John Fitzgerald Movies

After Jill Godmilow failed to gain entry into Poland in the early 1980s to make a documentary on the Gdansk strike and the Solidarity movement, she created this docudrama that is meant to tell her story, as well as that of the strikers and the woman who began it all, Anna Walentynowicz (Elzbieta Komorowska). Undoubtedly upset at being rejected, the contrast between Godmilow's problems and the difficulties faced by the down-to-earth Anna is uncomfortably great. Anna has been fired from her job after 30 years of dedicated service at minimal wages, and the workers rally around her -- marking the beginning of the Gdansk strikes. Anna and others of her generation are brought forward in re-enacted interviews in the better segments of this docudrama, while Godmilow's own ruminations and commentaries are somehow less convincing in comparison. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In The Odd Angry Shot director Tom Jeffrey provides a cathartic Australian answer to Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter. Australia's participation in the Vietnam War was as much of an alienating and soul-searching experience for Australians as for Americans, and Jeffrey's frank portrayal of a group of Australian volunteers casts the war in a different light from the perspective of a Cimino or Oliver Stone. The story concerns a corp of Australian elite soldiers -- the Special Air Service troops (the equivalent of the United States' Special Forces group) -- and the elite group's more pragmatic and hopeful attitudes -- whiling away the time in mindless diversions and cracking jokes. Then one of their own is killed and their feelings about the war suddenly change. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Forces' Sweetheart is a British service comedy, perhaps best appreciated by its homegrown audience. Musical comedy favorite Hy Hazell plays Judy James, a performer with ENTA, the British equivalent of the USO. Three goofy soldiers, played by Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Freddie Frinton, vie for the affections of the lovely Judy. The threadbare production numbers feature such specialty acts as The Leslie Roberts Television Girls. Forces' Sweetheart didn't get much play in the US, save for a showing or two on the Late Late Show. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this costume adventure set in France during the Reign of Terror, a mysterious man known only as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues noblemen from the guillotine and leads them to safety across the English Channel. Chauvelin (Cyril Cusack) is determined to unmask the Pimpernel and bring him to justice. When evidence begins to suggest that the hero is actually foppish Sir Percey Blakeney (David Niven), Chauvelin blackmails Percey's wife, Marguerite (Margaret Leighton), into cooperating on the threat that he'll expose the criminal activities of her brother Armand (Edmund Audran). However, Marguerite doesn't much care for her husband, hardly believes he could be the heroic Pimpernel, and is startled when she finds out that he truly is the masked vigilante. The Elusive Pimpernel was originally shot in color as a musical, but the musical numbers were cut before the film was released, and the picture's American distributor chose to make only black-and-white prints (though the current home-video release is in color). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Boy Slaves is an effective indictment of the exploitation of reform school labor. Several troublesome boys are offered an opportunity to work on a turpentine farm run by the seemingly benign Charles Lane, with the promise that their good behavior will ensure their early release from the reformatory. But the kids soon learn that they're little more than slaves, toiling at a dangerous job for free while Lane grows rich on their labors. After numerous tragedies, the boys are finally able to relay the facts to the outside world, and Lane is brought to justice. Based on several true accounts of Southern work farms, Boy Slaves managed to overcome the lurid nature of its title with the sincerity of its storytelling. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi