Max Bacon Movies
- 1969
In this erotic drama, a man attempts to deal with the bevy of naked beauties who have been bothering his family for generations. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
One of the stars of Walt Disney's Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke, is re-united with that film's composer and lyricist, Richard M.Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, in this big budget and bloodless children's fantasy musical, based on the children's book by James Bond author Ian Fleming. Van Dyke plays Caractacus Potts, a failed inventor who lives in a big house with his two children -- Jemima Heather Ripley and Jeremy Adrian Hall -- and eccentric father Lionel Jeffries. Potts has to raise 30 shillings so his children can buy a broken-down racing car from the junkyard. After a disastrous attempt to sell his invention of whistling sweets to Lord Scrumptious (James Robertson-Justice), the local candy maker, he finally gets enough money for the car by doing a Dick Van Dyke dance routine at the county fair. Potts takes the car and miraculously transforms the vehicle into a shiny new car named Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. While on a picnic with the children and Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes), Lord Scrumptious' beautiful daughter, Potts concocts a fantasy tale about the magical powers of the car, which can now float on water and fly. In the tale, Baron Bomburst (Gert Frobe) wants the car for himself and kidnaps the automobile and the inventor. But Bomburst captures Grandpa by mistake along with the wrong car, so Potts, Truly, and the children have to enlist Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on a rescue mission to Bomburst's lair to save Grandpa. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, (more)
- 1967
After directing several extraordinary documentaries for the BBC, including the award-winning The War Game and Culloden, Peter Watkins made his first dramatic feature with this flawed but striking film about Steven Shorter (Paul Jones), a pop singer in a future society where entertainment is controlled by a totalitarian government. Shorter's music and image are used to channel the impulses of rebellious youth; in one concert sequence, the crowd watches him sing a plaintive plea for love and understanding while locked in a cage surrounded by police officers armed with clubs. While Shorter is remarkably popular, he's also living a life created for him by the government, which Steven knows is a sham. When Shorter's handlers decide to revamp his image into that of an obedient, religious boy, he rebels, to his peril. Model Jean Shrimpton made her film debut here as an artist commissioned to paint a portrait of Shorter. Privilege later became something of a cult film; one of the film's admirers was rock poet Patti Smith, who recorded one of "Steven Shorter"'s songs, "Set Me Free," on her 1978 album Easter. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Jones, Jean Shrimpton, (more)
- 1967
The Whisperers stars Dame Edith Evans as a lonely old woman whose imagination is getting the better of her sanity. She insists that she hears "whisperers" plotting and planning against her at all times; she also believes that these imaginary entities are spying on her. So suspicious is Ms. Evans of her nonexistent whisperers that she fails to notice the very real predators around her. She is robbed of her life's savings by a nasty "friend" (Avis Brunnage), and is exploited by her estranged con-artist husband (Eric Portman) and her no-good son (Ronald Fraser) Even when she catches on to the duplicity of others, Ms. Evans is so far gone with her "whisperers" that the authorities refuse to believe her. Seedy and sordid though it may be, The Whisperers won Edith Evans the Best Actress award from the New York Critics' Circle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edith Evans, Eric Portman, (more)
- 1966
Horace Quilby (Michael Bentine) is a sandwich-board advertising man who gets a tour of London and sees some of the city's most offbeat and outrageous characters in this situation comedy. British blonde bombshell (Diana Dors) co-stars. Watch for Michael Chaplin (son of Charlie) as a beatnik artist. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Bentine, Dora Bryan, (more)
- 1964
In this comedy, crooks on the lam hide-out in an abandoned island monastery. Along with their leader, the robbers put on monks' habits and begin living a quiet pastoral existence centered around raising animals and crops. It takes them a while to get the hang of it. As they learn, they are occasionally visited by tourists, and at once point, by real monks. Trouble ensues when one of the "brothers" is caught gambling in town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Fraser, Barbara Windsor, (more)
- 1963
A stodgy British patriarch sends his naive daughter to Europe so that her rock & roll singing boyfriend will dump her. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned when she ends up linked with a handsome pop idol and his band. Fortunately, she is a good girl at heart and ends up learning some valuable lessons about live, love and rock & roll. Many popular singers from the early '60s perform in this tuneful outing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1963
In this thriller, an orphan with ESP is engaged to help solve the abduction of a wealthy Englishwoman by her aunt. The rich woman's brother and the local cabbie believe in the girl's mysterious talent. They are terrified that she will lead the authorities to the woman's corpse. The brother stops the girl, then pays off the cabbie for the murder. Unfortunately, the police witness the pay-off. A high-speed chase ensues and the avaricious brother crashes his car. He then confesses. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Laurence Olivier recreates his stage role of Archie Rice in this in-your-face film adaptation of John Osborne's play. The son of a legendary music hall comedian (Roger Livesey), Archie is strictly a third-rater, headlining a tacky music hall revue in a seedy seaside resort town. Archie can't admit that he's a failure, and his grim insouciance destroys everyone around him. Archie finagles his dying father into financing one last revue; he cheats shamelessly on his alcoholic wife (Brenda De Banzie); and he all but forces one of his sons (Albert Finney) to run off to join the army, only to die in the Suez. Through all his personal crises, Archie jigs and jabbers before his ever-diminishing audience, but by the end of the film he isn't even entertaining himself. Joan Plowright, who married Olivier shortly after completing The Entertainer, plays the film's one sympathetic character: Archie's daughter, whose love for her father blinds her to his flaws. The Entertainer was remade for television in 1976, with Jack Lemmon as Archie Rice and original songs by Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Brenda de Banzie, (more)
- 1953
Julien Vedey wrote, directed and starred in the British quickie Take a Powder. Vedey plays a medicine show con man who is mistaken for a brilliant atomic scientist. In Prisoner of Zenda fashion, the phony takes the place of the genuine article and is put in charge of a hospital (an atomic scientist running a hospital? Sure, why not?) A few laughs are scattered throughout the film's 58 minutes...very few. The sole distinguishing factor of Take a Powder is the above-average cinematography by Ernest Palmer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
In this crime drama, an avaricious, successful gambler is not content with fabulous wealth and aspires to become a member of the British nobility after he falls in love with one of the country's more prominent blue-blooded women. Unfortunately, to have her, he must mend his ways. He then dumps his girl friend, a nightclub singer who becomes murderously jealous. He must also deal with the mobsters who try to take over his clubs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1944
The Caryl Brahams-S. J. Simon novel The Elephant is White is the basis for the British Give us the Moon. Comic actor Vic Oliver delivers a broad performance as Sascha, a dour suicide-prone chap who belongs to an "I won't work" club. The organization was founded by Nina (Margaret Lockwood) on behalf of those who have no intention of ever making a living, and who make no bones about it. Romance enters the picture when the industrious son (Peter Graves) of a hotel owner poses as a member of the idle rich, the better to be close to Nina. To take the curse off an "unemployment" comedy in the middle of WW2 (when everyone was expected to "do their bit"), Give Us the Moon is set in a fanciful postwar London. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Lockwood, Vic Oliver, (more)
Four pilots are forced to bail out, and they end up stuck upon a remote tropical island filled with beautiful women. This musical comedy chronicles their adventures. Things go well for the flying Sea Bees as the women fawn upon them and cater to their every whim. Soon they find themselves four wives, and it is not until it is nearly too late that they discover why there are no men on the island--- all husbands are expected to commit suicide following their honeymoons. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1943
In this musical an American's daughter owns an escort agency. Even though WW II rages and men are hungry for females, the woman's business is flagging until she comes up with some enterprising schemes to turn things around. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A British soldier stationed in Africa comes to believe that he is in possession of Arthur's Excalibur in this drama. The expert swordsman comes to believe this after he is named a hero during a duel. He attributes his skill and courage to the famous weapon. Later he is deeply embarrassed to learns that it is not Arthur's sword. This does not keep him from saving his friends from enemy hands. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1938
This British musical comedy was designed as a vehicle for popular 1930s bandleader Ambrose, here cast as "himself". The plot, which was the handiwork of no fewer than four scenarists, is the old one about the pretty but unappreciated slavey (Evelyn Dall) who is suddenly and spectacularly thrust into high society, much to the discomfort of her evil guardian. In other words, it's Cinderella in modern dress. But never mind all that: the film's real attraction is its unending parade of specialty performers. American jazz singer Harry Richman may be a bit hard to take for contemporary audiences (he wasn't exactly everyone's favorite in 1938!), but celebrity impressionist Florence Desmond is as delightful as ever as the film's nominal villain. Far better produced than most British "revue" pictures of the era, Kicking the Moon Around did excellent business, but Ambrose didn't care much for moviemaking and returned to the nightclub and music-hall circuit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Dall
