Shirley Ann Field Movies
A model and (briefly) repertory actress, London-born Shirley Anne Field was featured as the first of a steady stream of sweet ingenues in 1955's Simon and Laura. Thereafter, Field became one of busiest young actresses in the British film industry, with meaty roles in such films as Upstairs and Downstairs (1959), Peeping Tom (1960) and These Are the Damned (1960). Her screen image was demure to the point of dullness, a quality cleverly exploited in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, wherein with deceptive guilessness she traps Albert Finney into a loveless marriage. By the time Field appeared in Alfie (1966), her acting skills had sharpened but her popularity was on the wane. After several years on stage and in TV, Field returned to films as a character actress in 1977; her last film to date was 1991's Hear My Song. An occasional visitor to American shores, Shirley Anne Field appeared in 1984 on the NBC daytime drama Santa Barbara, playing the role of Pamela Capwell until other commitments obliged her to relinquish the part to Marj Dusay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Michael Powell's controversial meditation on violence and voyeurism effectively destroyed his career when it was first released, but later generations have come to regard it as a masterpiece. Karl Heinz Boehm stars as Mark, the son of a psychologist who kept a video journal of the boy's upbringing for research purposes. The constant intrusions profoundly affected the boy, who grew up to be a photographer himself; but his principal subject matter consists of women whom he murders before the camera. He then runs the films of his victims in their final throes so that he can study their reactions to death--a perverse extension of his father's experiments, which tormented Mark to analyze his reactions to raw fear. The British press had long been hostile to the unorthodox films of Powell and his partner Emeric Pressburger; when Peeping Tom came around, they used the film to castigate him as "sick" and tawdry. The passage of time has proven Peeping Tom as profound and accomplished as any of Powell's earlier films, and it ranks with Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958) as a landmark exploration of the links among voyeurism, violence, and male sexual desire. Powell himself plays the evil father in the flashback sequences, and his son Colomba plays Mark as a child. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Heinz Böhm, Moira Shearer, (more)
- 1960
An A.P. Dearsley stage play was the basis for the seven-reel British comedy And the Same to You. Brian Rix stars as the pugnacious nephew of clergyman Sydney Mullett. Stuck with the name "Dickie Dreadnought," Rix feels he has no choice but to pursue a career as a boxer. To mollify his uncle, Rix pretends to be the soul of religiosity, while his tough-talking manager William Hartnell poses as a Man of the Cloth. The script for And the Same to You was penned by melodrama specialist John Paddy Carstairs and veteran comic actor John Junkin (the too-tall road manager in A Hard Day's Night). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A rebellious teenager runs away from home and joins the SoHo beatniks when her widowed father remarries a much younger woman. But beatnik life isn't all it seems and she ends up hanging out as a stripper in a sleazy club, hoping to learn about her mom. There the creepy club owner attempts to seduce her, and his lover gets jealous and stabs him. Now the two must do something fast. The film is also known as Wild for Kicks, and features music from rocker Adam Faith, the John Barry Seven, and other beatnik acts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Farrar, Noëlle Adam, (more)
Laurence Olivier recreates his stage role of Archie Rice in this in-your-face film adaptation of John Osborne's play. The son of a legendary music hall comedian (Roger Livesey), Archie is strictly a third-rater, headlining a tacky music hall revue in a seedy seaside resort town. Archie can't admit that he's a failure, and his grim insouciance destroys everyone around him. Archie finagles his dying father into financing one last revue; he cheats shamelessly on his alcoholic wife (Brenda De Banzie); and he all but forces one of his sons (Albert Finney) to run off to join the army, only to die in the Suez. Through all his personal crises, Archie jigs and jabbers before his ever-diminishing audience, but by the end of the film he isn't even entertaining himself. Joan Plowright, who married Olivier shortly after completing The Entertainer, plays the film's one sympathetic character: Archie's daughter, whose love for her father blinds her to his flaws. The Entertainer was remade for television in 1976, with Jack Lemmon as Archie Rice and original songs by Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Brenda de Banzie, (more)
- 1960
Kenneth More was beginning to segue into comedy roles when he took on the character of William in this standard sci-fi parody by director Basil Dearden. William is an unsuccessful guinea pig for a medical group interested in researching the common cold when he is soon fired and offered a job by the nearby National Atomic Research Center. They figure anyone who could fail at being a guinea pig is just what they need. They con William into thinking he will continue his guinea pig career by testing out some equipment for them before they send a group of astronauts to the moon. What they neglect to tell him is that the testing will be done by actually sending him to the moon. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth More, Shirley Ann Field, (more)
The power of hypnotism provides the basis of this film that was released in "Hypnovision" (yet another promotional gimmick) A budding and frustrated mystery writer takes extreme steps to insure that his latest thriller contains accurate descriptions of horrible murders in this gory horror thriller. He decides that the best way to do this is to set up and witness similar murders first- hand, so, not wanting to bloody his own hands, he hypnotizes his assistant, turns him into a deformed monster and has him do the dirty work using a few devilishly clever gadgets that include binoculars equipped with spring-loaded spikes, a secret guillotine poised above a young woman's bed, and deadly ice tongs. Afterward, the writer drops the bodies in a vat of acid. Several people die before the assistant rebels and gets bloody revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Gough, June Cunningham, (more)
- 1957
This once-notorious British expose film now seems as innocent as a community choir rehearsal. Based on the real-life activities of London's Messina gang, The Flesh is Weak tells the story of a decent girl named Marissa Cooper (Milly Vitale) who is inveigled by a family of pimps into a life of prostitution. When she tries to break away from her sordid surroundings, her "protectors" have her thrown in jail on a phony assault charge. It takes the intervention of journalist Lloyd Buxton (William Franklyn) to rescue Marissa and convict the man responsible for her downfall. John Derek heads the cast as Tony Giani, a ruthless young punk with a smooth line and movie-star looks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Derek, Milly Vitale, (more)
- 1957
1957's The Good Companions was the second film version of the well-known J. B. Priestly play. The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth. Eric Portman, Celia Johnson and John Fraser are three Britons from various classes and walks of life who become involved in the fortunes of the Dinky Doos. Pooling their resources, the diverse "good companions" save the troupe from disbanding. Good-natured and high-spirited, Good Companions might have even been better had the director adopted a more intimate and less showbizzy approach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Portman, Celia Johnson, (more)
- 1956
No relation to the 1939 Claudette Colbert-James Stewart comedy of the same name, It's a Wonderful World is essentially a vehicle for British-based bandleader Ted Heath. The thinnish plot is set in motion by would-be songwriters Terence Morgan and George Cole, who manage to sell a tune by claiming that it was composed by a reclusive musical genius. When the tune hits the top of the charts, Morgan and Cole find themselves in the embarrassing position of having to produce the "real" composer. Director Val Guest manages to extract new laughs out of such old setpieces as showing a snobbish audience being gradually won over by pop music. The principal attraction of It's a Wonderful World--to modern viewers, at least is the presence of Ted Heath, whose screen appearances were all too few and far between. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terence Morgan, George Cole, (more)
- 1956
It's Never Too Late stars Phyllis Calvert as a sedate and settled British wife and mother. Deciding that her family has taken her for granted far too long, the bored Ms. Calvert types up a movie script. Her work becomes a hit film and Phyllis suddenly finds herself a celebrity. Now she must choose between being a highly paid author and a middle-class housewife; since this film is conformist all down the line, her decision holds few surprises. It's Never Too Late was based on a play by Felicity Douglas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Directed by Roy Kellino, this British comedy stars David Niven as Roger Tweakham, an accountant for a silk manufacturer who finds himself digging deeper and deeper into trouble. Not only is he suddenly smitten by a French model (Geneviève Page) despite his marriage to his wife (Dorothy Alison), Roger has also devised an ambitious plan to fix the financial books to make his company appear more successful than a rivalrous nylon maker. The final film for director Kellino, who suffered a fatal heart attack before it was released, The Silken Affair was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Robert Lewis Taylor. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Geneviève Page, (more)
- 1956
In this location-filmed domestic seriocomedy, Rosanno Brazzi and Glynis Johns play an accountant and his new wife, honeymooning in Monte Carlo. With the casino in full view and ready for action, the couple would be remiss if they didn't give the gaming tables a try. Besides, Brazzi is certain that he's worked out a "system." Sure enough, the couple's marriage suffers mightily as the lure of the casino becomes stronger than their devotion to each other. Based on a story by Graham Greene, Loser Takes All was remade in 1990 as Strike It Rich, with Robert Lindsay and Mollie Ringwald. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rossano Brazzi, Glynis Johns, (more)
- 1955
An 18-month-old baby disappears in London. The parents, US embassy worker David Knight and his wife Julia Arnall, are panic-stricken. Detective David Farrar tries to locate the child, but clues are scarce. At the last possible moment, Farrar rescues the infant from a grueling fate and collars the kidnappers. This nail-biting film is filled to capacity with many of Britain's top supporting players, including Thora Hird, Everley Gregg, Joan Sims, Shirley Anne Field, Joan Hickson, Dandy Nichols, Mona Washbourne, Barbara Winsor and George Woodbridge. Released in the US by Republic, under the title Tears for Simon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Farrar, David Knight, (more)
- 1955
Love, marriage and show business provide the basis of this lively comedy that centers on a husband and wife, who are chosen by television producers to embody the perfect married couple on an upcoming television series. The show is to be filmed and broadcast live from the home of Simon and Laura, who on camera are indeed the perfect couple. Unfortunately, the minute the camera is off, the two are going at it hammer and tong. Still, their show is very popular, and many couples look up to them until the ill-fated shooting of a Christmas special in which the couple begin tippling alcoholic beverages during the filming and end up letting their true relationship come out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Finch, Kay Kendall, (more)
