Leo Marks Movies
Leo Marks went from a life in the deepest, darkest secret locales in England's World War II espionage operations into life as a screenwriter. Born in London in 1920 and the son of an antiquarian book dealer, Leopold Samuel Marks became intrigued by the idea of codes and ciphers at the age of eight, when he read Edgar Allen Poe's story The Gold Bug. He became proficient at breaking codes as well as devising them, and when World War II broke out, he joined the newly created Special Operations Executive, which aimed at sabotaging the smooth running of Hitler's fortress Europe. Working under the cover of being an employee in the Ministry of Supply, Marks was the chief designer of the codes used to communicate with British agents in the field during World War II.After the war, Marks pursued his other great ambition, to be a writer, authoring works for the stage and movies. His earliest plays dated from the end of the 1940s, and in 1958, Marks served as technical advisor on the film Carve Her Name With Pride, which dealt with the life and death of Violet Szabo, a British agent killed by the Germans during World War II; one of his poems also served as the basis for a code used in the film. Soon after, Marks became a friend of Michael Powell, the celebrated co-director/co-producer (with Emeric Pressburger) of such films as The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann -- he made his screenwriting debut with the script for Powell's Peeping Tom, a film dealing with a sexually deranged young filmmaker. The film proved so controversial at the time, that it fatally damaged Powell's career in England, although it has since come to be regarded as a towering cinematic achievement. Peeping Tom was subsequently presented at the New York Film Festival under the aegis of director Martin Scorsese, and has appeared in numerous videocassette, laserdisc, and DVD editions with special supplementary materials. Marks later wrote the screenplays for the thriller The Guns at Batasi, about a Mau-Mau uprising on colonial East Africa, and the 1968 comedic espionage film Sebastian, starring Dirk Bogarde. In addition to writing screenplays, he also appeared as the voice of the Devil in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. His father's store, Marks & Company, was also the setting for Helene Hanff's book 84, Charing Cross Road, which was later made into a play and a film. In 1998, Marks published a book about his wartime activities entitled Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1975
- R
Peter Sellers stays busy in this comedy playing Hitler, Prince Kyoto, and four others in this tale of an anti-Nazi French whorehouse which supports the Allied war effort by exterminating the most dangerous of its patrons in the bedroom. Highlights include Lila Kedrova as the madame who becomes a general in the resistance, and Curt Jurgens as Gen. Von. Grotjahn, Sellers' nemesis. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lila Kedrova, Curd Jürgens, (more)
- 1968
In a disturbing movie about psychosis, Hayley Mills plays Susan Harper, a young student who tries to help a rich, emotionally ill and sinister young man, Martin Durnley (Hywel Bennett). Martin is a schizophrenic who assumes the personality of a six-year-old boy when he is in his "nice" phase. Susan talks a store manager out of pressing charges against Martin after he steals a toy duck. Martin wants to take the toy to his mongoloid brother, who is in an institution. Martin's stepfather, Henry (Frank Finlay), enraged by his shoplifting, evicts Martin despite the pleas of his mother, Enid (Phyllis Calvert). Martin, again acting like a young child, is taken in by Susan's mother, Joan Harper (Billie Whitelaw), who runs a boarding house. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, (more)
- 1968
Sebastian (Dirk Bogarde) is an undisciplined mathematics genius who works in the "cipher bureau" of the British government. While cracking enemy codes, Sebastian finds time to romance co-worker Susannah York. The film dwells upon Sebastian's rather lax morals (even by 1968 standards), culminating in his refusal to commit himself to York once he's rendered her pregnant. This aspect of the story is frankly more fascinating than the main espionage plotline. Keep an eye out for Canadian actor Donald Sutherland in a bit as an American. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Nigel Davenport, (more)
Richard Attenborough stars as a stalwart sergeant-major, stationed in British colony in Africa. When the colony declares its independence, Attenborough is assigned to keep the peace during the governmental transition. Trouble begins when an insurgent African officer (Errol John) attempts to overthrow the new, British-approved rulers. As the political situation becomes more and complex, Attenborough finds that his deeply entrenched values and beliefs are no longer valid. Based on a novel by Robert Holles, Guns at Batasi is what used to be called a "thinking man's adventure film." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins, (more)
- 1962
The Webster Boy is a case of a weak script and strong actors combining for a mediocre tale about a love triangle. John Cassavetes is Vance Miller, an American with a serious gambling addiction who is just through with serving time and ready to finally go back to England. His objective is to find his long-lost love Margaret (Elizabeth Sellars) and try to start life over with her. When he does find Elizabeth, she is happily married to Paul (David Farrar) and is the mother of fourteen-year-old Jimmy (Richard Sullivan). As Vance upsets the apple cart trying to win Elizabeth away, young Jimmy faces taunts at school and a sadistic school master -- and doubts as to who his real father might be. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cassavetes, Elizabeth Sellars, (more)
Michael Powell's controversial meditation on violence and voyeurism effectively destroyed his career when it was first released, but later generations have come to regard it as a masterpiece. Karl Heinz Boehm stars as Mark, the son of a psychologist who kept a video journal of the boy's upbringing for research purposes. The constant intrusions profoundly affected the boy, who grew up to be a photographer himself; but his principal subject matter consists of women whom he murders before the camera. He then runs the films of his victims in their final throes so that he can study their reactions to death--a perverse extension of his father's experiments, which tormented Mark to analyze his reactions to raw fear. The British press had long been hostile to the unorthodox films of Powell and his partner Emeric Pressburger; when Peeping Tom came around, they used the film to castigate him as "sick" and tawdry. The passage of time has proven Peeping Tom as profound and accomplished as any of Powell's earlier films, and it ranks with Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958) as a landmark exploration of the links among voyeurism, violence, and male sexual desire. Powell himself plays the evil father in the flashback sequences, and his son Colomba plays Mark as a child. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Heinz Böhm, Moira Shearer, (more)
- 1951
Teeny-tiny Hammer pictures built its reputation on second-feature melodramas before graduating to gore-encrusted horror epics. Cloudburst is a low-key thriller starring American actor Robert Preston, whose casting assured a certain degree of business in the States. Preston plays a code expert, resettled in England after the war and working at the British Foreign Office. One morning, Preston's wife is struck down and killed by a car driven by escaping criminals. Preston bypasses the efforts of Scotland Yard and pursues the criminals himself, using his codebreaking skills to track down the "big boys" in charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Elizabeth Sellars, (more)
- 1949
In this tragedy, a troubled young woman with a tragic childhood is befriended by a hobo who brings her the first happiness she has ever known. Unfortunately the girl suffers a bout of amnesia and forgets who he is. The patient tramp helps her retrieve her memory. To thank him, the ungrateful girl tosses him out of her life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
