg, (more)
- 1959
"Site Three" is a top-secret missile base in this British meller. Geoffrey Toone stars as Sexton Blake, the Sherlock Holmes clone created by committee for the "pulps" and comic books. With his faithful young assistant Tinker (Richard Burrell), the all-knowing, all-seeing Blake try to ferret out an espionage ring operating within Britain's space program. A key ingredient to the proceedings is the truth serum developed and utilized by Blake. Murder at Site Three was based on Crime is My Business, a novel by W. Howard Baker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This documentary profiles the work of a palm reader who assures a woman bent on suicide that she will find happiness and assists a woman in the search for her long-lost son. ~ All Movie Guide
