Sarah Miles Movies
The daughter of a British merchant, Sarah Miles enrolled at RADA at the age of 15. Before her formal stage debut at the Old Vic, Miles made her film bow opposite Laurence Olivier in Term of Trial (1962). A marked contrast to the "English Rose" heroines once in vogue, she brought a smouldering sensuality to her roles in Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963) and The Ceremony (1964) and Antonioni's Blow Up (1966). So well established was Miles as a "sex symbol" (though she'd be the first to put down that demeaning term) by 1965 that she was able to spoof her screen image in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, playing an outwardly proper lass who gets a subtly erotic thrill out of flying in rickety vintage airplanes -- and who frequently finds herself being accidentally undressed in public. In 1969, Miles was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of the title role in Ryan's Daughter. She then was forced to endure a decade of tabloid-press scrutiny, beginning with her wholly unsubstantiated "involvement" with the suicide of a man named David Whiting on the set of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), and culminating with the publicity engendered by her steamy sex scenes with Kris Kristofferson in The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea (1976). Though she often dismissed adverse press by noting "I have been mocked and ridiculed all my life," Miles would frequently retire from filmmaking for up to three years at a time. She was, however, always available for stage work: her more significant theatrical credits include the roles of Marina Oswald in The Silence of Lee Harvey Oswald, Mary Queen of Scots in Vivat Vivat Regina, and her 1978 one-woman musical S. Miles is Me. Still active in character roles in the 1980s, Miles has recently been seen in the surprisingly sedate role of a wartime London matriarch in Hope and Glory (1987), and more characteristically as an insatiably lusty aristocrat in White Mischief. She was married to playwright Robert Bolt from 1967 to 1976, then remarried him eleven years later. In 1993, Sarah Miles published her autobiography, A Right Royal Bastard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1962
Based on James Barlow's novel The Burden of Proof, this is a thoughtful drama revolving around the relationship between a schoolteacher and his students, in particular a fifteen year old girl (played by the debuting Sarah Miles, although she was in fact 21 at the time), who has become infatuated with him. But when he rejects her advances during a school trip to France, out of spite she accuses him of rape. The resulting court-case dominates the latter stages of the film.
In its depiction of school life there does seem to be a ring of truth, even if the situations are somewhat exaggerated and for its time this was very strong stuff with its controversial scenario. But the early 60s was an era when film-makers were challenging social taboos, and subjects that had until then remained off-limits were being explored. Victim (1961) is another good example of this trend. As the movie also examines the precarious state of the man's marriage, this also gives more poignancy to his predicament. A fine cast is employed here, including a young Terence Stamp who went on to become a major star of the late 60s. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide
In its depiction of school life there does seem to be a ring of truth, even if the situations are somewhat exaggerated and for its time this was very strong stuff with its controversial scenario. But the early 60s was an era when film-makers were challenging social taboos, and subjects that had until then remained off-limits were being explored. Victim (1961) is another good example of this trend. As the movie also examines the precarious state of the man's marriage, this also gives more poignancy to his predicament. A fine cast is employed here, including a young Terence Stamp who went on to become a major star of the late 60s. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Simone Signoret, (more)
Wealthy wastrel James Fox hires insouciant cockney Dirk Bogarde as a valet. No sooner has he donned his working clothes than Bogarde begins exercising a subtle but insidious control over his master. Suggesting that the house could use a little fixing up, Bogarde convinces Fox to spend a whopping amount of money on it. But this is just a warm-up session for Bogarde, who by mid-film is calling all the shots in the Fox household, all the while pretending to keep his place. Fox's fiance Wendy Craig sees through Bogarde's game. Bogarde then brings his own lady friend Sarah Miles into the house. At Bogarde's insistence, Miles seduces Fox, thereby loosening Craig's hold on the confused young man. And so it goes. The homosexual subtext of The Servant disturbed some of the more hidebound critics of 1963; Harold Pinter based his cryptic screenplay on a novel by Robin Maugham. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, (more)
- 1963
Actor Lawrence Harvey made his debut as a writer and director with this downbeat drama. Sean McKenna (Harvey) is awaiting execution in a prison in Tangiers after being convicted of murder. McKenna was trying to prevent the crime in question but was instead made the scapegoat. With his life hanging in the balance, McKenna's girlfriend Catherine (Sarah Miles) and his brother Dominic (Robert Walker Jr.) engineer an escape plan, and McKenna is able to beat his date with the hangman. However, McKenna's reunion with Dominic and Catherine proves not to be as joyous as he had expected when he discovers that they have been having an affair. Harvey was to direct only two more films, the second of which, Welcome to Arrow Beach, would prove to be his final work. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Harvey, Sarah Miles, (more)
- 1965
- G
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Ken Annakin's large-canvas comedy Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines is set in 1910. In order to boost circulation of his newspaper, Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley) offers 10,000 pounds to the first person who can fly across the English Channel. A huge number of hopefuls enter the contest, including the scheming Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas), who, with the help of his henchman Courtney (Eric Sykes), attempts to sabotage the other entries. There is also a love triangle featuring Orvil Newton (Stuart Whitman) and Richard Mays (James Fox) competing for the heart of Patricia Rawnsley (Sarah Miles). ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, (more)
Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's first English-language production was also his only box office hit, widely considered one of the seminal films of the 1960s. Thomas (David Hemmings) is a nihilistic, wealthy fashion photographer in mod "Swinging London." Filled with ennui, bored with his "fab" but oddly-lifeless existence of casual sex and drug use, Thomas comes alive when he wanders through a park, stops to take pictures of a couple embracing, and upon developing the images, believes that he has photographed a murder. Pursued by Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), the woman who is in the photos, Thomas pretends to give her the pictures, but in reality, he passes off a different roll of film to her. Thomas returns to the park and discovers that there is, indeed, a dead body lying in the shrubbery: the gray-haired man who was embracing Jane. Has she murdered him, or does Thomas' photo reveal a man with a gun hiding nearby? Antonioni's thriller is a puzzling, existential, adroitly-assembled masterpiece. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, (more)
- 1966
It can't have been box-office considerations that motivated the title-change of the British I Was Happy Here to the American-release title Time Lost and Time Remembered. Director Desmond Davis both directed and wrote this nostalgic story of a London housewife (Sarah Miles), who leaves her husband to take a sentimental journey to her Irish home town. As she strolls around her old stamping grounds, Miles occasionally confides her mixed emotions (disillusionment among them) to the audience. To represent the "one foot in the then, one in the now" ambience of the story, director Davies frequently stages his scenes in time-displacement fashion, with characters in the present stepping directly into the past. Can this delicately handled film be a product of the same Desmond Davis who so badly botched the slapstick setpieces of Smashing Time? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Miles, Cyril Cusack, (more)
The logic behind inflating Robert Bolt's minimalist romantic drama Ryan's Daughter into a 12-million-dollar epic seems to have been "When David Lean directs, it's a super-spectacular." Sarah Miles (who at the time was married to Robert Bolt) stars as Rosy, the daughter of Irish pub keeper Tom Ryan (Leo McKern). Married to tweedy, sexless schoolmaster Charles Shaughnessy (Robert Mitchum), restless Rosy has an affair with British officer Randolph Doryan (Christopher Jones). When village idiot Michael (an Oscar-winning turn by John Mills) innocently uncovers evidence of Rosy's indiscretion, the local gossips begin wagging their tongues. Shaughnessy chooses to remain above the scandal, assuming that Rosy will come to her senses. Later, Rosy's father informs on a group of IRA insurgents, hoping to keep the peace in his village. The locals assume that Rosy, still enamored of Doryan, is the informer, and exact a humiliating punishment. Realizing that his very presence has caused disgrace for Rosy, Doryan kills himself. For Rosy and Shaughnessy, life goes on...not happily ever after, just ever after. The film was lensed on location in Ireland by frequent Lean collaborator Freddie Young. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, (more)
Screenwriter Robert Bolt's directorial debut is a lushly romantic saga concerning the 1812 love affair between the wife of William Lamb, Lord of Melbourne, and the author of the poem Childe Harold, Lord Byron. Excited and embarrassed by the attendant affections heaped upon him, Byron found his writing talent waning, and in 1813 the lovers ended their affair. In her first novel, Glenarvon in 1816, Lady Lamb included a satiric portrait of her former lover. But when she later witnessed Byron's funeral in 1828, she was so affected by his death she never mentally recovered from the trauma. The film charts the doomed romantic course for Lady Caroline Lamb (Sarah Miles), beginning with her marriage to the politically promising William Lamb (Jon Finch) and continuing with her scandalous affair with Byron (Richard Chamberlain). The film then chronicles Lady Caroline Lamb's supreme sacrifice on behalf of her husband's political career. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Miles, Jon Finch, (more)
- 1973
- PG
This romantic western drama, based on the best-selling novel by Marilyn Durham, stars Burt Reynolds as Jay Grobart, an outlaw married to an Indian woman named Cat Dancing. When Cat is raped and murdered, a distraught Grobart kills the man responsible for the crime; he soon pulls a robbery with the help of his friends Dawes (Jack Warden) and Billy (Bo Hopkins), and is now on the run from the law. While in transit, Grobart and his partners run across Catherine (Sarah Miles), a woman running away from her abusive husband Crocker (George Hamilton). Catherine is abducted by Dawes and Billy, but Grobart protects her from their violence and threats of rape. As Grobart and Catherine get to know each other, they find themselves falling in love, and despite his lawless past, she admires him for avenging the death of the woman he loved. Grobart, Catherine, and the men travel to the Indian village where Grobart lived with Cat Dancing and their son; however, Lapchance (Lee J. Cobb), a bounty hunter hired by Crocker, is on their trail to bring Catherine back to her husband. The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing was one of Burt Reynolds' first major starring roles after Deliverance elevated him to full-fledged film stardom following years in television and low-budget pictures. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Sarah Miles, (more)
- 1973
Based on the novel by L. P. Hartley, The Hireling is a dissection of antiquated but hardly dormant British class distinctions. Chauffeur Robert Shaw is in the employ of aristocratic widow Sarah Miles. When she suffers a nervous breakdown, Shaw helps her through her recovery. They grow to love each other during the convalescence; but when she is cured, Ms. Miles refuses to regard Shaw as an equal, and the original status quo is reinstated. The Hireling provides an interesting contrast to the similarly structured American film of 1991, Driving Miss Daisy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Shaw, Sarah Miles, (more)
- 1974
This third talking-picture version of Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations stars Michael York as Pip, the humble British lad whose aspirations to become a gentleman are financed by a mysterious benefactor. We first see young Pip (played by Simon Gipps-Kent) coming to the aid of escaped convict Magwitch (James Mason). Once this episode has apparently run its course, we find Pip the guest of the wealthy, reclusive, half-mad Miss Havisham (Margaret Leighton), and the worshipper-from-afar of Havisham's snooty niece Estella (played as both a teenager and an adult by Sarah Miles--breaking the usual cinematic tradition of casting two actresses in the role). This brief exposure to the finer things in life leads Pip on the winding road to betterment, with a few surprises in store for him. Great Expectations premiered November 22, 1974, as a Bell System Family Theatre presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael York, Sarah Miles, (more)
- 1974
- R
Based on a Spanish classic by Juan Valera, this film respectfully and effectively handles its potentially melodramatic story, and received critical acclaim in its native land. In the story, Luis de Varga (Peter Day) is a young man who has been studying for the priesthood. He is returning to his hidalgo (large landowner) father's home in Andalusia for a vacation. The father, Pedro de Vargas (Stanley Baker), is an educated man with a generous and sensitive nature. Among his concerns is to improve the condition of the peasantry. Pedro is preparing to marry a lively young widow, Pepita Jimenez (Sarah Miles). When Luis comes on the scene, he tries to sidestep the feelings he quickly develops for Pepita, but the two eventually make love. Not wishing to endanger his father's plans, he leaves before his vacation is over and returns to the seminary. Pedro discovers what has happened and is properly furious, but before long he generously makes it possible for Luis to return and marry the lovely Pepita. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1975
All Trails Lead to Las Vegas is an ersatz feature film comprised of two episodes from the TV series Get Christie Love. Teresa Graves stars as Christie, a policewoman on the staff of the LAPD special investigations unit. The episodes represented herein find Christie going undercover to solve a drug-theft case, and babysitting for the 12-year-old brother of a blackmailer. Only in the second installment does the trail lead to Vegas. The first network TV series to feature an African American policewoman as the leading character, Get Christie Love was telecast September 11, 1974 to July 18, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
James Michener's Dynasty is aptly named. This TV movie is indeed based on a novel by Michener, which does indeed cover thirty five years (1820-1855) in the lives of a land-rich family. Harris Yulin and Stacy Keach play the Blackwood brothers, a pair of enterprising Ohio pioneers. The ongoing rivalry between the older Yulin and younger Keach is intensified when Yulin's wife Sarah Miles leaves her husband in favor of Keach. As the brothers try to outdo each other in business, the Blackwood land empire grows to epic proportions. Unfortunately, this TV movie does not; at 2 hours, there just isn't enough time to do justice to Michener's sprawling novel. James Michener's Dynasty is worth noting for the supporting-cast contributions of Amy Irving and Harrison Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stacy Keach, Harris Yulin, (more)
- 1976
- R
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A distraught youth is troubled by his mother's new relationship with her sailor boyfriend who occasionally drops by when his ship is in. The sailor (Kris Kristofferson) is a caring man who offers a supportive relationship to the woman as well as a kind word for the youth. In his confused and addled adolescent state (which isn't helped any by his association with a local perverted youth) the boy plans a vengeful rite for his mother's beau. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Miles, Kris Kristofferson, (more)
Robert Mitchum reprises his role as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe from Farewell, My Lovely, in this misconceived remake of Howard Hawks's classic 1946 film -- transferring the setting from 1940s California to 1970s London. Marlowe is hired by a rich and dying General Sternwood (James Stewart) to find out who is blackmailing him. Marlowe then meets Sterwood's daughters -- the crazy and degenerate Camilla (Candy Clark) and the more even-tempered Charlotte (Sarah Miles). Opening up a can of worms, Marlowe unveils a collection of unsavory characters -- Eddie Mars (Oliver Reed), an inveterate gambler having an affair with Charlotte; Joe Brody (Edward Fox), Camilla's ex-lover; and Agnes (Joan Collins), a sexy bookstore clerk. The plot becomes even more chaotic when it is found that Camilla has been posing in the nude for pornographer Arthur Geiger (John Justin). When Geiger turns up dead, Camilla becomes implicated in Geiger's murder. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, (more)
- 1981
- R
The later years of the life of author D.H. Lawrence are dramatized in this screen biography. Following the controversial reception of his novel The Rainbow, David Herbert Lawrence (Ian McKellen) and his wife Frieda (Janet Suzman) leave England for the U.S., where they hope that Lawrence's bold themes will be received in a more tolerant climate. Such is not the case, and the Lawrences travel first to Mexico, and then to Italy while David attempts to complete and then publish his best known (and most controversial) work, Lady Chatterley's Lover. However, as the furor over the book taxes David's well being, tuberculosis saps his physical health. The supporting cast includes John Gielgud as censorship crusader Herbert G. Muskett and Ava Gardner as Mabel Dodge Luhan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McKellen, Janet Suzman, (more)
A big black mamba snake that has gotten loose in a townhouse slithers through a kidnapping plot in this film. Based on a novel by Alan Scholefield, Venom features a big name British cast that seems to be slumming in a B-movie project. Dr. Marion Stowe (Sarah Miles) is a toxicologist who has brought the snake to London to study the properties of its deadly venom. It escapes and terrorizes the inhabitants of the townhouse, where an attempted kidnapping is in progress. Dave (Oliver Reed), Jacmel (Klaus Kinski) and Louise (Susan George) are the villains trying to hold the son of a wealthy family for ransom. Original director Tobe Hooper was replaced by Piers Haggard. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, (more)
Director Sylvester Stallone proves you really can't go home again in Staying Alive, the absurd sequel to Saturday Night Fever. The story finds Tony Manero (Travolta) six years later working as a waiter in a nightclub while he tries to realize his dreams of dancing on Broadway (what tough street kid from Brooklyn doesn't?) He eventually makes the cut as an extra for "Satan's Alley" (billed as "a musical trip through Hell") and immediately sets his sights on the show's snooty prima-donna star (Finola Hughes, decidedly unsuited for such dancing as her role requires). Meanwhile, the nice girl he's been seeing (Cynthia Rhodes) stands by her man, waiting patiently for him to come around. When the male lead can't cut it, Tony is offered the part, and tensions rise. The action culminates in the show itself and Tony's ultimate realization that he needs to please only himself. Indeed, the horrific dancing combined with Frank Stallone's inane musical score makes one wonder just how accurate the show's billing of "a musical trip through Hell" actually is. As long as one disassociates this film from its predecessor, Staying Alive is highly enjoyable for its schlock value; it may well be an inadvertent camp classic for Travolta's sweaty thongs alone. As for Stallone's direction and screenwriting abilities, he proves he is better off to remain an underdog prize-fighter/ commie-killer/mercenary cop/ double-fisted union leader/etc... ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes, (more)
- 1984
Based on the novel by Agatha Christie and set in the late 1950s, this unevenly told film starts when Dr. Arthur Calgary (Donald Sutherland) comes back to England after two years on an Antarctic expedition and discovers that the man he is searching for has been executed for murder. At the beginning of his expedition he had given a ride one night to a hitchhiker and accidentally ended up with his address book. To his horror, the hitchhiker's mother was killed on that night, and he had been the alibi that would have saved him from execution. Spurred on by his sense of shock and guilt, Calgary makes contact with the family and is put off by their disinterest in finding the real killer. It seems that the mother had many enemies among her close family members: her husband was having an affair, there was a blackmail scheme in the works, and many felt that she had already excluded them from any inheritance. Although the acting is uneven and the plot may seem predictable or contrived to non-Christie readers, the story retains interest, and Dave Brubeck's jazz score adds a special dimension to the proceedings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Christopher Plummer, (more)
- 1984
- PG
Based on a character created by Robert E. Howard, this fast-paced, occasionally humorous sequel to Conan the Barbarian features the hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger) as he is commissioned by the evil queen Taramis (Sarah Douglas) to safely escort a teen princess (Olivia D'Abo) and her powerful bodyguard (Wilt Chamberlain) to a far away castle to retrieve the magic Horn of Dagon. Unknown to Conan, the queen plans to sacrifice the princess when she returns and inherit her kingdom after the bodyguard kills Conan. The queen's plans fail to take into consideration Conan's strength and cunning and the abilities of his sidekicks: the eccentric wizard Akiro (Mako), the wild woman Zula (Grace Jones), and the inept Malak (Tracey Walter). Together the hero and his allies must defeat both mortal and supernatural foes in this voyage to sword-and-sorcery land. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Grace Jones, (more)
- 1985
- R
This is a story of a group of women overcoming several obstacles by helping each other out, even if that means just listening. Seven different women whose backgrounds are filled in by flashbacks and narration are together in a steambath on ladies' day. Violet (Diana Dors) is the maternal manager of the steambath, and one of the issues to be resolved is how to save the bath from being shut down by the authorities. Nancy (Vanessa Redgrave) is suddenly a single mother of three after being deserted by her husband. Her good friend Sarah (Sarah Miles) has neither children nor husband, even an ex-husband, yet she can empathize with Nancy's increasing loneliness. Josie (Patti Love) is an outgoing, talkative woman whose sex life is her main interest at the moment, and other women include a somewhat reserved mother-and-daughter duo (Brenda Bruce and Felicity Dean). Personal traumas are revealed and shared, and a plan to save the steambath is also cooked up. This was to be the last film for both Diana Dors and Joseph Losey who died not long after the feature was wrapped. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, (more)
Director Stephen Frears' Loving Walter combines 1982's Walter, produced for Britain's Channel Four, and its sequel, 1983's Walter and June. Based on the best-selling book by David Cook, the story details the plight of Walter (Ian McKellan), a moderately retarded man, after the deaths of his parents. No concrete provisions have been made for Walter's upkeep, so he is thrown into an institution, where for the first time he is subjected to the casual cruelties of the "normal" world. Walter is rescued from an uncertain future through the love of June, played by Sarah Miles. Frankie Connolly plays the young Walter, while Arthur Whybrow and Barbara Jefford are his parents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McKellen, Sarah Miles, (more)
