Stevan Rimkus Movies

Based on the 1965 novel by Alan Garner, the British children's series Elidor was set smack in the middle of a blighted urban neighborhood in Manchester. While exploring the ruins of a church, four local kids -- Helen, Roland, David, and Nicholas -- stumbled through a magic portal and entered the mythical land of Elidor, a world that had been nearly destroyed by that sinister abstract known as "Fear." In trying to save Elidor's exiled king Malebron, the children put their own "real" world in the direst peril. As for the adults in the neighborhood, none were allowed to enter Elidor because they lacked the open and trusting minds of their children. Though not produced by the BBC, the six-part Elidor was run on that British network as part of a government-driven agreement to air a certain amount of independently produced programming during the 1994-1995 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This award-winning TV production tells the true story of a heroic woman's underground operation to spirit Allied soldiers out of Nazi-occupied France. Her name is Mary Lindell, a British-born Red Cross nurse living in France with her two teenage children, Maurice and Barbé, by Lindell's marriage to Count de Melville. The story begins in Paris in 1940 when a downed British flier, Maj. James Legatt (Sam Neill), stumbles to a table at a sidewalk cafe. Dressed in a shin-to-shoulder overcoat and dizzy with fatigue, he plops into a chair. At a table nearby, Lindell (Judy Davis) notices his boots -- British issue and a dead giveaway. When German soldiers approach the flier, Lindell walks to his table and slaps him smartly, pretending he is her drunken husband. The ruse works. Lindell then takes Legatt to her home in a taxi and nurses him to health. During their time together, they fall in love -- chastely, without overtly disclosing their affection for each other. Using her feminine wiles and forceful personality to bamboozle SS hounds, she effects his escape back to England, then dedicates herself to rescuing other allies. All goes well until a flier botches his escape. An investigation and trial send Lindell to prison for nine months, which she barely survives. After her release, her son and daughter hide her and restore her to health, and Lindell goes back to work smuggling Allies across the border -- this time with the aid of a priest (Denholm Elliot) and Maj. Legatt, who tracks her activities from his headquarters in England. She eventually ends up in the Ravensbrück concentration camp north of Berlin, and in the conclusion of the production, viewers learn the ultimate fate of Lindell and Legatt. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

In the second episode of the four-part story "The Curse of Fenric," the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) have arrived at a Northumberland secret naval base in the waning days of WWII. The ongoing efforts of a group of Russian commandos to steal a British code-breaking device has inadvertently triggered an ancient Viking curse -- and the results could prove fatal for everyone at the base, including the two time-travelers. Written by Ian Briggs, "The Curse of Fenric, Episode 2" originally aired on November 1, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) materialize at a secret British naval base off the Yorkshire coast during the final months of WWII. Almost immediately, the two time-travelers are plunged into intrigue involving a revolutionary code-breaking device. As if this were not enough, the base has apparently been targeted for destruction at the hands of a Viking ghost. British TV quiz show host Nicholas Parsons is here cast as the local vicar. Written by Ian Briggs, episode one of the four-part Doctor Who adventure "The Curse of Fenric" originally aired on October 25, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This unadorned biography of playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) charts his bawdy, dangerous relationships. Alfred Molina plays Orton's brutish lover, Kenneth Halliwell, a pathetic figure who becomes horrific and then tragic before the film is over. The hilarity of scenes from such Orton plays as Loot and What the Butler Saw is evenly balanced by the bleakness of the playwright's tormented (and tormenting) off-stage existence, which ended suddenly at age 34 with half a dozen blows to the head from a hammer. Prick Up Your Ears is based on the book by theater critic John Lahr, who is played in the film by Wallace Shawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the opening scenes of this politically-oriented drama, a killer enters the home of a policeman and in a shocking sequence murders him in cold blood -- an act that becomes the key to the rest of this film about the conflict between politics and life. Young Catholic, Cal (John Lynch) works in a slaughterhouse during the day and has participated in terrorist activities, but he wants out after he has been forced to drive a getaway car in the murder of the policeman. Meanwhile, he is slowly enchanted by Marcella, an older woman (Helen Mirren) who has just started working at the local library. Smitten but shy, Cal manages to ease himself into a job on her land, and when his father's home is burned to the ground by Protestants, Cal moves into a cottage on the woman's estate. Eventually, the two start a quiet liaison -- but Cal's inner turmoil disturbs the happiness he feels when he is with Marcella. Can he continue to hide his terrorist past from Marcella, who knows nothing about what he has done? While this question and others raised by the film are reasonable, director Pat O'Connor's treatment of the story may be too muted, and John Lynch's Cal too innocuous and frail (especially in contrast to Helen Mirren's Marcella) to win over all viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide