Denholm Elliott Movies
A much-loved character actor, British native Denholm Elliott performed in over 100 films during the course of his long career. Elliott, who was educated at Malvern College, went on stage just after World War II, and made his first film, Dear Mr. Prohack, in 1949. Often coming across as a sort of British Ralph Bellamy, Elliot specialized in playing pleasant but ineffectual types during the 1950s, switching to dignified and slightly stuffy characters as he grew grayer. In 1964, he made a major impression on international audiences by playing the tattered gentleman who teaches Alan Bates the tricks of social and financial climbing in Nothing but the Best -- only to be strangled by Bates with his old school tie. With tight lips and taciturn glances, Elliott was the official who closed down Elliott Gould's burlesque house in The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968).A gentler but no less authoritative role came in 1981 as Harrison Ford's immediate superior Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark (reprising the part in 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), while in 1984 Elliott was unforgettably waspish as the dying social lion who dictates his own death notice in The Razor's Edge (the role played by Clifton Webb in the 1946 version). In 1986, he played one of his most endearing roles, that of the free-thinking Mr. Emerson in A Room with a View. In between these engagements, Elliott portrayed Dan Aykroyd's -- and then Eddie Murphy's -- refined butler in Trading Places (1983). His portrayal won him his first British Academy Award; he also earned BAFTAs for his work in A Private Function (1984) and Defence of the Realm (1985). Sadly, Elliott's still-thriving career was cut off in 1992 -- shortly after he completed the comedy Noises Off -- when he died from complications brought about by AIDS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
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At the turn of the century, a widow decides to set her dead husbands business back in the black column. Her efforts to get the mill going again, however, are somewhat submarined by problems with an employee who is accused of murder and her sister who has married a spoiled rich boy. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
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, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Angela Lansbury stars as an unmarried teacher at a Minnesota Catholic grade school. An ongoing battle with new bishop Robert Prosky, coupled with her friendship with an unwed mother, awakens hera to the possibility that she hasn't lived her life to the fullest. When her grateful school staff bankrolls her vacation to Ireland, Lansbury uses the opportunity to meet the man (Denholm Elliot) with whom she has secretly corresponded for years--and with whom she has fallen in love, sight unseen. Arriving on the Emerald Isle, Lansbury eagerly arranges a meeting with her dream lover. Will she be surprised. Made for television, Love She Sought was filmed under the working titles A Green Journey and Last Chance for Romance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Lansbury, Robert Prosky, (more)
- 1989
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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, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Based on John Trenhaile's A Man Called Kyril, this byzantine-plotted spy melodrama stars Ian Charleson in the title role. Kyril is a supposed Soviet defector who relocates in London. In fact, his defection is a smoke-screen: Kyril has been sent by the KGB to seek out a British mole in Moscow Centre. At four hours, Codename: Kyril affords plenty of breathing space for the various plots and counterplots, but its excess of espionage verbiage may prove confusing to the average viewer. Filmed for British television in locales ranging from Norway to Holland, Codename: Kyril was first telecast in the US on the Showtime cable network on April 27, 1988; a videocassette version running 115 minutes was made available in 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms
When a father attempts to return to his abandoned family after 23 years his grown son tries to murder his drunk, unemployed father. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denholm Elliott, Julie Walters, (more)
- 1989
In one of her first adult starring roles, Nicole Kidman played the lead in the three-part Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton. Searching for her long-estranged father at Bangkok airport, Katrina "Kat" Stanton unwittingly becomes a "mule" for drug-smuggler Arkie Ragan (Jerome Ehlers). Captured by the authorities, Kat is charged with smuggling and locked away in a horrible prison known as the Bangkok Hilton. Also in the cast were Denholm Elliot(Hal Stanton) and such familiar Australian film and TV regulars as Norman Kaye, Joy Smithers, and Gerda Nicholson. After its original ABC network run from November 5-7, 1989, Bangkok Hilton was rebroadcast in six one-hour segments, rather than its original three two-hour episodes. As for Nicole Kidman, she earned an AFI award (the Australian equivalent of the Emmy) for her brilliant and harrowing performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Denholm Elliott, (more)
