Brian Aherne Movies

This claustrophobic WW II war drama chronicles the five months which six soldiers and one woman spent trapped within a deep cave in the Italian mountains. Two soldiers die while trying to escape. The survivors try to keep sane, but keep grating upon each other. The pressure reaches a fever pitch when the British general blows his head off. The gunshot creates an explosion and the others escape. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This biopic from Walt Disney studios chronicles the life and times of Johann Strauss, Jr. as he tries to prove himself as talented as his overbearing father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The past and present collide with poignant results in this handsomely mounted Twilight Zone episode. Brian Aherne stars as aging Broadway matinee idol Booth Templeton, who is unable to give his full attention to his latest play because of his obsession with the past in general and his late wife Laura (Pippa Scott) in particular. Miraculously, Templeton is transported back to the 1920s for a reunion with his beloved Laura, which proves to be an eye-opener in more ways than one. Future film director Sydney Pollack is cast here as an abrasive stage director named Willis, a character whom scriptwriter E. Jack Neuman and director Buzz Kulik patterned after pioneer live-TV producer Fred Coe. "The Trouble with Templeton" was first telecast on December 9, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frances Howard starred as Princess Alexandria in the 1925 silent version of Ferenc Molnar's play The Swan; Lillian Gish assumed the role in the 1930 talkie version. The third and final adaptation starred Grace Kelly, who had one slight advantage over her predecessors; she would soon become a real princess instead of a make-believe one. And don't think that MGM, knowing full well that Grace would retire from moviemaking upon ascending the throne of Monaco, didn't carefully select the timeworn Molnar play for the express purpose of extra publicity. Outside of its mercenary considerations, The Swan is an enjoyable bittersweet tale of a princess who falls in love with her handsome tutor (Louis Jourdan), only to be required to give him up in favor of an arranged marriage of state. The nicest element of the story is that the prince to whom Kelly is engaged, as played by Alec Guinness, is a decent sort, who voluntarily asks for the princess' hand instead of forcing the issue. Of course, the issue has been forced upon him when he realizes the depth of the love Kelly harbors for her tutor. It may well be that this version of The Swan will be the last; on the other hand, who'd a' thunk that someone would want to make Sabrina again in 1995? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young woman (Jean Simmons) manages a remote California sheep ranch with her father (Brian Aherne). A plane carrying a sheriff (Stephen McNally) and a man indicted for manslaughter (Rory Calhoun) crashes nearby. Both men are cared for by the girl, who doesn't know at first which is the cop and which is the criminal. She falls in love with the convicted man and believes protestations of innocence, but the vindictive sheriff tries to dissuade her of these feelings. Given several chances to finish each other off, both sheriff and convict relent. Under the influence of the girl, they agree to return to Utah together, where (it is implied) the criminal will be given a bias-free trial. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1912 sinking of the luxury liner Titanic is used as a backdrop for a several fictional subplots, chief of which involves snooty socialite Clifton Webb and his wife Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck has booked passage on the ill-fated passenger ship with her daughter (Audrey Dalton) and son (Harper Carter), leaving Webb far behind. Webb manages to board the ship at the last minute, and discovers that Stanwyck plans to divorce him; she further informs him that he is not the father of their son. When the Titanic sideswipes an iceberg and begins its slow descent in the Atlantic, the women and children are put on the lifeboats while the men stay behind to face death (except for cowardly cardsharp Allyn Joslyn, who disguises himself as a woman). The formerly class-conscious Webb acts with conspicuous bravery, seeing to it that several steerage passengers are ushered to safety. He is reunited with his son, who has given up his lifeboat seat to an elderly woman. All misunderstandings swept aside, Webb and his son face their final moments on earth together. In the film's best moment, a miniature recreation of the Titanic is seen sinking beneath the waves as the survivors watch from their lifeboats in numb horror. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this courtroom drama, two opposing lawyers lead a double life. In the courtroom they are ruthless toward each other, but once the day is over they become passionate lovers. Unfortunately their newest case may well threaten their relationship as the defense attorney is defending a corrupt district attorney who happens to be her ex-husband. The prosecutor knows nothing of their past relationship; all he knows is he wants to nail the crook and his cronies to the wall. Unfortunately, the truth comes out in court and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen narrator. The true star of the film is a stately old manor house in London, built in 1804 by a British admiral (C. Aubrey Smith) and blitzed in 1940 by one Adolf Hitler. Through the portals of this house pass a vast array of Britons, from high-born to low. The earliest scenes involve gay blade Lt. William Trimble (Ray Milland), wronged country-girl Susan (Anna Neagle), and wicked landowner Ambrose Pomfret (Claude Rains). We move on to a comic interlude involving dotty Mr. Simpson (Reginald Owen), eternally drunken butler Bellamy (Charles Laughton), and cockney plumbers Mr. Dabb (Cedric Hardwicke) and Wilkins (Buster Keaton). Maidservant Jenny (Ida Lupino) takes over the plot during the Boer War era, while the World War I sequence finds the house converted into a way-station for soldiers (including Robert Cummings) and anxious families (including Roland Young and Gladys Cooper). Finally we arrive in 1940, with American Gates Pomfret (Kent Smith) and lady-of-the-house Lesley Trimble (Ruth Warrick) surveying the bombed-out manor, and exulting over the fact that the portrait of the home's founder, Adm. Eustace Trimble (Smith), has remained intact -- symbolic proof of England's durability in its darkest hours. The huge cast includes Dame May Whitty, Edward Everett Horton, Wendy Barrie, Merle Oberon, Nigel Bruce, Richard Haydn, Donald Crisp, and a host of others -- some appearing in sizeable roles, others (like Arthur Treacher and Patric Knowles) willingly accepting one-scene bits, simply to participate in the undertaking. Seven directors and 21 writers were also swept up in the project. Forever and a Day was supposed to have been withdrawn from circulation after the war and its prints destroyed so that no one could profit from what was supposed to have been an act of industry charity. Happily for future generations, prints have survived and are now safely preserved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Dorothy Arzner in the director's chair, it's no wonder that First Comes Courage has a more feminist slant than most WWII "underground" films. Merle Oberon plays Nicole Larsen, a member of the Norwegian resistance. To obtain important war information, Nicole romances Nazi major Paul Dichter Carl Esmond, enduring the slings and arrows of those villagers unaware of her motives. Her mission is further complicated when she is reunited with British commando Allan Lowell Brian Aherne, with whom she'd had a prewar affair. Forced to choose between love and duty, Nicole makes the only decision possible under the circumstances. First Comes Courage was based on The Commados, a novel by Elliot Arnold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brian Aherne stars as a successful murder-mystery novelist; his wife, Loretta Young, wishes Aherne would switch to writing love stories (Young doesn't have a very realistic grasp on the literary marketplace, but we'll let that pass). Young sweet-talks Aherne into vacating their apartment and moving into a Greenwich village basement, thereby hoping that he'll be inspired to pen words of romance. Unfortunately for Young (but not the audience), their new flat is a hotbed of murderous intrigue, sparked by the discovery of a corpse. The police are completely baffled, so Aherne sets about to solve the mystery himself-while Young, in spite of herself, starts behaving like The Thin Man's Nora Charles. Columbia Pictures had an absolute genius in the early 1940s for churning out fast-moving, star-studded programmers that delivered all the popular elements and left the public panting for more; A Night to Remember was no exception to this winning formula. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland, stars of the 1940 hit Arise, My Love, were immediately reteamed for Skylark. Adapted from the play by Samson Rafaelson, the film stars Colbert as the wife of a neglectful businessman Milland (her role had been played on Broadway by Gertrude Lawrence). Brian Aherne is a handsome bachelor who hopes to win Colbert away from her husband. At first enjoying her vacation from marriage, Colbert finds she can't keep up with Aherne's peripatetic lifestyle, and returns to Milland. Skylark's comic highlight is a slapstick sequence in which Colbert tries to prepare lunch in a yacht during a storm. The scene was shot in a single take, an accomplishment in which the actress took justifiable pride. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the novel by Howard Spring, My Son My Son stars Brian Aherne as a self-made success determined to give his son the lavish upbringing he himself was denied. Not surprisingly, the son (Louis Hayward) grows up spoiled rotten, causing grief and pain to everyone who loves him. The limit comes when the boy tries to steal his father's lady friend (Madeline Carroll). When World War I breaks out, the son displays the noble streak that he has hidden so long by dying a hero's death. Its uplifting ending at odds with the darker denouement of the original novel, My Son My Son is high-class soap opera made workable by the multilevelled performances of Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide