Alfred Marks Movies

From director Beeban Kidron, Antonia & Jane is a look at an enduring friendship between a pair of decidedly opposite people. Beautiful, sophisticated, and self-assured, Antonia (Saskia Reeves) has it all -- or so it seems to the pudgy wallflower Jane (Imelda Staunton), who secretly resents the fact that her own inner light is invariably extinguished whenever her glamorous friend enters a room. The fact that Antonia stole and married Jane's first lover only makes matters worse. While Jane vents her feelings in her therapist's office, Antonia herself secretly longs to be more like Jane, who is always off in search of new adventures and experiences. Petricia Leventon and Alfred Hoffman also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Fanny Hill (Lisa Raines) is a buxom country maiden who arrives in the big city and quickly begins an affair with the scion of a wealthy family in this softcore version of an old British tale. When the clan patriarch dies, Fanny is ready to marry her lover until she discovers he has been unfaithful -- that sets her on a course of erotic adventures that begins in protest and ends in great wealth. By the time she has experienced almost every kind of sex imaginable -- or unimaginable -- she is a millionairess. Loosely based on the scandalous, 18th-century novel Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Clelland, Fanny Hill had two different cinematic incarnations in the 1960s (by Russ Meyer and Mac Ahlberg). No one has accused this version of subtle sophistication or profoundly interpretive acting. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Rudolph Valentino, born in Italy in 1895 as Alfonzo Raffaele Pierre Philibert Guglielmi, emigrated to the U.S. and became for a time the reigning male romantic lead of the silent-film era. He died in 1926, having led a short, troubled and tempestuous life which included several stints in prison. The crowds surrounding his coffin before and during his funeral were among the largest ever seen in the U.S. In this film, Ken Russell has used events from the famous actor's life as the basis for an extended meditation on the nature of stardom, and especially on what it means to be a sex idol. Beginning and ending with the funeral of Valentino (Rudolf Nureyev), the story chronicles his rise to Hollywood stardom from life as an Italian emigrant dishwasher and show-dancer. Often embroiled in controversies about his manliness (or perceived lack of ), in the film he dies as a result of internal injuries suffered in a boxing match he fought in to defend his honor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this gender-bending war drama, set during WW II, an actor, impersonating a woman, finds himself captured by Nazis. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Strange and terrible things are afoot and the police are helpless to stop them in this taut, complicated thriller. First a heart attack victim goes to the hospital and awakens to find limbs missing, and later, the body of a rape victim is found with two strange puncture wounds upon her wrist. Meanwhile in Europe, a military officer is murdered by someone with inordinate strength. After another girl is murdered, Inspector Bellaver gets on the case. The trail of clues has many twists and turns and before he is led to the mysterious estate of Dr. Browning, another dies. There he discovers that the insane scientist has engineered a master race of emotionless, mindless beings as part of an international conspiracy. Now Bellaver and his cohorts must somehow stop the doctor and his friends from taking over the world. This marks one of only two features to include all three great horror actors Christopher Lee (as the head of British Intelligence), Peter Cushing (the leader of a fascist government) and Vincent Price (mad Dr. Browning) in the cast. (The second was 1983's House of Long Shadows). Interestingly, except for one brief moment at the end with Lee and Price, the actors never appear in the same scene together here. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, two disgruntled brothers conspire to regain their fortune after their wealthy grandmother disinherits them and leaves it all to their lovely cousin. At first, the two fellows decide that one of them should marry her, but then they decide that it would be less trouble if they simply killed her. Try as they might, the two schemers fail at every attempt to murder her. Eventually the cousin gets wise to them and ends up marrying her butler. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In another standard British comedy of the absurd with the usual eccentric characters who play off each other like tennis pros on a court, A Weekend with Lulu centers on the misadventures of the occupants of an ice cream truck and its rundown trailer. Because of a mix-up, the four inside the truck -- two men at odds with each other, a harridan, and her voluptuous daughter -- do not end up at the seashore as they planned. Instead, they are rattling merrily through France, chased by a wild variety of irate groups -- racing cyclists, rogues, and distraught police. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this British comedy, an amiable demolitions expert finds himself entangled with a band of criminals masquerading as doctors. In this guise, the thieves attempt to build a tunnel between the hospital and the bank next door. The expert successfully blows open the vault, and the criminals escape with their loot, leaving the hapless safecracker to take the rap. Five years pass before he is released from prison. The man has learned his lesson and tries to reform by taking a job in a small resort. More trouble ensues when he sees the most prominent citizen in town cheating his neighbors by selling bogus shares in the future of the town. To stop him the ex-safecracker enlists the aid of his old gang who begin masquerading as American soldiers offering to build a missile base in the town. Naturally the avaricious businessman desires a piece of the pie and so buys back all of the land he had sold. Using his special talent, the hero blows up the villain's land. Fortunately, the real American army gets involved by offering to rebuild the destroyed town on the land, causing the townsfolk to cheer the former con-man on as the police haul him back to prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A fair stab at yet another World War II comedy, this film by Michael Relph features the humorous antics of an ENSA troupe (the British equivalent of the American USO) and an absurd involvement with an army major (Alfred Marks) that leads to the capture of a German commanding officer (Marius Goring). The troupe of entertainers includes a pair of seasoned crooners, a level-headed piano player, a leader who seems to fail equally well at comedy and singing, his wife, and a few others. This disparate group gets mixed up in the Brit Major's agenda and precipitates a series of unexpected circumstances that somehow lead everyone to bumble through to ultimate triumph. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide