Bruce Belfrage Movies
- 1952
This romantic mystery involves a young lawyer whose old flame is accused of murdering his mistress. She takes his case and beats her adversary, a lawyer who wants to marry her, by disclosing her former relationship with him. Her reputation is ruined when it is found that the man really is guilty, but this enables her to marry the amorous lawyer. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- 1951
Rona Anderson plays a wealthy young Englishwoman, long estranged from her father. She returns home when papa dies, reluctantly agreeing to listen to the will reading. It soon becomes clear that some unknown party is out to bump off Anderson as well--though she is the only person who stands to benefit from her father's demise. Director Terence Fisher, later a foremost purveyor of horror at Hanner Films, deftly handles shocks of a more mundane sort herein. Home to Danger is just long enough at 66 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1951
Basil Radford is cast superbly to type as The Galloping Major. The story concerns the efforts by retired Major Arthur Hill (Radford) to purchase a valuable race horse. He manages to attain financial backing from 300 fellow racing enthusiasts--and then messes things up for all concerned by buying the wrong horse. Persevering, Major Hill enters the steed in the Grand National, whereupon the horse disappears on the eve of the big event. The comic frustrations faced by the Major and his creditors are played effectively for light chuckles rather than belly laughs. The cast includes such polished farceurs as Hugh Griffith, Joyce Grenfell (a favorite of director Henry Cornelius, as witness Genevieve), Sydney Tafler and Alfie Bass. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Basil Radford, Jimmy Hanley, (more)
- 1950
Miss Laramie Pilgrim (Yolande Donlan) is an American factory girl. Anxious to see what life is like outside her own backyard, Miss Pilgrim trades places with a British lass. After reels and reels of culture-clash comedy, the heroine comes to the rescue of her new friends and neighbors, who are being exploited by a local land developer. On the verge of his American stardom, Michael Rennie plays Miss Pilgrim's English love interest. Miss Pilgrim's Progress was another of those minor British films that were played to death on American TV in the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yolande Donlan, Michael Rennie, (more)
- 1949
A man recently gone AWOL from the Army (Derek Farr) is arrested in a store robbery that occurred while he was shopping. With help from a beautiful lawyer (Joan Hopkins), he must prove his innocence. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Derek Farr, Joan Hopkins, (more)
- 1949
This British crime drama offers a freely adapted account of the notorious, daring burglar who became a killer and later paid for his crimes with his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Based on a novel by Mary Mitchell, Warning to Wantons is the story of 17-year-old Renee (Anne Vernon). After wriggling out of a convent school, Renee manages to crash high society. She twists several wealthy men around her little finger before making a surprising marital decision. David Tomlinson, stuffy second lead of many a Disney film, is fun to watch as a high-society twit. The film's 144-minute running time had to be boiled down considerably before the film was distributed to America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harold Warrender, Anne Vernon, (more)
- 1949
- NR
Gregory Ratoff is listed as sole director of the 1949 Orson Welles starrer Black Magic, but it is now common knowledge that Welles directed most of this lavish costumer himself. Told in flashback, the film recounts the life and times of notorious 18th-century hypnotist/magician/scam artist Cagliostro (played, but of course, by Welles). Learning the secrets of hypnosis from Dr. Mesmer (Charles Goldner), Cagliostro exploits this skill to gain wealth, prestige and, on occasion, romance. His downward slide begins when Cagliostro enters into an Anastasia-like scheme to substitute a young lass named Lorenza (Nancy Guild) for French queen Marie Antoinette. The charlatan's partners in crime are gypsies Gilbert (Akim Tamiroff, who manages to out-ham Welles in some scenes) and Zoraida (Valentina Cortese). Longer on style than substance, Black Magic is a wickedly delightful cinematic exercise, with Welles at his overbaked best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Nancy Guild, (more)
- 1948
Based on a novel by Chris Massie, Corridor of Mirrors is a British attempt to match the poetry and lyricism of the French cinema of the late 1940s. Eric Portman plays a contemporary artist who tends to live in the past. He surrounds himself with Renaissance artwork, obsessed with the notion that he and his lady friend (Edana Romney) are reincarnations of the lovers in a centuries-old painting. Portman's delusions eventually lead to murder. Critical reaction to Corridor of Mirrors was split right down the middle: American critics found the film profound, while British commentators dismissed it as empty and ponderous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Portman, Edana Romney, (more)
- 1947
Alastair Sim is a delight to behold as always in the British Hue and Cry, but the film's true star is approximately 40 years younger and two feet shorter than the estimable Sim. Harry Fowler plays Joe Kirby, an intelligent cockney lad who is addicted to a weekly boys' magazine. He begins to notice a curious pattern emerging in the dialogue of a serialized blood-and-thunder detective story. And well he should: a gang of literate crooks are using that story to transmit information concerning robberies, smuggling, fencing, and the like. When the local constabulary refuse to take Joe's warnings seriously, he rallies his chums together to foil the crooks. Elements of Hue and Cry would later pop up in several American films, including the Bowery Boys' Angels in Disguise (1949) and the Jack Carson vehicle The Good Humor Man (1950). This is only fair, since T.E.B. Clarke's screenplay is inspired in part by the old German perennial Emil and the Detectives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Douglas Barr, (more)
- 1934
In this romantic comedy, a millionairess tires of being badgered by the paparazzi and trades places with her maid so she can rest. While disguised as a commoner, she meets and falls in love with an aspiring artist. In the end, she decides that love is more important than money and wedded bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This film from director Harold Young is the second big-screen adaptation of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. Leslie Howard stars as Sir Percy Blakeney, a British aristocrat who rescues innocent victims of the French Revolution under the guise of The Scarlet Pimpernel while maintaining the identity of a foppish dandy by day. Even his wife, Lady Marguerite Blakeney (Merle Oberon), is unaware of Percy's heroic alter-ego as he and his band of likeminded masked men save countless people from the guillotine. Perhaps the most famous adaptation of the classic book, The Scarlet Pimpernel would later be lampooned in 1966's Don't Lose Your Head. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, (more)
- 1932
A very early effort from director Michael Powell, C.O.D is a gimmick-laden British murder mystery. Hope Davy finds herself with the corpse of her stepfather on her hands. She insists she's innocent, but all existing evidence points right in her direction. She takes erudite crook Gary Marsh into her confidence, begging him to help her hide her stepfather's body until she can track down the real murderer. Screenwriter Ralph Smart was still plying his twist-and-turn trade thirty years later on The Avengers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
