Richard Wilson Movies

A single woman still living with her boring parents secretly dreams of sexual passion in this erotic drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film (for which he also received editing credit), breaks no new ground cinematically, but remains an exquisitely assembled harkback to such earlier Lean epics as Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film is set in colonial India in 1924. Adela Quested (Judy Davis), a sheltered, well-educated British woman, arrives in the town of Chandrapore, where she hopes to experience "the real India". Here she meets and befriends Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who, despite longstanding racial and social taboos, moves with relative ease and freedom amongst highborn British circles. Feeling comfortable with Adela, Aziz invites her to accompany him on a visit to the Marabar caves. Adela has previously exhibited bizarre, almost mystical behavior during other ventures into the Indian wilderness: this time, she emerges from the caves showing signs of injury and ill usage. To Aziz' horror, he is accused by Adela of raping her. Typically, the British ruling class rallies to Adela's defense, virtually convicting Aziz before the trial ever begins. Though he is eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence (in fact, director Lean never shows us what really happened), Aziz is ruined in the eyes of both the British and his own people-as is Adela. Woven into these proceedings is a subplot involving Adela's elderly travelling companion Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft), who through a series of plot twists too complex to describe here becomes a heroine of the Indian Independence movement. A Passage to India was nominated for several Academy Awards, scoring wins in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre). A theatrical version of A Passage to India, written by Santha Rama Rau, was previously adapted for television by the BBC in the mid-1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Tipping the scales on the Monty Python-esque side of broad comedy, this outrageous and classically British farce is a series of episodes involving the U.S., a small Caribbean nation, the British government, and the military. The American president is a former clown who dies after asking someone to punch him in the stomach to prove how strong he is. The vice-president (Loretta Swit) takes over and heads for trouble right away. A British island has been invaded by a Caribbean dictatorship and the gay British admiral sent to command naval operations takes a warm-hearted, 1940s-style leave of his "spouse." A Princess working as a nurse overdoes it when asked to shave a sailor for an operation. The British Prime Minister decides that if the unemployment situation could be easily solves if the employed would only jump off a cliff. And so it goes on and on, with some of the skits delving into more violent and sacrilegious themes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Schoolteacher Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) has been insulated all his life from the horrors of apartheid in his native South Africa. Perhaps he really didn't want to know. When the son of his black gardener is arrested and beaten as a result of a schoolboy protest in Soweto, at first he imagines the police must have had their reasons. However, the boy is picked up again, and this time he doesn't come back. Ben promises his servant that he will look into the incident, and discovers that the boy was killed simply to gratify the violent urges of Captain Stolz (Jurgen Prochnow), a "special branch" policeman. At long last he has gotten a glimpse into the truly arbitrary and violent nature of the system he has so long benefitted from, and he hires Ian Mackenzie (Marlon Brando) to prosecute the killer. It is a foregone conclusion that Stolz will not be punished, but Mackenzie rises to new heights of withering sarcasm and irony in the courtroom. This situation turns Ben into a radical firebrand, which alienates him from his white friends and neighbors, as well as members of his family. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In "The Red-Headed League," an episode of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (an excellent adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle produced in the Britain for Granada), Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) reprises his excellent portrayal of the famed detective aided by his companion Dr. Watson (David Burke). In this episode, Holmes investigates the suspicious actions of a club where all the members have red hair. This well-done episode, which is impeccably faithful to the original story, will please both fans of Holmes and mystery fans everywhere. Thirteen of the Holmes short stories were adapted in this series, which was followed by The Return of Sherlock Holmes and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, as well as several TV movie adaptations. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

First telecast in Britain on January 1, 1992, the 30-minute comedy special The Trouble With Bean once again stars Rowan Atkinson as the brainless, incredibly accident-prone title character. This time, Bean cuts a disastrous swath through three short, interrelated sketches. In the first, our hero, late for his dental appointment, tries to get dressed while driving his car. In the second, Bean ends up administering anesthetic to the hapless dentist (Richard Wilson). And in the final sketch, Bean returns to the park, where he tangles with a pesky fly and a remote-control toy boat. "The Trouble with Mr. Bean" made its American TV bow on April 30, 1992, and has since been released in such video compilations as The Terrible Tales of Mr. Bean and The Complete Mr. Bean, Vol. 1. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jon Amiel directed this satire on mistaken-identity thrillers and the spy genre, scripted by Robert Farrar, Tim John, and Oliver Butcher from Farrar's unpublished novel, Watch That Man. In the female lead, Joanne Whalley returned to films after a three-year absence, choosing to do so with director Amiel. Farrar's Hitchcockian-style story focuses on naive Blockbuster Video clerk Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray) who travels from Des Moines, Iowa, to London to celebrate his birthday with his wealthy younger brother, James (Peter Gallagher). When he turns up on the same night that James has plans to attend a high-profile client dinner party (that he hopes will bring him millions from a German investment firm), James needs to keep Wallace away during the evening, so he gives Wallace a ticket to the participatory Theater of Life. The theater game requires Wallace to assume a character and interact with actors portraying people in dramatic situations.

At the corner phone booth, the initial call should begin the evening of innocent fun. However, the phone instructions Wallace receives are actually intended for an assassin, part of a scheme to end the current UK regime and revive the Cold War. The real assassin gets the call from the Theater of Life. Blissfully unaware, Wallace walks without fear into a complex web of intrigue involving defense ministers, call girls, and Russian hitmen. For Wallace, all the world's a stage, and he's amazed at the skill of the actors, including beautiful enigmatic Lori (Joanne Whalley) -- while Wallace's pursuers are mystified by their adversary's fearlessness in the face of threats, torture and bullets. Farrar got the idea for this comedy from a chance remark at a party: "The inspiration came from a dinner party, when somebody told me about these strange live theater performances which were all the rage in England in the '80s. The idea was to telephone for instructions if you wanted to take part. My immediate reaction was, 'Wouldn't it be fabulous if somebody got the wrong number, and it all went hopelessly wrong?'" Filming took place in London's East End (Three Mills Studios), at a variety of London locations, and just outside London at the Elstree Film Studios. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi