Maureen Lipman Movies

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, who as a boy growing up in Poland watched while the Nazis devastated his country during World War II, directed this downbeat drama based on the true story of a privileged musician who spent five years struggling against the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a gifted classical pianist born to a wealthy Jewish family in Poland. The Szpilmans have a large and comfortable flat in Warsaw which Wladyslaw shares with his mother and father (Maureen Lipman and Frank Finlay), his sisters Halina and Regina (Jessica Kate Meyer and Julia Rayner), and his brother, Henryk (Ed Stoppard). While Wladyslaw and his family are aware of the looming presence of German forces and Hitler's designs on Poland, they're convinced that the Nazis are a menace which will pass, and that England and France will step forward to aid Poland in the event of a real crisis. Wladyslaw's naïveté is shattered when a German bomb rips through a radio studio while he performs a recital for broadcast. During the early stages of the Nazi occupation, as a respected artist, he still imagines himself above the danger, using his pull to obtain employment papers for his father and landing a supposedly safe job playing piano in a restaurant. But as the German grip tightens upon Poland, Wladyslaw and his family are selected for deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. Refusing to face a certain death, Wladyslaw goes into hiding in a comfortable apartment provided by a friend. However, when his benefactor goes missing, Wladyslaw is left to fend for himself and he spends the next several years dashing from one abandoned home to another, desperate to avoid capture by German occupation troops. The Pianist was based on the memoir of the same name by the real-life Wladyslaw Szpilman; the book was first published in 1946 as Death of a City, but was banned by Polish Communist officials and went out of print until 1998, when a new edition was issued as The Pianist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Empty-nest syndrome confronts some harried parents in this BBC made-for-television movie. When two sets of parents go off to Cambridge for college enrollment interviews for their children, the realization that the kids are grown up and moving on finally hits home. The film has some touching moments with its somewhat familiar theme. It was followed by a sequel the following year, Cold Enough For Snow. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Sara embodies all the hopes and fears of young girls in this adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic A Little Princess. Placed in a boarding school by her doting father, Sara seems to have it all. She sleeps in the best room and wears costly dresses. But her fortune cannot rival Sara's generosity. Soon she is the favorite of the school. Then, tragedy strikes. Sara's father dies and she is faced with the jealousy of the headmistress. Plunged into poverty, the little princess becomes a pauper, forced to work off her debts. Through it all, Sara's optimism is unwavering. She perseveres and eventually becomes an inspiration for the other girls at the school. This two-part series is a moving tale of strength and imagination. There's no wonder why the story is a favorite of young readers all over the world. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide

Meant to be a parody of the recent invasions of Grenada and the Falkland Islands, this comedy about the laid-back governor (Michael Caine) of "Cascara," a fictional British island somewhere in the Caribbean, and the international parade of characters who come through his territory is a pastiche without a clear center. Among these multinational characters are an American industrialist out to exploit the island's rich source of mineral water -- also the source of all the subsequent trouble on the island -- some inexplicable French-German visitors, a singing revolutionary with ties to Fidel Castro, and various parodies of Brit diplomats and politicians, Margaret Thatcher included. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this comic-detective movie, Dangerous Davies, a bungling gumshoe uses archaic methods to solve his cases. This time he must solve a 15-year-old murder involving an adolescent girl. He finds himself on a convoluted trail surrounded by the lowest of the lowlife. It is not until the picture is almost over that he realizes that the solution to the mystery has been under his nose all along. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Knowledge is the story of four men and how they make preparations for an all-important event in their lives -- the examination that will allow them to work the coveted job of taxi driver in Greater London. In the course of learning of their hopes and aspirations, and the impact of these plans of the men's families, the viewer gets a deep and abiding respect for the strictness with which standards in this field are maintained in London. "The Knowledge" is the familiarity with the city's myriad streets and neighborhoods, and often takes many years to master. Made for British television, this comedy drama got a fair amount of notice around the world, especially in the United States -- and no more so than in New York City, whose Taxi and Limousine Commission frequently licenses drivers whose knowledge of the streets goes no further south than Houston Street or north of 200th Street (which is Dyckman Street -- a trick answer). The film flew on its own merits, but was also a revelation in the city when shown on public television. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Originally made for British television, The Evacuees was the first feature-length project of director Alan Parker. The film concentrates on the early war years, when London was under nightly attack from the German luftwaffe. It becomes necessary to evacuate the city children to the comparative safety of the country, and this sets the stage for a string of compelling, bittersweet anecdotes. Parker's acute sense of period detail and his handling of his young actors helped earn The Evacuees several industry awards. It also led to his being selected to direct his first theatrical feature: the "all-kid" musical spoof Bugsy Malone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

File It Under Fear takes place in an outwardly normal rural British community. The tranquility is shattered by a series of brutal murders, all of them occurring in the library. As is often the case in stories of this nature, there's no lack of suspects, the "least likely" of which is of course the perpetrator. Maureen Lipman and Richard O'Callaghan head the cast. Videotaped in London, the 90-minute File It Under Fear first aired in America on October 9, 1973, as part of ABC's Wide World Mystery late-night anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nicki (Madeline Hinde) is a troubled teenage girl who feels guilty about her father's death. Her mother Anne (Renee Asherson) is a lonely woman who falls for opportunistic loafer Harry (Patrick Mower). When Harry tries to rape Nicki, she stabs him with a pair of scissors. Nicki is sent to a home for wayward girls where she becomes even more withdrawn. She is seduced by a lesbian and the two manage to escape the facility. They take temporary refuge with an old boyfriend and remain wanted criminals in this routine melodrama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide