Reginald Beckwith Movies

Thunderball finds James Bond matching wits with the sinister espionage organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E, (which stands for Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). This time, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. hijacks a NATO nuclear bomber, hiding the bombs under the ocean depths and threatening to detonate the weapons unless a ransom of 100,000,000 pounds is paid. The mastermind behind this scheme is international business executive Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), who maintains a pool full of sharks for the purpose of eliminating enemies and those henchmen who fail to come up to standard. Dispatched to the Bahamas, lucky Mr. Bond enjoys the attentions of three nubile ladies: Largo's mistress Domino Derval (Claudine Auger), British spy Paula Caplan (Martine Beswick, previously seen as a gypsy girl in the 1962 Bond epic From Russia With Love) and enemy agent Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A scam artist is forced to pose as a miracle worker in this adventure tale with comic touches. Joe Moses (Robert Mitchum) is a confidence man and jewel smuggler from America who somehow finds himself in Africa, attempting to pull a fast one on some natives who quickly prove to be sharper than he expected. Tossed into the river for his troubles, Joe floats downstream, where he's eventually rescued by Julie Anderson (Carroll Baker), the daughter of Rev. Anderson (Alexander Knox), a missionary doing the Lord's work in a small village. The village is to be flooded when a new dam becomes operational in a few days, but while government functionary Robert (Ian Bannen) attempts to relocate the villagers, most of them refuse to budge. Robert has told them that they cannot bring their animals with them, and since they consider their animals members of the family, they would prefer to stay and face the inevitable. Hoping to amuse the people who helped save his life, Joe performs a few sleight-of-hand tricks for the natives and sets a bush on fire. Soon they believe that Joe is the Moses that they've heard about from the Holy Bible, and that he's come to lead the people of the village to safety. Joe's not so sure that he's the right man for the job, but when Julie hears of Joe's criminal past, she gives him the option of helping to save the villages, or being turned in to the police. However, Ubi (Raymond St. Jacques), a native who was educated in the U.S., has the feeling that Joe is up to no good, and doesn't appreciate the way he's been preying on the naiveté of his people, even if it is supposedly for their own good. This was Carroll Baker's last film before her massively-hyped title role in the biopic Harlow, whose box office failure proved disastrous to her career. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This rock comedy features an alien who tries to distribute peace, love and understanding around Britain. ~ Rovi

A murder has been committed at the palatial Parisian residence of Benjamin Ballon (George Sanders). All the evidence points to sexy, wide-eyed housemaid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer). Police inspector Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom) is prepared to make an arrest -- and then the gloriously, monumentally inept Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) arrives on the scene. Clouseau may have difficulty getting through the day without falling into ponds, knocking people cold with opened doors, and pocketing flaming cigarette lighters, but his instincts are right on target when he decides that Mme. Gambrelli is being framed by someone else in the Ballon household. Even as the murder victims pile up, Clouseau is determined to prove Mme. Gambrelli's innocence. As he cuts a bumbling, destructive swath through Paris, Clouseau drives Dreyfuss literally insane. This fact leads to the literally explosive climax, and to the ultimate vindication of Mme. Gambrelli. While we first met Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther, Shot in the Dark is the film that truly established the Clouseau mythos: the festive clumsiness, the convoluted dialogue ("You shot him in a rit of fealous jage!"), the Fractured French ("A beump on zee head!"), the twitching lunacy of poor Inspector Dreyfuss, the unexpected "judo lessons" of Clouseau's houseboy Kato (Burt Kwouk), and of course the hilariously macabre jokes involving dead or seriously injured bystanders. You'd never know it, but A Shot in the Dark was inspired by a standard three-act stage comedy by Harry Kurnitz, which in turn was adapted from the French play L'Idiote by Marcel Achard. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, from director Anthony Asquith, the lives and stories of three different people are linked together by their possession of an unusual car, a yellow Rolls Royce Phantom II. Lord Frinton (Rex Harrison) is a diplomat who purchases the exquisite auto as a gift for his wife (Jeanne Moreau). After Frinton's horse wins the Royal Gold Cup, Lady Frinton incurs the Lord's wrath when she is caught in the back seat of the Rolls with his underling John Fane (Edmund Purdom). In the 1930s, the car is bought by Italian gangster Paolo Maltese (George C. Scott), who is carrying on with the hatcheck girl Mae Jenkins (Shirley MacLaine). The two take a tour of Italy and see all the historic sights, but Mae is less than impressed. While Paolo is in the United States on one of his frequent hit-man assignments, Mae and a street photographer try out the back seat for comfort and carnal pleasure. Art Carney plays Paolo's associate Joey. In the final episode, Gerda Millett (Ingrid Bergman) is the married American woman who buys the car in 1942. With Hitler attacking Yugoslavia the brave and brazen beauty helps fight the Nazis by smuggling Davich (Omar Shariff) across the border, and this duo also find themselves in the back seat for a roll in the Rolls. Davich shows his gratitude by shipping the car along with Gerda back to the United States. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

After several years' absence, Dirk Bogarde returns to the popular British "Doctor" film series in Doctor in Distress. Where once Bogarde's Dr. Simon Sparrow was naive and wide-eyed, he is a bit more urbane in this edition. He even manages to offer romantic advice to his old mentor/nemesis Sir Lancelot Sprat (James Robertson Justice). Sparrow's efforts to smooth the path for Sir Lancelot's amorous pursuit of physiotherapist Barbara Murray puts a strain on his own relationship with comely Samantha Eggar. Doctor in Distress is based on characters created by Dr. Richard Gordon, though the story is an original and not an adaptation of a Gordon novel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

British teens struggle to win the right to vote in this swinging musical from England. When the established political parties pay no mind to the young campaigners and so the youths decide to start their own party and use some of England's most popular singers to help them campaign. Among the artists lending their support are Freddy Cannon, Bobby Vee, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, the Spotniks and Joe Brown and the Breakaways. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Bob Monkhouse and Kenneth Connor, two escapees from Britain's Carry On series, star in Dentist on the Job. Bob and Ken play a daft pair of dental school graduates who pound the pavement trying to sell a new brand of toothpaste. If there is a single solitary oral-surgery gag left untapped (or undrilled) by this film, we'd like to see it. Shirley Eaton, the "gilded girl" from Goldfinger, is around to play nurse while the two stars play doctor. The original British title of Dentist on the Job is Get On With It. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Norman Wisdom does to P.G. Wodehouse in Girl on the Boat what Jerry Lewis did to Gore Vidal in Visit to a Small Planet. The zany Wisdom, put in charge of his aunt's cottage during an English summer in the roaring twenties, decides to invite several of his friends to his posh new digs. Among the invitees is the title character, played by the delightful comedienne Millicent Martin. All sorts of slapstick chaos ensues, but Wisdom manages to save the day before things get hopelessly out of hand. Like Jerry Lewis, Norman Wisdom is an acquired taste, but he's worth sampling at least once. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Screenwriter Nunnally Johnson adapted the novel by author Edward Streeter, whose work was also the basis of Father of the Bride (1950), into this domestic comedy. James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara star as Roger and Peggy Hobbs, a St. Louis couple with a large brood who desire a seaside vacation. Renting a cottage by the ocean is just the first step in a summer fraught with disasters, including a couch potato son, a shy daughter with newly installed braces, a pair of grown daughters who have married badly, and a local yachtsman with eyes for Peggy. Not to mention the ramshackle state of the shoreline abode, Roger and Peggy's new grandparent status, and incidents involving a sexy neighbor, a sailboat regatta and bird watching. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

A typical British slapstick farce, this comedy by Darcy Conyers based on Basil Thomas' play The Love Birds, involves reincarnation, huckstering, and jealousy. Cecil Gibson (Ronald Shiner) led a shady professional life as an antique furniture restorer, and after he dies his widow Julie (Dora Bryan) and her new husband Bertie (Brian Rix) pay the consequences. A gangster is after them because of a bogus antique bed that the late Cecil pawned off for a quick buck. Aside from this constant threat, Cecil has reincarnated as a talky parrot whose main ambition is to make life difficult for his wife and Bertie. Several hilarious slapstick scenes involving chases or sexual encounters, as well as the more reserved wit found in caricatures like an inept magistrate, are all hallmarks of a typically British sense of humor here (shared by many non-Brits). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This Ernie Kovacs cult comedy was the last film directed by Mario Zampi and follows the exploits of Aldo Bondi (Kovacs) who earns his living off wealthy widows. When he consoles the beautiful and impoverished Baroness Sandra (Cyd Charisse), he makes the mistake of falling in love with her. That gets him into a complex con game with three other widows and a huge sum of money, meant to be invested to earn a bundle based on the five-hour time difference between the East coast of the U.S. and Europe. Bondi gets into one tight situation after the next, as his loot is stolen by the Baroness and he needs a way to save his skin. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi