Anne Heywood Movies

While "Violet Pretty" may have been an acceptable moniker in the silent-movie days, it sounded too showbizzy to be true in the early 1950s: that's why English beauty-contest winner Violet Pretty became Anne Heywood upon entering films. She started out in bits in programmers like Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951), then rose to leading-lady status in the mid-1950s in such audience pleasers as Doctor at Large (1957) and Upstairs and Downstairs (1959). Remaining popular in Britain throughout the 1960s, Heywood was more or less an unknown quantity to American filmgoers, except for those art-house habitues who recalled her excellent work in the pioneering lesbian-themed drama The Fox (1968). The producer of 1969's Midas Run hoped to make Heywood a household name in the U.S. by having her appear prominently in the film's radio and TV ads together with male lead Fred Astaire. That producer was Raymond Stross, who happened to be the husband of Anne Heywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
1960  
 
This costume drama with spectacular special effects but a less-than-adequate storyline was one of the last films by director Carmine Gallone. The tale is set in 200 BC when Rome and Carthage were going at it, sending warships into battle over control of Carthage. Against this backdrop of warfare is a romantic tangle between two women in love with the same warrior and two men in love with the same woman. As the romantic and military battles progress, it becomes clear that Carthage will burn and at least a few of the erstwhile lovers are going to get burnt as well, in more ways than one. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Anne HeywoodJosé Suárez, (more)
1957  
 
Filmed in Italy, this pulse-pounding race-car melodrama stars Anthony Steel as ambitious driver Bill Fraser. Stanley Baker costars as O'Donovan, the purchasing agent for unscrupulous auto magnate Warren Ingram (James Robertson Justice). O'Donovan has no reservations about resorting to murder to steal the blueprints for a revolutionary new vehicle. While escaping, O'Donovan offers Fraser a huge sum of money for safe transport to the Swiss border. For a while, Fraser succumbs to greed, but eventually common sense overtakes him. There's a particularly suspenseful denoument when it looks as though Fraser is going to be the fall guy for O'Donovan's misdeeds. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Anthony SteelOdile Versois, (more)
1957  
 
What if the Dauphin of France managed to escape the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution? That's the premise of the opulent British swashbuckler Dangerous Exile. Louis Jourdan stars as the Duc de Beauvais, who manages, at great personal sacrifice, to smuggle the son (Richard O'Sullivan) of King Louis XVI into England. The boy takes up residence in Wales, where he is protected by local lass Virginia Traill (Belinda Lee) and her wealthy Aunt Fell (Martita Hunt). When time comes for the boy to return to France, he refuses--but local newspaper editor Patient (Finlay Currie), a spy for the French revolutionaries, has other ideas. Keith Michell, future star of TV's Six Wives of Henry VIII, is well cast as a French Republican with whom the Duc de Beauvais must inevitably cross swords. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Louis JourdanBelinda Lee, (more)
1957  
 
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The third of the droll British "Doctor" series, Doctor at Large once more stars Dirk Bogarde as young Dr. Simon Sparrow. Back in his old stamping grounds at St. Swithin's Teaching Hospital, Sparrow misses his chance at becoming chief surgeon when he crosses swords with the formidable Sir Lancelot Spratt (James Robertson Justice). Forced to go job hunting, our hero undergoes a variety of hilarious medical and romantic misadventures before ending up right where he started. Some of the film's best scenes involve shapely nurse Nan, played by Shirley Eaton of Goldfinger fame. Like its predecessors, Doctor at Large was based on characters created by real-life medico George Gordon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Dirk BogardeDandy Nichols, (more)
1956  
 
In this comedy-thriller, a woman returns to the country to see her godmother only to learn that the old woman has mysteriously disappeared. She quickly enlists the aide of a doctor to help her look. Like her godmother, the woman ends up in the clutches of the robbers. The fugitive thieves have been using the godmother's house as a hide-out and home base. The women are saved by the brave doctor and the police squad he brings with him. The bandits are captured and locked away. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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1958  
 
After years of suffering through lookalike MGM musicals (at least, that was his complaint), Howard Keel was able to sink his teeth into a dramatic role in the British Floods of Fear. Serving a life term for murder, Donavan (Howard Keel) breaks out of jail with sadistic convict Peebles (Cyril Cusack), taking along a wounded guard (Harry H. Corbett) as hostage. It is Donavan's intention to exact revenge against the man who framed him, but this will have to wait: a driving rainstorm is threatening to precipitate a raging flood. Taking refuge in the tiny house owned by the terror-stricken Elizabeth (Anne Heywood), the convicts and their captives nervously wait out the storm. Slowly, Elizabeth and Donavan are drawn to one another, while Peebles threatens to erupt into a fit of homicidal rage at any moment. When the flood reaches the danger level, Donavan performs several self-sacrificial acts of courage, prompting Elizabeth to try to save him from ruining what's left of his life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Howard KeelAnne Heywood, (more)
1971  
R  
Based on a novel by William Inge, this drama follows the attempts of two doctors to help a 35-year-old educator deal with a brutal rape. The incident is complicated by the fact that she was a virgin when it happened and that her attacker was a man she had been trying to help. The racial implications of the story may be offensive to many audience members. The film is also known as The Sin, The Shaming, and Secret Yearnings (on video). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Anne HeywoodDonald Pleasence, (more)
1972  
R  
John Dexter's film explores the struggles faced by a young British man who wants to live as a woman and considers a sex change operation. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Anne HeywoodHarry Andrews, (more)
1972  
 
Alberto De Martino (L'anticristo) directed this standard Italian giallo thriller, the story of an actress named Eleanor Lorraine (Anne Heywood) who has developed amnesia since the murder of her husband Peter, and faints when she spots professional hit man Ranko (Telly Savalas). When she awakens, the increasingly hysterical Eleanor cannot recognize her new husband, George (Giorgio Piazza), or remember the story of how Peter died in a car accident. Eleanor's sister, Dorothy (Willeke Von Ammiroy), replaces her in a play at the behest of Peter's sister, only to be murdered by Ranko when he mistakes her for Eleanor. Eleanor herself is nearly delirious by this point, but has visions of Ranko killing Peter, so she rushes to tell George, only to find Ranko murdering him. The ruthless assassin follows Eleanor to the theater, where some secrets are revealed in the tense climax. Rossella Falk co-stars with Antonio Guidi, Leonardo Scavino, and Ada Pometti. Cinematographer Aristide Massaccesi went on to make dozens of his own films (including some inventive gialli) under the name "Joe D'Amato." ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

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1970  
R  
In this nasty drama, a 17th-century Italian nun's long repressed sexual passion is awakened when a handsome nobleman rapes her. Confused by her unholy emotions, the nun sees that the aristocrat is arrested. Unfortunately, the louse impregnated her and shortly after bearing his child, she helps him escape from prison. Reunited, the two embark upon a passionate affair. One day another nun sees the two making love. Unfortunately, she dies before she can tell anyone. Later the offending nun is captured and given a life sentence for having sex and helping to murder her colleague. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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1975  
 
A Frenchwoman vacationing with her daughter and a Viennese professor vacationing with his son meet in the Tyrolean Alps of Italy. Of a liberal persuasion, both parents actively encourage the two young people to get to know one another, and perhaps have their first sexual liaison; the two adults have long since gone to bed with one another. With many hesitations and missed opportunities, this is just what the daughter and son eventually do. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Anne HeywoodClaudio Cassinelli, (more)
1951  
 
Despite its lighthearted title, Lady Godiva Rides Again is a fairly potent indictment of the darker side of beauty contests. Waitress Marjorie (Pauline Stroud) enters one competition after another, hoping for fame and fortune. She manages to make the finals of a "Lady Godiva" contest, never suspecting that the outcome has been rigged. By accident, Marjorie wins First Prize, a huge sum of money and a movie contract. Alas, she hasn't the talent to parlay her win into a lasting career, and soon Marjorie is scrounging around for any "girlie show" job she can find. Only when reduced to performing nude in a French cabaret review is Marjorie rescued by her Australian boyfriend Larry Burns (John McCallum), who makes her promise to stop all this nonsense and settle down to domesticity. The well-chosen cast includes Dennis Price as a lascivious movie star and Stanley Holloway and Gladys Henson as the girl's nonplused parents. Featured in smaller roles are such future leading ladies as Kay Kendall, Diana Dors, Dagmar (later Dana) Wynter and, in an uncredited bit, Joan Collins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Dennis PriceJohn McCallum, (more)
1973  
 
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From the Middle Ages onward, certain monasteries and nunneries were basically elegant retirement homes for rich noblemen and noblewomen. The position of abbot or abbess at one of these institutions often carried with it considerable wealth and worldly power. So it comes as no surprise that the elegant nuns of Sant'arcangelo in Naples should fight for the position of Mother Superior of their nunnery; it has a charter to huge quantities of gold from the New World. Nor should it surprise anyone that this squabble attracted the interest of powerful figures in the church. This Italian/French drama, based on a story by Henri Stendahl, focuses on the characters of the nuns, noblemen and churchmen involved in this dispute, which eventually came under the scrutiny of the Holy Inquisition. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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1969  
PG  
A disgruntled British secret service officer and an aspiring author turn to crime when they are again passed over for prominent career advancements. John Pedley (Fred Astaire) is the agent who has been passed over for knighthood one too many times for his liking. He proposes a plan to university professor Mike Warden (Richard Crenna), who has been fired for taking part in a peace demonstration. With the help of Sylvia Giroux (Anne Heywood), they recruit a retired SS officer and a former Italian fascist as they attempt to hijack a fortune in gold bricks from the British crown. Pedley deals with double-crossing opportunists who covet the gold for themselves. Sir Ralph Richardson, Roddy McDowell and Cesar Romero also star in this engaging crime drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Richard CrennaAnne Heywood, (more)
1965  
 
The Anglo-Czech coproduction 90 Degrees in the Shade stars British actress Anne Heywood as a grocery clerk embroiled in an affair with manager James Booth. Though she knows that Booth is good for nothing, she remains with him because of the intensity of their physical relationship. Company auditors Rudolf Hrusinsky and Donald Wolfit make life miserable for Heywood, who cannot bring herself to reveal the fact that Booth has been stealing from the store. Her subsequent suicide humanizes the strictly-business auditors, but the unrepentant Booth merely shrugs and casts about for another willing young woman. The title is a succinct assessment of the film's sex scenes, which were as hot as it was possible to get in a mainstream movie of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Anne HeywoodJames Booth, (more)
1961  
 
Any movie with a title like Petticoat Pirates would be hard to dislike--and equally hard to believe. Anticipating the "feminist" films of the 1970s, the plot concerns a group of female officers in the British Navy. Angered by the sexism inherent in the Admiralty, the uniformed ladies stage a mutiny, taking a timorous male stoker as a sort of hostage. Not terribly credible to begin with, the film ultimately veers off into fantasy. Petticoat Pirates is both innocuous and inconsequential; you may have seen it, but chances are you don't remember it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Charles DrakeAnne Heywood, (more)
1983  
PG  
Louis Gossett Jr. was nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat in this two-part made-for-TV biopic. With 4 hours at its disposal, Sadat is able to trace its protagonist from his formative years fighting against the British occupiers of his country. The second part of the film is devoted in great part to Sadat's peacemaking efforts, culminating with his tradition-breaking truce with Israel's Menachem Begin (Barry Morse) in 1978. Lionel Chetwynd's script tends to deal in sweeping generalizations and stock characters at times, but the performances of Gossett, Morse and John Rhys-Davies as Gamel Abdel Nassar fully flesh out the film's occasional superficialities. Syndicated as an Operation Prime Time special on October 31, 1983, Sadat was an unqualified hit--everywhere but Egypt, where the film was banned because of its actual and alleged distortions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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1975  
R  
The Mexican convent of St. Archangelo has a "bad rep" long before Sisters of Satan gets under way. The eponymous sisters don't seem to have a very firm grasp on the concept of giving one's life to one's Lord. When they finally determine that neither God nor the Virgin Mary can satisfy their spiritual needs, the nuns cast about for someone else to worship. That someone, as indicated by the title, is decked out with horns, a tail and cloven hooves. And just how did the lovely and graceful British leading lady Anne Heywood get herself mixed up in this monster rally? (Note how she never lists Sisters of Satan on her resume). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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1962  
 
Dr. Paul Vernon (Tony Britton) is a gynecologist who is estranged from his wife in this situation comedy of errors. He gets drunk at a party, picks up a pretty French girl and takes her home for a night of pleasure. The perplexed physician wakes up to find the French femme has spent the night in the other room. He then decides to offer her a job as his housekeeper. Things go smoothly until wife Lisa (Anne Heywood) shows up and announces she is pregnant. To complicate matters, the French maid is also with child. The noble doctor devises a plan to have his wife claim both children, keeping the single maid from shame. Lisa agrees to pretend she will give birth to twins. The plan goes haywire when the doctor discovers both women are pregnant with twins. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Tony BrittonAnne Heywood, (more)
1962  
 
This third film version of the Curt Siodmak scare piece Donovan's Brain stars Peter Van Eyck as an overly dedicated scientist. When a powerful and ruthless financier dies in a plane crash, Van Eyck keeps the tycoon's brain alive in his laboratory. Gradually, the brain takes over the doctor's mind, forcing him into all sorts of evil chicanery. In a twist not found in the Siodmak original, the brain compels Van Eyck to seek out the financier's murderer. Anne Heywood costars as the dead man's daughter. A strong mulinational supporting cast distinguishes this Anglo-German coproduction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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1969  
PG  
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J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone) directed this Cold War action thriller. Gregory Peck is the American Dr. John Hathaway, a Noble Prize-winning scientist, teaching at a university in London. Lieutenant General Shelby (Arthur Hill), from the American Embassy, asks Hathaway to go on a mission to Communist China to obtain an enzyme, being developed by his old teacher Soong Li (Keye Luke), that permits crops to grow in any climate. Since the country holding the formula to this growth enzyme would be able to control the world, Shelby tells Hathaway that both the United States and the Soviet Union are anxious that the enzyme not stay in China. Hathaway doesn't want to go because of a burgeoning love affair with attractive professor Kay Hanna (Anne Heywood) and an opposition he holds to American foreign policy. But a call from the President changes his mind, and he is off to China. A transmitter is placed in his skull so that he can communicate with London. But Hathaway doesn't realize that the head implant can also be detonated from London, if necessary, and blow Hathaway's brains out. In China, Hathaway works with his old mentor Soong Li to perfect the enzyme. As they are near completion, the Red Guard storms the laboratory and attack Soong Li because of his opposition to the new movement in China, and Hathaway has to flee the country. Detecting the transmitter in Hathaway's head, the Chinese are in full pursuit. Hathaway makes it to the Sino-Soviet border, but then Shelby decides to activate the explosive device in Hathaway's head once he crosses over into Russia. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Gregory PeckAnne Heywood, (more)
1957  
 
Who's "depraved" in the British Depraved? Just about everyone, it seems. Married to drunken, abusive lout Basil Dignam, Anne Heywood inaugurates an affair with American army officer Robert Arden. Anne convinces Arden to help her do away with her husband. As if this is going to solve things in a melodrama of this nature. Another gem from the Danzinger brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Anne HeywoodRobert Arden, (more)
1967  
PG  
Based on a novella by D.H. Lawrence, this drama concerns Jill (Sandy Dennis) and Ellen (Anne Heywood), a lesbian couple who live in a remote, snowbound cabin. While Ellen dominates the relationship, she has also grown dissatisfied and is no longer sure she wants to stay with Jill. When Paul (Keir Dullea), a handsome stranger, happens by, the women invite him in. Soon Paul and Ellen are having an affair, which leads to an ugly confrontation among all three. The Fox won a Golden Globe Award as Best English Language Foreign Film of 1968 (it was made in Canada). Originally rated R in 1968, it was re-edited and rated PG in 1973. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Sandy DennisKeir Dullea, (more)
1959  
 
Herbert Wilcox wrapped up his long and prestigious film career as the director of Heart of a Man, which was produced by Wilcox' actress wife Anna Neagle. British teen idol Frankie Vaughn plays a sailor with a penchant for bursting into song. Vaughn has no intention of making a living as a vocalist, but a chance meeting with a whimsical hobo, coupled with a deepening relationship with nightclub thrush Anne Heywood, convinces Vaughn to go for the gold in the music world. In addition to enhancing the already successful career of Frankie Vaughn, Heart of a Man also gave a big boost to Anthony Newley, who popped up in a comic supporting role. As for producer Anna Neagle, this was the second and last of her Frankie Vaughn vehicles; after appearing in one more film (The Lady is a Square [59]) she followed her husband's lead and gracefully exited the British film industry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Frankie VaughanAnne Heywood, (more)
1960  
 
This uneven, wartime drama delves into the complexities of the political situation in Northern Ireland, compounded in World War II when the IRA collaborated with the Nazis against England, their long-time foe. Robert Mitchum stars as the heroic Dermot O'Neill, willing to join the IRA yet unhappy with their ties to fascist Germany. His interaction with the local IRA unit is intense and occurs at the same time as his love affair with Neeve Donnelly (Anne Heywood). His buddy Sean Reilly (Richard Harris) is also around to lend moral support when a situation calls for it. Between Dermot and his relationships and family clan, and the political intrigues, things can get a little crowded at times. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Robert MitchumAnne Heywood, (more)

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