Susan Penhaligon Movies
British lead actress, onscreen from the early '70s. ~ All Movie Guide- 1987
- R
In this actioner, an auto engineer and an auto racer become romantic rivals when they fall for the same wealthy socialite. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Twenty-seven years after Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Peter Cushing makes a belated return to the role of Sherlock Holmes in the made-for-television Masks of Death. Befitting his age, Cushing plays Holmes in retirement, content to play his violin and look after his bees. He is dragged back into action by a series of baffling East End murders. Each one of the victims has been discovered with an expression of stark, raw fear frozen on his or her face. With faithful Dr. Watson (John Mills) at his right hand, Holmes puts the pieces together. Ray Milland and Anne Baxter co-star in this stylish bouquet to the Baker Street Irregulars of the world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Cushing, John Mills, (more)
The Harlequin Romance Publishing company produced this weeper about an English lass (Susan Penhaligon) who falls for a reclusive former race car driver (Keir Dullea). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1978
In an attempt to sell his manuscript, a writer tries to persuade a prospective publisher that cats are ultimately evil by providing him with three different stories of kitty brutality in this anthology of horror. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
In Australian director Richard Franklin's Patrick, the subject of psychokinesis is used, not for the creation of De Palma-like bloodbath special effects as in Carrie and The Fury, but as an expression of a deeply disturbed persona. Patrick is first seen in the intensive care section of a hospital in a state of extreme catatonia -- after murdering his mother and her lover. Dr. Roget (Robert Helpmann) is the doctor in charge of the clinic who first tends to Patrick, but when new nurse Kathy Jacquard (Susan Penhaligon) arrives, she is assigned Patrick's case. As she cares for the comatose man, Patrick falls in love with her, telekinetically writing love notes to her on her typewriter. Kathy begins to suspect something is amiss when the doctors and nurses at the hospital who want to speed along the comatose man to his death start to die in mysterious ways. As Patrick's condition continues to deteriorate and he realizes that he is on the verge of death, he then wants Kathy to kill herself to join him when he dies. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Penhaligon, Robert Helpmann, (more)
With this fact-based World War II drama and the equally memorable The Fourth Man (1983), Dutch director Paul Verhoeven gained an international following, eventually translating his reputation into Hollywood fame as the director of bloody science fiction spectacles and prurient sex thrillers. Rutger Hauer stars as Erik Lanshof, an aristocratic Dutch student, one of six carefree friends who don't care much for politics. When the Nazis invade Holland, however, the group is drawn inevitably into the conflict. While Alex (Derek de Lint) joins the German army, the suave Gus (Jeroen Krabbe) becomes a resistance leader, eventually escaping with Erik to England, where they become pawns in a much larger underground movement to restore their country's Queen Wilhelmina (Andrea Domburg) to her rightful throne. Based on an autobiographical novel by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, Soldaat van Oranje (1978) also features early work by another Dutch master who went on to success as a director of big budget Hollywood films, cinematographer Jan De Bont. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé, (more)
Count Dracula is a three-part British television adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. Louis Jourdan plays the count not as villain or pathetic victim of circumstance, but a charismatic charmer, who doesn't need to suck the blood of his lady victims to make them faint. Part One takes place in Transylvania, with British attorney Jonathan Harker (Bosco Hogan) arriving at Dracula's castle to close a real estate deal--and to nearly lose his life and soul to his sinister host. Part Two finds Dracula at large in England, beckoning the unfortunate Lucy (Susan Penhaligon) into the world of the Undead. The story grows more intense in Part Three, with vampire hunter Professor Van Helsing (Frank Finlay) rallying the forces of Good against the elusive Dracula. Count Dracula was first telecast in the US on PBS' Great Performances series in March of 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
An all-star female cast (Glenda Jackson, Melina Mecouri, Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis, Anne Jackson, Anne Meara, and Dame Edith Evans) enliven this satirical treatment of the Nixon Watergate scandal, Nasty Habits -- based on Muriel Sparks's novella The Abbess of Crewe. When a dying abbess (Dame Edith Evans) of a Pennsylvania convent is ready to name Sister Alexandra (Glenda Jackson) as her successor, Sister Alexandra and her two flunkies (Sandy Dennis and Anne Jackson) try to get the abbess to sign a document of intent. But their plans are dashed when liberal Sister Felicity (Susan Penhaligon) arrives and wants to change the institution. Her arrival delays the signing of the document of intent, and before the abbess can sign the paper she dies.Now the job of running the convent is up for grabs, with Sister Alexandra employing Nixon-like techniques of surveillance and dirty tricks to get the goods on Sister Felicity. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, (more)
- 1976
- R
An upper class family attempts to keep secrets of incest and betrayal in this melodrama. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
British sleaze artist Pete Walker applies his characteristic sleazy, ultra-violent touch to this audacious, Catholic-bashing tale. A deranged, sex-mad priest (Anthony Sharpe) exploits the sanctity of his office as a means of harassing young women who confide their sins in his confessional, recording their confessions in order to blackmail them into doing his vile bidding. Eventually, evidence of these transgressions reaches other members of his parish (including his mother), prompting him to bump them off in creative ways, utilizing the trappings of his profession -- strangulation by rosary, arsenic-laced communion wafers, bludgeoning by incense burner, etc. Much criticism has been leveled against this film for its unabashed attacks on Catholicism, but it's really Walker's trademark amoral approach to filmmaking that elicits a strong urge to take a hot bath after viewing. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1975
This bedroom farce seems better suited to a suburban dinner theatre than the Big Screen, but everyone involved strives to please, and often as not they succeed. The plot hinges upon a misdelivered parcel of pornographic postcards, which end up in the hands of a staid banker and his frigid wife. By the middle of the film (read: Act Two), everyone is being mistaken for someone else. By the end (Act Three), the leading characters have dropped their trousers or lost their dresses. No Sex Please, We're British began life as a stage play by Anthony Marriot and Alistair Foot, which ran for years in London--mostly as a tourist attraction for easily entertained Americans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronnie Corbett, Beryl Reid, (more)
- 1975
- PG
In this low budget fantasy adventure from Britain, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1918 science fiction novel, a German submarine holding American prisoners of war during World War I, veers off course. Lost at sea, the submarine empties its fuel supply and runs aground on an uncharted island in the Antarctic. The survivors find that the island contains an ancient oil refinery that can be used to fuel the submarine. The only problem is that the group of Germans and Americans have to battle gigantic dinosaurs and primitive cavemen as they make their way through the island. The Land That Time Forgot was enough of a success to spawn a 1976 sequel called The People That Time Forgot. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doug McClure, John McEnery, (more)
- 1974
This adventure based on a true story features the courage of teenager Penhaligon who hikes through the Amazon jungle after a plane crash leaves her the sole survivor. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Penhaligon, Paul Muller, (more)
This film is a faithful rendition of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' last major poem, Under Milk Wood. It affectionately examines the day-to-day life of the inhabitants of a small Welsh fishing village. The poem is narrated by Richard Burton, himself a Welshman and a great aficionado of Thomas' work. The narrative framework comes through the character of Captain Cat (Peter O'Toole), a retired seaman who, though blind, knows the village and its inhabitants so well, it is as if he could see. The colorful characters of the village are delineated in short vignettes by a host of very distinguished British actors. Elizabeth Taylor, Burton's wife at the time, makes a brief appearance as Rosie Probert. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)
- 1971
Hippie rhetoric abounds in this drama from the early '70s that tells the story of a young author and his sexually liberated girl friend. The trouble begins when she is impregnated and has her father perform the abortion. She then attempts to persuade her boy friend to return to her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- PG
Jean Simmons is a housewife on a brief shopping trip to London. A young, unemployed lout (Leonard Whiting) who, seeing her on the inbound train, sets his sights on her, and tries to get a response from her as he chases her all over town. At one point desperate, he steals her purse so that he will be the one chased. Eventually, he breaks down her reserve and they are able to meet properly, converse, and get to know one another. A romantic energy has developed in their relationship as the unlikely twosome joins together briefly. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