Roger Young's made-for-TV adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel, The Bourne Identity stars Richard Chamberlain as Jason Bourne, who washes up on the beach and is cared for by a doctor. Bourne has no memories, but is intrigued enough to investigate why he has the number of a Swiss bank account on his thigh. As Jason travels to various European cities following clues about his past, he begins to discover that his actions match those of the feared international terrorist Carlos. The book was filmed a second time in 2002 by Doug Liman with Matt Damon in the title role. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Chamberlain, Jaclyn Smith, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denholm Elliott
- 1986
Told from the perspective of an innocent young teen and the writings in her diaries, this drama about an actual, sensational murder committed among the British colonialists in Kenya is compelling and effective in its understatement. The time is the early 1940s and Juanita Carberry (Holly Aird) lives in the priviliged circles of the colonialists in Kenya, rubbing elbows with the elite at house gatherings, official outings, and numerous social occasions. Her father (Michael Byrne) treats her brutally and in order to keep her emotional balance she finds companionship in the animals around her and in the Kenyan servants who are her friends. Sharply conscious of the superficiality and cruelty of the adults in her world, she remains silent and subdued in their presence. Then scandal of the worst kind breaks at the shocking murder of Lord Erroll (Peter Sands) who was having an affair with the wife of Lord Brougham (Denholm Elliott). A front-page trial acquits Lord Brougham of the killing, but then in a moment of weakness and assuming that Juanita is too stupid to react, he lets her know that he actually did kill Lord Erroll. Juanita is thrown into a turmoil since she does not know what her next step should be -- she is obviously young and powerless. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Holly Aird, Denholm Elliott, (more)
- 1986
This made-for-TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel is an account of a novelist, still smarting from a failed relationship, who finds refuge at a Swiss lakefront resort. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry was especially written by playwright James Prideaux for Katharine Hepburn. It would have been impractical to attempt a live staging, so the script was committed to a TV movie, under the direction of Hallmark Hall of Fame veteran George Schafer. Hepburn plays another variation on the indomitable elderly lady that has become her forte in the past decade. Here she is Margaret Delafield, a wealthy WASP widow who falls in love with the divorced Jewish doctor (Harold J. Stone) who has saved her life. The clucking tongues of both her family and the doctor's will not dissuade her: Mrs. Delafield stands her ground in a climactic scene reminiscent of the actress' earlier Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (67). Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry is formula all down the line, but every latter-day Katharine Hepburn performance deserves to be treasured (though the film itself hardly warranted the three-page TV Guide article written by Ms. Hepburn herself). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this conventional drama, Victor is a graying older man (Denholm Elliott) who loses his apartment in a fire. The blaze was caused by his own carelessness while wantonly pursuing the married neighbor. Once he is interned in an old folks' home because he has nowhere else to live, Victor muddies the calm waters by tossing aside the home's more objectionable rules. He eventually starts a relationship with the chief officer in charge, but their differences, in the end, might prove too much to overcome at any age. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denholm Elliott, Connie Booth, (more)
This 1985 television production faithfully adapts Charles Dickens' Bleak House, an indictment of Victorian England's corrupt legal and class systems that prey on the weak and the innocent. Esther Summerson (Suzanne Burden), a kind and level-headed young woman introduced as an orphan, is the link who knits several storylines together as a witness to injustice. She and two other young people -- the naïve and vulnerable Richard Carstone (Philip Franks) and Ada Clare (Lucy Hornack) -- are wards in an estate case before the High Court of Chancery. They stay at the home of John Jarndyce (Denholm Elliott), a relative. Like so many other lawsuits, the case drags on indefinitely, depleting the estate while garnishing lawyers' bank accounts. Richard and Ada fall in love and marry in secret, but his health declines as legal fees and delays consume his expected fortune. Eventually, he dies. Meanwhile, in the upper reaches of society, Lady Dedlock (Diana Rigg) harbors a secret that would ruin her and her doting husband if it became known. Years before, while in love with a Captain Rawdon, she gave birth to his child after she received news that Rawdon had been lost at sea. Upon discovering that the report was false, she attempts to track him down with the help of a guttersnipe named Jo, a friendless little boy who later dies, and finds him -- buried in a pauper's field. Lady Dedlock's attorney, the grasping and devious Tulkinghorn (Peter Vaughan), learns of Lady Dedlock's secret and threatens to disclose it, but a mysterious intruder murders him before he can do so. Miss Summerson, who has been a good friend to Richard and Ada, attracts the attentions of her benevolent but much older host John Jarndyce, and he proposes to her. However, she has already fallen in love with Dr. Allan Woodcourt (Brian Deacon), who was with little Jo when he died. As the various storylines merge, Esther Summerson discovers that she is Lady Dedlock's daughter, Lady Dedlock's husband learns his wife's secret, and Lady Dedlock runs off in deep despair. The conclusion reveals the fate of Lady Dedlock, the murderer of Tulkinghorn, and the future of Esther Summerson. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Alexandre Dumas fis first dramatized his own novel La Dame aux Camelias in 1852. Before the century was out, the work had been transformed by Giuseppe Verdi into the opera La Traviata; before the next century was out, the Dumas book had been made into no fewer than 25 films. The 1984 TV-movie adaptation, titled Camille like most of the others (including the first film, way back in 1907), stars Greta Schacchi as Marguerite, the popular Parisian courtesan who is wooed by innocent young Armand (Colin Firth). She is willing to give up her libertine lifestyle for Armand, but is gently convinced by the boy's father (John Gielgud) that such a union would be impossible. She renounces Armand, but he returns to her side, just as she is dying of consumption. Blanche Hanalis' adaptation of the Dumas novel takes a franker approach to the subject matter than the more familiar 1937 filmization with that other Greta (Garbo), and also manages to insert a soupcon of feminism. Filmed in Paris, the 1984 Camille was originally offered as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Scacchi, Colin Firth, (more)
In this classic mystery story, Sherlock Holmes (Ian Richardson) is requested to investigate deaths around the Baskerville mansion because Henry (Martin Shaw), the last direct heir to the Baskerville fortune is worried that he may die by their unique curse; a ghost hound has eliminated his ancestors and is now wreaking havoc in the woods again. The crafty Holmes sends faithful Dr. Watson (Donald Churchill) ahead to check things out, while unknown to Watson, Holmes assumes the disguise of a local gypsy to observe the mansion and anyone connected with it. As the mist of Grimpen Moor and the howling hound lend an eerie atmosphere to the tale, false leads take the protagonists into dead ends, and the real culprit waits in the wings for his chance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Richardson, Martin Shaw, (more)
- 1983
Faye Dunaway stars in Michael Winner's labored re-make of the 1945 swashbuckler, which was co-scripted by Leslie Arliss, the original director of the 1945 film. Dunaway is Lady Barbara Skelton, a lady of the royal class, who becomes a highway robber, taking up with Captain Jerry Jackson (Alan Bates), a highwayman and her lover. Because of a notorious whiping scene in which Lady Barbara and Jackson's girlfriend (Marina Sirtis) take horsewhips to one another, tearing their clothing to strategically-placed ribbons, the film was held back from release because Winner refused to cut the salacious footage. After corralling author Kingsley Amis, and directors John Schlesinger, Karel Reisz, and Lindsay Anderson to attest to the redeeming social value of the scene, the scene stayed in the film. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Faye Dunaway, Alan Bates, (more)
- 1983
The Blue Dress is a 70-minute romantic idyll which threatens to culminate in tragedy at any moment. Denholm Elliott plays a hard-bitten, middle-aged British journalist. Though he resists the sensation, Elliott falls in love with the much younger Felicity Dean. But Dean carries within her a secret that may destroy them both. Filmed for British television in 1983, The Blue Dress was given its American premiere two years later on cable's Arts & Entertainment network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
As a family travels during their vacation, they offer a ride to a hitchhiker and soon find it may have been a bad idea. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Thirteen months and ten million dollars were lavished upon this ten-hour, four-part TV miniseries about legendary globetrotter Marco Polo. Newcomer Ken Marshall played the title character, a 14th century Venetian explorer who, among other accomplishments, firmly established the "silk route" between Europe and the Orient, introducing such precious commodities as spaghetti and fireworks to the Occidental world. In addition to featuring the usual polyglot of major British and American stars in cameo roles (including Denholm Elliott, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Leonard Nimoy, and Burt Lancaster), the production represented the first Western production to be filmed on location in China since WWII -- not to mention the first English-language appearance of celebrated Chinese stage and film actor Ying Ruocheng, superbly cast as the mighty Kublai Khan. An American-Italian-Austrian-French-British co-production, Marco Polo received its first U.S. showing when it was telecast by NBC from May 16 through 19, 1982. A "condensed" version, running approximately 270 minutes, was later made available in Europe and South America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Marshall, Denholm Elliott, (more)
