Jill Adams Movies
British leading lady Jill Adams appeared in films during the late '50s through the early '60s. Prior to becoming an actress, Adams worked as a model. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1964
A woman has to choose between the rich man she wants and the bohemian type who loves her in this comedy. Michele O'Brien (Leslie Caron) is a young widow raising a baby in Greenwich Village. She's decided that her child needs a father, and she determines that her best bet as a prospective mate is Dr. Phillip Brock (Robert Cummings), a well-heeled child psychologist. The only trouble is, Phillip doesn't like children very much, so Michele tries to keep her baby a secret from him. Michele's upstairs neighbor, Harley Rummell (Warren Beatty), is in love with her and is more than happy to baby-sit; however, Harley makes his living shooting nudie films in his flat, and when the baby begins making cameo appearances in the films, Michele starts wondering if Harley might be a bad influence on the tyke. William Peter Blatty, later to write the best-selling novel The Exorcist, penned the screenplay. Keep an eye peeled for a young Donald Sutherland in a bit part. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Beatty, Leslie Caron, (more)
- 1964
Kenneth More is The Comedy Man in this cinemazation of Douglas Hayes' novel. Having spent most of his life playing the provinces in obscurity, More gives the London TV scene a try. He fails at attaining stardom on his own terms, but becomes a celebrity on TV commercials. After basking in fame for a while, More decides that he's sold out and returns to regional repertory. Matching More's terrific starring performance are such British "regulars" as Dennis Price, Billie Whitelaw, Cecil Parker, Norm Rossington, and Frank Finlay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth More, Cecil Parker, (more)
In this youthful drama, based on a true story, a group of boarding school girls who have lost their virginity begin to proudly wear yellow teddy bear pins to show that they are now worldly women. One of them, a troubled 16-year old who has been ignored by her parents, is quite pleased when she finally gets her pin. Unfortunately she also gets pregnant. Her impregnator is a window washer and aspiring pop singer. She needs an abortion and is assisted by a helpful hooker who also helps her become a streetwalker so she can raise the cash for the operation. The girls father is outraged when he learns the truth, but he blames the school's biology teacher, not his daughter. He is angry with the educator because she knew all about the teddy bear club and was the one who talked about sex with them. The teacher resigns after being reprimanded. Before she does though, she gives an emotional speech to the school board. Meanwhile the troubled girl, runs away to London. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Ellis, Annette Whiteley, (more)
After several years' absence, Dirk Bogarde returns to the popular British "Doctor" film series in Doctor in Distress. Where once Bogarde's Dr. Simon Sparrow was naive and wide-eyed, he is a bit more urbane in this edition. He even manages to offer romantic advice to his old mentor/nemesis Sir Lancelot Sprat (James Robertson Justice). Sparrow's efforts to smooth the path for Sir Lancelot's amorous pursuit of physiotherapist Barbara Murray puts a strain on his own relationship with comely Samantha Eggar. Doctor in Distress is based on characters created by Dr. Richard Gordon, though the story is an original and not an adaptation of a Gordon novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Samantha Eggar, (more)
- 1960
The "Carry On" gang take on law enforcement in this rude and crude slapstick comedy. When a flu epidemic leaves a British police station decimated with illness, three incompetent rookies are given the chance to prove themselves as police officers. The three screwy recruits are Tom Potter (Leslie Phillips), a two-bit lothario; Stanley Benson (Kenneth Williams), an uppity intellectual with unique views on law enforcement procedures; and Charlie Constable (Kenneth Connor), an obsessive type who is consumed with astrology. With the help of the swishy Special Officer Timothy Gorse (Charles Hawtrey), the stooges manages to mess up every assignment they are given. But when a criminal gang robs a payroll truck, the four nincompoops are forced to prove their worth. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney James, Kenny Williams, (more)
- 1959
An abused boy stands accused of killing his drunken father in this British drama. Fortunately two compassionate neighbors take him in and help to prove his innocence. The film is also called Scamp. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Hollywood hasbeen Keefe Brasselle stars in the British Death Over My Shoulder. The resistable Mr. Brasselle plays a detective who is unable to meet the medical payments for his ailing son. Professional killer Bonar Colleano is hired to bump off Brasselle so that the boy will collect the insurance. Not unexpectedly, Brasselle has a change of heart-but Colleano doesn't. This plot chestnut was old when Douglas Fairbanks used it in 1915's Flirting With Fate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
British juvenile actor Colin Peterson plays the title character in Scamp. The son of a drunken vaudevillian performer, Peterson is left in the care of a kindly professor (Richard Attenborough) and his wife (Dorothy Alison) when his father goes on a South American tour. His guardians try to get the boy to behave properly, but Peterson has been on his own for so long that he has never developed any sense of self-discipline. After running afoul of the law, Peterson is sent back to his father, who resumes his abuse of the boy. During an argument, Peterson hits his father over the head with an ashtray--and shortly afterward, the father drops dead. Convinced that he's a murderer, Peterson hides out in the professor's home. With the help of his new surrogate father, Peterson proves that his besotted dad died of a booze-induced fall. Scamp was based on Charlotte Hastings' play Uncertain Joy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Terence Morgan, (more)
- 1957
The British Brothers in Law is a characteristically enjoyable Boulting-brother farce, again extracting humor out of the commonplace. Ian Carmichael stars as a novice attorney, full of notions but coming-on a bit too strong for his fellow lawyers. Thanks to the intervention of irascible judge Miles Malleson, Carmichael is forced to jump in and starts swimming with a particularly prickly case. The experience teaches Carmichael how to bend and shape law to his advantage--and also how to curry favor with the public. Brothers in Law was based on a novel by Henry Cecil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Ian Carmichael, (more)
- 1956
Alistair Sim plays a mild, innocuous little watchmaker who spends his off-hours as a professional assassin. His present target is windbag cabinet member Raymond Huntley. After various misfire attempts, Sim plants a bomb in a small radio and waits for the tube to warm up--but the authorities by now are on to him. The Green Man has some excellent setpieces, notably a droll snatch of black humor involving a body stuffed in a piano. The film's only debit is that, in the play upon which it is based, Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's Meet the Body, Sim's character is secondary, almost peripheral. By reshaping the film into a star vehicle, much of the play's intimate (albeit ghoulish) charm is dissipated. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, George Cole, (more)
- 1956
The Boulting Brothers enjoyed one of their biggest box-office successes of the 1950s with the wry service comedy Private's Progress. Though billed fourth, Ian Carmichael plays the central character, feckless British soldier Stanley Windrush. Interrupting his college education to serve his country, Windrush flunks out of officer's candidate school and is demoted to private. Much of the humor arises from the bookish hero's confrontation with the ruder and cruder side of army life, as represented by rough-hewn fellow private Cox (Richard Attenborough). As Major Hitchcock, Terry-Thomas offers a brilliant parody of the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" school of military service, while Dennis Price is equally amusing as a nonplussed commanding officer named Tracepurcel (!) Also worth watching is future "Dr. Who" star William Hartnell as a loudmouthed sergeant. Halfway through the film, the plot rears its ugly head as the protagonists become involved with the covert reclamation of art treasures confiscated by the Nazis during WW2. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, (more)
- 1956
In this crime drama, a policeman sacrifices his career keep his daughter from being implicated in a bank job. Her actions caused his carefully constructed case against a crime boss to crumble. Still, even as a civilian, he continues to chase after the crook. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
John Gregson stars as Chayley Broadbent, a young Yorkshire businessman leading a dull, perfunctory life. He inherits a sizeable fortune, plus a prosperous textile factory, from his wealthy father. Soon after, he has a fight with his straight-laced girlfriend, Ethel (Susan Stephen) and leaves her, taking off for London. Once there, he plunges into the nightclub circuit, falling in love with showgirl Diana Dors. But she mistakes him for an impoverished chap and thus rejects his marriage proposal. When she finally figures out the truth, she makes a beeline for him, but by then he's onto her golddigging motives and instead opts to return to Ethel. Adapted from a novel by Derick Boothroyd, Value for Money shows no shame in trotting out all the cliches and obvious comic set-ups indigenous to this sort of film farce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gregson, Diana Dors, (more)
- 1955
Hollywood's Danziger brothers dashed off the British The Count of Twelve in approximately two weeks. With only 51 minutes' worth of running time, the storytelling has to be quick and to the point, and it is. The film is divided into two separate but tenuously connected plotlines. In the first, a man tries to avoid being murdered at the stroke of midnight, only to expire from a heart attack. In the second, a doctor's intended adulterous affair comes to an ironic-and tragic-sudden conclusion. One suspects that Count of Twelve was the pilot for a never-produced TV anthology series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
In this thriller, a reporter investigates the murder of a female blackmailer and soon finds himself hot on the trails of both the killer and the schoolboy that may have witnessed the crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
In this comedy, two rabid football fans begin an unstoppable train of events when they physically harass a referee. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Rex Harrison is The Constant Husband in this delightful British comedy. It all begins when amnesia victim Charles Hathaway (Harrison) tries to reconstruct his past with the aid of psychiatrist Llewellyn (Cecil Parker). Our hero would have been better off had his memory remained lost: Llewellyn discovers that he's had seven wives -- simultaneously! Lady lawyer Chesterman (Margaret Leighton) tries to keep Llewellyn out of jail, though in fact he'd prefer incarceration to multiple matrimony. Of the seven spouses, Kay Kendall (the real-life Mrs. Rex Harrison) stands out with a sparkling comic characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rex Harrison, Margaret Leighton, (more)
This second entry in the British "Doctor" series once more stars Dirk Bogarde as young medico Simon Sparrow. Securing his first job as ship's doctor on a freighter, Simon again runs afoul of James Robertson Justice, here cast not as the irascible Sir Lancelot Sprat but as ship's captain Hogg. Unexpectedly, the freighter is obliged to take on passengers--specifically, the man-hungry daughter (Brenda DeBanzie) of the shipping magnate who owns the vessel, and toothsome French chanteuse Helene Colbert (Brigitte Bardot, in her first English-language film). As the older woman makes a play for the crusty captain, Helene sets her sights on the nonplussed Dr. Sparrow. Often funnier than its predecessor, Doctor at Sea proved the viability of the "Doctor" series, prompting several chucklesome sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Brigitte Bardot, (more)
- 1954
Alan Ladd once more journeyed to England to make a film for Columbia's British counterpart (Warwick Studios), and the result was the lively swashbuckler The Black Knight. Ladd plays John, a young swordmaker who aspires to join the Knights of the Round Table. Unfortunately, he is falsely accused of cowardice and banished from his community. Thanks to the secret tutelage of one of Arthur's knights, John is able to train himself in the art of combat, and soon reemerges as the vengeance-seeking Black Knight. In this guise, he is able to bring a group of traitors to justice, rout a band of invading Saracens, and rescue his lady love Linet (Patricia Medina) from certain doom. Anthony Bushell, who was soon to completely forsake acting in favor of producing and directing, costars as King Arthur, while the villains of the piece are essayed by Peter Cushing and future Dr. Who Patrick Troughton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Ladd, Peter Cushing, (more)
- 1954
Also known as Chance Meeting, The Young Lovers can be described as an Iron Curtain romance. The boy, Ted (David Knight), works as a code expert at the American Embassy in London. The girl, Anna (Odelle Versois), is the daughter of a communist dignitary. When Ted and Anna fall in love, they find their every move monitored by both sides. The course of true love is eventually roadblocked by bureaucracy, forcing hero and heroine to escape to a neutral corner of the world; the trouble is, there isn't any such corner. A lighter variation on this theme can be found in Peter Ustinov's play and film Romanoff and Juliet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Odile Versois, David Knight, (more)
