Cec Linder Movies
Cec Linder was born in Poland, began his acting career in his adopted country of Canada, then established himself by playing American characters in British films. The actor's most famous movie role was James Bond's CIA counterpart Felix Leiter in 1965's Goldfinger. From 1960 through 1964, Linder portrayed Peter Ames on the CBS TV soap opera The Secret Storm, and later replaced William Prince in the role of Ben Travis on The Edge of Night. Shortly before his death at the age of 61, Cec Linder essaying the recurring part of a district attorney in several of the American made-for-TV Perry Mason feature films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1978
- PG
Peter Fonda and Jerry Reed star as truckers pitted against a rival big-rig boss who wants them off the highway. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Fonda, Jerry Reed, (more)
- 1978
- R
City on Fire, a disaster thriller filmed in Canada with dialogue in both French and English, tells the story of an oil-refinery explosion in a small town. Dr. Frank Whitman (Barry Newman) and his co-workers, including Nurse Harper (Shelley Winters) and Dr. Matwick (Donald Pilon), fight bravely to save the victims even when they, themselves are endangered by the fire. The film also features cameos by Ava Gardner and Henry Fonda. The film moves at a fast pace and creates a great deal of suspense as the fire closes in on the survivors. Director Alvin Rakoff uses creativity instead of a big budget and, aided by the splendid cinematography of Rene Verzier, succeeds in creating an exciting disaster film. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Newman, Susan Clark, (more)
- 1978
In this crime drama, set in 1975 and based on a true story from Toronto, Canada, the different ways in which a prominent realtor may have had his wife brutally murdered are presented. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elke Sommer, Donald Pilon, (more)
- 1977
The first of four New Avengers episodes filmed in Canada finds our dauntless trio of dogooders in Toronto, on the trail of an elusive Russian agent known as Scapina. Getting separated from her colleagues, Purdey (Joanna Lumley) finds herself trapped in a computerized building. Even worse: The building itself is the techno-murderer Scapina--an anagram for Special Computerized Automated Project in North America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
This police melodrama is set in a coastal resort where a young man becomes insanely jealous after learning that his girl has been with another. He takes her hostage in the town hotel and threatens to kill her. Now a hot-tempered police chief and his peace-loving lieutenant must somehow team-up to resolve the situation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Reed, Susan George, (more)
- 1977
Veterans and war-sympathizers get angry when a Canadian professor begins speaking out with his pacifist ideals shortly after World War II. The tension rises as threats and violence soon erupt. ~ All Movie Guide
In this thriller, a group of young professionals decides to play a practical joke on one of their ex-girlfriends who married a rich man who is about to close a major real estate deal. They will kidnap her and mess up the deal. Unfortunately, the joke becomes deadly serious when someone gets killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Young, Susan Keller, (more)
- 1976
A stock broker overcomes ennui and finds new meaning in his life when he becomes a long-distance runner. His new obsession has a bad effect on his marriage, but fortunately that is only temporary. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Naughton, Lindsay Wagner, (more)
- 1975
In this grim Canadian drama a gentle farmer gets gruesome revenge against a group murderers by capturing and tormenting each of the culprits. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernest Borgnine, Michael J. Pollard, (more)
- 1975
Canadian actress Kate Reid plays a lady p.i. in Death Among Friends. Kate is hired to solve the murder of a multimillionaire financier. As tipped off by the title, she need look no farther than the dead man's circle of friends. Refreshingly, both the heroine and her police contact, John Anderson, are well into middle age, rather than being depicted as mindless hunks of cheese- and beefcake. Intended as the pilot for a weekly series, Death Among Friends was first telecast May 20, 1975. The film was later syndicated as Mrs. R-Death Among Friends. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
The scene is Canada in the 1940s. Fledgling reporter Harry Barnes (Stuart Gillard) finds his dreams of journalistic fame dampened by the disillusioned older journalists surrounding him. Harry never does get that "big scoop," but he does excel in the romance department. After a brief assignation with the publisher's wife (Patricia Gage) he thrills coworker Julia Martin (Tiiu Leek) by becoming a firebrand leader of the newspaper union movement (never mind that he's drunk at the time). Why Rock the Boat? is a 1974 release of the National Film Board of Canada. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
When she's hired to nurse the daughter of an American ambassador, a woman begins influencing the girl's actions, as well as those of her two sisters. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
Producer/director Melvin Frank struck box-office gold when he teamed George Segal with Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class. Segal plays married insurance executive Steve Blackburn, who can't seem to avoid bumping into divorced fashion designer Vicki Allessio (Glenda Jackson) wherever he goes. Finally bowing to the inevitable, Steve and Vicki fall in love. He suggests a romantic rendezvous in Spain...but nothing, absolutely nothing, goes as planned. A comedy of errors ending on an unexpected note of pathos, A Touch of Class was nominated for four Academy Awards, and earned Glenda Jackson a Best Actress Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Segal, Glenda Jackson, (more)
- 1973
- PG
Innocent Bystanders stars Stanley Baker as a Bondlike British secret service agent. In collaboration with fellow spies Geraldine Chaplin and Dana Andrews, Baker is sent behind the Iron Curtain to locate a Russian scientist who has escaped from Siberia. There's a likelihood that the scientist was permitted to escape so that he can spy on the Good Guys. Baker must decide if the escapee is to be rescued or eliminated. The level of sadism and bloodshed in Innocent Bystanders is such that at times it makes the James Bond films look like models of decorum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Baker, Geraldine Chaplin, (more)
- 1969
- R
In this timely melodrama, a young man encounters psychological problems when he tries to deal with his brother's death. Alan Evans (Gordon Thomson) seeks counseling when his brother Peter (Robin Ward) is killed in Vietnam. Their pompous and patriotic father (Cec Linder) talks the boy into fulfilling his military obligations that result in his ultimate demise. The troubled Alan goes to Vancouver to escape the fate of his brother. Dr. Neal (Richard Conte) is the dedicated psychiatrist who tries to help Alan deal with his feelings of helplessness and rage. Alan meets Richie Kovacs (Don Stroud), the expatriate draft dodger who carries a grudge against society and is not afraid to reveal his open hostilities, and the two take different paths in dealing with their problems. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Stroud, Michelle Chicoine, (more)
- 1968
Ironside (Raymond Burr) launches an investigation when his psychologist friend Paul Bragen (Noah Keen) is murdered. It seems that the dead man possessed a large collection of rare artworks, created by several artists whom he had been consulting. A passing remark provides a vital clue as to the murderer's identity, whereupon Ironside enters the rarefied world of fine art to capture the elusive (and in this case, fiendishly clever) culprit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
In this thriller, an assassin is lured out of retirement with an offer to kill a former gangster who is hiding out in Europe. With the help of an assistant, the killer travels to Paris and begins stalking his victim. He is further helped by a lovely drug addict who shows him the mark. He fulfils his mission, but then learns that he has killed the wrong man. Not long afterwards, both the gangster and the drug addict are killed. It is then that the hit man realizes that his assistant is behind the deaths and that he is next on the list. Much of the movie was shot on location in Europe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Webber, Franco Nero, (more)
- 1967
Nigel Kneale's Quatermass TV series spawned a brief film series produced over an eleven-year period; 1967's Quatermass and the Pit, released in the US as Five Million Years to Earth, was the third and (until 1979's Quatermass Conclusion) last. As in previous chapters in the Kneale saga, the film begins with a baffling scientific discovery. This time it's a bunch of prehistoric skulls, discovered during a subway excavation in the heart of London. Sequestered in a lab, the skulls start to emanate a bizarre force over the populace, resulting in death and destruction. Professor Quatermass (Andrew Keir) concludes that the skulls are the residue of an extraterrestrial invading army -- a theory which (as usual) is scoffed at by the authorities until it's almost too late. Blessed with superb special effects and an expertly sustained tension level, Quatermass and the Pit is easily the best of the short-lived "Quatermass" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Donald, Andrew Keir, (more)
With Goldfinger, the James Bond series took a turn away from relatively straightforward spy thrillers and toward campy gadgetry, extravagant sets, and kitschy jokes. Bond (Sean Connery) has to prevent a notorious gold smuggler, appropriately named Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe), from robbing Fort Knox. Goldfinger is surrounded by evil henchmen such as the sexy female pilot Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) and Oddjob (Harold Sakata), who kills with his steel-rimmed bowler hats. In order to stop Goldfinger, Bond has to survive several perilous situations, including a huge, deadly laser. Goldfinger is one of the most popular films in the James Bond series, and it set the tone not only for the rest of the series but also for most of the action/adventure films of the late '60s and early '70s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, (more)
- 1964
In this crime drama a Yankee visiting England ends up arrested for murder. Not wanting to go to prison, he tries to convince his partner into rigging the jury. Unfortunately for him, the partner double-crosses him and justice is served. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
"How did they make a movie out of Lolita?" teased the print ads of this Stanley Kubrick production. The answer: by adding three years to the title character's age. The original Vladimir Nabokov novel caused no end of scandal by detailing the romance between a middle-aged intellectual and a 12-year-old nymphet. The affair is "cleansed" ever so slightly in the film by making Lolita a 15-year-old (portrayed by 16-year-old Sue Lyon). In adapting his novel to film, Nabokov downplayed the wicked satire and sensuality of the material, concentrating instead on the story's farcical aspects. James Mason plays professor Humbert Humbert, who while waiting to begin a teaching post in the United States rents a room from blowzy Shelley Winters. Winters immediately falls for the worldly Humbert, but he only has eyes for his landlady's nubile daughter Lolita. The professor goes so far as to marry Winters so that he can remain near to the object of his ardor. Turning up like a bad penny at every opportunity is smarmy TV writer Quilty (Peter Sellers), who seems inordinately interested in Humbert's behavior. When Winters happens to read Humbert's diary, she is so revolted by his lustful thoughts that she runs blindly into the street, where she is struck and killed by a car. Without telling Lolita that her mother is dead, Humbert packs her into the car and goes on a cross-country trip, dogged every inch of the way by a mysterious pursuer. Once she gets over the shock of her mother's death, Lolita is agreeable to inaugurating an affair with her stepfather (this is handled very, very discreetly, despite the slavering critical assessments of 1962). But when the girl begins discovering boys her own age, she drifts away from Humbert. One day, she leaves without warning. This is humiliation enough for Humbert; but when he discovers who her secret lover really is, the results are fatal. We are prepared for the ending because the film has been framed as a flashback; what we are not prepared for is Stanley Kubrick's adroit manipulation of our sympathies and expectations. An incredibly long film considering its subject matter, Lolita is never dull, nor does it ever stoop to the sensationalism prevalent in the film's ad campaign. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mason, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1960
Five passengers on a seaplane find that a crash has stranded them on an island used for nuclear testing in this disaster movie. Just to get to the island, they had to endure many hardships including a hurricane, a gun-battle, shark-infested seas, and a fire on the plane. Panic ensues when the diverse group learns that in five hours, another bomb will be tested there. While the story is action-based, most of the time is spent looking at the individual characters and the way they cope. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Anna Maria Pier Angeli, (more)
- 1960
Three stars appear in two separate but intertwined stories of romantic triangles gone wrong in this ambitious drama. In the first segment, Hagolin (Orson Welles) is a loutish construction worker with an unhappy wife, Eponine (Juliette Greco). The wife becomes involved with a swarthy working man, Larnier (Bradford Dillman), and their passion knows no boundaries of caution or safety. Eventually, Eponine's and Larnier's lust drives them to madness, and they murder Hagolin. The second tale concerns an up-and-coming young lawyer, Claude (Dillman), whose mentor is a highly successful veteran attorney, Lamerciere (Welles), with a beautiful young wife named Florence (Greco). Claude finds himself defending Larnier and Eponine, while Lamerciere dies of a heart attack after he discovers that Florence has been unfaithful to him with Claude. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck also wrote the screenplay, under the pen name Mark Canfield. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Juliette Greco, (more)
- 1960
Based on the stageplay Pick-up Girl, this film adaptation by director Muriel Box retains enough of the verbose theatrical styling and single-set focus to wobble as a cinematic effort. The story centers around an unfortunate period in the life of Elizabeth (Pauline Hahn), a fifteen-year-old girl who lives with her mother in New York while her father is away working in California. Because her mother works late into the night, there is not enough guidance or supervision in Elizabeth's life to keep her from making bad choices. And so she ends up with some dubious-looking friends, and after a brief fling with a sailor she goes through the trauma of an abortion. By that time any split with her parents has widened into a major chasm. Eventually she gets into even more trouble and ends up in juvenile court. It is in that setting under the understanding eye of a worldly wise judge (Thomas Mitchell) that her story unfolds in flashbacks as her fate hangs in the balance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Mitchell, Joan Miller, (more)
- 1959
In this airborne disaster movie, a has-been brilliant scientist plants a bomb on a transatlantic jet to exact revenge upon a passenger whom he blames for his daughter's death -- she died during a plane crash. When the booby-trap is discovered and the passengers learn the motive for the scientists' actions, one of the passengers attempts to kill the man the scientist blames. A fight erupts and a window is shattered. The helpful passenger is sucked right out of the plane. Only when the scientist spies a child resembling his own lost daughter does he regain his humanity and disarm the bomb. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, (more)
