Sylvia Marriott Movies

Based on J.G. Ballard's autobiographical novel, Empire of the Sun stars Christian Bale as a spoiled young British boy, living with his wealthy family in pre-World War II Shanghai. During the Japanese invasion, Bale is separated from his parents. With the help of soldier-of-fortune John Malkovich, Bale learns to survive without a retinue of servants at his beck and call. By the time Malkovich and Bale are tossed into a Japanese prison camp, the boy has picked up enough street-smarts and developed enough intestinal fortitude to regard his imprisonment as an exciting adventure. The story ends during the 1945 liberation: on the verge of manhood, the 13-year-old Bale will never again be the pampered, privileged brat whom we met in the early scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Miss MacMichael (Glenda Jackson) is a dedicated teacher. She needs to be, because her students are delinquents who are barely one step away from prison. She has a boyfriend, Martin (Michael Murphy) who would love to take her away from the chaos and heartbreak of the classroom by marrying her, but she doesn't want to leave. Her efforts to connect with the students are hindered by the school's principal (Oliver Reed), who puts on a kindly face to outsiders but believes that totalitarian techniques are good enough for these unruly students. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Among the great François Truffaut films, Two English Girls is likely the least known. Its story of a romantic triangle inevitably invites comparison to Truffaut's Jules and Jim, and not surprisingly, as both are based on novels by Henri-Pierre Roche (the only two novels Roche authored). Truffaut regular Jean-Pierre Leaud is Claude, the Frenchman who on a turn-of-the-century trip to Wales with his mother meets the Brown sisters, Anne (Kika Markham) and Muriel (Stacey Tendeter). Anne is a sculptress and more outgoing than Muriel, who is a teacher. Over the next 20 years, affections between Claude and the sisters shift, but consummation of any romantic feelings is often blocked by distance, a pair of very strong-willed mothers, and the conventions of the time. Claude becomes an art critic, and the trio each has to express blocked passions in his or her work. Disappointed by the mild reception that greeted the original version of the film, Truffaut determined to restore over 20 minutes of footage to the film, a project he completed just before he died in 1984. The posthumously released, full-length version rounds out the characters and their motives and makes Two English Girls worthy of comparison to The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim, and Day for Night in the Truffaut filmography. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

In this melodrama, two lovers plan to marry when the man returns from his stint in the war. The woman's life is shattered when she learns that he is listed as missing in action. She then becomes a nurse and falls in love with a doctor. Later the husband, an amnesiac returns. His memory also returns when he hears his favorite romantic song. This reunites him with his true love. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

So since when have crimes been committed in a house with all the lights on? This chop-licking British melodrama stars the gloriously uninhibited Tod Slaughter, playing the unspeakable Sir Henry Glyde. Disposing of his wealthy wife, Glyde replaces her with a look-alike, a recent "graduate" from the local insane asylum. This may sound vaguely familiar to you if you've seen the 1948 Warner Bros. Gothic drama The Woman in White. Indeed, both the Warner film and Crimes in the Dark House were based on the same 1860 novel by Wilkie Collins -- and both are good gory fun in their own separate ways. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi