Richard Ireson Movies
In this action adventure, author Bernard Cornwell's fictional Major Sharpe is faced with the daunting task of teaching a ceremonial battalion to fight for real. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley, (more)
Michael Lindsay-Hogg wrote and directed this cool and sleek comedy about a seemingly perfect combination -- an American couple staying at a chic London hotel whose pride doesn't permit them to recognize that they are broke, and a hotel staff so brimming with proper British reserve that they can't inform the American freeloaders they need to be paid. Jake (John Malkovich) and Tina (Andie MacDowell) are the American couple trapped in splendor at a London hotel after Jake's cocoa deal in a Third World County is stalled by revolutionary upheaval. Their plight is so dire they walk up the stairs to their luxurious suite rather than take the elevator and risk encountering the hotel manager. Hitting rock bottom, they take stock of their assets and find one -- a $50,000 Henry Moore bust. They decide to fabricate a robbery and collect the insurance money, but a deaf maid (Rudi Davies) has fallen in love with the bust and stolen it herself. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Malkovich, Andie MacDowell, (more)
Director Bernard Rose and screenwriter David Yallop were inspired by the real-life Hulten/Jones murder case of 1944, famously known as The Cleft Chin Murder Case, after a London cabbie was found murdered. It was a sensation in England, where American soldier Karl Hulten and British showgirl Elizabeth Maud Jones became household names -- even beating out news of the war. In the film, Karl Hulten (Kiefer Sutherland), is an American GI who is stalking the black market of London after stealing an army truck and going AWOL. There he meets up with Betty Jones (Emily Lloyd), a stripper with a deluded fantasy world view formed by watching a steady stream of Hollywood film noir and gangster pictures. Seeing Karl, who claims he is Chicago Joe doing advance work in London for encroaching Chicago gangsters, Betty takes the opportunity to set her fantasies to life as she connives Karl into a crime spree of petty crimes. With luck on their side, the spree keeps escalating, until Betty urges Karl to commit the ultimate crime -- murder. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emily Lloyd, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
- 1988
In this amusing comedy, Sharon (Sharon Fryer) is upset when her unemployed boyfriend Anthony (Gary Webster) announces his intention to join the police force. She ends up insulting the chief of police at a local dinner, following him into the men's room to finish her train of thought. When her friend Billy (Pete Lee-Wilson) lands in jail for using the phone at work to make a request to a disc jockey, she decides to help him get out. Cameos from popular British television stars are added effectively throughout the feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Webster, Sharon Fryer, (more)
- 1988
James Richards is an ordinary middle-class man living a very comfortable and orderly life in London, working as a statistician. In this drama, he discovers that his safe and cozy world is rife with hidden corners and unimagined dangers. He first discovers that things are not as they seem when, through a client, he learns of a special film that has been suppressed by the British government. His search for that film leads him into the labyrinth of underground tunnels and offices which were built under the city during World War II, and he is pitted against an organized government conspiracy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Dance, Cassie Stuart, (more)
This unadorned biography of playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) charts his bawdy, dangerous relationships. Alfred Molina plays Orton's brutish lover, Kenneth Halliwell, a pathetic figure who becomes horrific and then tragic before the film is over. The hilarity of scenes from such Orton plays as Loot and What the Butler Saw is evenly balanced by the bleakness of the playwright's tormented (and tormenting) off-stage existence, which ended suddenly at age 34 with half a dozen blows to the head from a hammer. Prick Up Your Ears is based on the book by theater critic John Lahr, who is played in the film by Wallace Shawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Oldman, Alfred Molina, (more)
- 1987
Rick was never a very nice man, all his life he has been prone to beating people up with very little provocation. Somehow he becomes a member of the police's elite special forces unit. When he beats up a hippie at a demonstration rather than simply keeping order as he is charged to do, his fellow officers back up his story rather than suffer the humiliation of having this "bad apple" in their ranks be exposed, bringing disgrace on them all. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rob Spendlove, Elizabeth Edmonds, (more)
- 1984
- PG
In this superficial interpretation of an intended suspense story and comedy, Robert Hays plays a TV anchor man on a flight to London who is duped by his attractive co-passenger (Pamela Stephenson) into thinking he is onto secret spying activities. After the plane lands, the newsman is unexpectedly accused of murdering his own wife. By the time Inspector Anthony Crisp (Jim Dale) gets into the picture, events have traveled a little farther into the bizarre (John Gielgud in black leather), too far to be saved by the good acting of the leads. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hays, John Gielgud, (more)
- 1977
The title character in this episode is Purdey (Joanna Lumley), who has been abducted by the Other Side. In order to save Purdey's life, Steed (Patrick MacNee) must agree to hand over top-secret allied defense plans. Unaware that Purdey is in danger, Gambit (Gareth Hunt) reluctantly sets about to "terminate" Steed as a traitor and a murderer. Simon Oates, here cast as Spellman, also played John Steed in a British stage adaptation of The Avengers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1972
The Darwin Adventure stars Nicholas Clay as 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin. The film covers the whole of Darwin's life, with emphasis on his volatile evolutionary theories. The "adventure" of the title is Darwin's 1831 fact-finding voyage on the good ship Beagle, in search of nature's secrets in the darker corners of South America. The story ends in Darwin's declining years, during which time many of his theories have been adopted and refined by younger, more broad-minded naturalists. The Darwin Adventure plays like a Cliff's Notes version of the subject's life, packing far too much into its 91 minute running time to be properly digested by the average filmgoer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
In the third episode of the four-part story "The Krotons," the crystalline title characters have been awakened from suspended animation by the combined intellects of the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury). Now expendable, the two time travelers are hunted down like animals, while Jamie (Frazer Hines) ends up the Krotons' prisoner. Meanwhile, the primitive Gonds, emerging from their mental bondage, plan a counterrattack against their Kroton masters. Written by Robert Holmes, "The Krotons, Episode 3" first aired on January 11, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, (more)
- 1969
In the conclusion of the four-part story "The Krotons," the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) joins forces with scientist Beta (James Cairncross) in a last-ditch effort to destroy the highly advanced but eminently dangerous Krotons. Alas, these efforts may well come to naught, as the Krotons prepare to escape the planet of the Gonds, with the Doctor and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) as their captives -- and principal "energy sources." Written by Robert Holmes, "The Krotons, Episode 4" first aired on January 18, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, (more)
- 1968
The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his companions land on the planet of the Gonds, a primitive race. The Gonds are held in mental bondage by the Krotons, highly advanced beings who exist in a state of crystalline suspended animation. In trying to determine exactly what the Krotons are up to, the Doctor plunges himself and his companions, Zoe (Wendy Padbury) and Jamie (Frazer Hines), into the direst of dire perils. Written by Robert Holmes, "The Krotons" ran four episodes, the first of which originally aired December 26, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, (more)
- 1968
In the second episode of the five-part story "The Mind Robber," the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) is drawn out of the TARDIS by the same irresistable force that has sucked Zoe (Wendy Padbury) and Jamie (Frazer Hines) into a white void. Though he is successful in rescuing his companions from the fearsome White Robots, the Doctor can only look on in helpless horror as the TARDIS is destroyed. Somehow or other, the three time travellers land on a planet that vaguely resembles Earth -- an Earth that exists only in the imaginations of the world's most famous authors. Written by Derrick Sherwin and Peter Ling, "The Mind Robber, Episode 2" originally aired on September 21, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, (more)
- 1968
In the conclusion of the five-part story "The Mind Robber," the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) wend their way through a Lewis Carroll-like maze, somewhere in the Land of Fiction. Emerging from the confusion, the two time travellers come face to face with the Master (Emrys Jones), who explains he is the creator of a world comprised entirely of characters and locales taken from Earth Literature. The Master then demands that the Doctor take his place -- with dire consequences for Zoe and Jamie (Frazer Hines) if his demands are not met. Written by Derrick Sherwin and Peter Ling, "The Mind Robber, Episode 5" originally aired on October 12, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, (more)
- 1968
In the third episode of the five-part story "The Mind Robber," the Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Zoe (Wendy Padbury), and Jamie (Frazer Hines) find themselves in a strange forest, where the trees are in the shape of huge letters. All around them are images apparently culled from the world's most famous literature, and there is talk in the air of a "master" who is in charge of things. The mystery deepens when the time travellers meet a stranger (Bernard Horsfall) in 18th century garb -- who, like the rest of the planet, is oddly familiar to them. Written by Derrick Sherwin and Peter Ling, "The Mind Robber, Episode 3" originally aired on September 28, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, (more)
