Ursula Jeans Movies

Originally released in Great Britain as The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, this film is not a wartime epic but a cozy domestic drama. Maureen O'Hara plays an American woman who leaves British husband Richard Todd, taking their two children along. While vacationing on the Riviera, Maureen falls in love with Rosanno Brazzi, a widowed Italian concert pianist who also has children. None of the kids are keen on this continental romance, and do their best to break up the affair. One of the children is played by pre-teen Olivia Hussey, several years before her star turn in Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet. Consistently lovely to look at, Affair at Villa Fiorita is not for those who prefer surprises in their film fare. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this fast-paced actioner, an aging race-car driver finds that he is losing his competitive edge. He tries racing under the sponsorship of an American tire company. He soon falls in love with the sponsor's daughter who pleads with him to stop driving. Adding more pressure to the man's life is his younger brother who swore to his mother that he would not drive until his older brother retires. The older brother still wants to prove himself, and so enters a 1,000-mile Italian race. When his mechanic-navigator is killed, the aging driver quits and the younger brother finally gets to drive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Night My Number Came Up was based on an actual incident in the life of Britain's Sir Victor Goddard. Michael Redgrave stars as an RAF pilot who is tormented by the premonition that his plane will crash. After much trepidation, he agrees to take a routine flight. As Redgrave prepares to take off, he notes that several of the small details in his premonition are occurring all around him. The audience sweats out the rest flight with Redgrave, fully expecting the worst at any second. A steady level of suspense permeates The Night My Number Came Up from beginning to end; that level might even have been heightened had not the film been constructed in the form of a flashback. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British The Dam Busters is the story of the development and utilization of the "bouncing bombs" in World War II. Michael Redgrave stars as Dr. Barnes Wallis, who developed these unorthodox explosives. Wallis' invention is put to practical use during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams in Germany. Most of the film is devoted to the two years spent in creating the bombs and training the pilots; the final sequence is a special-effects masterpiece, even allowing for the obvious models standing in for the dams. Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from both Guy Gibson's book Enemy Coast Ahead and Paul Brickhill's The Dam Busters, this film was Britain's biggest box-office success of 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this ironically titled British WW II drama, a widowed housewife provides housing for two navy men while her daughters serve as Wrens and her son serves in the military. The woman and one of the daughters end up falling for the sailors and marrying them. Following D-Day and the end of the war, the son returns home. All must now deal with the grim possibility of yet another world war. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this British WW II drama, a British housewife proves herself to be as patriotic and courageous as any soldier. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's much-lauded epic Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which satirizes British traditionalism, stirred up impassioned hostilities and indignations among the Brits when released in 1943. It so infuriated Winston Churchill, in fact, that he refused to allow its exportation to other countries, particularly the U.S. When Blimp finally did premiere in the States in 1945, it screened in a drastically cut version. The sweeping story covers several decades. It begins at the tail end of the Boer War, when handsome young British officer Clive Candy, recently back from the battlefront, is infuriated by his discovery that Deutschland papers have played up the British atrocities in South Africa, propagandistically. He grows so irate, in fact, that he travels to Germany to address the problem. Once there, he meets an attractive British educator, Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr) who spends her days teaching English as a second language to German students. They grow close, but Candy so aggravates the local indigenes that he winds up in a duel with a German officer, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). The men wound each other and are sent to the same hospital, where they become friends. Candy - who doesn't yet realize he's fallen in love with Edith -- senses that Theo and Edith are attracted to one another, and encourages the couple's marital union. Candy subsequently returns to England, then falls for and marries Barbara (again played by Kerr), a nurse who bears a strong resemblance to Edith. She later dies, but Candy meets a third woman during WWII, Johnny (Kerr a third time), assigned to drive him from one locale to another during his campaigns. Meanwhile, Theo - disgusted by Nazi atrocities -- absconds to England, where he reencounters his old friend, now a prattering old shuffler rapidly approaching the end of his career and raving continuously about Nazi conduct (or lack thereof) in battle. Powell and Pressberger adapted Colonel Blimp from a comic strip; it became one of the hallmarks of their careers. ~ Sidney Jenkins, All Movie Guide

Directed by Ian Dalrymple, this comedy of manners is based on a German play, and is one of the lesser known pieces of Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison's filmographies. Set in an old-fashioned Scottish town, Storm in a Teacup features Rex Harrison as an English newpaper reporter who has traveled north in order to take a job. Once there, he meets Victoria (Leigh), the daughter of Provost Gow (Cecil Parker), who happens to be one of the wealthiest legal figures in town. It isn't until he come across an an impoverished woman and her beloved dog, however, that life becomes truly complicated. When Mrs. Hegarty (Sara Allgood) can't afford to pay her annual dog licensing fee, Leigh's father orders the dog be destroyed. Frank (Harrison) turns this into a human interest story, which rapidly travels across Scotland. With his political career in shambles, Gow (Parker) retaliates by suing Frank for slander. Victoria, however, has fallen in love with the young journalist, and gives both Frank and her father quite a surprise when she lies for him in her testimony. In doing so, Victoria unwittingly determines the fate for both her lover and the dog, Scruffy. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

The Man in the Mirror is Edward Everett Horton, making one of his periodic professional visits to England. Horton plays Jeremy Dilke, a meek, mild-mannered businessman who allows everyone to use him for a doormat. While looking into his mirror, Dilke is confronted by his brusque, assertive alter ego, who declares "I am the man you have always longed to be." Armed with his newfound confidence, Dilke becomes a go-getting dynamo -- much to the delight of heroine Helen (Genevieve Tobin), who knew he had it in him all along. Moon-faced Alastair Sim plays a wonderful cameo as a foreign interpreter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Definitely no relation to the horror-film series of the same name, the British Friday the 13th is a variation of the "Bridge on the San Luis Rey" theme, set in motion by a London bus accident. Two passengers are killed and two injured in the crash, but the screenplay (co-written by Hitchcock-contributor Sidney Gilliat) keeps the audience in suspense as to the identities of the victims. In a series of flashbacks, the viewer is introduced to the passengers and the various trials and tribulations they were dealing with before the accident. The characters include a chorus girl en route to a date with a man she doesn't love; a henpecked husband whose wife was cheating on him; a blackmailer who'd been bleeding an unfortunate young man dry; a wise-guy crook who was about to be caught by a nasty detective; and so on. Extraordinarily well cast for a mid-1930s British film, Friday the 13th affords excellent acting opportunities for the likes of Jessie Mathews, Ursula Jeans, Frank Lawton, Ralph Richardson, Max Miller, O.B. Clarence and Emlyn Williams, among many many others. While American critics were impressed by the film, British reviewers were less kind, commenting that the constant switch from one character to another only results in confusion (PS: It doesn't). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an impoverished exiled Russian prince is taken in by a good-hearted Cockney shopgirl. His presence creates chaos in her family's humble home. More trouble ensues when the girl is tossed out for getting romantically involved with her employer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The perfect crime is presented in this British crime drama. The crime is perpetrated by an unemployed ex-cop who swipes a string of pearls from a famed actress. He then falls for the woman detective on the case. Some people have all the luck. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

No relation to the 1929 American actioner of the same name, the British Flying Fool features Henry Kendall as airborne amateur sleuth Vincent Floyd. When an undercover Pinkerton man is offed by a gang of homicidal jewel thieves, Floyd swings into action. A bit quicker on the uptake than most quota quickies, the film is distinguished by the climactic chase, in which Kendall commanders a transport plane then pursues the villains' car through a dangerous mountain pass. Distinguished British leading ladies Benita Hume and Ursula Jeans are cast respectively as the "mystery woman" heroine and a sultry female thief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide