Diane Hart Movies
Guys go crazy for the gals cheering on the home team in this raunchy teen comedy from the Seventies. It's football season at Rosedale High, and Johnny (Robert Carradine) and Jesse (Michael Mullins) are eager to lead the school's team to victory. But while Coach Hartmann (Robert Gammon) wants to put the team on the right track, his abusive methods and obnoxious attitude are turning some of the players against him. Meanwhile, the guys on the team are just as interested in making time with the girls on the cheerleading squad as they are in scoring touchdowns, and Johnny starts dating Laurie (Jennifer Ashley), much to the annoyance of her former boyfriend Duane (Bill Adler), a thick-headed tough guy. Meanwhile, the Rosedale High team is gearing up for their annual game with cross town rivals Hardin High by launching a battle of pranks, which reaches its peak when the Rosedale guys steal a fire engine. The Pom-Pom Girls was an early credit for director Joseph Ruben, who later went on to make The Stepfather, True Believer and The Forgotten. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Carradine, Jennifer Ashley, (more)
The cheerleading team at Aloha High are popular with their fellow students (except for a couple of stuck-up rich girls), but they're a major cause of the school's lecherous reputation for underage sex and drug abuse. The fun-loving gals spike the lunchroom spaghetti sauce with a concoction of pot, pills, and powders, hold wild orgies in the boys' locker room, and never bother to attend their classes. The school board considers a merger with Aloha's biggest rivals, the vocational school Lincoln High, but the cheerleaders refuse to mix with the low-class juvenile delinquents that go there. A new principal, ex-Marine Hall Walker (Norman Thomas Marshall), might whip the school into shape, but it'll mean forcing the cheerleaders out of the squad and back into the classroom. Though the girls prove their importance to Aloha spirit at the crucial moment of a big basketball game, it turns out that more sinister forces are at work when the school is blown up and the principal is kidnapped. It's up to the cheerleaders to save the day and unravel a conspiracy to steal Aloha High's land for a shopping mall. Carl Ballantine, David Hasselhoff, and genre vet Rainbeaux Smith appear in this energetic sex comedy. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeril Woods, Cheryl Smith, (more)
While the title suggests that we're in for a bawdy bodice-ripper involving two of more notorious ladies of British fiction, the softcore sex comedy Lady Chatterly vs. Fanny Hill is actually set during the 1920s. Mrs. Hill (Diane Hart) and Lady Evelyn Chatterly (Nan Munro) are two competing brothel madams, who place a wager concerning the "talents" of their girls. Hill's girl Fanny (Joanna Lumley, of Absolutely Fabulous fame) attempts to seduce a portly bishop, while Lady Evelyn's girl Constance (Penny Brahms) goes after a staid wine seller. The latter is played by bespectacled Richard Wattis, who seems to be enjoying his close proximity to so much female flesh. The original release title of Lady Chatterly vs. Fanny Hill was Games That Lovers Play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Normally cast as villains or mad scientists, Anton Diffring essays the title role in Enter Inspector Duval. An operative of the French surete, Duval joins forces with Scotland Yard inspector Wilson (Mark Singleton). A murder has been committed during a jewel theft, and this just isn't done in polite British society. Halfway through the film, we discover that Duval has reasons of his own for cracking the case, and they may not be altogether honest. Enter Inspector Duval was released in the U.S. by Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The "crowning touch" of the title is a fancy woman's hat. It has been specially set aside at a posh British headwear shoppe, but no one comes to claim it. At this point the film takes a prismatic approach, with three of the shoppe's employees offering different reasons as to why the pretty young girl who'd ordered the hat never showed up. The Crowning Touch is a serviceable British shaggy-dog story, graced by the presence of such top talents as Greta Gynt, Griffith Jones, Sydney Tafler, Dermot Walsh and Irene Handl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This farce is the third movie version of Fred Duprez's play. A newlywed with a dominating mother-in-law attempts to surprise his wife with a baby grand piano, but when she overhears him talking about it, she mistakes it for an illegitimate child, particularly when his old flame shows up. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
In this comedy, an ad man attempts to promote his brother-in-law's new cleaning machine. He is backed by a member of the Purity League. It isn't easy, but he eventually helps the product go public. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
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
John Hayter is Samuel Pickwick is this delightful filmization of Dickens' seriocomic novel. Mr. Pickwick is chairman of the Pickwick club, a scholarly league operating in mid-19th century London. The club's avowed purpose is to scrupulously study everyday life in England-not to improve or remonstrate, but simply examine, as a scientist would examine life under the microscope. The episodic storyline transports the Pickwicks all over town, from the fashionable digs of ever-in-debt roue Mr. Jingle (Nigel Patrick) to debtor's prison. The Candide-like Mr. Pickwick survives his many experiences (including a duel and breach of promise suit) with the invulnerability of innocence. The Pickwick Papers was produced, directed and adapted by Noel Langley, a brilliant, hard-drinking wit who once upon a time had labored on the screenplay of Hollywood's The Wizard of Oz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Hayter, James Donald, (more)
In this comedy, an off-center widow and her eccentric daughters must deal with a series of comic mishaps while they wait for one of the daughters to have a baby. The nervous father-to-be complicates matters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The British Something Money Can't Buy offers a few smaller-scale variations on themes previously explored in the 1946 Hollywood Oscar-winner The Best Years of Our Lives. Harry Wilding (Anthony Steel), a high-ranking wartime military officer, has trouble adjusting to his go-nowhere civilian job and the monotony of his home life. Harry's wife Anne (Patricia Roc) tries to make things easier for her husband, but there are no easy answers to his plight. The inherent drama of the situation is leavened by moments of gentle humor, not to mention the warm rapport between stars. The supporting cast includes hirsute comic actor (and longtime David Niven crony) Michael Trubshawe and the venerable A. E. Mathews, at the time billed as England's oldest working actor. Director Pat Jackson co-authored the perceptive screenplay of Something Money Can't Buy with James Lonsdale Hudson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Roc, Anthony Steel, (more)
A notorious Irish rebel poet disguises his true identity while working as a gatekeeper at a Scottish university. He also moonlights as a bookie and things go well until a pretty young relative shows up and spills the beans. Comedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Anglo-American musicomedy Happy Go Lovely is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, during a major film festival. The gathered throngs are aghast when unknown dancer Janet Jones (Vera-Ellen) steps daintily from a limousine owned by a Scottish millionaire. A few miles earlier, the girl had thumbed a ride from the limo driver, but the public doesn't know this, and soon rumors are flying. Before she knows what has happened, Jones has become the festival's main attraction. She is also romanced by B.G. Bruno (David Niven), whom she assumes to be a reporter but who, of course, is the millionaire in disguise. Ostensibly a musical, Happy Go Lovely is limited to two songs, though both are performed con brio by the fabulous Vera-Ellen. The film was produced independently by N. P. Rathvon and released by Rathvon's former studio, RKO Radio. It was shot in black and white but is now reportedly only available in a colorized print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Vera-Ellen, (more)
I'll Never Forget You is an updated remake of 1933's Berkeley Square; both films used John L. Balderston's stage play as a launching pad. Tyrone Power stars as an American atomic scientist working in London. He lives in an ancestral home which dates back to the 18th century. Late one rainy evening, Power is struck down by lightning just as he enters his home. When he awakens, he finds himself transported back to the 1700s, in the person of his own ancestor. As he falls in love with his beautiful cousin Ann Blyth, Power tries to bring some 20th century technology to his "backward" forebears (this is a departure from the original Berkeley Square, in which the hero so loved the 18th century that he wanted to become part of it). Branded as a lunatic for his "hallucinations" of the future, Power is about to be carted off to Bedlam when he lapses again into unconsciousness. He awakens in his own time, to discover that his long-ago love Ann Blyth was so enamored of him that she died young, without ever marrying. At this point in the original play, the hero shuts himself off from the world, to await his ultimate reunion with his lost love in the afterlife. But I'll Never Forget You couldn't do that to virile matinee idol Tyrone Power, so the adaptors contrive to have him meet a woman who looks just like the girl he left behind 200 years ago. In the tradition of The Wizard of Oz, I'll Never Forget You opens in black and white, then switches to color when Power is sent back in time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Ann Blyth, (more)
The Anglo-American co-production Britannia Mews was released in the U.S. as The Affairs of Adelaide, then reissued as Forbidden Street, the title it carries today. Set in the Victoria era, the film focuses upon Adelaide (Maureen O'Hara), a young lady of good family who renounces both name and fame when she marries an impoverished artist (Dana Andrews). When her husband is killed in an accident, Adelaide is blackmailed by a spiteful old hag (Dame Sybil Thorndike) who claims that the girl killed her spouse. Enter a handsome young barrister who is the living image of Adelaide's late husband (and who, accordingly, is
also played by Dana Andrews). He extricates Adelaide from her plight, reunites her with her family, and along the way falls in love with her himself. Ring Lardner Jr. adapted Britannia Mews from a novel by Margery Sharp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
also played by Dana Andrews). He extricates Adelaide from her plight, reunites her with her family, and along the way falls in love with her himself. Ring Lardner Jr. adapted Britannia Mews from a novel by Margery Sharp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maureen O'Hara, Dana Andrews, (more)













