Robert Flemyng Movies

Award-winning director Joseph Losey guides this suspenseful mystery through its paces, beginning with an apparently guilty Dutch artist, Jan Van Rooyen (Hardy Kruger), caught in an upscale cottage where a woman lies murdered. Hard-nosed, irritable Inspector Morgan (Stanley Baker) is certain Van Rooyen is guilty and begins to grill him about his story. The artist finally admits that he and the dead woman, Jacqueline Cousteau (Micheline Presle), had met by accident and eventually began a love affair. She was married, so they kept their liaison a secret. Inspector Morgan then informs him that the woman was single but involved with a high-level diplomat. So what is going on? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Peter Finch plays Dr. Alec Windom, a British medico working in the remote Far Eastern island village of Selim. Feeling a strong bond with the natives, Dr. Windom champions their cause during a tense period of romantic upheaval. Eventually, he is forced to quell a native uprising--and to try to convince the colonial government and the local plantation owners to extend a measure of independence and dignity to the long-suffering islanders. Mary Ure costars as Windom's estranged wife, who comes to realize that her husband's "way" is the right one, while Natasha Parry plays a native nurse who harbors an unrequited love for the doctor. Windom's Way is based on a novel by James Ramsay Ullman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Adapted from the book of the same name by Ewen Montagu and based on fact, The Man Who Never Was stars Clifton Webb as Montagu, a lieutenant commander in the British Navy during World War II, who becomes involved in tricky scheme to fool the Nazis. It entails locating a corpse, establishing an identity for it as an intelligence officer called Major Martin, and having the body float in the water just off the coast of Spain, with military identificaiton and letters in its pockets that describe a forthcoming invasion of Greece by the British. That invasion, of course, is entirely fictitious, designed to distract the Nazis from picking up on the Britons' plans to invade Sicily. The scheme is complicated by a young woman named Lucy Sherwood (Gloria Grahame), and Patrick O'Reilly (Stephen Boyd), a German espionage agent. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Faithfully adapted from a popular holiday play by Wynyard Browne, this moving British drama centers on a recently widowed, aging country vicar who hosts a family Christmas and learns a valuable lesson about keeping his own homefires alight before spending too much time tending the fires of others. Those coming for the holiday include his sister, his late wife's sister, and her cousin. The vicar's free-spirited youngest daughter and his son, a furloughed soldier, also show up. The preacher's eldest daughter lives with him and together they welcome their guests. The vicar is a good man and a caring fellow who spends considerable time caring for and counseling his parishioners, perhaps too much time, for he does not recognize the troubles of his own clan. His devoted oldest daughter quietly deals with a terrible dilemma. She is about to marry an engineer who has just found a long-term job overseas. She wants desperately to be with him, but will not leave her beloved father who seems to need her so much. Her little sister also has trouble. While in the city she fell in love with a soldier. He impregnated her, returned to the war, and was killed. Later the child died and she has become an alcoholic, something she eventually tells her brother and sister. Meanwhile the young people's aunts, learning of the situation, ask the youngest to return home to care for her father so the eldest can marry. Unfortunately, the young woman refuses and heads off to get drunk with her brother. When the vicar learns about his daughter's troubles, he and she have an emotional reconciliation. He then moves on to make peace with the rest of his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Long before she distinguished herself as a director, Mai Zetterling was the star of several moody melodramas. Based on a novel by Elizabeth Myers, the film casts Zetterling as Mrs. Carol Edwards, whose husband lies in a hospital bed, afflicted with asthma. Mrs. Edwards becomes a murder suspect when blackmailer Mr. Sine (James Robertson Justice) is killed on the hospital grounds. Since the film is not a mystery, it is safe to reveal that the genuine killer is Mrs. Christopher (Fay Compton), the hospital's wealthy patroness. Basically a character study, Blackmailed spends most of its time delving into the personal problems of Mrs. Edwards and the other suspects. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Blue Lamp was an immensely popular British crime film (and the winner of the BFA Award), concentrating on interrelated episodes in the lives of several London policemen. Jack Warner heads the cast as George Dixon, a veteran "bobby" who is murdered by scuzzy small-time criminals Dirk Bogarde and Patrick Doonan. Rookie cop Jimmy Hanley, who'd looked upon Warner as a father figure, is instrumental in bringing the crooks to justice. The semi-documentary style of The Blue Lamp could not help but have been an influence on Jack Webb's Dragnet. Jack Warner proved so popular in the character of George Dixon that he was brought back from the dead to star in the BBC TV series Dixon of Dock Green. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Not a film about scientific research, The Guinea Pig (US title: The Outsider) is the story of an incipient "affirmative action" program. An impoverished young British boy wins a scholarship. As part of a sociological experiment, he becomes the first product of his "class" to be accepted in a snooty upper-crust public school. Most of the film concentrates on the effect this experiment has on the school staff. Written by actor Bernard Miles, who also plays a supporting role, The Guinea Pig stirred up controversy at the time of its release because of the presence of an alleged profanity in its dialogue. If you must know, it's the same "filthy word" Audrey Hepburn shouts at the Ascot races in My Fair Lady (64). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi