Patricia Raine Movies
- 1953
Based on The Hand and the Flower, a novel by Jerrard Tickell, A Day to Remember stars Stanley Holloway as Charley Porter, captain of London darts team. When the team travels to the French town of Boulogne for the annual darts tournament, a good time is had by all--and more besides. Jim Carver (Donald Sinden), one of the team's members, is reunited with a little French girl he'd befriended during the war, who has now developed into a beautiful young woman (Odelle Versois). And Fred Collins (James Hayter) makes a poignant journey to the hotel where he'd honeymooned with his late wife (Brenda DeBanzie). The film works best as a low-key comedy-drama; it is least successful when it ventures into O. Henry territory and strains for "surprise" story twists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stanley Holloway, Donald Sinden, (more)
- 1952
A group of provincial actors are fond of their boss, less fond of his jealous wife. To keep wifey out of their hair, and incidentally to teach her a lesson, the troupe assumes a variety of bizarre disguises. She is allowed to assume the worst; the actors then have ever so much fun proving her wrong. Hugh Wakefield, who portrays the impresario with the inconvenient spouse, co-wrote the screenplay of The Caretaker's Daughter, which was based on a play by Guy Paxton and Edward V. Hole. The film was originally released in Britain as Love's a Luxury. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1951
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Many cineastes consider Pandora and the Flying Dutchman as the masterpiece of filmmaker Albert Lewin, while others write the film off as a pretentious bore. Ava Gardner stars as Pandora Reynolds, a predatory creature who destroys the lives of all men who've been unfortunate enough to fall in love with her. Enter Hendrick van der Zee (James Mason), a mystical figure who proves to be Pandora's match. It turns out that van der Zee is the legendary 17th Flying Dutchman, whose spirit is doomed to wander the earth until he is able to find a woman willing to love him with all her heart -- and thereby sacrifice her own life. Further elaboration would spoil the film for potential Lewin enthusiasts. Suffice it to say that the director's many cinematic obsessions (cat figurines, Egyptology, obscure literary allusions) are exercised to their fullest potential. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Mason, Ava Gardner, (more)
- 1951
The producers of Quartet and Trio concluded their cycle with this omnibus film, which features three stories based, as in the previous film, on tales by W. Somerset Maugham. "The Ant and the Grasshopper" concerns Tom Ramsey (Nigel Patrick), a fiscally unstable young man who is constantly borrowing money from his brother George (Roland Culver). Eventually, George falls on hard times and is forced to sell the family estate, just as Tom marries a wealthy woman and is in a position to purchase it. In "Winter Cruise," Miss Reid (Kay Walsh) is an aging spinster taking a voyage aboard a cargo ship. She has little to do but engage the others on board in conversation, which the passengers find so annoying that they arrange a ship-board romance for her with Pierre (Jacques Francois), a porter, in the hopes that it will keep her quiet. And "Gigolo and Gigolette" features Glynis Johns as Stella Cotman, whose husband Syd (Terence Morgan) earns his living as a performer in a high-wire act. Stella is terribly worried that Syd's risky profession will lead to his death, so she takes their life's savings to a casino in hopes of winning enough that he can retire. However, her plan hardly goes as she hoped. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nigel Patrick, Roland Culver, (more)
David Lean's Madeleine was inspired by a true story that rocked the English legal system to its foundations in the mid-19th century. Told in flashback, the film explains why aristocratic young Scotswoman Madeleine Smith (Ann Todd, then the wife of director Lean) is on trial for murder. The audience is apprised of Madeleine's illicit romance with deceptively charming Frenchman Emile L'Angelier (Ivan Desny), her futile attempts to break off the relationship, her "proper" betrothal to Englishman William Minnoch (Norman Wooland), and the murder by poison of the now-inconvenient L'Angelier. The jury's verdict was as controversial in 1950 as it had been a century earlier. David Lean and scenarists Stanley Haynes and Nicholas Phipps refuse to take sides, permitting the viewers to draw their own conclusions about the notorious Madeleine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ann Todd, Norman Wooland, (more)
- 1949
A persistent case of hiccups causes all sorts of problems for a pretty young socialite in this comedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1949
Rising British star Sally Ann Howes was given a worthwhile screen vehicle with Fools Rush In. Howes plays Pamela Dickson, an impulsive young bride-to-be, while Guy Rolfe portrays her long-lost father Paul. Ostensibly a cad and bounder, Paul turns out to be just the opposite when he arrives for Pamela's wedding. The girl immediately drops her own wedding plans to arrange a reconciliation between her father and mother (Nora Swinburne). Screenwriter Geoffrey Kerr adapted the script from a play by Kenneth Horne. Fools Rush In is as light as a feather, but it pleases the crowd. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sally Ann Howes, Guy Rolfe, (more)
- 1948
The "Soho" invoked in the title is not the New York City artistic colony but a seedy section of London. What happened was a series of murders, committed by a modern Jack-the-Ripper type. Reporter Richard Murdoch turns detective in hopes of getting a swell story. Meanwhile, Murdoch's girlfriend Patricia Raine nearly becomes a strangling victim herself (gee, really?) It Happened in Solo transpires in a busy 55 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1947
Written and directed by Peter Ustinov, Vice Versa is a one-joke fantasy comedy which manages to hold up almost to the very end. Anthony Newley plays the funloving son of stuffy stockbroker Roger Livesy. Father and son come into possession of a magic stone, and place a wish upon it. The result: Newley inherits Livesy's brain and personality, and vice versa. The best moments involve the suddenly matured Newley's besting of feet-of-clay schoolmaster James Robertson Justice. Not successful enough to spawn a cycle in 1947, Vice Versa is nonetheless an intriguing precursor of the brief spate of identity-switch comedies of the late 1980s--one of which was also titled Vice Versa. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
