Cyril Raymond Movies

Don't Talk to Strange Men. That's the advice given to impressionable country lass Christina Gregg. But Christina yearns for excitement, so she pays no attention. Only a series of unforseen circumstances prevent Christina from keeping her date with handsome Conrad Phillips. Turns out that Phillips is a sex fiend, so everything turns out OK. Except, of course, for Phillips' previous victims. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most significant moments in the history of British warfare (in both the best and worst sense) is given reverent but reserved treatment in Dunkirk. The film takes place during the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops across the English channel. One party of British soldiers becomes detached from the rest of the retreating Allies. John Mills plays an inexperienced lance corporal who resists an increase in rank, but when the chips are down performs with courage and authority in organizing the lost troop and shepherding them to Dunkirk. Running 135 minutes in its original release (much of the footage comprised of newsreel shots), Dunkirk was based on two novels: Eleston Trever's The Big Pick-Up and Lt. Col. Ewan Hunter and Maj. J. S. Bradford's Dunkirk. The above time pertains to the original British theatrical version; the film was reedited and shortened to 113 minutes for U.S. release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

British sailors John Mills and Richard Attenborough would like to take Neopolitan lass Lisa Gastoni out on a date. But Gastoni can't leave the house unless her baby brother tags along. During a rowdy evening on the town, Mills is forced to sneak the infant on board his ship. When Gastoni and Attenborough arrive to claim the kid, they find that the ship has already sailed. Essentially a British Abbott & Costello picture, Baby and the Battleship manages to deliver a sufficient supply of hearty chuckles. The film was based on a somewhat subtler novel by Anthony Thorne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alexander Knox is the One Just Man in this British crime melodrama. Knox plays a judge who takes the law in his own hands when obviously guilty miscreants get off scot-free. When Knox's tale is told, we are introduced to Peter Reynolds as a duplicitous playboy who attempts to defraud an insurance company. One Just Man looks suspiciously like two half-hour TV pilot films strung together. This 55-minute package was prepared by the brothers Danzinger, purveyors of many a pulse-pounding British programmer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lease of Life was the next-to-last film in the relatively short cinema career of actor Robert Donat. Written for the screen by Eric Ambler, the story is set in a small rural community, where William Thorn (Donat) serves as parson. Upon learning that he has only a year to live, Thorn begins to see his parishioners, and his purpose on earth, in a whole new light. The plot is thickened when a dying villager puts his money into the parson's care; in dire need of cash to pay for his daughter's school tuition, Thorn is sorely tempted to dip into the funds himself. Exceptionally well cast, Lease of Life features Kay Walsh as Thorn's wife, Adrienne Corri as their daughter and Vida Hope as the wealthy villager's grasping missus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heart of the Matter is a faithful if somewhat austere adaptation of the same-named novel by Graham Greene. Set in Sierra Leone during WW II, the film stars Trevor Howard as assistant police commissioner Scobie. While his wife Louise (Elizabeth Allan) is away on vacation, Scobie falls in love with Helen (Maria Schell), the widow of a U-boat victim. Scobie would like to get a divorce from his wife, and she from him, but their Catholicism prevents not only this break but Scobie's planned remarriage to Helen. In despair, Scobie chooses a desperate means of solving his dilemma--which only furthers to exacerbate the religious quandary in which everyone finds themselves. Posing several ethical questions throughout its 105 minutes, Heart of the Matter wisely allows the viewers to come up with their own answers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Angels One Five" is the cognomen bestowed upon a group of WW II British fighter pilots. The squadron leader is Tiger Small (Jack Hawkins), who is taken out of commission after an accident. Despite the protests from his fellow flyboys, Tiger insists upon taking to the air again, thereby setting the stage for the film's exciting and inspirational finale. Angels One Five differs from other combat films in that the battles generally take place offscreen; the progress of the principal characters is relayed to the audience via radio reports and control-room charts. If this sounds dull and static, it isn't: in fact, Angels One Five is among the best of the "Battle of Britain" war epics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama a power-mad psycho woman vents her frustration by being cruel and abusive to her family. Because she disapproves of her daughter's marriage to a doctor, the wicked mother destroys the marriage. She tires of her husband and poisons him so she can get a new one. The only one she leaves alone is her darling son, a renowned medical researcher. When he wises up to her evil ways, he calls the cops. In the end the woman is convicted and sent to an asylum for the criminally insane. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on Noël Coward's play "Still Life," Brief Encounter is a romantic, bittersweet drama about two married people who meet by chance in a London railway station and carry on an intense love affair. Sentimental yet down-to-earth and set in pre-World War II England, the film follows British housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), who is on her way home, but catches a cinder in her eye. By chance, she meets Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), who removes it for her. The two talk for a few minutes and strike immediate sparks, but they end up catching different trains. However, both return to the station once a week to meet and, as the film progresses, they grow closer, sharing stories, hopes, and fears about their lives, marriages, and children. One day, when Alec's train is late, both become frantic that they will miss each other. When they finally find each other, they realize that they are in love. But what should be a joyous realization is fraught with tragedy, since both care greatly for their families. Howard and Johnson give flawless performances as two practical, married people who find themselves in a situation in which they know they can never be happy. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Director Walter Forde, a past master at blending mystery, melodrama and comedy (vide The Ghost Train and Bulldog Jack), is at his best with Saloon Bar. Most of the action takes place during one busy evening in an English pub, with a rich variety of believable comic characters weaving in and out of the scene. A murder is committed, and everyone falls under suspicion. Hero and heroine Gordon Harker and Elizabeth Allen solve the mystery with becoming modesty (compare this to the wisecracking protagonists in similar American films). Saloon Bar was based on a long-running stage play by Frank Harvey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Spy In Black is the story of a German World War I submarine captain (Conrad Veidt) who is given a mission to discover British intelligence secrets. Once he arrives in the Orkney Islands, he meets up with a female schoolteacher (Valerie Hobson), who happens to be a German agent. Veidt falls in love with Hobson before discovering she's actually a double agent for the British. In America, Spy in Black was originally released under the title U-Boat 29. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

In this satire of British-American relations, Edward G. Robinson stars as Dan Armstrong, a hard-sell American saleman whose company sends him to England to learn how to tone down his act. There he meets some distant relatives, the aristocrats Sir Peter and Lady Challoner (Arthur Wontner and Annie Esmond). They invite him to their mansion for the weekend, where among the house guests are the penniless aristocrats the Duke and Duchess of Glenavon (Nigel Bruce and Constance Collier) and their daughter Lady Patricia (Luli Deste), as well as a conniving stockbroker, Henry Graham Manningdale (Ralph Richardson). The Duke and Duchess own only an apparently worthless mine in Rhodesia that supposedly contains a metal called magnelite. Manningdale says that he will develop the mine in exchange for permission to marry Lady Patricia. Armstrong also has designs on Patricia, however, and he engineers a scheme to start a company and sell stock in the mine. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide