Neil McCallum Movies
- 1971
This British made-for-television drama tells the story of an English spy living abroad. John Le Mesurier stars as Adrian Harris, an English diplomat who trades loyalties and becomes a Russian spy. Harris escapes to Moscow after his covert activity is uncovered and he lives in exile, until some journalists come sniffing around for his story. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This science fiction/fantasy is loosely based on a story by John Wyndham (best known for The Day of the Triffids). Scientist Collin (Tom Bell) stumbles across a parallel world in which President Kennedy is not shot, Vietnam hasn't happened, and Ottilie (Joan Collins), the woman he loves, dies unexpectedly of a heart condition. While he is happy enough with the rest of his new world, he can't stand by and let his true love die in his original world, and he determines to return to his own place and time to save her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1969
A spaceman -- with a raygun -- for hire takes on a crooked land baron in this drama that moves Western themes into outer space. In the year 2021, Bill Kemp (James Olson), the first man to walk on Mars, is an astronaut for hire, renting his services to the highest bidder. J.J. Hubbard (Warren Mitchell) is a multi-millionaire who pays Kemp to help blast an oncoming asteroid out of its orbit so that it will avoid the Earth and crash into the moon. However, Hubbard's goal is hardly benevolent. The moon is being excavated for mineral resources, and since fragments of the asteroid in question resemble jewels, it will allow Hubbard to fraudulently jack up land prices on the lunar surface. Kemp also learns that Hubbard was responsible for the death of the brother of Clementine Taplin (Catherine Schell), the woman he loves. Kemp realizes that he can no longer do business with Hubbard, and he sets out to foil Hubbard's schemes before it's too late. Moon Zero Two was directed by Roy Thomas Baker, who also made a number of pictures for Hammer Films, including the respected sci-fi cult film Quatermass and the Pit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Olson, Catherine Schell, (more)
This animated, futuristic puppet fantasy finds Lady Penelope and Professor Brains working for the organization International Rescue. The professor has developed an aircraft for the New World Aircraft company. Corporate spies secretly working for the NWA organization steal the experimental flyer. The Lady and the Professor chase the villains around the world in their quest to return the plane to the rightful owners in this action-packed children's feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Anderson, Ray Barrett, (more)
The Lost Continent is a crazy-quilt of a film, with chunks of several unrelated plotlines sewn together willy nilly. Eric Porter plays Lansen, the captain of a tramp steamer who has agreed to deliver contraband dynamite for a hefty price. His passengers are a polyglot of the good, the bad and the worse. Shipwrecked on an mysterious isle in the Sargasso Sea, Lansen and party find themselves prisoners of a bizarre inbred colony still governed by the long-abandoned edicts of the Spanish Inquisition. The film is no more coherent than the original Dennis Wheatley novel Uncharted Seas, but that doesn't detract from its endearing wackiness. To their credit, the cast members of Lost Continent play the script straight, which merely adds to the kinky fun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Porter, Suzanna Leigh, (more)
- 1965
Not to be confused with David Hewitt's abominable Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors (AKA The Blood Suckers), this clever horror omnibus is one of the better early anthologies from Amicus Productions, thanks to Freddie Francis' stylish direction and a tongue-in-cheek approach from writer Milton Subotsky (who would later apply the same sardonic treatment to the EC Comics-based productions Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror). The framing story is set in a train car, where five passengers have their fortunes told by the all-seeing Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing), who refers to his ominous tarot deck as his "House of Horrors." Their respective stories involve all manner of occult happenings: a jazz musician's involvement with a voodoo curse; an estate haunted by a werewolf; a doctor (Donald Sutherland) who suspects that his wife has become a vampire; a cottage besieged by a monster kudzu vine; and the most entertaining segment, in which arrogant art critic Christopher Lee is avidly pursued by a snubbed artist's severed hand. In the end, it doesn't take a jaded horror buff to deduce Schreck's true identity or the ultimate destination of the train passengers, but it's a fun ride nonetheless. Not all of the stories work (the vampire story's "twist" ending is rather silly, the voodoo tale painfully dated), and the effects are generally sub-par, but Francis keeps the pace snappy throughout, giving the entire film a throwaway, Halloween spook-house feel. Hammer horror fans will certainly find this a keeper on the strength of Cushing and Lee's performances. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, (more)
- 1965
In this creepy thriller a husband and his conniving boss conspire to murder his overly-demanding crippled wife. The friend wants her gone so that the husband will begin dating her niece. The husband is doing it because his boss is blackmailing him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Merrow, Georgina Cookson, (more)
The Hill was unfairly subjected to ridicule by the more obtuse "critics" of 1965 who harped on the fact that it starred Sean Connery and, unlike Connery's Bond pictures, had no women in it. Bypassing these cretinous comments, it must be noted that The Hill is an above-the-norm entry in the "military prison" genre. The film takes place during World War II, in a Libyan stockade for incorrigible British soldiers. The camp's brutal Sergeant Major (Harry Andrews) puts his charges to work on grueling, monotonous and pointless projects to break their spirits. When one rebellious inmate dies due to this treatment, the Sergeant Major is reprimanded by Joe Roberts (Connery), who has been appointed as the prisoners' spokesman. The result is that Roberts is likewise subjected to the most demeaning and humiliating of prison chores -- but his spirit, and that of his comrades, is not so easily crushed. Based on a TV play by Ray Rigby, The Hill should never be seen in any form other than its dusty, parched original black-and-white; the currently available colorized version is a crime against humanity. One problem: The British dialects in the first 20 minutes are so thick that an American viewer practically needs subtitles (British critics chalked this problem up not to elocution but to poor sound recording). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Harry Andrews, (more)
- 1964
In this complex mystery, an American woman is married to a British businessman. The trouble begins when the woman suspects that she is being stalked. She tells this to her husband and his friend. They then go home. While the friend is upstairs making a phone call, the stalker sneaks in and kills her husband. The friend hears the commotion and rushes downstairs. He gets there just in time to hear the killer requesting payment from the wife for services rendered. Later the killer is arrested and makes a full confession. Though he claims the woman paid him to kill her husband, the court remains skeptical. The friend believes the killer, but says nothing. After the trial, he learns that the woman's ex-husband had been blackmailing her with the claim that they were never actually divorced. He pushed her into killing her new husband. When the friend learns the truth, he has no choice but to phone the police and tell them all he knows. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1963
In this thriller, an orphan with ESP is engaged to help solve the abduction of a wealthy Englishwoman by her aunt. The rich woman's brother and the local cabbie believe in the girl's mysterious talent. They are terrified that she will lead the authorities to the woman's corpse. The brother stops the girl, then pays off the cabbie for the murder. Unfortunately, the police witness the pay-off. A high-speed chase ensues and the avaricious brother crashes his car. He then confesses. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1962
In this British crime drama, two thieves, desiring to rob a factory, hold the owners wife and child hostage while the deed is done. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1962
The British The Inspector was released in the U.S. as Lisa. Dolores Hart plays Lisa Held, a Dutch Jewish girl who has survived the horror of Auschwitz. Anxious to leave Holland for Israel, Lisa enlists the aid of Dutch police inspector Stephen Boyd. He does all he can to help Lisa, hoping in this way to atone for his unwillingness to protect Jews from the Nazis during the war. Terrified at the prospect of a barrage of interrogations before being granted a pass, Lisa flees Holland by "illegal" means, travelling from country to country en route to the Holy Land. The Inspector marked the next-to-last film appearance of Dolores Hart before she left Hollywood behind to become a nun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Hart
The Longest Day is a mammoth, all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Whenever possible, the original locations were utilized, and an all-star international cast impersonates the people involved, from high-ranking officials to ordinary GIs. Each actor speaks in his or her native language with subtitles translating for the benefit of the audience (alternate "takes" were made of each scene with the foreign actors speaking English, but these were seen only during the first network telecast of the film in 1972). The stars are listed alphabetically, with the exception of John Wayne, who as Lt. Colonel Vandervoort gets separate billing. Others in the huge cast include Eddie Albert, Jean-Louis Barrault, Richard Burton, Red Buttons, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Gert Frobe, Curt Jurgens, Peter Lawford, Robert Mitchum, Kenneth More, Edmond O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Jean Servais, Rod Steiger and Robert Wagner. Paul Anka, who wrote the film's title song, shows up as an Army private. Scenes include the Allies parachuting into Ste. Mere Englise, where the paratroopers were mowed down by German bullets; a real-life sequence wherein the German and Allied troops unwittingly march side by side in the dark of night; and a spectacular three-minute overhead shot of the troops fighting and dying in the streets of Quistreham. The last major black-and-white road-show attraction, The Longest Day made millions, enough to recoup some of the cost of 20th Century Fox's concurrently produced Cleopatra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, (more)
Loosely based on a novel by John Hersey, this standard wartime drama stars Steve McQueen as Buzz Rickson, command pilot of a B17 bomber, and Robert Wagner as Ed Bolland, his co-pilot. When Buzz first comes on the scene, Ed admires him for his daring and skill in executing the bombing raids over Germany. But as time goes by, Buzz starts to fall for Ed's girlfriend Daphne (Shirley Ann Field) and at the same time, Ed begins to see that Buzz is only good at piloting bombers -- in civilian life he is a total washout. The contrasts between the men, Buzz's internal problems, and the love triangle provide the dramatic fodder throughout the 105-minute running time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, (more)
- 1960
A daring escape from prison whips open this actioner right at the beginning, and though the action continues from that moment onward it does not sustain the same break-neck pace. Matt Kirk (Aldo Ray) is in jail, wrongly accused of a crime, and along with three other inmates he escapes by hiding out in an ambulance. Circumstances then lead Matt and the others to set off in a small boat that ends up drifting toward an island called Pinchgut in Sydney's harbor. As the fugitives hole up on the island, Matt devises a way to call attention to his demand for a retrial that instead calls attention to more police... and a siege of the island begins. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aldo Ray, Neil McCallum, (more)
- 1960
Albert Lieven plays German general Erwin Rommel in this British war drama set in Libya and Egypt. A spy working on behalf of Rommel slips behind British lines and swipes "valuable" battle plans. Actually the information is false, planted by counterintelligence in hopes of misleading the "desert fox". Based on a true story, Foxhole in Cairo is an instructive if not overly suspenseful history lesson. Keep an eye peeled for Michael Caine, billed 16th in the published cast list (but uncredited in many prints). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Robertson Justice, Adrian Hoven, (more)
- 1959
This film version of George Bernard Shaw's satirical take on the American Revolution had a troubled production history (with a director change in mid-production), but nevertheless boasts a cutting performance by Laurence Olivier. Shaw's tale depicts his version of how the British lost the American colonies: because of a stupid mistake at the War Office someone forgot to tell Lord North to join up with General "Gentleman" Johnny Burgoyne (Laurence Olivier) and smash the rebels. Burt Lancaster is on hand as the Rev. Anthony Anderson, a peace-loving parson who ends up becoming a belligerent firebrand of a rebel. Also is tow is Kirk Douglas as Dirk Dungeon, who, in typical Shawvian irony, starts out as a unrepentant, cowardly scamp and ends up as the personification of Christian virtues. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, (more)
- 1959
In this airborne disaster movie, a has-been brilliant scientist plants a bomb on a transatlantic jet to exact revenge upon a passenger whom he blames for his daughter's death -- she died during a plane crash. When the booby-trap is discovered and the passengers learn the motive for the scientists' actions, one of the passengers attempts to kill the man the scientist blames. A fight erupts and a window is shattered. The helpful passenger is sucked right out of the plane. Only when the scientist spies a child resembling his own lost daughter does he regain his humanity and disarm the bomb. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Stanley Baker, (more)
- 1956
In this crime drama, a boxer ignores gangsters' threats and refuses to throw a fight. While hiding out from the crooks, he starts working at a garage. After falling in love with the boss's daughter, he listens to her advice and decides to stand up to the bullies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
