Gerard Heinz Movies

In this British melodrama, an indigent writer suffers from amnesia, forgets that he is in love with an aristocratic lady, and instead falls in love with a seductive gypsy. The rich girl's father is enraged by her lover's betrayal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

English without Tears is a gentle satire of the temporary relaxation of class barriers in wartime England. Michael Wilding portrays the faithful family butler to a fabulously wealthy household. Each member of the family greets the news of upcoming world conflict with a different reaction, the most altruistic of which is that of the daughter (Penelope Dudley Ward), who joins the home service. When the butler rises to the army rank of lieutenant, the daughter sees him in a whole new light and falls in love with her onetime employee. There's little in this frivolous film that hasn't been done elsewhere, except perhaps for the opening-scene romantic complications in Geneva, which set the stage for the film's finale. English without Tears was released in the US in 1948 as Her Man Gilbey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a Nazi party member tries to defect to England due to a change of heart in the party's plans, he is chased by the Gestapo in this World War II film. ~ All Movie Guide

The career of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (Curt Jurgens) is the focus of this film. Supposedly bullied by the Nazis into working for the Third Reich, the end of the war leaves the rocket man with a decision to take his talents to either Russia or the United States. He chooses the U. S., but controversy follows the gifted scientist wherever he goes. Some resent his collaborations with the Nazis, while others in the government are more than willing to turn their heads in deference to his genius. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Top Secret gets under way when George (George Cole), a janitor in a research plant, accidentally comes into possession of the plans for a revolutionary atomic weapon. As George embarks on his annual vacation, the research security team embarks on a nationwide search for the hapless broom-pusher. Meanwhile, the Russians get wind of the incident and intercept George, plying him with liquor and empty promises so that he'll hand over the plans to them. All the while, George never knows what the fuss is about: he thinks that the British and Soviet authorities are interested in his new plans for a modern sanitary system! No one takes Top Secret seriously--certainly not Oscar Homolka, who delivers a bravura performance as a Russian secret agent who wistfully yearns for the glories of the Czarist days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a Scotland Yard agent must break up a ring of jewel thieves. He goes undercover and successfully infiltrates the gang, but trouble begins when he finds himself falling for one of the late gang members' widows, and she learns his real identity. She threatens to expose him until he decides to quit the Yard and become a real criminal. Fortunately, Fate intervenes, and he accidentally leads the gang to the waiting police. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A British officer must save the Barbary apes on Gibralter at all costs in this WW II farce. He does this, because it is believed that if the apes leave the rock, Britain will fall. The trouble begins when the only male ape dies. To save the rest, the officer and his side-kick sneak in to Zurich and steal an ape from a German circus. This results in a promotion for the officer, and now he and his partner are assigned to protect the ravens in the Tower of London. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A determined, fearless widow seeks to expose government corruption in her home city in this crime drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

George Gordon, aka Lord Byron, the clubfooted 19th-century poet with the uncontrollable libido, is played by Dennis Price in this lavish British chocolate-box epic. From the vantage point of his deathbed, Byron recalls his life and many loves, imagining that he's pleading his case before a celestial court. Joan Greenwood looks like she's just stepped out of a portrait frame as Lady Caroline Lamb (whose own sordid story would also be filmed in due time). Her performance is far more persuasive than that of Dennis Price, who seems less libertine than precocious as Byron. Roundly ridiculed by British film critics in 1949, The Bad Lord Byron has stood the test of time -- not really a classic, but an acceptable rainy-day wallow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this seagoing military drama set in World War II, Lt. Comdr. Ericson (Jack Hawkins) is made captain of a British corvette, a small escort vessel used to guide and protect convoys traveling through the Atlantic. Ericson had his confidence severely shaken during his last command, in which he lost his ship and most of its men following an attack by a German U-boat. As he leads a new and largely inexperienced crew aboard the H.M.S. Compass Rose, Ericson is once again thrown into a life-and-death dilemma that forces him to choose between destroying an enemy ship and sparing the lives of his own men. The Cruel Sea featured breakthrough early performances from Denholm Elliott and Virginia McKenna, and it was based on a best-selling novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, who stipulated that the film rights could be sold only to a British company. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the Graham Greene story The Basement Room, director Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol is told almost completely from a child's eye view-but it isn't a children's story. Young Bobby Henrey idolizes household butler Ralph Richardson. Therefore, when it seems as though Richardson might be implicated in a murder, Bobby does his best to throw the police off the track. The boy succeeds only in casting even more suspicion upon Richardson. As the story progresses, Henrey's hero worship is eroded by Richardson's shifty behavior, and even more so when the boy discovers that the butler's boasts of previous heroism are just so much hot air. The ending of the film differs radically from Greene's story. While it would seem that director Reed was merely paying homage to the "happy ending" philosophy (hardly likely, given the doleful climaxes of such films as Odd Man Out and The Third Man), the director had very solid reasons for altering the story: he was more fascinated by the concept of the boy's imagination nearly sending his idol to the gallows, rather than having the butler entrapped by facts. And though the ending is happy for the boy, the butler's fate is much more nebulous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It isn't surprising that The Great Manhunt invokes fond memories of Alfred Hitchcock; the film was scripted by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, the two former Hitchcock collaborators responsible for the screenplay of The Master's The Lady Vanishes (38). Gilliat also directed this fast-paced political adventure, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as an American heart surgeon summoned to operate on the ruler of a Balkan dictatorship. When the dictator dies, Fairbanks becomes a security risk for those who wish to perpetuate the totalitarian regime. The doctor desperately seeks a means of escaping the country; along the way, he teams up with a showgirl (Glynis Johns) who likewise wants to get home in a hurry. Meanwhile, the head of the secret police (Jack Hawkins) tries to keep one step ahead of Fairbanks. A healthy strain of comic cynicism pervades Great Manhunt, with both hero and villain making self-deprecating comments on the fickle nature of political power. Released in the US as State Secret, The Great Manhunt was based on Roy Huggins' novel Appointment With Fear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide