Howard Goorney Movies

Little Dorrit was intended as the cinematic equivalent to the mammoth, eight hour Royal Shakespeare Company's staging of Dickens' Nicholas Nickelby. The film was released to theatres in two parts, each running approximately three hours. The first part, subtitled "Nobody's Fault," introduced us to the seamstress title character (Sarah Pickering), who chooses to live in debtor's prison with her father (Alec Guinness). Good samaritan Derek Jacobi endeavors to help both father and daughter. The second part, also known as "Little Dorrit's Story," details Dorrit's escape from penury to lasting happiness. Eschewing the usual 19th century-style British music often heard in Dickensian adaptations, director Christine Edzard creatively-and effectively--opts for the strains of Giuseppe Verdi. Edzard's eye for period detail is also deserving of unbounded praise. Unfortunately, Part Two of Little Dorrit spends nearly half of its running time recapping Part One, utilizing much of the same footage. For those familiar with "Nobody's Fault," "Little Dorrit's Story" is more a redundancy than a continuation. Still, taken together, parts one and two all fully deserving of the enthusiastic critical commentary that greeted them upon their original release-not to mention the multiple Academy Award nominations bestowed upon the project and its participants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Othello (Anthony Hopkins) is a noble black Moor held in high regard by Venice for his service as a military general. However, he makes a deadly enemy in his ensign Iago (Bob Hoskins) after he promotes Michael Cassio (David Yelland), not Iago, to the position of personal lieutenant. To gain revenge, Iago secretly attempts to break up the new marriage of Othello and his lovely wife Desdemona (Penelope Wilton) by having Desdemona's former suitor Roderigo (Anthony Pedley) inflame Desdemona's father, Senator Brabantio (Geoffrey Chater), against Othello as a sorcerer who used witchcraft to woo his daughter. In the Venetian Senate, which is discussing a Turkish threat against Cyprus, the duke exonerates Othello of wrongdoing and dispatches him to Cyprus to defend it and become the new governor. Unaware that Iago was behind Brabantio's earlier protests against his marriage, Othello orders Iago to accompany his wife to Cyprus, and Roderigo goes along at the urging of Iago, who tells him that Desdemona will eventually tire of Othello. Once in Cyprus, Iago manipulates Roderigo and his own wife Emilia (Rosemary Leach) into helping him to discredit Cassio and make Desdemona appear unfaithful. His plan works. Othello tells Iago he plans to poison Desdemona, but Iago persuades him to kill her in the bed she ''contaminated.'' As for Cassio, Iago says, ''Let me be his undertaker.'' Believing Iago has killed Cassio, the Moor returns to his castle for the awful task of executing his wife. Othello, still loving his wife, kisses her awake, asks her to prepare her soul for death -- and after an exchange of accusations and denials -- smothers her in her bed. When Emilia tells Othello the truth about the scheming Iago, the wounded Cassio backs up Emilia's story. Othello wounds Iago, then kills himself. Iago kills Emilia. After Iago is led away in chains, Cassio becomes governor of Cyprus. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

Christopher Lee stars in this weak occult melodrama as Father Michael Rayner, an excommunicated priest who decides to save the world from its decadence by teaming up with Satan. Richard Widmark is on hand as John Verney, out to stop Rayner's satanic rituals and helped along on the path of goodness by friends Anna Fountain (Honor Blackman) and David (Anthony Valentine). The plot centers on distraught father Henry Beddows (Denholm Elliott), who has signed over his daughter Catherine (Nastassja Kinski) to Rayner in order to save his own skin and now regrets it. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In The Offence, Sean Connery plays Johnson, a normally unflappable British police inspector who is emotionally shaken by a case of child molestation. For reasons he cannot explain, he is driven to kill the suspect while interrogating him and is suspended from the force. The incident leads to a nervous breakdown -- and the implication that Johnson had beaten the molester to death to purge himself of his own hidden pederastic tendencies. Based on John Hopkins' stage play This Story of Yours, The Offence made little headway at the box office, but United Artists was compelled to release the film to assure Connery's participation in UA's next James Bond movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Norman Jewison's adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical is set in the Ukranian ghetto village of Anatevka (the film was actually lensed in Yugoslavia). Israeli actor Topol repeats his London stage role as Tevye the milkman, whose equilibrium is constantly being challenged by his poverty, the prejudicial attitudes of non-Jews, and the romantic entanglements of his five daughters. Whenever the weight of the world becomes too much for him, Tevye carries on lengthy conversations with God, who does not answer but is at least more willing to listen than the milkman's remonstrative wife Golde. After arranging a marriage between his oldest daughter Tzeitel and wealthy butcher Lazar Wolf, Tevye is forced to do some quick rearranging when the girl falls in love with poor tailor Motel Kamzoil. Fancying himself more broad-minded than his gentile oppressors, Tevye cannot accept the notion that his other daughter Chava would want to marry Fyedka, a non-Jew. And after shouting the praises of "tradition," Tevye must change his tune-and his entire life-when he and his neighbors are forced out of Anatevka by the Czar's minions. Topol's co-stars include Norma Crane as Golde, Yiddish theater legend Molly Picon as Yente the matchmaker, and Leonard Frey as Motel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This 1970 British sex farce stars Hayley Mills as Jenny Bunn, a naïve young schoolteacher from the north of England who comes to swinging London to teach. She moves into a suburb and becomes friends with Anna (Geraldine Sherman). Anna is dating Patrick Standish (Oliver Reed), but when Anna introduces them, Patrick becomes smitten with Jenny. Patrick keeps trying to get Jenny to return his affections, but she is prim and resists. At a party at the home of Julian Ormerod (oel Harrison), she meets Patrick again. They talk, and he convinces her that his intentions are honorable. They agree to have a rendezvous a few days later. But in the meantime, Julian tells Jenny that Patrick really isn't sincere and only wants to see if he can be the one to conquer her virginity. The romantic comedy is based on a play by Louis S. Peterson. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

This tepid thriller features a sullen Michael Gough as an overbearing, sadistic banker whose favorite hobby appears to be beating the tar out of his terrified wife (Yvonne Mitchell) and daughter (Sharon Gurney). In a ham-fisted spin on Diabolique, the two women resolve to murder the old coot while on a family outing and disguise his death as a suicide. Their plans turn awry, however, when their alleged victim apparently refuses to give up the ghost. Gough turns in an excellent performance as the hate-worthy hubby, and there are a good number of effective chills, but overall the film is bogged down somewhat by dreary dialogue scenes and a pointlessly convoluted climax. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Falling somewhere between the Beyond the Fringe school and the Monty Python league, Bedazzled is an irreverent Faust take-off, written by and starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (Moore also composed the music). Moore plays a short-order cook at a London Wimpyburger restaurant, who falls hopelessly in love with waitress Eleanor Bron. About to commit suicide, the broken-hearted Moore is approached by Satan (Peter Cook). The Fallen Angel offers to purchase Moore's soul in exchange for seven wishes--the first of which is squandered when Satan buys Moore an ice cream bar (something over which the two stars quarrel throughout the film). Enticed by living personifications of the Deadly Sins--Raquel Welch, wearing next to nothing, is "Lillian Lust"--Moore allows Satan to grant him his heart's desire, utilizing the magic words, "Julie Andrews!" But with each wish, Satan, being Satan, can't help but gum up the works with a double-cross. The desperate Moore ultimately wishes to be allowed to spend the rest of his life with Eleanor in an environment with no other men--whereupon Satan transforms both Eleanor and Moore into nuns! Finally Satan has a change of heart, allowing Moore and Eleanor to fall in love in more orthodox surroundings and permitting Moore to regain his soul. Satan hopes that God will appreciate this good deed and allow him to re-enter Heaven. But God doesn't buy this; He's satisfied with Satan remaining mankind's "necessary evil". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Hill was unfairly subjected to ridicule by the more obtuse "critics" of 1965 who harped on the fact that it starred Sean Connery and, unlike Connery's Bond pictures, had no women in it. Bypassing these cretinous comments, it must be noted that The Hill is an above-the-norm entry in the "military prison" genre. The film takes place during World War II, in a Libyan stockade for incorrigible British soldiers. The camp's brutal Sergeant Major (Harry Andrews) puts his charges to work on grueling, monotonous and pointless projects to break their spirits. When one rebellious inmate dies due to this treatment, the Sergeant Major is reprimanded by Joe Roberts (Connery), who has been appointed as the prisoners' spokesman. The result is that Roberts is likewise subjected to the most demeaning and humiliating of prison chores -- but his spirit, and that of his comrades, is not so easily crushed. Based on a TV play by Ray Rigby, The Hill should never be seen in any form other than its dusty, parched original black-and-white; the currently available colorized version is a crime against humanity. One problem: The British dialects in the first 20 minutes are so thick that an American viewer practically needs subtitles (British critics chalked this problem up not to elocution but to poor sound recording). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The reclusive millionaire whom Steed was assigned to escort to New York has been spirited away to a private nursing home -- in a coffin. Investigating these mysterious goings-on, Cathy gets a job at the same home. Finally locating the missing person, Cathy discovers that the man has been replaced by an impostor. . .and that the mystery has only begun. A satiric jab at Britain's excessive inheritance taxes (the connection between this plot twist and the rest of the story is made obvious only in the final moments), "The Undertakers" was written by Malcolm Hulke. It was originally telecast in England on October 5, 1963, and it belatedly debuted in America on March 6, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a prison inmate escapes and discovers that his partner has married the very cop that arrested him and has used the robbery loot to open a coastal resort. The fugitive convict is quietly followed by an inspector who arrests them all at the holiday camp. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide