Denholm Elliott Movies

Scorchers is set way down in steamy Louisiana, deep in bayou country where the women get hot and hotter--or not hot at all. This movie delves into the sex lives of three ladies: one is an unfulfilled prostitute, one can't get her husband's attentions (he'd rather be with the whore), and one's a newlywed who can't get over her fear of having sex with her new fella. ~ Rovi

This award-winning TV production tells the true story of a heroic woman's underground operation to spirit Allied soldiers out of Nazi-occupied France. Her name is Mary Lindell, a British-born Red Cross nurse living in France with her two teenage children, Maurice and Barbé, by Lindell's marriage to Count de Melville. The story begins in Paris in 1940 when a downed British flier, Maj. James Legatt (Sam Neill), stumbles to a table at a sidewalk cafe. Dressed in a shin-to-shoulder overcoat and dizzy with fatigue, he plops into a chair. At a table nearby, Lindell (Judy Davis) notices his boots -- British issue and a dead giveaway. When German soldiers approach the flier, Lindell walks to his table and slaps him smartly, pretending he is her drunken husband. The ruse works. Lindell then takes Legatt to her home in a taxi and nurses him to health. During their time together, they fall in love -- chastely, without overtly disclosing their affection for each other. Using her feminine wiles and forceful personality to bamboozle SS hounds, she effects his escape back to England, then dedicates herself to rescuing other allies. All goes well until a flier botches his escape. An investigation and trial send Lindell to prison for nine months, which she barely survives. After her release, her son and daughter hide her and restore her to health, and Lindell goes back to work smuggling Allies across the border -- this time with the aid of a priest (Denholm Elliot) and Maj. Legatt, who tracks her activities from his headquarters in England. She eventually ends up in the Ravensbrück concentration camp north of Berlin, and in the conclusion of the production, viewers learn the ultimate fate of Lindell and Legatt. ~ Mike Cummings, Rovi

A murder investigation at a cloistered boy's school is the subject of this British made-for-television adaptation of John Le Carre's novel. Le Carre's famous detective-hero George Smiley (Denholm Elliott) returns from retirement to look for answers in a mysterious murder at a boarding school, where secret societies, rituals and abuse are the norm. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

This 60-minute TV adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 doppelganger yarn stars Anthony Andrews as kindly London medico Henry Jekyll. Fascinated by the concept that within every man lurks two separate personalities--one good, one evil--Dr. Jekyll concocts a potion that releases his own nightmarish alter ego, Mr. Hyde. Contemporary critics noted that Andrews' Jekyll was so cloddish that his bestial Hyde came as something of a relief. Laura Dern co-stars as Jekyll/Hyde's long-suffering fiancee Rebecca. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde premiered as an HBO Nightmare Classic on October 29, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The third installment in the widely beloved Spielberg/Lucas Indiana Jones saga begins with an introduction to a younger Indy (played by the late River Phoenix), who, through a fast-paced prologue, gives the audience insight into the roots of his taste for adventure, fear of snakes, and dogged determination to take historical artifacts out of the hands of bad guys and into the museums in which they belong. A grown-up Indy (Harrison Ford) reveals himself shortly afterward in a familiar classroom scene, teaching archeology to a disproportionate number of starry-eyed female college students in 1938. Once again, however, Mr. Jones is drawn away from his day job after an art collector (Julian Glover) approaches him with a proposition to find the much sought after Holy Grail. Circumstances reveal that there was another avid archeologist in search of the famed cup -- Indiana Jones' father, Dr. Henry Jones (Sean Connery) -- who had recently disappeared during his efforts. The junior and senior members of the Jones family find themselves in a series of tough situations in locales ranging from Venice to the most treacherous spots in the Middle East. Complicating the situation further is the presence of Elsa (Alison Doody), a beautiful and intelligent woman with one fatal flaw: she's an undercover Nazi agent. The search for the grail is a dangerous quest, and its discovery may prove fatal to those who seek it for personal gain. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade earned a then record-breaking $50 million in its first week of release. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

This poorly received sequel to the classic 1957 movie The Bridge over the River Kwai, is also based on a true story, as told in the book by Joan & Clay Blair, Jr. This story begins where the previous one left off, with the blowing up of the marvelous bridge. Here, the Australian POWs are rounded up to be shipped by rail and sea to Japan to serve as slave laborers. They have many harrowing experiences and near-escapes. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

When a father attempts to return to his abandoned family after 23 years his grown son tries to murder his drunk, unemployed father. ~ Rovi

Made for television from the Dylan Thomas classic, the film concerns a traditional Christmas in Wales around the turn of the 20th century. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Maruschka Detmers stars as Hannah Senesh, a real-life Hungarian Jew who became a martyr to the cause of freedom during WW II. Though safely ensconced in Palestine at the outbreak of the war, Hannah volunteers to venture behind enemy lines in Europe on a life-or-death mission. Unfortunately, she is captured, undergoing unspeakable tortures before the Germans are finished with her. The script, based on Hannah's diaries (as edited by Yoel Palgi), surprisingly downplays heroics in favor of sensationalism; the prison scenes could just as well have been lifted from a Linda Blair "babes behind bars" picture. Even so, Detmers is excellent in the title role, while Ellen Burstyn is likewise superb as Hannah's mother. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Director James Ivory brings his subdued, "Masterpiece Theater" style to a forbidden subject -- homosexual love. Maurice is based on E.M. Forster's suppressed 1914 novel that was held back from publication until after his death. The film takes place at Cambridge, before World War I, when homosexuality was outlawed in Great Britain. Clive (Hugh Grant), an aristocratic Englishman with a life of privilege, suddenly shocks his close friend Maurice (James Wilby) by declaring his love for him. Maurice is initially stunned by the pronouncement, but in the end finds himself giving Clive a passionate kiss and telling him that he loves him as well. Clive, in the stiff-upper-lip British manner, considers their love to be more of an intellectual concept, but Maurice becomes passionate about the affair. Clive, afraid of being exposed as a homosexual, backs off and breaks up with Maurice for marriage, family, and politics. Maurice is crestfallen, but then he has a passionate affair with Clive's gamekeeper, Scudder (Rupert Graves), and Maurice and Scudder decide to risk their reputations by openly living together as lovers. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi