Elizabeth Ercy Movies

Part of the BBC arts program Omnibus, Song of Summer is a made-for-TV biopic about English composer Frederick Delius, based on the book Delius As I Knew Him by Eric Fenby. Shot in black-and-white, the film was made as part of a series of composer biographies by Ken Russell and originally broadcast on the BBC in 1968. Max Adrian plays Delius, who is both paralyzed and blind as a result of syphilis. In 1928, young musician Eric Fenby (Christopher Gable) worked as his assistant, taking dictations at his home in Grez-sur-Loing, France. Delius turns out to be a bitter, mean old man as well as an accomplished composer. Maureen Pryor plays his wife, Jelka, while David Collings plays fellow composer Percy Grainger. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Made by the then 23-year-old director Michael Reeves, who died after making only one more movie, the notable Witchfinder General (1968), this is an unusual horror film concerning an elderly couple who conduct experiments with mind control, hoping to experience the lost excitements of youth through their subject, a young man whom they have persuaded to become a guinea-pig in the name of science. Once the process has begun however, a conflict ensues between the couple, the woman urging their subject to commit crimes in the pursuit of even greater thrills against the wishes of her husband, which in turn results in a horrific comeuppance for both, the price exacted for meddling in things beyond the province of humanity. With the casting of veteran actor, Boris Karloff in this swinging sixties setting, this is a rare example of the merging of two styles of horror movie-making, the old school which Karloff represented almost gone by the late sixties, a new, grittier contemporary genre waiting to succeed it. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide

An epic and unusual anti-war drama about WWII, writer-director Carl Foreman's heavily ironic saga is loosely based on the novel The Human Kind by Alexander Baron. It follows the adventures of an American infantry platoon based in Sicily that participates in the invasion of France, marches into Germany, and remains there for the Allied post-war occupation. Interspersed during the nearly three-hour film are vignettes of silly newsreel scenes from the home front. These are contrasted with disturbing incidents from the war. George Peppard plays Corporal Chase, who has an affair with a woman who wants him to desert to help her run a black market business. He visits the wounded Sergeant Craig (Eli Wallach) in the hospital and finds that most of his face has been blown away. Sgt. Trower (George Hamilton) takes up with a woman who turns out to be a prostitute The plot is highly episodic, with characters coming and going. Originally released at 175 minutes, the picture was withdrawn from distribution and edited down to 156 minutes to place greater emphasis on onscreen action. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide