Richard Goolden Movies
- 1970
- PG
Rat-pack pals Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford reprise their roles of Charlie Salt and Chris Pepper, respectively, in this film that marks the directorial debut of comedian/writer Jerry Lewis. Lawford also plays Lord Sydney Pepper, the twin brother of Charlie who is a murder victim. Salt and Pepper investigate the crime in this uneven comedy feature. Pepper takes the place of his dead brother and winds up involved in a diamond-smuggling operation. The duo is chased through the bucolic English countryside by Interpol agents and crooks after the stolen gems. Like many sequels, it fails to be as amusing as the original, which wasn't that great in the first place. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, (more)
- 1966
This silly twist on the silent classic Der Golem stars Roddy McDowall as Arthur Pimm, assistant museum curator and would-be Norman Bates who, among other things, preserves the body of his late mother in his home. When Pimm and museum director Grove (Ernest Clark) discover a grotesque statue left intact after a fire at one of the museum storehouses, they transport the stone behemoth to the museum for study. After finding Grove mysteriously crushed to death under the statue, Pimm's curiosity is piqued, leading him to investigate its origins. He discovers that the figure is actually the legendary Golem, an indestructible creature of 16th-century Yiddish myth capable of destroying the enemies of any man who becomes its master. Pimm is eventually able to control the monster with his deranged mind, leading it on a rampage of murder and destruction that devastates half of London. Aside from McDowall's typically eccentric performance, this stodgy film is a fairly tedious exercise, shambling along more slowly than the monster itself and punctuated only by occasional over-the-top moments, particularly at the laughable climax. Director Herbert J. Leder's earlier horror film The Frozen Dead is much more enjoyable. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roddy McDowall, Jill Haworth, (more)
- 1965
Kim Novak's decolletage, rather than the lady herself, is the true star of The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders. This rambunctious filmization of Daniel Defoe's "naughty" novel stars Novak as a poverty-stricken 18th century damsel who rises to the top of society surrendering her virtue--time and time again. After several wealthy patrons and husbands, our heroine finds true love with roguish highwayman Richard Johnson (who briefly became Novak's husband in real life). The film's best moments belong to its largely British supporting cast, especially Leo McKern as a myopic bandit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Novak, Richard Johnson, (more)
- 1963
This engaging children's musical finds Billy Bowles (Tommy Steele) as an A & R talent co-ordinator who has grown up as an orphan. He returns every Saturday to play with the orphans in the place he grew up. The sentimental Billy arranges a recording session and a benefit performance to help the institution. He gathers a bevy of song and dance professionals in the spirit of Andy Hardy and puts on a show the kids will never forget. Billy steals the show with his inspired hoofing and crooning. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Steele, Michael Medwin, (more)
- 1962
In this family drama, a garage owner finds himself teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. He becomes tempted to sell his business to a shady businessman when a kindly rich person in disguise offers to pay the garage guy to compete in an Alpine car race. The determined garage owner manages to thwart the attempt's of the evil buyer to sabotage him and win the race thereby saving his garage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Two veterinarians contrast with each other in this standard British comedy by Darcy Conyers. Jimmy Fox-Upton (Leslie Phillips) is a decent chap who took more than ten years of hard work to get his vet's license. His nemesis, Bob Skeffington (James Booth) shortened the time to his license by cheating on his exams. While Skeffington is out to bilk the rich and famous via their pedigree pets, Fox-Upton is only dedicated to serving the mutts of the truly poor. Then in comes a pretty owner (Peggy Cummins) of an escaped, performing chimp, and romance enters the life of Fox-Upton. But not alone. The nefarious Skeffington is in on a racket that threatens to bring down Fox-Upton unless he can figure out what is really going on. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Phillips, Peggy Cummins, (more)
- 1957
The Weapon is a loose grouping of elements first seen in the 1951 British melodrama The Yellow Balloon. Jon Whitely plays a young London boy who finds a loaded gun in a blitzed-out building. He fires, accidentally shooting a playmate. Believing he's killed his friend, the boy runs away--leading to a relentlessly suspenseful climax. Though filmed in England, The Weapon was geared from the start for primarily American audiences; its producer was Hollywood's own Hal E. Chester, and its adult stars included Steve Cochran and Lizabeth Scott. The script was written by Fred Freiberger, best known to sci-fi followers as the producer of the original Star Trek's third and final season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Cochran, Lizabeth Scott, (more)
- 1948
In this crime drama, a man learns that he has six months left to live, and before he dies he decides to get revenge against the man responsible for his incarceration. First he hires a man to kill him and frame the traitor. Later the fellow learns that he is not sick after all. Fortunately his hit man died. Later the man he wants to avenge has a final showdown with him. A struggle ensues and the fellow kills his enemy in self-defense. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1943
Headline serves as a vehicle for handsome David Farrar, who in 1943 was Britain's fastest-rising leading man. Farrar is cast as Broogle, a crime reporter who'll do anything-ANYTHING-for a story. When the wife of the publisher disappears after witnessing a murder, Broogle ignores Scotland Yard's warnings to "lay off" and endeavors to solve the mystery himself. The film's best performance is rendered by BBC radio favorite Richard Goolden, cast as a self-styled "psychological" detective. While genuine journalists howled at the innacuracies in Headline, audiences ate it up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
In 1954 there was Godzilla, the lizard transformed by radiation, and in 1959, the British gave us Behemoth, the Sea Monster, Godzilla's Anglo, radiated cousin. Now there is the "man of steel" in this undistinguished, "B"-grade, sci-fi melodrama that was the last film directed by Allan Dwan. The unsuspecting Eddie Candell (Ron Randell) is on the lam from a crime he never committed when he is exposed to a dangerous, radioactive cobalt substance emanating from an atomic bomb test site in the desert. This exposure does not cause cancer or radiation sickness; it turns Eddie's epidermis into an iron-clad suit of armor that no bullet can penetrate. Thus protected, Eddie the human tank decides to wreak revenge on the villains who framed him for that crime. The only question is not whether he will rust, but whether this odd skin condition is as permanent as it seems. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1937
School for Husbands was adapted for the screen from a stage play by Frederick Jackson. Some of the more censorable aspect of the stage original were watered down for the film, but enough double-entendres remain to titilate the fans. Henry Kendall and Romney Brent plays Geoffrey Carter and Morgan Cheswick, a pair of doubting husbands who conspire to test their wives' fidelity. To do this, they both consult young novelist Leonard Drummond (Rex Harrison), a notorious womanizer, clueing him in to the fact that they're both about to go out of town on business. The husbands figure that if their wives can resists the charms of the libidinous Drummond, then they've passed the "test". The upshot of all this finds Marion Carter (Diana Churchill) resorting to some trickery herself to save Diana Cheswick (June Clyde) from throwing her life away on the philandering Drummond-and then concocting a plan to teach the husbands a good lesson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Churchill, Henry Kendall, (more)
- 1937
In this comedy, two aspiring thespians get a job teaching at a drama school. When classes begin being broadcast on television, the two finally get their chance at stardom and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
The oft-filmed life of Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is again cinematized in this elaborate but ponderous British production. Stephen Haggard plays Mozart, the former child prodigy who becomes the fair-haired boy of Austria, only to lose it all and die in poverty before his 40th birthday. The screenplay, by Margaret Kennedy (The Constant Nymph), chooses to sidestep the less-savory aspects of Mozart's life and death, choosing to end on a note of triumph as the composer's The Magic Flute temporarily rescues him from bankruptcy. Conspicuous by his absence is the composer Salieri, whose rivalry with Mozart formed the basis of the 1984 Oscar-winner Amadeus. Completed in the late 1930s, Mozart was released in 1940, as the last non-documentary effort by director Basil Dean (whose wife Victoria Hopper appears as Mrs. Mozart). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Haggard, Victoria Hopper, (more)
- 1935
In this politically oriented sci-fi film, a star's collision with the moon causes a British village to be shot into space. The village scientist is then elected the new head of state, though this upsets the conservatives who dislike his socialist tendencies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
