Cecil Parker Movies

Perhaps in an earlier era or in some remote village, this comedy would work, but this story about two mixed-up identities during World War II is comedically outdated. Brian Rix has the dual role of an Air Force officer who is going on an important military mission to France. The brass decide to hoodwink the Germans by finding the officer's double (an idiot latrine-cleaner at an Air Force base) and putting him on a plane to Cairo. As events unfold, the two men get mixed up, and each heads off to the other's destination, giving rise to several absurd tangles. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this British comedy, two look-a-likes, an airman and a secret agent, find double trouble when they are assigned a top-secret task by their government. The airman is to impersonate the agent to confuse the Nazis while the real agent sneaks into France to investigate the new buzz bombs. Unfortunately, their orders get switched and the airman ends up in France. When he is accidentally shot back to Europe inside one of the defused bombs, the airman becomes a national hero. Meanwhile the real agent tries and tries to prove his true identity. No one listens. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This soft-pedalled British comedy was adapted from Quiet Wedding, a play by Esther McCracken that had previous been filmed in 1940. On the eve of their nuptials, David (Ian Carmichael) and Janet (Janette Scott) have a serious falling out. It isn't really the couple's fault, however; as usual, their relatives have messed things up with their well-intentioned meddling. Patching up their differences, David and Janet decide that the best strategy is to hide out until the wedding, and to that end they embark upon a long motor trip. Unfortunately, a zealous traffic cop nearly prevents the couple's appearance at the altar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke, the writer of such fifties British comedies as The Lavender Hill Mob and Passport to Pimlico, dips his pen into a more stately inkwell in this stilted adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel A Tale of Two Cities. Dirk Bogarde takes the lead role of worn-down, drunken lawyer Sydney Carton, who finally wakes up from his stupor during the French Revolution to make the ultimate sacrifice for Lucie Manette (Dorothy Tutin), the love of his life. Also on hand are the evil tyrant Marquis St. Evermonde (Christopher Lee), the treacherous informer Barsad (Donald Pleasence), and the fanatical Madame Defarge (Rosalie Crutchley), who denounces Lucie and her husband Charles Darnay (Athene Seyler) to the tribunal. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Paradise Lagoon is the American release title of the British The Admirable Crichton. In this Technicolor adaptation of James M. Barrie's oft-filmed stage play, Kenneth More stars as Crichton, the super-efficient butler for a family of haughty British aristocrats. Though More is true master of the household, he keeps his place, honoring the tightly regulated social structure of turn-of-the-century England. When the family, and its servants, are shipwrecked and marooned on a desert island, only Crichton has the skill and resourcefulness to keep everyone alive. Within a few months, the social order has been reversed: Crichton is the "governor", while his former employers are his willing and eager servants. Lady Mary (Sally Ann Howes), assuming that she will never be able to return to her veddy proper fiance, falls in love with Crichton. But once the castaways are rescued and returned to their London estate, the original master-servant status quo is restored. His marriage to Lady Mary now an impossibility-a fact stressed in no uncertain terms by the young lady herself-Crichton calmly packs his bags and leaves, in the company of maidservant Tweeny (Diane Cilento), who has loved him all along. Barries' satirical jabs at class consciousness (notably in the closing "interrogation scene", conducted by the imperious Lady Brocklehurst Martita Hunt) were not altogether relevant in 1957; thus, Paradise Lagoon concentrates on the property's farcical and romantic elements. Taking advantage of its tropical setting, the film also permitted the tired businessmen in the audience to gaze upon the luscious Sally Ann Howes and Diane Cilento in halter tops and short-shorts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Van Johnson portrays a blind American writer living in London. Blessed with an acute hearing sense, Johnson overhears a kidnapping plot but neither his friends nor the authorities believe him, chalking up his story as the product of a writer's imagination. Disgruntled, Johnson vows to scuttle the kidnapping himself -- with the assistant of his fiancée Vera Miles. Despite his handicap, Johnson puts the pieces together using sounds as evidence and guidance. Ultimately Johnson finds his life in danger when he corners the criminal in a dark alley. 23 Paces to Baker Street was one of several ''50s 20th Century-Fox films shot on location in London to take advantage of Fox's "frozen funds" -- money earned by the studio in England which by law could only be spent in that country. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's Great to Be Young stars John Mills as Dingle an easygoing high school teacher. When autocratic new headmaster Frome (Cecil Parker) begins imposing all sorts of repressive rules, Dingle does his best to stand up for his students, only to be dismissed for his troubles. The kids conspire to not only reinstate their favorite teacher, but to circumvent Frome's refusal to purchase new instruments for an upcoming music festival. Among the fresh new faces in the supporting cast is young Carole Shelley, who later played one of the "coo-coo Pigeon sisters" in The Odd Couple (1968). It's Great to be Young was one of a package of Associated Pathe productions to be given fitful distribution in the US by Allied Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Music professor Alec Guinness rents a London flat from sweet old lady Katie Johnson. He tells her that, from time to time, several other musicians will visit in order to rehearse. In truth, Guinness can't play a note, nor can his visitors: he's a criminal mastermind, holding court over a gang of thieves, including the likes of punkish Peter Sellers, homicidal Herbert Lom and punchdrunk Danny Green. The gang uses Guinness' flat as headquarters as they conceive a daring 60,000 pound robbery. After pulling off the job, the gang stuffs the loot in a railway station locker. To avoid detection, Guinness convinces the ever-trusting Johnson to pick up the money. Through a series of comic complications, Johnson returns home with a police escort, with neither the woman nor the bobbies suspecting that she's carrying a fortune in her suitcase. Mistakenly believing that Johnson has ratted on them, the gang reluctantly plans to eliminate her. The Ladykillers won an Oscar nomination for William Rose's screenplay, and a BFA award for veteran character actress Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arthur Watkyn's droll theatrical piece For Better, For Worse was expertly adapted for the big screen in 1954. Popular young star Dirk Bogarde and strangely forgotten newcomer Susan Stephen star as a young married couple who struggle to make things run smoothly in their first year together. The usual travails befall them, from unpaid bills to uninvited in-laws. Somehow they survive, a denouement tipped off to the audience by the film's airy mood and sparkling color photography. The American distributor of For Better, for Worse pounced upon one isolated incident in the narrative and came up with the new title Cocktails in the Kitchen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British drama a veteran laborer rises above the turmoil of unionization to become the governor of Artista, an industrial island that finds itself further embroiled in a terrible fight over low pay and terrible working conditions. A strike ensues, but the new governor remembers what it feels like to be an abused working stiff and so refuses to call out troops to break the strike. He tries to use his experiences on both sides of the fence to mediate between the angry laborers, but it's to no avail and the governor must make a difficult decision. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister, Magic Box contends that Friese-Greene was the true father of motion pictures, and not such upstarts as W. K. L. Dickson and Thomas Edison. Told in flashback, the film details Friese-Greene's tireless experiments with the "moving image," leading inexorably to a series of failures and disappoints, as others hog the credit for the protagonist's discoveries. The huge cast includes such British film luminaries as Joyce Grenfell, Miles Malleson, Michael Redgrave, Eric Portman, Emlyn Williams, Richard Attenborough, Peter Ustinov, Cecil Parker, Kay Walsh, and, best of all, Laurence Olivier as the confused bobby who witnesses Friese-Greene's first motion picture demonstration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alec Guinness has one of his finest comic roles in this Ealing satirical comedy about a much patronized amateur scientist whose latest invention creates an uproar in the British textile industry. In the British manufacturing country of Northern England, factory owner Michael Corland (Michael Gough) is showing competitor Alan Bimley (Cecil Parker) around his plant, hoping to borrow some money and marry off his daughter Daphne (Joan Greenwood). They come upon a curious contraption that turns out to be an experiment by employee Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness). Being a lower class worker, Sidney is summarily fired from his job. Sidney ends up working at Bimley's factory, where he is befriended by militant worker Bertha (Vida Hope). Daphne spots Sidney at the factory and he explains to her the results of his experiment -- a material that is indestructible and impervious to dirt. Bimley discovers this project and throws Sidney out. But Daphne, impressed by his experiments, funds Sidney, installing him in his own laboratory. After a few false starts, Sidney develops a pure white material that can't be dirtied or ruined. But it seems Sidney's invention is too brilliant and effective; if a material is marketed that will last forever, textile mills will go out of business and workers will lose their jobs. Suddenly, poor, luckless Sidney has both management and labor banding together to combat his new invention. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide