Shirley Ann Field Movies

One of the most popular British TV soap operas of the late 20th-early 21st century, Where the Heart Is was set in the fictional community of Skelthwaite. Originally, the stories focused on two nurses, Peggy Snow (Pam Ferris) and Ruth Goddard (Sarah Lancashire), and their extended families. Eventually and inevitably, the plot lines branched out to virtually every resident of Skelthwaite, especially the younger and prettier citizens. The first 54-minute episode of Where the Heart Is was broadcast in 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This morality tale examines AIDS in the heterosexual community. Lara, after spending a year in Mexico unsuccessfully trying to save her marriage to Steven, returns to the U.S. to find Max, her lover. However Max has gone without a trace. Lara remembers the first time they met in the office of a private eye she was planning to hire to spy on her two-timing husband. Lara and Max had unprotected sex. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Another of writer/director Ken Russell's D.H. Lawrence adaptations, Lady Chatterley (an amalgam of three Lawrence novels) was first shown as a British TV miniseries on BBC1 from June 6 to 27, 1993. In recounting the familiar details of young, bored Lady Chatterley (Joely Richardson), her elderly, infirm husband (James Wilby), and her hot-blooded stable-groom lover, Manners (Sean Bean), Russell took the opportunity to both celebrate and savage the British upper classes of the 1920s. One brief sequence of full frontal nudity caused a minor scandal in Britain, though by Ken Russell standards the scene was a model of taste and decorum. After its initial TV run, Lady Chatterley was edited down from 220 to 110 minutes and released theatrically in the United States. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A teen sex comedy derived from the arch debut novel of author Martin Amis by debut director Damian Harris (son of actor Richard Harris). Dexter Fletcher stars as Charles Highway, a 19-year-old computer nerd in London who has created a program that will allegedly guide him through the process of seducing a girl. Charles is determined to win over a beautiful, older woman before he enters Oxford University as a freshman. Then he meets 20-year-old American girl Rachel Noyce (Ione Skye), who unfortunately has a boyfriend named DeForest (James Spader). Since Rachel is a bit of a free-spirited swinger, however, Charles might have a chance, but her complexity dooms his ill-conceived "Master of Seduction" computer program. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Shag is a beach flick set in 1963. The years have passed, but the old Where the Boys Are formula holds firm: four attractive young lasses head for the surf and sand of Myrtle Beach, SC, looking for guys. Carson McBride (Phoebe Cates) is about to be married, so her three pals seek out a final affaire d'amour on her behalf before she is lost to the world forever. The cast is fascinating for its family ties: Bridget Fonda is the daughter of Peter Fonda, Page Hannah the sister of Daryl Hannah, and Tyrone Power Jr. is the son of you-know-who. Filmed in 1988, Shag was released that year in Europe, then offered to American audiences one year later. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After the death of his wife and his subsequent descent into alcoholic near-agoraphobia, a crotchety Pakistani intellectual convinces his shady entrepreneur brother to provide work for his son in this multi-layered portrait of the immigrant experience in Great Britain. Young Londoner Omar (Gordon Warnecke) isn't sure what he wants out of life, but his uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey) provides a corrupt, capitalist role model as Omar graduates from washing cars for the old crook to running his run-down laundromat. After a chance meeting with Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), an old school chum whose flirtation with fascism deeply wounded Omar's principled Papa (Roshan Seth), Omar hires the young thug to work for him. Soon, the pair begin a romantic relationship that remains as under wraps as the illicit drug-running and enforcement work they perform for Nasser's associate, Salim (Derrick Branche). On the domestic front, Omar must balance his knowledge of Nasser's long-running affair with posh Brit Rachel (Shirley Ann Field) with his own loyalty and attraction to Nasser's westernized daughter, Tania (Rita Wolf). After successfully transforming his laundrette into a vision of resplendent pastel suds and providing a bright spot in his otherwise squalid London neighborhood, Omar seems to have a bright future in Nasser's organization. The spectre of Johnny's past, however, combines with Omar's conflicted immigrant loyalties to threaten the sense of identity the young man has managed to stake out for himself. British-born, half-Pakistani playwright and novelist Hanif Kureishi won an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette, which was originally filmed for BBC television. Kureishi collaborated again with director Stephen Frears on Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

92 minutes is way too much time for the familiar plot machinations of Touch of the Other. Kenneth Cope stars as a detective who is framed for murder. Fortunately, Cope has several underworld connections who owe him favorites. With their help, and with the aid and comfort of hooker Shirley Ann Field, the detective proves his innocence. Filmed in Britain, Touch of the Other didn't get an American release until it was picked up for television. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Doctor in Clover is the next-to-last entry in the British "Doctor" comedy film series. After losing his government job, doctor Gaston Grimsdyke (Leslie Phillips) signs up for a medical school course with his old tutor-nemesis Sir Lancelot Spratt (welcome back, James Robertson Justice). What follows is the standard melange of double- and single entendres, not to mention the usual dalliances with such underdressed lovelies as Shirley Ann Field, Fenella Fielding and Elizabeth Ercy. A subplot involves a rejuvenation serum that is disastrously applied to the behemothlike Sir Lancelot. Though allegedly based on the original "Doctor" novel by Richard Gordon, any resemblance is purely coincidental.Doctor in Clover was also released as Carnaby MD, in deference to the "Swinging London" craze. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on Howard Fast's novel The Winston Affair, this WW II-era crime drama is set in India and chronicles the attempts of an American military attorney to defend a lieutenant who shot a British officer in cold blood. Many witnesses were present and the question the lawyer must answer is whether the defendant is sane enough to stand trial. His investigation leads him to believe that his client is not. Unfortunately, his general is anxious to resolve the case to quell mounting tensions between British and American troops. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Joseph Losey directed this unusual science fiction effort, which has won a small but fervent cult following. Simon Wells (MacDonald Carey) is an American visiting England, where he meets a woman named Joan (Shirley Ann Field). Simon is immediately attracted to Joan, but there's a considerable obstacle in their budding romance: Joan's brother King (Oliver Reed), the leader of a violent pack of motorcycle rockers. King has a barely concealed incestuous attachment to his sister, and he sometimes uses her to lure victims into his gang's clutches. King and his cronies attack Simon, take his money, and leave him stranded, where he's eventually found by a pair of military security men. Simon is brought to the home of Bernard (Alexander Knox), a scientist working on a secret project for the government, and his girlfriend Freya (Viveca Lindfors), a sculptor. Joan eventually tracks Simon down in hopes of winning his forgiveness, but another run-in with King causes Simon and Joan to discover a cave that holds a terrible secret: a group of strange, cold-blooded children who were the products of one of Bernard's experiments gone wrong. The children were genetically engineered to survive a nuclear war, and, as a result, they are radioactive enough to kill anyone who comes in close contact with them. Controversial in its day, The Damned was produced in England in 1961 but was not released until 1963, when Hammer Films booked it as the second-half of a double bill with Maniac. It did not reach American screens until 1965, when it was shown under the title These Are the Damned. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Nothing goes right when a junior executive organizes a romantic encounter with a designer. ~ Rovi

Yul Brynner and Kay Kendall star as Victor and Dolly Fabian in this successful cinematic version of the stage comedy by Harry Kurnitz. Victor is a larger-than-life symphony conductor who loves music but has all the social skills of a wounded rhinoceros. After his wife Dolly gets fed up with smoothing over his relationships with his musicians and everyone else, she dumps him and takes up an offer of marriage from a physicist. Alas! Documentation -- or the lack of it -- soon reveals that the Fabians were never really married in the first place. Unfortunately, they still have to get divorced in order to save face and this, of course, leads to an increasingly unexpected series of complications. Elegant and witty actress Kay Kendall died of leukemia three months after this film was completed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi