Douglas Rae Movies

Based on a novel by mystery specialist P.D. James, the British drama series An Unsuitable Job for a Woman starred Helen Baxendale as the attractive title character. Employed by a seedy private detective agency, Cordelia Gray (Baxendale) was obliged to take over the business when her boss committed suicide. With next to no detective experience, Cordelia stumbled her way through a variety of life-threatening cases, managing to keep alive and to round up any and all culprits with the assistance of protective office assistant Edith Sparshott (Annette Crosbie). A co-production of Britain's HTV and America's WGBH-TV, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman debuted in England on October 24, 1997, yielding a total of six hour-long and two two-hour episodes as of 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Helen Baxendale is back as private detective Cordelia Grey in this made-for-TV drama adapted from the works of author P.D. James. As Cordelia struggles to keep her detective agency open and hone her talents as a sleuth, she finds herself trailing a gang of toughs who appear to have friends in a very unexpected place -- Scotland Yard. As if all of this weren't trouble enough, Cordelia has to run the agency and chase dangerous crooks after learning that she's expecting a baby. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman 2 was produced for British television, and made its American debut on the award-winning anthology series Masterpiece Theatre. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A detective in search of his missing wife comes into contact with a mysterious local who may hold the clues to her whereabouts in this romantic mystery starring John Hannah and Jemma Redgrave. When his wife goes missing, a tireless private eye is hurled headlong into a paranoid world of false accusations and unanswered questions. Only when he is able to piece together the components of this perplexing mystery will he finally discover what fate befell his beloved spouse. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A handsome working man living in a small village in the south of England finds his romantic overtures to a beautiful, newly arrived schoolteacher challenged by a barrage of wealthy suitors in this tale of rural romance that launched the career of writer Thomas Hardy. Fancy Day is a woman of striking beauty who comes from a wealthy family background. Dick Dewey is an honest working man who longs to win the heart of the lovely newcomer. Though his sincere efforts to win Fancy over are received with encouraging grace by the kind-hearted schoolteacher, Dick soon finds that he's not the only man in town attempting to win her hand in marriage. Reverend Maybold, Farmer Shiner, and a local landowner are also hoping to charm Fancy to the alter, and even if Dick does manage to out-charm the rest, there's no guarantee that Fancy's father will even give approval to the union. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A lonely young boy vows to protect the rapidly growing hatchling that emerges from a mysterious egg found on the shores of a Scottish loch in My Dog Skip and Tuck Everlasting director Jay Russell's screen adaptation of writer Dick King-Smith's popular children's novel. Angus MacMorrow (Alex Etel) has made a most unusual discovery, and he's about to find out just how one innocent boy's greatest fantasy can also be a frightened adult population's greatest threat. Unable to identify the egg that he found while walking the sandy shores, Angus is even more perplexed about the discovery and the creature that emerges resembles what comes to be known as a Water Horse, which Angus names Crusoe. As the bizarre new life form begins to grow at an alarming rate, it soon becomes obvious that Angus will not be able to keep it a secret for very long, and the young boy will have to do some seriously quick thinking if he is to keep his new friend safe. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Evelyn Waugh's classic novel of love and the British class system has been given a polished screen adaptation in this film version from director Julian Jarrold. Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) was raised in a middle-class household and though he's never known want and is fortunate enough to have been accepted into Oxford, the life of the upper class is foreign to him. While serving in the British Army during the waning days of World War II, Charles is assigned to a temporary base set up on the estate of the wealthy and aristocratic Flyte family, where he strikes up a friendship with twentysomething Lord Sebastian (Ben Whishaw). Sebastian enjoys the pleasures his privileged life has afforded him, but he also senses that something is missing, and he tries to drown his frequent episodes of depression in alcohol. Charles is captivated by the splendor of Sebastian's life, and he finds himself drawn into a web of decadent comfort, while also developing an infatuation with Sebastian's sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell), even as Charles senses his relationship with Sebastian is something deeper than simple friendship. The idyllic days at the Flyte estate come to an end with the arrival of Sebastian's mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson), a fierce Catholic who objects to her son's free and easy life and has become increasingly bitter since her husband, Lord Marchmain (Michael Gambon), has left her to live in Italy with the lovely Cara (Greta Scacchi). This was the first cinema adaptation of Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, though it was the basis of an acclaimed miniseries produced for British television in 1981. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide