Hugh Miller Movies

This sweeping, highly literate historical epic covers the Allies' mideastern campaign during World War I as seen through the eyes of the enigmatic T. E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole, in the role that made him a star). After a prologue showing us Lawrence's ultimate fate, we flash back to Cairo in 1917. A bored general staffer, Lawrence talks his way into a transfer to Arabia. Once in the desert, he befriends Sherif Ali Ben El Kharish (Omar Sharif, making one of the most spectacular entrances in movie history) and draws up plans to aid the Arabs in their rebellion against the Turks. No one is ever able to discern Lawrence's motives in this matter: Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness) dismisses him as yet another "desert-loving Englishman," and his British superiors assume that he's either arrogant or mad. Using a combination of diplomacy and bribery, Lawrence unites the rival Arab factions of Feisal and Auda Abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn). After successfully completing his mission, Lawrence becomes an unwitting pawn of the Allies, as represented by Gen. Allenby (Jack Hawkins) and Dryden (Claude Rains), who decide to keep using Lawrence to secure Arab cooperation against the Imperial Powers. While on a spying mission to Deraa, Lawrence is captured and tortured by a sadistic Turkish Bey (Jose Ferrer). In the heat of the next battle, a wild-eyed Lawrence screams "No prisoners!" and fights more ruthlessly than ever. Screenwriters Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson used T. E. Lawrence's own self-published memoir The Seven Pillars of Wisdom as their principal source, although some of the characters are composites, and many of the "historical" incidents are of unconfirmed origin. Two years in the making (you can see O'Toole's weight fluctuate from scene to scene), the movie, lensed in Spain and Jordan, ended up costing a then-staggering $13 million and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The 1962 Royal Premiere in London was virtually the last time that David Lean's director's cut was seen: 20 minutes were edited from the film's general release, and 15 more from the 1971 reissue. This abbreviated version was all that was available for public exhibition until a massive 1989 restoration, at 216 minutes that returned several of Lean's favorite scenes while removing others with which he had never been satisfied. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

His career as a western star having recently come to an end in the US, Wayne Morris is the star of the British The Dynamiters. Morris plays an American insurance investigator, trying to get the goods on an elusive gang of London thieves. The crooks invariably wipe out all evidence by dynamiting the places they've plundered. While snooping around, Morris takes a break in a nightclub, where a musical number called "Soho Mambo" is thrust upon us. One nice side effect of The Dynamiters was that, by working in London, Wayne Morris was available to co-star in Stanley Kubrick's prestigious antiwar drama Paths of Glory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There's dirty work backstage in the British melodrama My Sister and I. Sally Ann Howes plays Robina Adams, an aspiring actress who lands a job at the provincial repertory company managed by Miss Havisham-like Mrs. Camelot (Martita Hunt). Still carrying a torch for her late husband, Mrs. Camelot makes everyone's life miserable until she is found dead of gas poisoning. The solution to the murder is hinted at in the film's title, which is all that can be revealed for now. A subplot concerns the romantic tug-of-war between Robina and her two would-be swains, actor Graham Forbes (Dermot Walsh) and lawyer Roger Crisp (Patrick Holt). ies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

In this musical drama set during the reign of Charles I, an Irish priest is assigned to educate the prince. The prince becomes a king and one day the priest approaches and asks the king to release a political prisoner who belongs to the vicar's parish. The king, who promised to grant his former teacher one special request, complies and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Laurence Housman's 1935 stage play Victoria Regina, which has served as a showcase for actresses as varied as Helen Hayes and Julie Harris, was adapted for the screen in 1937 as Victoria the Great. Herbert Wilcox was the producer, so no one was surprised and everyone was satisfied when Wilcox cast his actress wife, the beloved Anna Neagle, as Queen Victoria. The film repeats the play's episodic approach, tracing Victoria from her 1837 coronation to her Jubilee celebration sixty years later. Ms. Neagle is faultless, if perhaps a bit too self satisfied in this actor-proof role; her best scenes are with Prince Albert, played with finesse by Anton Walbrook. The Jubilee finale was originally filmed in resplendent Technicolor (derided in 1937 as vulgar) though some scattered prints are still processed in black and white. Victoria the Great was also released as Sixty Glorious Years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Dominant Sex is a doggedly faithful adaptation of a popular stage comedy by Michael Egan. Phillips Holmes, perhaps the frailest-looking leading man of all time, marries freethinking Diana Churchill. He tries to exercise his husband prerogative of ruling the household, but she stands her ground and demands to be treated as an independent individual. While hubby wins out towards the end, one feels that it's because wifey lets him; after all, she obviously could beat the tar out of him if she wanted. The Dominant Sex was directed by Herbert Brenon, who in his silent days yielded better results with his filmizations of James Barrie's plays Peter Pan (24) and A Kiss for Cinderella (25). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stowaway Doyle develops a friendship with Capt. Mollison who is running guns to the Arabs. They both fall for the same woman, Arab Desni, who spurns both men leading them to form a successful partnership. ~ All Movie Guide

City of Temptation was based (none too faithfully, if the reviewers were to be believed) on a novel by Sir Philip Gibbs. Olga Tschechowa plays a Russian refugee who finds herself broke and friendless in Constantinople. A Turkish man-about-town takes a fancy to Tschechowa and chases her all over the city. Will she or won't she give in to the cad, and will anyone in the audience still be awake when she makes up her mind? The American prints of City of Temptation ran a ragged sixty minutes, suggesting that something had been left on the cutting-room floor by the censors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Also known as The Loves of Sunya, this Gloria Swanson picture is a remake of the 1919 Clara Kimball Young vehicle The Eyes of Youth (itself based on a play by Charles Guernon and Max Marcin). Unable to choose among her many suitors, heroine Swanson consults a crystal ball. Here she is given a preview of what life might be like as the wife of (a) John Boles, (b) Andres de Segoula, (c) Anders Randolph, (d) Raymond Hackett, (e) Ivan Lebedeff or (f) Ian Keith. Shown that tragedy lies in store with her if she marries for fame or wealth, Swanson finally settles for true love. The first production from Gloria Swanson's own production company, The Love of Sunya was also the inaugural offering at New York's new Roxy Theater. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though no director was credited for Dangerous Virtue, it is known that Alfred Hitchcock edited the film and wrote the titles. Hollywood actress Jane Novak is cast as icy Englishwoman Beatrice Audley, the fiancee of passionate Frenchman Leon de Brique (Warwick Ward). Certain that her fiance will cheat on her at the earliest opportunity, Beatrice tests Leon by arranging a meeting with her less-inhibited friend Sonia (Julianne Johnston). It is the first of several plot contrivances in this labyrinthine drama which manages to incorporate a London gambling den, a steamy interlude in North Africa, a suicide, and an attempted murder in the proceedings. When shown in New York, Dangerous Virtue was reportedly laughed off the screen; one suspects, however, that Alfred Hitchcock never intended this farrago to be taken seriously in the first place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide