Malcolm McDowell Movies
Blue-eyed British actor Malcolm McDowell has a history of playing angry, cruel characters that still managed to be charming. Born in working-class Leeds, England, he sold coffee around Yorkshire before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late '60s. By 1967, he had made his big-screen debut in Poor Cow, the first feature-length film from director Ken Loach. Moving to New York, McDowell met director Lindsay Anderson and appeared in his off-Broadway production of Look Back in Anger. (He would reprise his role of angry young man Jimmy Porter in the 1980 film version.) He then played Mick Travis, the rebellious boarding school student in If.... (1968), a role he would continue in Anderson's next two films, O Lucky Man! (which he co-wrote) and Britannia Hospital (1982). Director Stanley Kubrick took notice of his work with Anderson and gave McDowell his international breakthrough with A Clockwork Orange, based upon the novel by Anthony Burgess. His portrayal of the sadistic Alex earned him two Best Actor nominations, but also cemented a dark image that would persist throughout his career. He would occasionally get breaks with characters such as Captain Flashman, the hero in the adventure satire Royal Flash or the naïve fighter in the WWI drama Aces High. But his unscrupulous reputation was reinforced in 1979, when he starred in the title role as the Roman emperor in Bob Guccione's notorious production of Caligula. He made his first American film the same year, playing H.G. Wells in Time After Time alongside young actress Mary Steenburgen (they were married from 1980-1990). McDowell went on to star in the horror remake Cat People, the action-adventure Blue Thunder, and the rock musical-comedy Get Crazy. McDowell made several TV movies toward the late '80s, including Gulag, Arthur the King, and Monte Carlo. After a serious bout with a persistent drug problem, his hair turned white and he started playing regular villains in largely forgettable U.S. releases. He had better casting luck abroad, such as the leading role in the Russian film Assassin of the Tsar. After a cameo in The Player in 1992, the actor started lending his voice talent to cartoons, including Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Superman, Spider-Man, Batman: The Animated Series, Biker Mice From Mars, and the features The Fist of the North Star and Happily Ever After. He also provided the voice of Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn for the Wing Commander video game series and subsequent cartoon. His villainous roles started to gravitate toward science fiction with Tank Girl, Cyborg 3: The Recycler, and, most notably, Dr. Soran in Star Trek: Generations. On television, he played the evil Benny Barrett on the BBC series Our Friends in the North and the sinister Mr. Roarke on the ABC revival series Fantasy Island. In the late '90s, he appeared in a lot of direct-to-video and made-for-cable movies before making a return to U.K. theatrical features with the family drama My Life So Far in 1999 and Gangster No. 1 in 2000. In 2003, he appeared in the horseracing film Hidalgo, Robert Altman's The Company, and the Russian film Evilenko as serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide- 1993
- R
Everyone on the train to Venice is quite naturally wrapped up in their own concerns. Martin (Hugh Grant), a journalist, is determined to see to it that his book on the neo-Nazis gets into the right hands. Others are on their way to celebrate the Carnivale in Venice, a huge city-wide costume party. A more sinister passenger is found in the watchful man (Malcom McDowell) who never seems to converse or join with any of the others on the train. When a group of skinheads takes over the train, the passengers seem hardly to have noticed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Grant, Tahnee Welch, (more)
- 1993
After World War II, due to a longstanding prior agreement among the victorious Allies, displaced citizens of the various countries were returned to their homeland of origin whether or not they wanted to be. There were almost no exceptions to this rule. As a result, several million anti-communist citizens of Eastern Bloc nations were handed over to the not-so tender mercies of their native countries, now under communist rule. Only one nation in all of Europe failed to honor this agreement: the tiny Duchy of Luxembourg. The story of this film is based on a true incident, and the furor it caused. In 1945, the Russian general (Malcom McDowell) of a small detachment of five hundred Eastern Bloc soldiers who fought on the Axis (German) side, led them into the (neutral) Duchy, which had an announced policy of granting asylum. These refugees were swifly assimilated into the everyday life of the country and, despite enormous pressure from the great military powers of the day (particularly Russia), Luxembourg refused to relinquish them to almost certain death. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, Pierre Vaneck, (more)
- 1992
- R
Temistocles Lopez's Chain of Desire, based on Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, plays like an AIDS-era version of The Yellow Rolls Royce, in which a series of unrelated amorous lovers are connected by a "chain of desire." The film begins as Alma D'Angeli (Linda Fiorentino) flees from a lover and runs into a church, where she finds solace and a young Latino worker, Jesus (Elias Koteas). They make love. Then Jesus comes home to his wife Isa (Angel Aviles) and gets intimate with her. The next morning, Isa goes off to see Dr. Jerald Buckley (Patrick Bauchau), with whom she is having an affair. After seeing Isa, Jerald heads off to visit Linda (Grace Zabriskie), a sexy dominatrix. Linda returns home to her husband, Hubert (Malcolm MacDowell), a harried television commentator. After an unsatisfactory interview with women who claim to have had affairs with John F. Kennedy, he relieves his tensions by seeking the arms of Keith (Jamie Harrold), a teenage hustler. And the trail continues on as gay social worker Ken (Tim Guinee) offers Ken a place for the night, followed by Ken's lover David Bango (Dewey Martin) and hot dancer Diana (Holly Marie Combs), who wants David to deflower her. Coming on the scene after that is famed artist Mel (Seymour Cassel), who has a tryst with Diana, but he finds that he has to answer to his vindictive wife, Cleo (Assumpta Serna). At the end, all the characters arrive at a hip nightclub, where Alma, the singer at the club, has learned that the lover she had spurned at the beginning of the film has been diagnosed with AIDS. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Fiorentino, Elias Koteas, (more)
Robert Altman takes a scalpel to Hollywood ethics in the 1990s (or the lack thereof) in his acidic satire The Player, adapted from Michael Tolkin's novel. (Tolkin also wrote the screenplay.) The film concerns a sleek and smooth Hollywood studio executive who starts receiving death threats from a disgruntled writer because he has committed the ultimate Hollywood sin -- he promised the writer he would call him back and he never did. This is particularly ironic because the studio executive, Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins), is considered "writer-friendly," spending his days listening to pitches from such noted screenwriters as Buck Henry, who is pushing "The Graduate, Part II" and Alan Rudolph, who is hawking a Bruce Willis action film described as "Ghost meets The Manchurian Candidate." But The Player finds Griffin's comfortable life style in danger of collapse. He is trying to find a way to unload his girlfriend (Cynthia Stevenson) whose independence and intelligence make her a poor candidate for a trophy wife. More importantly, it seems that Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher), a slippery executive from Twentieth Century Fox, is angling for his job. And then there are those nasty postcards and faxes from a screenwriter threatening to kill him. Altman cast over 65 stars in cameo roles as texture for his scabrous tale. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, (more)
- 1991
Malcolm McDowell, with shock-white hair and a death-mask visage, delivers a powerful and intense performance in this British/Russian co-production, directed by Karen Shakhnazarov -- and also starring popular Russian actor Oleg Yankovsky. McDowell plays a schizophrenic patient in a Russian hospital named Timofeyev who is convinced that he was Yakov Yurovsky, the man who executed Tsar Nicholas II and the royal family during the Russian Revolution in 1918. Timofeyev tries to convince the doctors that he is cured of his delusions, but a new doctor, Smirnov (Oleg Yankovsky), thinks that there is something hidden beneath the surface of Timofeyev's delusions that has yet to be revealed. Smironov becomes as obsessive as Timofeyev in attempting to uncover the truth of the assassination. When Smironov travels to Sverdlovsk, where the Tsar was killed in 1918, he and Timofeyev both proceed to re-live the tragic murders. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, Oleg Yankovsky, (more)
- 1990
- PG
Malcolm McDowell stars as Albert Schweitzer in this biographical account of the Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian's years as an African missionary, as he establishes a hospital despite the medical superstitions of the local tribesmen. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, Helen Jessop, (more)
- 1990
- R
The terror in this erotic horror thriller begins in the past when Dr. Russell, the director of a mental hospital, rapes a patient who afterward kills herself. Many years pass and the main story begins when a lovely model checks into the asylum. Dr. Russell feels those old lustful, violent stirrings upon seeing her, but during the drug-induced "seduction" something goes terribly wrong and the model seems to have died. With the aid of his weird staff, the doctor tries to get rid of the body, which mysteriously vanishes by the next day. Later, the shrink begins to seriously question his own sanity when he keeps seeing the form of the model surreptitiously sneaking around the grounds. Things only get stranger from there. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, Geoffrey Lewis, (more)
Mark L. Lester's follow-up film to his Class of 1984 is a rancidly violent peek at a near-future high school world of terror -- The Jetsons meet The Terminator. In Lester's world, total anarchy rules (at least in Seattle). Classrooms are sinkholes of violence, and around the kill-zone high schools "Free Fire Zones" are set up that look like re-creations of Dachau. Rival youth gangs roam these areas with enough artillery for a second Vietnam War. The gangs' insane violence is exacerbated by a drug called Edge. When the Department of Educational Defense needs to supply new teachers, they look to a secret government agency headed by Dr. Bob Forrest (Stacy Keach) who sends new teaching recruits (Pam Grier, John P. Ryan, Joshua Miller) to the beleaguered high school. These novice teachers are not your ordinary teaching-college graduates, however. They are "tactical education units" -- cyborgs reprogrammed to teach readin' and writin' and 'rithmetic. If the students don't learn their daily assignments, they learn an even bigger lesson -- learn or die. The strict disciplinarian robots compel the student gangs to unite and fight the new educational menace. Under the leadership of Cody Culp (Bradley Gregg), who has just gotten out of reform school and has seen that there is more to life than killin' and cuttin' and Edge, the punks take up arms against the cyborgs who are invading their high-school turf. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bradley Gregg, Traci Lind, (more)
In the year 2038, multicosmic corporations are dominating the universe, subsuming planet after planet in search of valuable natural resources. An agent (Michael Pare) of the Galactic Mining Corporation is sent to a remote outpost as a safeguard against the ruthless attempts of the Pyrite company to take over the base. Moon 44 was shot in Germany and released directly to video, despite its rather high cost of $15 million. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Paré, Malcolm McDowell, (more)
In this unauthorized sequel to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the animation is so bad that it makes Scooby Doo look like Fantasia. Disney's litigation against the film caused its theatrical release to be delayed for several years. But there was no need to worry -- there is no way that Happily Ever After could ever be confused with the Disney classic. The story takes up where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs leaves off. After the demise of the evil queen, a group of grotesque creatures are celebrating in the castle, led by Scowl the Owl (voice of Ed Asner) and his bat sidekick Batso (voice of Frank Welker). But soon the scowling brother of the evil queen, Lord Malice (voice of Malcolm McDowell), arrives and busts up the festivities, declaring vengeance upon the cartoon characters responsible for his sister's death. Utilizing the Looking Glass (voice of Dom DeLuise), he locates the whereabouts of Snow White, changes into the form of a dragon, and goes out hunting. While all this is going on, Snow White (voice of Irene Cara) and Prince Charming (voice of Michael Horton) are heading off into the forest to invite the Seven Dwarfs to their wedding. On the way, Lord Malice appears and kidnaps Prince Charming, carrying him off to the Realm of Doom. Snow White breaks free and escapes to the home of the Seven Dwarfs. Since the Seven Dwarfs apparently have exclusive contracts with Disney, Snow White meets instead the female Dwarfelles, who explain that their male cousins are away on business. Like a kiddie-cartoon version of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley character from the Alien movies, Snow White empowers herself and the Dwarfelles, and they head off to rescue Prince Charming from the clutches of Lord Malice. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Cara, Ed Asner, (more)
- 1990
- R
Jezebel's Kiss is a dull, old fashioned, pretentious melodrama which has Jezebel (Katherine Barrese) driving into town, getting a job at a local bar, and proceeding to get her revenge against the townspeople who forced her grandfather to sell the family land. Jezebel uses her knowledge of the town's residents and her considerable sexual allure to make them each pay in their own way for her grandfather's suffering. However, the film fails at generating much sexual heat and falls short of offering any exploration of the psychological motivations of any of the characters. All in all Jezebel's Kiss is a lackluster predictable melodrama. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katherine Barrese, Malcolm McDowell, (more)
- 1989
Originally telecast on PBS as a three-part American Masters presentation, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow uses film clips and interviews to trace the life and career of legendary comedian Buster Keaton (1895-1966). Born into a family of vaudevillians, Keaton entered films as a member of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's comedy troupe in 1917. Three years later, producer Joseph Schenck promoted Keaton to his own series of two-reelers. There he gained fame as "the Great Stone Face," confronting life's pleasure and perils with nary a smile or a grimace on his countenance. He also earned the respect of the movie industry for his willingness to go the distance for a good gag. Moving into features in 1923, Keaton continued turning out such classics as Sherlock Jr. (1924) and The General (1926). On the advice of Schenck, Keaton gave up his independence to join MGM in 1928. Though his films still made money, he was given very little say in their creation. Frustrated by this, and plagued by marital difficulties, Keaton turned increasingly to drink. Fired by MGM in 1933, Keaton was reduced to appearing in cheap short subjects. After a humiliating period as a 300-dollar-per-week MGM gag writer, Keaton began mounting a fabulous comeback, regaining full stature in the 1950s and '60s via TV appearances and movie guest-star roles. He also found lasting happiness with his third wife, Eleanor Norris. A Hard Act to Follow was assembled by silent film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, and narrated by Malcolm McDowell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Through a series of flashbacks, the reason behind the mysterious inability of a famous conductor (Malcom McDowell) to continue preparing for a series of concerts is revealed. It all began while the conductor, a Jew, was hiding from the Nazis in a disused Italian convent, pretending to be a bank clerk. There he met another fugitive (Charles Aznavour), who was pretending to be a great conductor. Despite the odd circumstances, the real conductor and the fake one become friends, and the reasons for their deceptions become clear. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, Charles Aznavour, (more)
- 1989
The final part of this series deals with Buster Keaton's triumphant return to the movies. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1989
Part two of the series deals with what happens to Buster Keaton once he becomes embroiled in a bad studio contract situation. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1989
This first part of the series covers the early portion of Buster Keaton's career. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
After he is framed by his senior partner and sent to jail, Herbie Altman Robert Carradine sets up a lucrative investment company "Con Inc." with the assistance of the other convicts, sympathetic guards, and a well-intentioned prison reformer Lise Cutter. Lame, predictable story which wastes a talanted cast . ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Carradine, Michael Winslow, (more)
Director Blake Edwards departed from his customary sex farces to direct an unusual satirical Western comedy-thriller. In 1927, legendary lawman Wyatt Earp (James Garner) comes to Hollywood to serve as an advisor to a film studio making a movie about Earp's life. He meets silent screen cowboy star Tom Mix (Bruce Willis). The two stumble upon a murder that has apparently occurred on the set but is linked to a renowned bordello. The aging cowboy and the young actor set off on a series of time-warp misadventures to try to solve the mystery. Along the way, they encounter the shady Alfie Alperin (Malcom McDowell) and the intriguing Cheryl King (Mariel Hemingway). ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, James Garner, (more)
- 1987
- R
Malcolm McDowell and Madolyn Smith star in this unusual science fiction thriller. A young woman alone in a remote cabin expects friends for dinner, but instead a man who has car trouble knocks at her door and asks her help in calling for a tow truck. She sees him the next day in the village and inexplicably takes a ride with him into the mountains. Their nocturnal romantic rendezvous turns into a bizarre night of manipulation and psychological game-playing. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, Madolyn Smith, (more)
- 1986
A made-for-TV miniseries set during World War II, Monte Carlo features a Russian singer (Joan Collins) who works in the French city. She moonlights, however, as an Allied spy to retaliate against the Nazis who murdered her husband. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, George Hamilton, (more)
- 1985
Originally filmed in 1982, Arthur the King wasn't able to secure a network-TV berth until April 26, 1985. Malcolm McDowell plays good King Arthur, whose dream of Camelot is endangered by the evil Morgan Le Fay, played by Candice Bergen in her TV-movie debut. That this might have been intended as the pilot for a weekly series is evidenced by the otherwise pointless inclusion of Dyan Cannon, cast as a ditzy 20th- Century tourist who falls through a time warp while roaming around Stonehenge. You'll want to see Arthur the King if only to find out why minor-player Miro Pfeiffer's character name is "Undead Knight". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this made-for-TV thriller, a sportscaster engineers a daring escape from a Soviet prison camp after being snared by a KGB scheme. Mickey Almon (David Keith), a sports star-turned-journalist, arrives in Moscow to cover an international tournament. Soon, though, he's tempted to play the hero once again, this time not as an athlete, but as a smuggler of repressed scientific research. Against the advice of his wife (Nancy Paul), Mickey agrees to help the Russians who've approached him, but the entire intrigue turns out to be a set-up. Physically neglected and emotionally tortured in a stinking hole for several weeks, Mickey agrees to sign a confession after being told that it will guarantee his release. Instead, he receives a ten-year sentence and soon finds himself on a train bound for Siberia. Sewing rough-hewn gloves with the other foreign prisoners and living for the day each month when his care package arrives, Mickey soon resolves to escape or die trying. To that end, he enlists a cynical British spy (Malcolm McDowell) and a group of Soviet prisoners in a plan to escape via a supply train that can get them within reach of the West -- if only they can find a way to get onto it undetected. Gulag was directed by Roger Young, who previously helmed such lauded TV movies as Bitter Harvest and would go on to direct the original televised version of Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Keith, Malcolm McDowell, (more)
- 1983
- R
Director Allan Arkush knew whereof he spoke in Get Crazy. A longtime employee of Fillmore East, a popular rock-concert locale of the 1960s and 1970s, Arkush brought a great deal of insider's savvy to this comedy about the concert circuit and its denizens. Malcolm McDowell stars as a Mick Jagger-type rocker who is one of several acts lined up for a big New Years' Eve show. If villains Ed Begley Jr., Bobby Sherman and Fabian have their way, however, the show will never get off the ground. The supporting cast is dotted with such cult-flick icons as Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph and Mary Woronov. The musical portion of the program is handled by the likes of Malcolm McDowell, Lou Reed (as a Bob Dylan type) and Bill Henderson (as a Muddy Waters takeoff). In case it hasn't been made clear already, the main "joke" of Get Crazy is the presence in the cast of actors as musicians and musicians as actors; it is to the film's credit that this one joke never wears out its welcome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Malcolm McDowell, Daniel Stern, (more)
Ex-Vietnam chopper pilot Roy Scheider is now in charge of Blue Thunder, a high-tech copter designed to quell possible terrorism during the 1984 LA Olympics. His onetime comrade-in-arms Malcolm McDowell, now his bitter enemy, will stop at nothing to neutralize Blue Thunder and expedite an armed takeover of the United States. Well, there's the plot: now sit back and enjoy those eye-popping aerial scenes. Blue Thunder was later adapted into a weekly TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, (more)
