Jack McNaughton Movies

Mania is the venerable Burke and Hare story, previously cinematized by producer Val Lewton as The Body Snatcher. Peter Cushing plays a respectable 19th-century Edinburgh doctor who needs fresh cadavers in order to continue his crucial research. Since the exhuming of bodies for medical purposes is illegal, Lee must rely upon grave-robbers George Rose and Donald Pleasance for his corpse supply. What Lee doesn't know is that Rose and Pleasance frequently cut out the middleman by "creating" their own corpses. The good doctor catches on when the latest cadaver turns out to be his own fiancee. Its excessively violent climax has prevented Mania from being shown completely intact on commercial television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, two crooked brothers, an embezzler and a gambler, find themselves in deep trouble when the embezzler steals from a steel mill so he can buy his lover fancy clothes. During the theft, he kills a night guard. This spawns an investigation by the slain watchman's son who locates a sightless witness. The son then convinces the killer that the witness saw him and this causes him to confess. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Old-timer Dennis O'Keefe and newcomer Ann Sears star in the British melodrama Lady of Vengeance. O'Keefe plays an American publisher headquartered in London, whose young ward (Eileen Elton) is driven to suicide. The distraught O'Keefe hires a professional criminal (Anton Diffring) to plot the murder of the man responsible for the girl's death, with the proviso that the victim undergo the torments of the damned before he is finally killed. Trouble is, the wrong man is targeted for the publisher's revenge. Nominal leading lady Ann Sears does what she can with the nondescript role of O'Keefe's secretary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Boulting Brothers enjoyed one of their biggest box-office successes of the 1950s with the wry service comedy Private's Progress. Though billed fourth, Ian Carmichael plays the central character, feckless British soldier Stanley Windrush. Interrupting his college education to serve his country, Windrush flunks out of officer's candidate school and is demoted to private. Much of the humor arises from the bookish hero's confrontation with the ruder and cruder side of army life, as represented by rough-hewn fellow private Cox (Richard Attenborough). As Major Hitchcock, Terry-Thomas offers a brilliant parody of the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" school of military service, while Dennis Price is equally amusing as a nonplussed commanding officer named Tracepurcel (!) Also worth watching is future "Dr. Who" star William Hartnell as a loudmouthed sergeant. Halfway through the film, the plot rears its ugly head as the protagonists become involved with the covert reclamation of art treasures confiscated by the Nazis during WW2. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An 18-month-old baby disappears in London. The parents, US embassy worker David Knight and his wife Julia Arnall, are panic-stricken. Detective David Farrar tries to locate the child, but clues are scarce. At the last possible moment, Farrar rescues the infant from a grueling fate and collars the kidnappers. This nail-biting film is filled to capacity with many of Britain's top supporting players, including Thora Hird, Everley Gregg, Joan Sims, Shirley Anne Field, Joan Hickson, Dandy Nichols, Mona Washbourne, Barbara Winsor and George Woodbridge. Released in the US by Republic, under the title Tears for Simon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released in the US as Man With a Million, The Million Pound Note is a satisfying adaptation of a satirical short story by Mark Twain. Gregory Peck plays Henry Adams, an impecunious American living by his wits in London. Henry becomes the object of a wager between millionaire brothers Oliver and Roderick Montpelier (Ronald Squire and Wilfred Hyde-White), who want to find out if a man with a million pound note in his bank account could live comfortably for one month on the strength of that note--without ever spending a penny of it. When Henry is given the note and lets it be known that he has it, every courtesy imaginable is extended to him by hoteliers, restauranteurs, etc. Trouble brews when Henry uses the note's reputation to speculate on the stock market. When his creditors demand that he produce the note as an act of faith, Henry is unable to do so, whereupon pandemonium reigns--and the audience's laughter cascades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alec Guinness stars as Father Brown, full-time priest and part-time sleuth, in this comic mystery based on the character created by novelist G.K. Chesterton. When Father Brown is entrusted with transporting a valuable religious artifact from London to Rome, he's understandably upset when it's stolen from him. Brown has reason to believe that a notorious international thief lifted the cross he was carrying, and the good Father finds himself on a dual-purpose mission: to recover the stolen goods and to compel the thief to repent before God. The supporting cast includes Peter Finch, Joan Greenwood, and Cecil Parker as the Bishop. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Scripted by Eric Ambler from a novel by Geoffrey Household, the British Rough Shoot top-bills Hollywood stars Joel McCrea and Evelyn Keyes. McCrea plays Taine, an American colonel stationed in England. When he spots what appears to be a prowler, Taine tries to scare the fellow away with a round of buckshot. The prowler immediately falls to the ground -- dead. Assuming that he's responsible, Taine hides the body, an act that sparks a chain reaction of sinister events, resulting in the colonel's involvement in an Iron-Curtain spy ring and an exciting finale at Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Evelyn Keyes' role as Colonel Taine's wife is overshadowed by the scene-stealing performances of supporting actors Herbert Lom and Marius Goring. Rough Shoot was originally released in Great Britain as Shoot First. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Hour of 13 is a leisurely remake of the 1934 thriller The Mystery of Mr. X. The year is 1890: London is being plagued by a series of murders. The victims are all policemen, and the killer seems to be operating in a deliberate pattern. Suave jewel thief Nicholas Revel (Peter Lawford) is compelled to seek out the killer, lest he himself be accused of murder by his friendly enemy, Inspector Connor (Roland Culver). Filmed at MGM's British facilities, The Hour of 13 makes excellent use of several topnotch English supporting actors, including Dawn Addams, Derek Bond, Leslie Dwyer, Michael Hordern, and Colin Gordon. The original Mystery of Mr. X made the tactical blunder of revealing the killer's identity in the opening credits; happily, Hour of 13 does not repeat this error. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though Green Grow the Rushes has the look and feel of an Ealing comedy, the film was actually produced through the auspices of British Lion. The story takes place on the southern coast of England, where through a bureaucratic oversight a small patch of land in Kent is protected from outside legal intervention by an ancient charter. It is here that a group of liquor smugglers, headed by Captain Biddie (Roger Livesey), carries on its activities with impunity and with full cooperation of the regional politicians. The fun begins when a cargo of precious potables ends up in a duck pond owned by a local farmer, sparking an onslaught of governmental foolishness. Two future stars carry the slim romantic subplot in Green Grow the Rushes: Honor Blackman plays a well-meaning newspaper columnist, while Richard Burton shows up as a slovenly smuggler (this was Burton's final British film before his move to Hollywood). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alec Guinness has one of his finest comic roles in this Ealing satirical comedy about a much patronized amateur scientist whose latest invention creates an uproar in the British textile industry. In the British manufacturing country of Northern England, factory owner Michael Corland (Michael Gough) is showing competitor Alan Bimley (Cecil Parker) around his plant, hoping to borrow some money and marry off his daughter Daphne (Joan Greenwood). They come upon a curious contraption that turns out to be an experiment by employee Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness). Being a lower class worker, Sidney is summarily fired from his job. Sidney ends up working at Bimley's factory, where he is befriended by militant worker Bertha (Vida Hope). Daphne spots Sidney at the factory and he explains to her the results of his experiment -- a material that is indestructible and impervious to dirt. Bimley discovers this project and throws Sidney out. But Daphne, impressed by his experiments, funds Sidney, installing him in his own laboratory. After a few false starts, Sidney develops a pure white material that can't be dirtied or ruined. But it seems Sidney's invention is too brilliant and effective; if a material is marketed that will last forever, textile mills will go out of business and workers will lose their jobs. Suddenly, poor, luckless Sidney has both management and labor banding together to combat his new invention. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A mystery novel by Delano Ames was the launching pad for the British meller She Shall Have Murder. "She" is Rosamund John, a mystery writer wannabe who works in a law office. Rosamund ends up with plenty of story material when a client turns up dead. Trouble is, she may not live to tell the tale. Derrick DeMarney and Felix Aylmer are among the usual suspects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide