Gordon Harker Movies

In this British comedy, a young man resorts to spying, extortion and just plain begging after he learns that he is to be replaced as headwaiter by a young woman. The story is based on a popular play. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Basil Dearden was co-producer and co-director of the British "slice of life" drama Out of the Clouds. Filmed in quasi-documentary fashion, the story takes place during one unusually busy day at London's Heathrow Airport. The dramatis personae includes Gus Randall (Anthony Steel), a pilot with a chronic (and potentially fatal) gambling weakness; chief duty officer Nick Milbourne (Robert Beatty), who yearns to be a pilot himself; American engineer Bill (David Lorenz), who finds romance in the form of Jewish girl Leah (Margo Lorenz); and Captain Brent (James Robertson Justice), whose doubts about a new aircraft prove to be well-founded. The obligatory romantic triangle involves Gus, Nick and airline -hostess Penny Henson (Eunice Gayson). Out of the Clouds is an intriguing small-scale precursor to the Airport school of multicharactered drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Derby Day is a typically British omnibus feature, delineating the fates of several different people during a single day at the racetrack. Peter Graves (not the American actor of the same name) plays a superficial movie star who has been won in a fan-magazine raffle by housemaid Suzanne Cloutier. Michael Wilding and Anna Neagle play a pair of disconsolates who have recently lost their respective mates in a plane crash. And Googie Withers and John McCallum (who were married in real life) portray a furtive couple whose horrible secret is revealed when they head to the window to collect their winnings. Though we count at least six principle characters in Derby Day, the film was released in the US as Four Against Fate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a play by Pepine de Felipe, Her Favorite Husband is a British comedy set in Italy. Housewife Jean Kent is bemused by her husband Robert Beatty, who is not quite himself these days. In truth, he is not himself at all: Jean's husband has been replaced by a lookalike gangster who is plotting a big bank robbery. Once she tumbles to the truth, Kent is alternately repulsed and fascinated by her "new" spouse. Not exactly Shakespeare, Her Favorite Husband is a genial romp distinguished by a sizeable supporting cast of familiar British players. The film was released in the U.S. as The Taming of Dorothy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the few low-budget British programmers to enjoy a reasonably widespread American release, Facts of Love tells its tale in one basic set in a compact 65 minutes. The film weaves three separate romantic subplots into an entertaining unified whole. An elderly couple (Gordon Harker and Betty Balfour) are at sixes and sevens when their son Peter (Jimmy Hanley) falls in love--twice! One of Peter's lady friends is naïve country girl Fay (Carla Lehmann). The other is worldly, wealthy Joan (Jill Evans), who happens to already have a husband (Hubert Gregg) A farcical near-menage a quartre is interrupted when the older couple unexpectedly returns from a holiday. Facts of Love was originally released in England as 29 Acacia Avenue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the Evadne Price-Ken Attiwell stage play, Once a Crook stars Gordon Harker as ex-safecracker Charlie Hopkins. Convinced that Charlie was responsible for his arrest, his former partner The Duke (Bernard Lee) vows to get even our hero. The Duke accomplishes this by luring Charlie's son Bill (Cyril Cusack) into a life of crime. It turns out that Bill is an even more accomplished safecracker than his old man, leading to a series of curious complications which come to an end only through the auspices of The Duke's golden-hearted girlfriend Estelle (Carla Lehmann). Fans of the "James Bond" series might enjoy seeing a young Bernard Lee (later cast as Bond's no-nonsense boss "M") in a comically villainous role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Walter Forde, a past master at blending mystery, melodrama and comedy (vide The Ghost Train and Bulldog Jack), is at his best with Saloon Bar. Most of the action takes place during one busy evening in an English pub, with a rich variety of believable comic characters weaving in and out of the scene. A murder is committed, and everyone falls under suspicion. Hero and heroine Gordon Harker and Elizabeth Allen solve the mystery with becoming modesty (compare this to the wisecracking protagonists in similar American films). Saloon Bar was based on a long-running stage play by Frank Harvey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, the last entry in the Inspector Hornleigh series, Inspector Harker and his assistant take a two-week vacation to the English seaside. Just as the vacation is about to end, a fellow guest in their boardinghouse drives over a cliff and is burned to death. The local cops consider it an accident, but the Inspector has his own suspicions and begins to investigate. He soon exposes a gang of crooks planted the car with another body to cash in on an insurance policy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Gordon Harker stars as a goonish London cabbie who finds himself up to his brimmed cap in espionage. Harker innocently thwarts an assassination attempt on a Middle-Eastern potentate. The perpetrator is a demonic British oil executive who'll stop at nothing to corner the "black gold" market. The villain sets Harker up as the fall guy for his next attempt on the potentate's life, Yeh, we know: Where are the blondes? Well, cast your eye upon leading ladies Enid Stamp-Taylor and Janet Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This breezy British action comedy stars Gordon Harker as Albert Rughouse, cockney conductor of a passenger bus running the Victoria Station-Epping Forest route. In his spare time, Albert indulges in magic tricks, become rather proficient at sleight-of-hand. This talent serves him well when his bus is commandeerd by foreign spies bent on stealing valuable government aviation plans. Proving that the hand is quicker than the eye, Albert flummoxes the villains and makes the world safe for Democracy once more. No mere programmer, The Lightning Conductor is exceptionally well cast, with such reliables as John Lodge, Sally Gray, Ernst Thesiger and Steven Geray going through their usual expert paces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

British author W.W. Jacobs, whose love of the sea and seafarers permeated everything he wrote, was responsible for the story upon which Beauty and the Barge was based. Judy Gunn plays the headstrong daughter of an Army officer who runs away from home. She is later adopted by bargeman Gordon Harker. A very young Jack Hawkins portrays a handsome lieutenant (or "leff-tenant", if you prefer) who signs on as a common seaman on Harker's barge in hopes of winning Hawkins' love. Beauty and the Barge also features the unforgettable Margaret Rutherford, doing pretty much what she'd been still doing in movies nearly thirty years later-shamelessly stealing every scene she's in. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two's Company was based on Sydney Horler's stage comedy Romeo and Julia. The film's storyline is developed in parallel fashion, with the antics of American businessman B. G. Madison (Henry Holman) and his family and associates mirrored and sometimes anticipated by the behavior of Madison's British counterpart, The Earle of Warke (Morton Seiten), and his entourage. The ongoing rivalry between Madison and the Earle wreaks havoc on the romance between Madison's daughter Julia (Mary Brian) and Warke's son Jerry (Patric Knowles). Both families behave in stereotypical fashion, skewering both American and British manners and mores with fine impartiality. Two's Company was very much designed for a dual market, right down to the comedy relief: Ned Sparks for the American fans, Gordon Harker for the British patrons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide