Frank Pettingell Movies

Peter Sellers starts out with one role and ends up with three in The Dock Brief (U.S. title Trial and Error), a satirical comedy based on the television play by John Mortimer. Sellers' principal role is as an incompetent barrister assigned to defend a wife murderer (Richard Attenborough). The barrister's monumental stupidity threatens to bollix the case before it begins, and indeed his client is found guilty. But ignorance is bliss in this instance; the guilty verdict is thrown out because the court feels that Sellers' defense was worthless! The multiple-role bit occurs in a dream sequence, wherein both Sellers and his costar Richard Attenborough assume numerous characterizations. This was the sort of stunting revered by Peter Sellers' many American fans, and detested by the actor's innumerable British detractors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This enjoyably twisted British thriller was shot back-to-back with the equally warped Haunted Strangler and is one of the first films of any genre to address the subject of drug addiction. It stars Boris Karloff as Dr. Thomas Bolton, a London surgeon who believes he has developed a safe and effective anesthetic serum which he hopes will revolutionize the world of medicine. Unfortunately, a demonstration of the drug before a panel of his peers ends in a horrific mishap -- with his patient awakening under the knife -- and he is forced to leave his position in disgrace. To complicate matters, Bolton has become addicted to his own concoctions and is forced to enter an illicit arrangement, forging death certificates for a pair of grave-robbers (including Christopher Lee) in exchange for a regular fix and the means to continue his experiments. As one would imagine, this shady partnership leads him further down the road to ruin, culminating in his unwitting participation in murder -- for which he becomes the victim of a blackmail scheme. Karloff's multi-layered performance is one of his finest, bringing a great deal of pathos to his tragic character. This film was also something of a turning point for Lee, who had already risen to international fame in many Hammer productions by the time this film was acquired by MGM for American distribution. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

John Gregson stars as Chayley Broadbent, a young Yorkshire businessman leading a dull, perfunctory life. He inherits a sizeable fortune, plus a prosperous textile factory, from his wealthy father. Soon after, he has a fight with his straight-laced girlfriend, Ethel (Susan Stephen) and leaves her, taking off for London. Once there, he plunges into the nightclub circuit, falling in love with showgirl Diana Dors. But she mistakes him for an impoverished chap and thus rejects his marriage proposal. When she finally figures out the truth, she makes a beeline for him, but by then he's onto her golddigging motives and instead opts to return to Ethel. Adapted from a novel by Derick Boothroyd, Value for Money shows no shame in trotting out all the cliches and obvious comic set-ups indigenous to this sort of film farce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Hayter plays the chairman of a British football club. Hayter's fondness for gambling results in his involvement with the criminal element. As a result, he becomes mixed up in a few underhanded business deals. The presence of the luscious Diana Dors is perhaps the primary reason that the distinctively British Great Game was finally released to the US in 1956, two years after its completion. The film was based on the seriocomic stage play Shooting Star by Basil Thomas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Promoter was based on the Arnold Bennett novel The Card, which served as its British release title. Impoverished young clerk Alec Guinness works his way up the financial ladder until he has become a successful and highly respected loan officer. Actually, Guinness is not as above-board as the world perceives him. Beginning with cheating on a high school exam, he has wheeled and dealed his way to the top, and ethics be damned. Balancing Guinness' cold-blooded business savvy is his comparative ineptitude with women, particularly the bewitching Glynis Johns. Only Alec Guinness could succeed at making his "Sammy Glick" character appealing from first scene to last. The Promoter was scripted by Eric Ambler, who managed to unearth moments of sly cynicism that original author Bennett had barely touched upon. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

In this drama, set after the war, a WW II flying ace and hero comes to the aid of a hooker who is being harassed by a policeman. He pushes the abusive cop away during the tussle; the cop falls, hits his head, and dies. The former flier is promptly tried and given a three-year prison sentence. He escapes one night during a heavy fog. He is taken in by a caring woman who tries convincing him to surrender. The fugitive at first refuses, but then after seeking sanctuary in a church relents because he does not want the parson to have to lie on his behalf. His surrender is made easier by the knowledge that the woman will wait for him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a young playboy and a petty thief both simultaneously attempt to impersonate an non-existent butler. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Future action-film expert Basil Dearden cut his directorial teeth on The Goose Steps Out, a wartime espionage comedy. The star (and co-director) is Will Hay, a major British comedian of the era whose stock in trade was playing pompous, inefficient schoolmasters. This time Hay and his confederates cross the path of a gang of Nazi spies, operating covertly in London. Using his wits (such as they are), Hay collars the Nazis and preserves the Empire. The popularity of Will Hay did not extend to American audiences, who couldn't see anything funny in such a pathetic character, but The Goose Steps Out was a big moneyspinner in Britain. The film also served as the screen debut of 20-year-old Peter Ustinov. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This wartime drama is set during WW II and centers on 6 survivors of a torpedo attack adrift in a lifeboat. One of them is a Nazi spy who is carrying classified information stolen from the Allies. The survivors are joined by a British counter-spy who reveals the Nazi's true identity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on the Evadne Price-Ken Attiwell stage play, Once a Crook stars Gordon Harker as ex-safecracker Charlie Hopkins. Convinced that Charlie was responsible for his arrest, his former partner The Duke (Bernard Lee) vows to get even our hero. The Duke accomplishes this by luring Charlie's son Bill (Cyril Cusack) into a life of crime. It turns out that Bill is an even more accomplished safecracker than his old man, leading to a series of curious complications which come to an end only through the auspices of The Duke's golden-hearted girlfriend Estelle (Carla Lehmann). Fans of the "James Bond" series might enjoy seeing a young Bernard Lee (later cast as Bond's no-nonsense boss "M") in a comically villainous role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This stirring wartime morale-booster stars John Clements in a virtual reprise of his "redeemed hero" role in The Four Feathers. Clements is cast as Lieutenant Stacey, a Fleet Arm Pilot whose recklessness causes the death of a fellow airman. Cashiered from the Service, Stacey becomes a mercenary charter pilot in the Mediterranean Island of Palmos. When the Nazis take over the island in the early stages of WWII, Stacey remains, but only because of his romance with cabaret singer Kay Gordon (Ann Todd). After his best friend (Edward Chapman) is murdered by the Nazis, Stacey's long-suppressed patriotism resurfaces, prompting him to embark upon a suicide mission to destroy a German dam site. Reportedly in production for 18 months, Ships With Wings was largely filmed on the decks of such authentic British aircraft carriers as the Ark Royal. At 140 minutes, the film is too long by half, but it never fails to come to life during the heart-stopping aerial sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide