Fred Griffiths Movies

A trio of aspiring crooks plan to steal a million dollars in this crime comedy. Lord Nicholas (David Warner) and his Swiss wife Britt (Ursula Andress) are the jet-set couple who have spent all their money and seek a loan from the bank. She asks Graham (Stanley Baker) for a loan, but the mid-level manager has plans of his own to pad his retirement account by means of larceny. Graham approaches both Nicholas and Britt to help him in his plan. Britt sleeps with both men, willing to take off to Rio with the first one who gets his hands on the money. Nicholas and Graham both are under the assumption they are the masterminds of the plot that is highlighted by amusing twists. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Sidney Poitier, who in 1955 played a student in a tough inner-city high school, portrays a teacher assigned to a similar institution in To Sir, With Love. Unable to find work as an engineer, Poitier accepts a teaching post in London's East End slums. To reach his sullen, rebellious students, Poitier throws away his textbooks and endeavors to reach them as human beings--and as the adults they're going to become. It's an uphill climb, but gradually the students are won over. They begin referring to Poitier as "Sir," not out of blind obedience but as a gesture of genuine affection. Not that there aren't obstacles to overcome: in addition to trying to get through to hardcase student Christian Roberts, Poitier must face down the resistance and hostility of his fellow teachers. The sweetly sentimental finale amply displays the vocal talents of Lulu, who trills the title song. Based on the novel by E. R. Brainwaite, To Sir, With Love was one of the biggest moneyspinners of 1967 (with this film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night, Sidney Poitier had quite a year). In 1996, a belated made-for-TV sequel was produced, briefly reuniting To Sir with Love co-stars Sidney Poiter, Lulu and Judy Geason, none of whom looked a day older. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Director Lewis Gilbert is best known for his other cinematic efforts, such as Educating Rita or in films in a wartime genre, Sink the Bismarck. This unexceptional comedy is about a bumbling searchlight unit during World War II. Ensemble acting creates a series of intertwining stories that involve the various soldiers assigned to this post. Lt. Ogleby (Ian Carmichael) is the cheerful, inept officer in charge, then there is the womanizer whose concept of birth control is limited, the lovesick soldier unhappy over a misunderstanding with his girlfriend, the Cockney cook, the father-figure, and several others. Their trials and tribulations provide the bulk of the comedy, such as it is. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this 1959 comedy, Robert MacPherson (Robert Morley) inherits his family's textile business in Edinburgh, Scotland, then hires American efficiency expert Angela Barrows (Constance Cummings) to bring the business into the modern age. The House of MacPherson has long been known as a manufacturer of fine Scottish tweed, and the company's mild-mannered head clerk, Mr. Martin (Peter Sellers), worries that the no-nonsense Barrows will ruin everything with her new-fangled ideas and eventually replace him and his co-workers with automatons. So after she installs the latest labor-saving devices, including intercoms and noisy adding machines, he sabotages them in a gradually unfolding scheme to persuade MacPherson that the old Scottish ways are still the best, that true craftsmanship requires a human touch. By this time, however, MacPherson has taken a fancy to Barrows romantically, and she can do no wrong. Then, horror of horrors, Barrows proposes that the company make synthetic tweed -- mass-produced synthetic tweed -- in an all-out effort to Americanize the Scottish firm. That's the last straw for Martin, and he thinks there is only one option left for him: to murder Barrows. Of course, meek Mr. Martin isn't exactly a natural-born killer, and he botches one attempt after another in a sequence of scenes that keep the action moving briskly along. But Martin has pluck and plenty of persistence, and he eventually hatches another plot to undo the meddlesome Barrows. The film, loosely based on a James Thurber story entitled The Catbird Seat, was directed by Charles Crichton, the same man who directed the highly successful Lavender Hill Mob. ~ Mike Cummings, Rovi

This rollicking political satire stars Ian Carmichael as an impressionable British TV personality. His vanity is stroked by a group of political managers who talk him into running on the Conservative ticket during a political campaign. The managers hope that Carmichael's name value will draw voters, but don't intend to permit him anything like actual legislative power. Carmichael suddenly develops an abiding interest in politics when he meets his Labour Party opponent--lovely Patricia Breden. Left, Right and Center is blessed with an abundance of supporting character comedians, headed by Alistair Sim as Carmichael's avaricious uncle. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In his all too brief life, director Henry Cornelius became the principal standard-bearer of genteel whimsy in British films. Cornelius' Next to No Time (based on a story by Paul Gallico) stars Kenneth More as a milquetoast engineer who has lost a lot of professional and personal opportunities because of his unwillingness to assert himself. While on a cruise across the Atlantic, More notices that the wall clock in the ship's bar is standing still. The bartender explains that the clock is always halted for an hour each day in order to coordinate with the International Date Line. Emboldened by the notion that anything is possible when time stands still, More sheds his inhibitions, improves his lot in life, and wins the love of an American girl (Betsy Drake). While not as remarkable a comic achievement as Henry Cornelius' Genevieve, Next to No Time is perfect "wish fulfillment" TV fare for a rainy afternoon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In direct contrast to his later lush-budgeted international epics, director J. Lee Thompson turns his lenses towards the London slums in the sincere but saccharine No Trees in the Street. Based on the play by Ted Willis, the film is set in the years just before World War II, when England hadn't completely dug itself out of the worldwide depression. Melvyn Hayes is featured as an aimless teenager, who tries to escape his squalid surroundings by entering a life of crime. He falls in with local hoodlum Herbert Lom, who holds the rest of the slum citizens in the grip of fear--including Hayes' own family. No Trees in the Street chronicles Hayes' sordid progress from nickel-and-dime thefts to murder. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this crime drama, the trouble begins when Arabs kidnap a young wife and hold her hostage for a pair of rare books. Mayhem ensues as her husband and another book smuggler team up to get her back without having to sacrifice the rare tomes. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Sailor Beware was originally released in England as Panic in the Parlour. The panic begins when a sailor named Albert (Ronald Lewis) plans to get married to a gal named Shirley (Shirley Eaton). On the day of the ceremony, Albert gets cold feet when he discovers that Shirley's gorgonlike mother Emma (Peggy Mount) has bought a house just three doors away from their honeymoon cottage. The question now is: how long will it be before the worm turns and Emma is put in her place by both her prospective son-in-law and her henpecked husband? Based on a popular stage comedy, Sailor Beware is worth watching today to spot an unbilled Michael Caine in a bit part as one of Albert's fellow seamen. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An 18-month-old baby disappears in London. The parents, US embassy worker David Knight and his wife Julia Arnall, are panic-stricken. Detective David Farrar tries to locate the child, but clues are scarce. At the last possible moment, Farrar rescues the infant from a grueling fate and collars the kidnappers. This nail-biting film is filled to capacity with many of Britain's top supporting players, including Thora Hird, Everley Gregg, Joan Sims, Shirley Anne Field, Joan Hickson, Dandy Nichols, Mona Washbourne, Barbara Winsor and George Woodbridge. Released in the US by Republic, under the title Tears for Simon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Music professor Alec Guinness rents a London flat from sweet old lady Katie Johnson. He tells her that, from time to time, several other musicians will visit in order to rehearse. In truth, Guinness can't play a note, nor can his visitors: he's a criminal mastermind, holding court over a gang of thieves, including the likes of punkish Peter Sellers, homicidal Herbert Lom and punchdrunk Danny Green. The gang uses Guinness' flat as headquarters as they conceive a daring 60,000 pound robbery. After pulling off the job, the gang stuffs the loot in a railway station locker. To avoid detection, Guinness convinces the ever-trusting Johnson to pick up the money. Through a series of comic complications, Johnson returns home with a police escort, with neither the woman nor the bobbies suspecting that she's carrying a fortune in her suitcase. Mistakenly believing that Johnson has ratted on them, the gang reluctantly plans to eliminate her. The Ladykillers won an Oscar nomination for William Rose's screenplay, and a BFA award for veteran character actress Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the tradition of The Window (1949) and The Yellow Balloon, Bang! You're Dead juxtaposes the innocence of childhood with the bleak realities of the adult world. Two rural British youngsters come across an abandoned gun. One of the boys accidentally shoots a much-despised local citizen. The police arrest a man who had a grudge against the victim; will the actual miscreant confess, and bring shame upon his parents? Filmed in England, Bang! You're Dead was released in the U.S. as A Game of Death. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi