Jimmy Jewel Movies
Best known for his partnership with his cousin Ben Wariss, British comedian Jimmy Jewel worked on stage, radio, television, and feature films. He and Wariss were together from the 1930s through 1969, and started out on stage and on the radio. Their shared film credits include Rhythm Serenade (1943) and Stick 'Em Up (1950). Following their breakup, Jewel appeared in an episode of the long-running British espionage-adventure series The Avengers and in a few more feature films. He made his final film appearance in American Friends (1993). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1993
- PG
Monty Python's Michael Palin plays an Oxford don with acute female trouble in American Friends. While on holiday in the Swiss Alps, Palin crosses the path of American tourist Connie Booth and her adopted daughter Trini Alvarado. Both women express an inordinate desire for the bookish Palin, leading to profound changes in the lives of all concerned. Michael Palin insists that the plot of American Friends was drawn from an actual incident in the life of his own great-grandfather. The film unfolds like a good novel; slow on the uptake, but fascinating once it gets going. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Palin, Trini Alvarado, (more)
- 1991
Socialist-leaning British director Ken Loach kicked off a decade's worth of acclaimed cinema with this surprisingly comic tale of working class laborers at a North London building site, written by Bill Jesse, a real-life construction worker who died before the film's release. Scottish ex-con Stevie (Robert Carlyle) finds work on a non-union crew converting a hospital into luxury condos. Like most of his coworkers, Stevie is homeless and finds a place to live by squatting in an abandoned building. The crew is exploited by its supervisors and endures unsafe conditions, and pay is so low that the men use false names so that they won't have to pay taxes. Stevie discovers a lost handbag, and when he returns it to the owner, a spacey hopeful singer named Susan (Emer McCourt), he falls in love. He and Susan are soon living together -- then Stevie discovers that his girlfriend is a habitual drug user. Meanwhile, the most outspoken worker, Larry (Ricky Tomlinson) loses his job when he questions authority once too often. Loach cast only actors who had construction experience in the film, kicking off the career of Carlyle, who later surged to stardom in The Full Monty (1997). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Carlyle, Emer McCourt, (more)
- 1990
- R
Peter Medak directed this fact-based drama, chronicling the lives of the infamous Kray Brothers, notorious celebrities in 60s London. The Krays were twin gangsters who ruled London's stylish East End club scene, staking out their territory by committing the most violent crimes imaginable, preferring to perform the most torturous acts themselves. The film stars Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp, founding members of the pop group Spandau Ballet, as Ronald and Reginald Kray. The film opens as their mother Violet Kray (Billie Whitelaw) recalls a dream in which she is a swan from which two beautiful babies have hatched. She can't tell if the swans are angels or demons, but the film soon answers that question for her. Brought up in London's East End in the 1930s, Ronald and Reginald Kray are raised in the resentful world of Violet, who is hateful of her lot in life and bitter at the control men have in running the world ("Housework is a lethal business," she says). The twins react to each other almost telepathically and they take out their anger by clogging the nose of their sleeping father (Alfred Lynch), pushing around fellow schoolboys, and even beating each other to pulp at a boxing match. When her mother chastises them for their fight in a fairground boxing ring ("You fight them up, but you don't fight each other"), the twins veer into the London underworld. In their self-contained world of Us-Against-Them, the Krays rapidly rise to the height of power, first taking over the territory of a petty mobster by violent means and then putting together an underworld empire of posh clubs, cars, and fancy suits. But at the height of their fame, the twins begin to break from each other. Reginald falls in love with Frances (Kate Hardie), while Ronald gets involved in a homosexual relationship with one of his underlings. Ronald, in a jealous rage over Frances stealing his brother away from him, becomes even more brutal in his crimes and while the brothers' backs are turned, a group of older mobsters challenge the Krays' authority, invoking a horrible bloodbath that effects not only the two brothers but Frances and Violet as well. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billie Whitelaw, Tom Bell, (more)
Patricia Routledge, best known to television viewers as the status-obsessed Hyacinth Bucket on the long-running British comedy series Keeping Up Appearances, takes on a very different role in this made-for-TV mystery. Hetty Wainthropp (Routledge) is a sensible and practical woman in her early sixties. When a close friend's son goes missing, Hetty decides the police aren't doing enough to track him down, and sets out to find him herself. When Hetty's plan proves to be a success, she gets a private detective's license and becomes a full-time sleuth, to the slight annoyance of her kitchen-phobic husband. Missing Persons became a pilot for a series of Hetty Wainthropp mysteries starring Routledge, which ran for four seasons; the character was adapted from the writings of novelist David Cook. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Routledge
- 1986
Ostensibly about the 1984 miners' strike in England, this rambling drama veers into a story about Bill (John Hurt) a rootless man who lives in a rundown movie theater and Jess (newcomer Maureen Douglass) who is intent on sabotaging the mining company. Bill creates his own reality in the theater by projecting images he likes on the screen but this lifestyle ends when the building is slated for demolition. Just as Bill is looking for another place to set up housekeeping Jess picks him up and offers him a ride. A computer and some curious-looking plans in the back of the vehicle peak his curiosity though after some adventures on the road, Bill gets dropped off. It does not take long for him to decide to pursue Jess, and the adventure continues. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Moving as methodically as the old curmudgeon Arthur tending his cricket grounds, this drama about age and values is a steady, well-focused story that still might move too slowly or narrowly for some viewers. Arthur (Jimmy Jewel) has been taking care of the greensward for the cricket team since time immemorial and is at odds with the perennially losing team's board of directors. Len Draycock (Michael Elphick) and others want Arthur to shape the pitch to give the home team an advantage -- like every other home team. They would also like him to retire so they can install a modern system to tend the grounds and use his salary for needed amenities. Arthur's battles with Len and the board (and internally, himself as well) intensify when he is given an underprivileged young black man as an assistant. This was award-winning cinematographer Freddie Young's first (and last) directorial experience -- he was 90 when he directed this film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Jewel, Jean Boht, (more)
- 1970
- R
Peter Reaney (Rod Taylor) is the successful talent agent who enjoys the things that money can buy. He also considers himself a parasite, living off the talents of his clients. When his wife Angela (Penelope Horner) walks out on him, he moves in with his friend Val (James Booth) and his wife Jody (Carol White). He and Jody engage in an adulterous affair, but Peter's main worry is doing damage control for the spoiled pop singer Barry Black (Clive Francis). Peter pays off a woman impregnated by Black in order for her to afford an abortion and keep the star's name out of the scandal sheets. Sickened by Black's behavior, he quits the agency and punches out the pop star at a personal appearance. When his friend Val dies, the hard-drinking former agent is free to pursue his romance with Jody in this seriocomic satire. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Carol White, (more)
- 1965
Steed and Tara investigate when the directors of Project Cupid, a top-secret construction project, are being systematically murdered. The culprit turns out to be a has-been vaudeville comedian, who resents the fact that Project Cupid plans to demolish a number of old music halls. Captured by the comedian and his minions, a bound-and-gagged Tara is subjected to the most hideous torture of all -- having to listen to their wheezy old jokes. John Cleese of Monty Python fame appears in an uproarious guest star role. Written by Dennis Spooner, this capriciously titled Avengers episode debuted in America on May 8, 1968, and was seen in England the following December 4th. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1950
In this British comedy, a popular radio duo, Jewel and Warriss, play two doltish detectives who are far too timid to actually get out and solve a crime. They begin looking into the death of a singer and discover that an upright psychiatrist and a jewel thief are behind the killings. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1943
In this patriotic but romantic musical comedy, a young teacher runs a day school for the workers at a munitions factory. As she makes arrangements to locate the school in the empty home next to her apartment building, she falls in love with the property owner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
