Margaret Lee Movies

Rubie lives in Hong Kong in the period just prior to its being turned over to mainland Chinese rule. She edits a magazine and has a relatively successful and prosperous life. However, like all of her friends and relatives, she is transfixed by the upcoming changeover. Should she leave or plan to stay in Hong Kong permanently? Arrange for a safe exit, but remain behind for a while? The issue is neatly symbolized by the (true) protest staged by Swedish film star Liv Ullmann in 1990. Hong Kong feared to anger the mainland government by providing shelter to around 50 desperate Vietnamese boat people and shipped them back. In this film, the editor has begun an imaginary correspondence with the actress in which she discusses the issues she is facing. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Fernando DiLeo, best known for a series of westerns and crime films, tried his hand at horror with this extremely sick little item loaded with nudity and violence. Set at a remote mental institution (inexplicably located in a castle), the film features Klaus Kinski as a doctor whose mostly female patients are being brutally dispatched by a psychopath. Margaret Lee and Rosalba Neri are among the frequently unclothed cast, and there are decapitations, crossbow bolts in the eye, and -- in some foreign prints -- fairly explicit sex. Nothing in the film, however, is as tasteless as its original ad campaign, which played up its similarity to the crimes of Chicago mass-murderer Richard Speck (who actually killed student nurses and not patients). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

An undercover agent has a clever plan to get into a terrorist ring, but finds more than he bargained for in this 1970 film. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Susanne (Terry Torday) is the hostess of a popular hotel on the Lahn River. When she vacations in Paris, she becomes romantically involved with the emperor Napoleon. She sets him up with a bride and manages to uncover some military secrets in the court of the amorous emperor. There is plenty of nudity and suggestive dialogue to spice up what is otherwise a routine script with little imagination. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This erotic horror film from cult director Jesus Franco is based on the witch-hunting exploits of Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys (Christopher Lee), a real historical figure who died in prison in 1702 at the age of 54. In 1685 England, young Alicia Gray is burnt for witchcraft. Alicia's sister Mary (Maria Rohm) unwisely falls for Harry Selton (Hans Hass, Jr.), a rebel against King James II. After the rebels are defeated, Harry is captured by agents of Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys (Christopher Lee), who defends the crown by accusing its enemies of witchcraft. Also a captive, Mary tries to save her lover by surrendering herself to the cruel Judge, who takes perverse sexual pleasure in sadistic torture. The film revels in displays of whipping, sex, and chained women, but is difficult to evaluate otherwise due to the numerous different versions available, some with alternate endings. One version has Jeffreys hanged, then taken down and beheaded, while another has him watching a hanging from a window while a narrator reads his death sentence. There is also a third ending in which Jeffreys makes a confession to Harry's father, the Earl of Wessex (Leo Genn), before suffering a fatal heart attack. Franco used the character again, this time portrayed by Cihangir Gaffari (aka John Foster) in his 1972 film Les Demons. Howard Vernon, who plays the cruel executioner Jack Ketch here, took a heroic role in the sequel. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

This psychological drama finds Helen (Margaret Lee) wanting a divorce from her adoring husband John (Klaus Kinski). She leaves him and is killed in an auto wreck. John finds himself the target of a police investigation to determine if the death was an accident, murder or suicide. His wife had owned 90% interest in a British auto company and John is the main suspect should foul play be evident. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Unable to cope with life after stardom a former headliner with the Ziegfeld Follies becomes an alcoholic. Meanwhile her horrifying sons run off to commit a terrible crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Coplan (Claudio Brook) is a free-lance undercover agent who offers his services to the highest bidder. He receives a phone call from an old girlfriend in Turkey imploring him to see her immediately. The panic-stricken woman gives sketchy details of a plot that threatens world security. When Coplan arrives, he is told the woman has been killed, and the trail of the murderer leads to her brother (a mad scientist driven insane by radioactive fallout from a failed experiment). The mad scientist tries to hunt down Coplan with a bow and arrow. Coplan believes he sees his girlfriend alive, or is it her sister? The secret agent uses all of his resources to survive long enough to save the world from the brother's evil plan. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Based on an Edgar Wallace murder mystery this chiller centers on a Scotland Yard investigation of a series of puzzling deaths plaguing a traveling circus and the hunt for loot stolen from an armored car robbery. Suspects include the mask-wearing and disfigured lion tamer, a vengeful ringmaster, an insanely jealous knife-thrower, and a blackmailing dwarf called "Mr. Big." The film is also known as Circus of Fear. A German version was shot simultaneously with Psycho-Circus but used a different director. Though available in color in Great Britain, most of the American copies of the film are in black-and-white. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Originally titled Le Soleil des Voyous, Action Man teams two veteran international film stars: France's Jean Gabin and America's Robert Stack. Gabin plays an ex-criminal, now reformed and ensconsed in a respectable executive job. Stack plays an unreconstituted crook who wants to inveigle Gabin into one last caper. The crime goes off like clockwork, but drug dealers who want a piece of the action kidnap Gabin's wife Suzanne Flon and hold her for ransom. Stack ends up sacrificing his own life to save those of Gabin and Flon. Based on a novel by J. M. Flynn Action Man is the sort of bread-and-butter fare that director Jean Delannoy, famed for his earlier spiritual classics La Symphonie Pastorale (1946), Le Jeux Sons Faits (1947) and Diary of a Country Priest (1950), dealt with in his twilight years. In certain gamier markets, Action Man was released as Leather and Nylon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While traveling through Hong Kong, Bob Mitchell (Robert Cummings) accidentally stumbles into the middle of criminal negotiations between a mean gang, the Five Golden Dragons, and the local mobsters. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a gang of drug smugglers kidnap the ex-girlfriend of a journalist. The journalist begins looking for her. When the woman is found dead, the journalist gets some help and eventually justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide