Wilfred Lawson Movies

Set in first century England, The Viking Queen is a loose retelling of the legend of Boadicea (also sometimes known as Boudica), the queen of the native Britons, who were known as the Iceni. In the year 60 A.D., the Roman governor general Justinian (Don Murray) attempts to rule over the island from wisdom as well as strength, believing that winning over the hearts of the Iceni people will work better for the Empire than brutalizing them. He has help from his cultured advisor Tiberion (Niall MacGinnis), and finds an ally (and much more) in Salina (Carita), the daughter of the late King Priam (ilfred Lawson), who has been chosen to rule the Iceni. Together, Justinian and Salina attempt to share responsibility for ruling the island nation, and to make the laws and the tax system fairer for the Iceni -- they also discover that they actually love each other and want to marry. Their romance and their attempts at bringing more civilized rule are thwarted by treachery on both sides. Among the Iceni, the Druids, led by the high priest Maelgan (Donald Houston), oppose the Romans because their rites (involving human sacrifice) have been banned, and Maelgan wishes Salina to fulfill the destiny that he has prophesized for her: to take up arms against the invaders. The wealthy Iceni merchants, led by the procurer Osiris (Dennis Shaw), oppose Justinian because of the higher taxes that he has imposed on them. Among the Romans, Justinian's military commander, Octavian (Andrew Keir), doesn't care for diplomacy or persuasion, except at the point of a sword. Conspiracies abound in both camps, which leads to Justinian being called away, and, in his absence, Octavian destroys the treaty between the two peoples. Finally, Salina is forced to take up arms and lead her people in open revolt against the Romans. The two would-be lovers face each other in battle, where, in the achieving victory, Justinian learns precisely how fierce and proud a warrior and a queen Salina is. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Years before the story proper in The Wrong Box gets under way, a "tontine" is drawn up on behalf several young British boys. Each of the boys' parents had placed 1000 pounds in a pool, to be invested and expanded upon. The resultant fortune will go to the last surving member of the tontine. A series of montages depicts the various demises of the heirs (our favorite occurs when one of them is inadvertently beheaded while being knighted by Queen Victoria). Finally, only two of the tontine participants are left: aged brothers Ralph Richardson and John Mills. On his last legs, Mills is determined that Richardson will not outlive him, and to that end attempts to kill his brother; each attempt fails spectacularly, with the doddering Richardson none the wiser. Standing to benefit from the tontine are Mills' dimwitted med-student son Michael Caine and Richardson's greedy nephews Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. When Richardson is supposedly killed in a train wreck, Cook and Moore don't want the authorities to find out, so they appropriate what they think is their uncle's corpse and ship it home in a box. Thus it is that Caine finds the body of a perfect stranger on his doorstep. The farcical complications begin flying about thick and fast from this point onward. Among the participants in this wacky gigglefest are such formidable talents as Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Wilfred Lawson, Thorley Walters, Norman Rossington, Irene Handl and Cicely Courtenedge. Based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrong Box is a delightful harkback to the glory days of Britain's Ealing comedies. We were so wrapped up in the story that we didn't even notice all those TV antennae sprouting up on the rooftops of Victorian London. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three losing crooks are featured as Stooge-like misfits (sans slapstick) in this conventional comedy by director Michael Truman. Bernard (Dave King) is the ringleader, while Harry and Alfie (Daniel Massey and Norman Rossington) do their best to contribute to the trio's success -- and fail each time. First the group screw up their escape after a robbery because they are stuck in traffic by a fire engine. That gives them the idea of getting a fire engine to pull off a heist, and that goes wrong because they are detoured to a real fire. Next, they recruit an ex-fireman with a record for setting blazes himself (Robert Morley) in the hopes that a decoy fire can take attention away from the bank they want to rob. With their batting average, the bank seems fairly safe. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

One of the many "B"-grade British comedies meant to fill the lower half of a double-billing, Over the Odds is about bookkeeper George Summers (Glenn Melvyn), who has opted to marry one more time after his first wife left him. Unfortunately, his ex-wife's harridan mother-in-law (Marjorie Rhodes) did not leave with her daughter. Now the new wife and the old mother-in-law are at loggerheads -- not a recipe for the beginning of a successful marriage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

There is nothing like suspecting your husband of murder to add suspense to a marriage, at least that is the case in this standard whodunit with a compelling plot. George Radcliffe (Gary Cooper) testifies in court against a man suspected of murdering George's business partner, absconding with a lot of cash in the process. Several years later, when his wife, Martha (Deborah Kerr), is confronted by a blackmailer (Eric Portman) who says her husband murdered his partner, she gets suspicious. George did come into a lot of money just at that time. And to make matters worse, life starts to turn very menacing for the confused and frightened Martha. This was Gary Cooper's last feature film. He succumbed to cancer a few months before The Naked Edge was released. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this witty music-business satire, Johnny Jackson (Laurence Harvey) is a talent agent down on his luck who thinks his tide may have turned when he spots a teenage rock & roll fan wailing away in a coffeehouse. Dubbing him "Bongo Herbert" (Cliff Richard, in a role the now knighted and born-again pop icon would probably prefer to forget), Johnny puts Herbert on the fast track to teenage stardom, using his record company and radio connections to make Herbert's first single a smash hit. Johnny then decides that a little image modification might make Herbert a bigger draw, so his follow-up is a treacly, inspirational tune, "The Shrine on the Second Floor," which hardly gibes with Herbert's newfound fondness for strippers and love-starved American actresses. But just when Johnny thinks he has a meal ticket for life, it's discovered that Herbert is really a minor, making his contract with Johnny null and void. Cliff Richard was at the height of his first wave of popularity as "The British Elvis" when Expresso Bongo was released, leading to a great deal of speculation about how closely it mirrored his own career (the answer probably is: not very much). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this efficient British crime drama, Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) is an ex-con looking for honest work. He thinks he's found it when he takes a job as a truck driver, but he soon discovers that the trucking firm he's signed on with is not playing by the rules. Red (Patrick McGoohan), the company's best driver, and Cartley (William Hartnell), the manager, have created five fictional drivers who have been added to the payroll. The other staff drivers are given the shifts that the phony drivers are supposed to be working, while Red and Cartley divide their pay packets. When Tom attempts to expose the corruption at the trucking firm, he soon discovers that he's taken his life in his hands in the process. Keep an eye peeled for a supporting performance by a young Sean Connery (it was only his fifth screen role); the cast also includes Herbert Lom, Jill Ireland, Peggy Cummins, and David McCallum. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

London's colorful but rundown Soho district is the setting for this thinnish romantic comedy. John Gregson plays a Soho roadworker who has little hopes of finding happiness in life. Belinda Lee is a like-minded barmaid in a tiny pub. Gregson and Lee discover each other, and the "miracle" happens. The script was written by Emeric Pressburger, who apparently was so accustomed to "big" projects like The Red Shoes (47) that he couldn't scale himself down to the genuine emotions of normal people. Too, Miracle in Soho cries out for location filming, but the producers insisted upon lensing the story in the most unconvincing of studio sets. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

War and Peace is a commendable attempt to boil down Tolstoy's long, difficult novel into 208 minutes' screen time. In recreating the the social and personal upheavals attending Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, $6 million was shelled out by coproducers Carlo Ponti, Dino de Laurentiis and Paramount Pictures. Some of the panoramic battle sequences are so expertly handled by second-unit director Mario Soldati that they appear to be Technicolor-and-Vistavision newsreel footage of the actual events. Still, the film falters dramatically, principally because of a lumpy script and King Vidor's surprisingly lustreless direction. In addition, the casting is wildly consistent: for example, while Audrey Hepburn is flawless as Natasha, Henry Fonda is far too "Yankeefied" as the introspective Pierre. Proving too long and unwieldy for most audiences, War and Peace died at the box office; far more successful was the epic, scrupulously faithful 1968 version, filmed in the Soviet Union. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

You gets what you pays for in An Alligator Named Daisy. Donald Sinden stars as a young songwriter who accidentally picks up someone else's alligator suitcase. Somehow this leads to the luckless Sinden being saddled with a baby alligator, who prefers to sleep within his piano. Glamour girl Diana Dors is the leading lady, revealing an unexpected flair for wacky comedy. Based on a novel by Charles Terrot, An Alligator Named Daisy seemed to show up every other day on TV in the early 1960s, possibly due to its pleasant Technicolor photography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy drama, a taxi driver finds an abandoned greyhound puppy and takes it home to his daughter who raises it and trains it to race. While at the track, a corrupt dog owner sees the dog as a threat to his champion and tries to buy it from her. She refuses, and so he tries to frame the taxi-driver on fake drunk-driving charges. Fortunately, the dog wins the Big Race and the cabby's good name is eventually cleared. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy drama, a young girl's family disintegrates after the child becomes a movie star. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Terror House is the prosaic American title for the taut British chiller The Night Has Eyes. James Mason plays Stephen Deremid, one of those brooding, secretive young men so beloved of wartime melodramas. He lives in a remote Yorkshire mansion surrounded by a boggish moor. A young British girl (Joyce Howard) and her wisecracking American friend (Dorothy Black) are forced to seek shelter in Stephen's home during a thunderstorm. The friend disappears; perhaps Stephen is responsible, or perhaps it's his Mrs. Danvers-like housekeeper (Mary Clare). And then there's the harmless, helpful Wilfred Lawson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide