Tony Quinn Movies

A group of longtime friends gathers on the football field to work out some of life's frustrations in this male-bonding comedy-drama, one of the first releases from the Urban Division of the prolific independent studio York Entertainment. Playin' for the Kitty revolves around six guys, ranging from the newlywed to the bachelor-and-proud-of-it, all of whom have trouble relating to the opposite sex from time to time. As the leaves begin to fall on the field, they learn some important life lessons about themselves and their significant others. Playin' for the Kitty was written and directed by co-star Tony Quinn and features Matt Oliver and Isiah Nelson. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

The last of Margaret Rutherford's "Miss Marple" films, Murder Ahoy is the only one of the series not based on an Agatha Christie original. The setting this time is a boat that has been purchased by a trusteeship to serve as a home for wayward kids. One of the trustees, Cecil Ffolly-Hardwicke (Henry Longhurst), dies while attending a meeting held aboard the boat. The police write the death off as "natural causes," but another trustee, our Miss Marple (Rutherford), suspects otherwise. Doing a little sleuthing on her own, she discovers that outwardly respectable Lionel Jeffries is using the boat as a "training school" for aspiring criminals, a la Fagin. This would seem to explain why Hardwicke was murdered, but Jeffries is much too obvious a suspect--as Miss Marple discovers nearly too late. Margaret Rutherford's husband Stringer Davis is back again as Miss Marple's platonic middle-aged friend Mr. Stringer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this espionage film, set just before the Germans invaded France, a chemist in Paris moonlights as a Soviet spy. To escape the Nazi invaders, the chemist and his wife steal government money and try to escape to South America. En route, their ship stops in Trinidad where they two cannot pass unless they fork over all of the money. Suddenly 24 years have passed and the man who obstructed them is still working as a British agent. He is investigating a formula that has leaked through to the enemy. This brings him in contact with the chemist again. This time, the agent helps the chemist escape the Soviet agents who pursue him. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A British officer is slated to parachute into Normandy. What he doesn't know is that he is being set up by British Intelligence to be captured by the enemy and reveal erroneous information to the Nazis. Officer Raine (Bradford Dillman) is the unknowing soldier who has intentionally been given false information. His superiors justify the expenditure of one man verses the thousands of lives that will be saved by his mission. The unlucky officer faces capture, brutal torture and debilitating guilt leading to alcoholism over his perceived "failure" to keep the information secret. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This film is based on the popular British TV series Emergency Ward 10. A surgeon arrives from the U.S. with a new heart-lung machine in order to save a young boy who has a hole in his heart. The doctor is treated coolly by a jealous rival, and an old man dies while on the new life-saving machine. Controversy erupts, among his more traditional colleagues, over the American doctor's experimental methods. Character diversity is well-represented by the patients; a woman waiting to bear quadruplets, the old man, the young boy, and the neglected wife. Romance, humor and drama surround the doctors, nurses and patients, all leading to an inevitable hospital party. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The original 1958 BBC television production of the last of Nigel Kneale's classic Quatermass scripts -- which is best known in association with the 1967 Hammer Films adaptation by Roy Ward Baker -- runs circles around the feature-film version. As with the other Quatermass serials, Kneale's original script goes a lot deeper into meanings, motivations, and consequences of the events depicted, as well as characterization and plot developments. That's understandable, as the producers had six episodes running over 30 minutes each in which to work, instead of the 98-minute running time of the movie. The result is a storyline in which the mystery is developed as much as the horror and science-fiction elements, and is worthy of Sherlock Holmes, one might add. An excavation for a London subway turns up mysterious skeletons, that are almost -- but not quite -- human. An investigation by Dr. Roney (Cec Linder), a paleontologist, reveals that these creatures had abnormally large brain cavities, much larger than was the norm for any known prehistoric proto-human species. There are other specimens as well, large insect-like creatures, and all were clustered around what seems to be a spacecraft buried at the same time as these skeletons, possibly as long as five million years. The unearthing of the space vehicle brings into the case England's greatest rocket expert, Professor Benard Quatermass (Andre Morell), who comes to believe from the evidence that the vehicle is from Mars, as were the insect-like beings. Even as Quatermass and Roney continue to investigate, they run up against resistance from government officials eager to avoid a panic, and from Quatermass' new superior, Colonel Breen (Anthony Bushell), a weapons expert who doesn't trust intellectuals or idealistic scientists, and wants to believe that the spaceship was part of a World War II Nazi hoax intended to raise hysteria among the public. Meanwhile, hysteria seems called for, as strange and potentially deadly manifestations of telekinetic power and other paranormal phenomenon start to overtake workers at the site of the excavation. Quatermass and Roney are convinced that some potentially catastrophic forces are being tampered with, but no one in the government will listen to them until it is too late, and all hell, literally, starts to break loose. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Kay Callard plays Joan Foster, the title role, in the British quickie Undercover Girl. She works in a nightclub that serves as the front for a dope ring. When a reporter is murdered, Joan agrees to help the reporter's brother (Paul Carter) bust up the criminal gang. Naturally, this means putting her own life on the line, but you knew that when you saw the title. If nothing else, Undercover Girl affords ample opportunities to show off attractively undressed chorus girls. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Looking rather spent, Tom Conway walks through the British programmer Operation Murder. Conway is a poverty-stricken doctor who happens to have a rich cousin. Conspiring with his partner Patrick Holt, Conway schemes to kill his cousin, passing off the death as a mishap on the operation table. The plan is almost foolproof, but.....Operation Murder was another of the multitude of inexpensive Danzinger Brothers productions, released throughout the English-speaking world by United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Story of Esther Costello is the cinematic equivalent of eating a whole box of potato chips; you may hate yourself, but you'll relish every bite in the meantime. Joan Crawford plays a well-meaning woman who throws herself whole-hog into every charitable cause that comes down the pike. She is married to Rossano Brazzi, who is as greedy as Crawford is generous. Crawford rescues blind deaf-mute Heather Sears from her squalid surroundings, leading to her creation of a charity campaign on behalf of handicapped children, with Sears as "poster child." Brazzi, in league with crooked promoter Ron Randell, seizes upon this as a means to line his own pocket--and one night, he decides to assert his manhood with the helpless Sears. The shock of this assault causes the girl to instantly regain her sight and hearing! Crawford reacts to her husband's outrage by driving her car into a tree, snuffing out Brazzi's life as well as her own. Sears--or Esther Costello, for she is indeed the title character--finds happiness with an honest young reporter (Lee Patterson). Set in America and released by an American company (Columbia), Story of Esther Costello was nonetheless filmed in its entirety in England. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, a custodian names the apartment boilers he maintains "Mavis and Ethel." The trouble begins when he loses his job and then finds himself sought after by a wealthy man who needs him so he can close an important deal. Meanwhile, temperamental Ethel begins to go haywire. Fortunately, the janitor is found at the last minute and his beloved boiler and the building around it are saved. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this crazy British comedy, a Cockney corporal dreams of getting promoted so that he can finally receive his inheritance. To facilitate the raise in status, he masquerades as a priest and goes out one night with the vicar's glamorous, blond wife. His action starts a trend and soon he runs into a number of men in priestly garb. The trouble is, he cannot discern the real ones from the fakes until the end when he finds a fugitive convict and gets him arrested. Soon after, the plucky corporal gets his promotion. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This second film version of Somerset Maugham's Vessel of Wrath lacks the casual charm of the first (which starred Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester), but is otherwise quite entertaining. Robert Newton stars as Honorable Ted, a slovenly, bibulous South Sea Island beachcomber. The black sheep of a prominent British family, Ted is paid an annual salary to stay as far away from England as possible. Prim-and-proper missionary Martha (Glynis Johns), the sister of heathen-hating Welsh minister Owen (Paul Rogers), takes it upon herself to reform the intractable Ted. The script then goes off on a tangent not found in the Maugham original. Due to illness, Owen is unable to travel to a native village in an attempt to halt a cholera outbreak. So he sends Martha, with a reluctant Ted along as interpreter, to the village in his stead in an attempt to cure the tribal headman's daughter. After they fail, they and an intern are sentenced to a horrible death by the angry villagers. Despite the radicial differences in their separate acting styles, Robert Newton and Glynis Johns make a copacetic screen team. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The blarney is as thick as the characters' brogues in You Can't Beat the Irish. Jack Warner stars as lazy but enterprising Irish paterfamilias Bartley Murnahan. To support his family, Bartley has hit upon a foolproof scam. By arranging a series of subtle subterfuges, he convinces his neighbors that he has fallen heir to a huge fortune. Before long, Bartley is the cock of the walk, never having to pay a cent for anything because all the local merchants assume he's going to reimburse them tenfold when the legacy is settled. The beautiful part of the scheme is that Bartley himself never has to tell a lie: he merely relies upon the gullibility and greed of those around him. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi