Samantha Eggar Movies

Also titled The Wild and the Willing, this is a British production about a rebellious young man of the early 1960s. Harry Brown (Ian McShane) is a lower-class troublemaker at an upscale provincial university. He is brilliant but frequently drunk, and he constantly criticizes the elitism of his professors. Harry becomes the reluctant protégé of Professor Chown (Paul Rogers), who sees the boy's potential and hopes to tame him. Harry soon abandons his girlfriend Josie (Samantha Eggar) for a fling with Chown's wife Virginia (Virginia Maskell), a woman who frequently fools around with her husband's students. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

After several years' absence, Dirk Bogarde returns to the popular British "Doctor" film series in Doctor in Distress. Where once Bogarde's Dr. Simon Sparrow was naive and wide-eyed, he is a bit more urbane in this edition. He even manages to offer romantic advice to his old mentor/nemesis Sir Lancelot Sprat (James Robertson Justice). Sparrow's efforts to smooth the path for Sir Lancelot's amorous pursuit of physiotherapist Barbara Murray puts a strain on his own relationship with comely Samantha Eggar. Doctor in Distress is based on characters created by Dr. Richard Gordon, though the story is an original and not an adaptation of a Gordon novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ingrid Thulin plays a Polish inmate of the Dachau concentration camp who is liberated at the end of the war. Presumed dead, Ingrid returns to visit her husband (Maximillian Schell) She finds that his grief was fleeting at best; his new mistress is his "deceased" wife's daughter (Samantha Eggar) from a previous marriage. Since Ingrid's identity is masked by plastic surgery, she subtly re-enters their life without undue stress for either husband or daughter. But when the husband figures out the ruse, he murders his young paramour in the bathtub (a moment lavishly exploited in the print ads for this film) and plots to kill Ingrid for her money. A textbook case of implausibility, Return from the Ashes was adapted from an equally unbelievable novel by Hubert Monteilhet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cary Grant made his last film appearance before retiring from the screen in this agreeable piece of fluff based on the 1943 comedy The More the Merrier, which dealt with the romantic complications inherent in the housing shortage in Washington D.C. during World War II. In Walk, Don't Run, the story is updated to a housing shortage in Tokyo during the Olympic Games of 1964. British industrialist Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant) arrives in Tokyo two days before the start of the games and cannot find any suitable accommodations. As a result, he answers an ad for an "apartment to share" and convinces the occupant, Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar), to rent a room to him. The next day he meets the handsome Steve Davis (Jim Hutton), a member of the United States Olympic walking team. Steve also needs a room and convinces Christine to take him on as a second tenant. After meeting Christine's pompous fiancé, Julius D. Haversack (John Standing), Rutland begins to ply his matchmaking skills in an effort to get Christine and Steve to fall in love with each other. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A mid-life crisis takes a strange turn in this horror movie. The terror begins when a city couple decide to escape the hub-bub and crime and start new lives in the husband's great-grandfather's mansion located in the isolated North Woods. They are not there long before the wife finds herself tempted by a dashing ghost. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Winston Graham, The Walking Stick stars Samantha Eggar as Deborah, a polio-stricken woman courted by charming artist Leigh Hartley (David Hemmings). She moves in with Leigh, who immediately suggests that she help him rob the antique store where she works. Her common sense clouded by love, Deborah agrees. She is laboring under the misapprehension that Leigh will use the stolen loot to open up their own antique shop. He of course has no such intention, having orchestrated the whole romance for his own greedy gain. Both Samantha Eggar and David Hemmings are too talented for the sluggish goings-on in The Walking Stick, but actors do have to eat once in a while. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This action adventure is based on Jules Verne's The Light at the Edge of the World. It takes place in 1865 on the chilly tip of Argentina in a lighthouse set up to guide ships around the extremely dangerous and turbulent waters of Cape Horn. The lighthouse keeper (Fernando Rey) and his assistant go out to investigate when a strange sailing ship comes too near to the island the lighthouse is on. Denton (Kirk Douglas), the lighthouse keeper's North American apprentice, is left behind. For their pains, the lighthouse keeper and his assistant are killed, and Kongre (Yul Brynner), the ship's pirate captain, goes to the lighthouse and captures Denton. Kongre shuts down the real lighthouse and sets up a false one so that his pirates can prey on the busy ships that must pass nearby. Denton, set loose by his captors on a nearby island, eventually begins to fight back. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV rural horror film from director Burt Kennedy benefits from a fine cast and a tense Clyde Ware screenplay. Samantha Eggar and Stacy Keach play motorists held prisoner by a family of seven sweet-faced young orphans and their savage guard dogs. The children only want a mother and father but are willing to kill anyone who rejects them. Jon Savage co-stars with Robby Benson, who sang the theme song. All the Kind Strangers was initially telecast November 12, 1974. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Nicholas Meyer based his screenplay for the "retro" Sherlock Holmes adventure The Seven Percent Solution on his own best-selling novel. As any Baker Street Irregular will tell you, the title refers to the dosage of cocaine taken by Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson). The Great Detective's friend and chronicler Doctor Watson (Robert Duvall), concerned that Holmes' drug dependency is getting out of hand, suggests a cure under the auspices of Viennese psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (top-billed Alan Arkin). While undergoing treatment, Holmes comes to the realization that his archival Professor Moriarty (Laurence Olivier) is not the Napoleon of Crime, but instead a somewhat pathetic philanderer. Not yet completely cured, Holmes recharges his deductive batteries by undertaking a tricky conspiracy case involving another ex-addict, beautiful actress Lola Devereaux (Vanessa Redgrave). The traditional Holmesian sleuthing and split-second rescues of the film's second half are not as innovative as the Holmes-Freud scenes at the beginning of The Seven Percent Solution, but they provide this largely cerebral effort with a rousing climax. A success with both critics and filmgoers, The Seven Percent Solution opened the floodgates for subsequent TV and movie "reprises" of Conan Doyle's immortal literary figure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Samantha Eggar guest stars as daycare worker Laurie Eckhardt, the newest girlfriend of undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake). Things become tense when Laurie is paid a visit by an escaped murderer. Clearly, she and the escapee have a close personal bond, but until Laurie admits what that bond is, her life is in danger -- and not even Baretta can help her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this special feature, a group of people examine a variety of unexplained powers, including ESP, astrology, and magic. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Max Braithwaite, this film follows the trials of young schoolteacher Max Brown (Bud Cort) as he travels to Saskatchewan to serve as a teacher in a one-room, small-town schoolhouse. Struggling with the hardships presented by the Depression, the local townsfolk prove to be unfriendly, until Max meets up with housewife Alice Field (Samantha Eggar). ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide