Mary Mackenzie Movies
- 1959
In this comedy, a man chooses an unethical way to help keep a financially struggling boy's club from closing down, by threatening to publish incriminating articles about prominent people who have recently died. His blackmail scheme is successful until he attempts to extort from a gangster's family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1958
In this drama, a couple experiences marital turmoil because the husband is a hot-tempered race-car driver with a jealous streak. The woman then gets pregnant and begins hoping that a baby will bring them back together. Unfortunately, the two get into a terrible accident, she loses the baby, and her husband is rendered sterile. This makes her all the more desperate to have one and so she suggests artificial insemination. Her husband isn't totally for it, but then decides to go through with it. Unfortunately, he then changes his mind after the deed is done. At his father's urging, he files for divorce. In court, a jury must decide whether adultery (the film was made in the days before no-fault divorce) was committed. They cannot, but that is okay with the couple who reconcile and go on to become wonderful parents. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie London, Anthony Steel, (more)
- 1957
In this WW II espionage drama, a secret agent must simultaneously capture a notorious spy out to steal highly classified information, and deal with his meddlesome girl friend who inadvertently botches his mission. After that fiasco, many years pass and the girl friend is a fashion reporter at a new show. There, the spy is masquerading as a waiter. The two old flames meet and rekindle their affair. This time, the woman is a real asset in capturing the enemy spy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Inspired in part by David Lean'sThe Sound Barrier, Decision Against Time stars Jack Hawkins as a bold but cautious test pilot. If he wants to keep his job, Hawkins must prove the efficacy of an accident-prone airplane prototype. The pilot is plagued with Earthbound problems as well, personified by his insensitive wife (Elizabeth Sellars). In the climax, Hawkins tests his endurance (and the audience's) by refusing to bail out when the prototype bursts into flame. The original British title for Decision Against Time was Man in the Sky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Hawkins, Elizabeth Sellars, (more)
- 1956
Mary Hilton (Diana Dors) is a young salesgirl in the cosmetics department of a major London store, who chances to meet -- and fall hopelessly in love with -- Jim Lancaster (Michael Craig), a young would-be professional musician. She is attracted to him sufficiently to leave her own, neglectful husband (Harry Locke). But Jim's interest in her, although also sincere, is deflected by his attraction to Lucy Carpenter (Mercia Shaw), a much wealthier and older woman, who seems to be able to offer him the security that he's always lacked. That's difficult enough for Mary to take, but when Jim's relationship with Lucy takes a tragic turn, she snaps -- her love for Jim is transformed into a murderous hatred for her rival, resulting in murder, and a death sentence. Mary's story is told entirely in flashbacks, as she awaits her final sentencing or possible reprieve, and attempts to tie up the loose ends in her life involving her mother, brother, and husband. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Dors, Yvonne Mitchell, (more)
- 1956
In this crime drama, the trouble begins when a crook cheats his buddies at a dog track, stuffs his loot into a suitcase, and flees. He then gives the suitcase to his lover who in turn gives it to her sister just before she takes a bus to the coast. Her actions rouse the suspicions of an observant reporter. Later the crook manages to catch up with the sisters. Unfortunately, the sisters catch them at the same time and justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
An American army officer is stationed in West Germany and assigned with keeping classified information out of the hands of the Communists. Unfortunately, Red spies know that he suffers from sudden black-outs and use this to make it appear that he is a traitor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
In this British comedy, a wealthy, hypochondriac gets unwittingly entangled in counterfeiters' plans when he comes to own the printing plates the gang is after. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Trouble in the Glen was one of several felicitous collaborations between Hollywood's Republic Pictures and England's Herbert Wilcox-Anna Neagle productions. Curiously, Ms. Neagle does not appear--just as well, since the film is dominated by Orson Welles. Introducing himself with a typically self-indulgent monologue, the porcine Mr. Welles plays a South American resident who returns to his ancestral home in Scotland to become "Laird of the Glen". He immediately alienates the local populace by closing down the highway that runs through his estate. Hoping to make peace between Welles and the locals is former US air force officer Forrest Tucker, who developed an affection for the community while being stationed there during WWII. Violence threatens to erupt when evicted tinker Victor McLaglen rounds up a gang of toughs to lay siege on Welles' castle. The scenes involving Tucker's polio-crippled daughter (Margaret McCourt) run the risk of sloppy sentiment, but are deftly handled by producer-director Wilcox. Margaret Lockwood costars as Welles' daughter, who adheres to Hollywood formula by falling in love with the handsome Tucker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Lockwood, Orson Welles, (more)
- 1954
In this thriller, shot on location in Rhodesia, an American insurance investigator looks into the strange death of a diamond broker who drowned while diving for diamonds off the African coast. The broker had been insured for over $1 million. The sleuth's prime suspect is the broker's fiancee. He trails her as she goes on a dangerous safari. He quickly finds out that the broker isn't dead at all. The two had designed the scam to raise money for the dive. The agent and the crook engage in a canoe chase that culminates in the crook's capture. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, (more)
- 1953
A Georges Simenon novel was the source for the Anglo-American The Man Who Watched Trains Go By. Claude Rains stars as Kees Popinga, chief clerk for a Dutch trading company. Scrupulously honest, Popinga goes off the deep end when he discovers that his employer has been cooking the books to support a mistress. Upon learning that his boss intends to abscond from Brussels to Paris with company funds, Popinga prevents this from happening by stealing the money himself. Through a series of wild coincidences, he winds up entangled with the very woman (Marta Toren) who'd caused his boss' downfall. The Man Who Watched Trains Go By was released in the U.S. as Paris Express. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Rains, Märta Torén, (more)
- 1953
John Mills followed his successful Gentle Gunman with the tensioned-filled meller The Long Memory. Convicted for a murder he did not commit, Davidson (Mills) spends 12 long years in prison. Upon his release, he vows to get even with the three witnesses who perjured themselves and clenched his conviction. Returning to the scene of the crime, he begins gathering clues as to the whereabouts of the witnesses. That's when he discovers that the alleged murder victim is alive and well! John McCallum co-stars as Inspector Lowther, who has spent the past dozen years mulling over the Davidson case, wondering if the man was innocent after all. For the sake of plot convenience, it turns out that Lowther is married to one of the lying witnesses! The Long Memory was based on a novel by Howard Clewes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, John McCallum, (more)
- 1952
In this murder mystery, a woman's brother is killed in a freaky accident, or so she believes. Fortunately for her, an American journalist is more suspicious and so begins roaming the London streets in search of the killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Brilliant plastic surgeon Philip Ritter (Paul Henreid) loses the love of his life, concert pianist Alice Brent (Lizabeth Scott), to her manager, David (Andre Morell). As a balm to his wounded pride, Dr. Ritter Henreid makes over a hideously scarred female criminal into the spitting image of the woman who jilted him (the girl is played by Mary McKenzie "before," and, of course, by Lizabeth Scott "after"). Alas, he cannot make over her personality as well, and soon she's run off with her own crooked crowd. A not-bad precursor to Hitchcock's Vertigo, A Stolen Face was produced by Britain's Hammer Films, and distributed in the U.S. by Lippert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Henreid, Lizabeth Scott, (more)
- 1951
British film-favorite Anna Neagle, having previously played such great historical personages as Queen Victoria and Edith Cavell, tackles the role of Florence Nightingale in Lady with the Lamp. Based on a play by Reginald Berkeley, the film traces the indefatigable Nightingale's efforts to minister to the thousands of casualties of the Crimean War. Opposed in the uppermost circles of British government because she is "merely" a woman, Nightingale is championed by the Hon. Sidney Herbert (Michael Wilding), minister of war. Herbert pulls strings to allow Nightingale and her nursing staff access to battlefield hospitals, and in so doing changes the course of medical history. Lady with the Lamp was, as usual, produced and directed by Anna Neagle's husband Herbert Wilcox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Sr., (more)
Anne Fielding (Dulcie Gray), a shop clerk, meets Jack Williams (Derek Farr), a bus conductor, on the London Underground. She's delayed by the train for a meeting with her friend Victor Colebrooke (Eric Portman) at Hampstead Heath; the two of them take a liking to each other while she's trying to find Victor. She finally locates him and they leave at virtually the same moment that a young woman is found strangled -- the latest in a series of six stranglings in London. The police investigate anyone who might have been with the victim -- that includes Jack, who was seen leaving in a fury late in the evening, and Victor, whose handkerchief was found in the vicinity of the body by a derelict. In a neatly Hitchcockian twist, however, the police soon get on to the right man, but between the ineptitude of one officer and sheer bad luck, Scotland Yard is unable to make an arrest or even secure a search warrant. A bizarre cat-and-mouse game ensues as Inspector Conway (Roland Culver) tries to pressure the killer into tipping his hand, which puts Anne in deadly danger. It all comes down to a race against time through London as all of the threads draw together, but around whose neck? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Portman, Dulcie Gray, (more)
