David Rintoul Movies
Thanks to actors like David Rintoul, the television miniseries has become a formidable art form. Unencumbered by the time limitations of the typical film, television movie, or stage play, the TV miniseries can take four, eight, or even 12 hours to develop themes, characters, and plots -- often based on classic literary works. Characters have time to grow, learn, make mistakes, and recite lines from Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or Victor Hugo. Consequently, miniseries attract good actors, good scripts, and, of course, big audiences. David Rintoul has made a career out of performing roles in miniseries, some of them among the best ever made. In 2001, he played the ship's surgeon, Dr. Clive, in the celebrated Horatio Hornblower series, appearing in Hornblower: Retribution and Hornblower: Mutiny. Rintoul began appearing in miniseries in 1975, when he played Jock Graham in Lord Peter Wimsey: Five Red Herrings. Three years later, he took on roles in two more miniseries, Prince Regent and the acclaimed Lillie, a biodrama about British actress and socialite Lillie Langtry. In 1979, Rintoul became Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, a miniseries that helped whet the appetite for the Jane Austen films and miniseries of the 1990s. In 1985, Rintoul went back in time to play Linus in the ten-hour miniseries A.D. (also know as A.D.: Anno Domini), which chronicled the lives of Christ's apostles as they spread the gospel in the Roman Empire of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero. Rintoul also performed in many continuing TV series, as well as plays performed throughout England. For example, he starred as Macbeth in a touring Old Vic production and as Prince Hal in Henry IV, Pt. I and Henry IV, Pt. II in Royal Shakespeare Company productions. Rintoul received his training at Edinburgh University and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then worked in repertory productions. After his acting had developed "bite," he portrayed a werewolf in a 1975 film, Legend of the Werewolf, working with Christopher Lee and Hugh Griffith. ~ Mike Cummings, Rovi
Two-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep steps into the role of English prime minister Margaret Thatcher in this biopic from director Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!), and screenwriter Abi Morgan (Tsunami: The Aftermath, Brick Lane). Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant, and Anthony Head co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, (more)
Based on the famously missing chapter in Colin Clark's memoir The Prince, the Showgirl and Me, My Week With Marilyn reveals the enchanted week that the then-lowly production assistant spent with the most famous celebrity of the era during the production of the classic 1957 comedy romance The Prince and the Showgirl. The year was 1956. Colin Clark was an ambitious 23-year-old determined to make a name for himself in film. As summer gets underway, Clark manages to land a position as a production assistant on the film The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) and Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). Monroe had just gotten married to playwright Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), and the newlyweds were on their honeymoon as production got underway. Later, when Miller leaves, young Clark seizes the opportunity to befriend the platinum blonde beauty, and give her a taste of everyday life in England -- far away from the bright lights of Hollywood and the suffocating pressures of fame. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, (more)
A ghostwriter stumbles onto a secret that places his life in danger as he takes down the life story of a former U.K. prime minister in this Roman Polanski-helmed adaptation of the Robert Harris novel. Convinced by his agent that he's been granted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, talented British screenwriter "The Ghost" (Ewan McGregor) agrees to aid British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) in completing his memoirs after the leader's former aide dies under mysterious circumstances. Almost immediately after The Ghost arrives at a remote mansion in the U.S. to begin working with the prime minister, Lang is accused of committing a war crime by a former British cabinet minister. Amidst a deluge of protestors and reporters, The Ghost delves into the unfinished manuscript and comes to the terrifying conclusion that his predecessor died because he discovered a link between Prime Minister Lang and the CIA. The more information The Ghost uncovers, the more convinced he becomes that his life could be in danger as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, (more)
Boy A director John Crowley followed up that award-winning film festival favorite with this eerie yet eloquent drama concerning a young boy fascinated by death due to the fact that he lives in the hospice home for the elderly that's owned by his parents. Perhaps due to the morose surroundings in which he was raised, wide-eyed Edward (Son of Rambow star Bill Milner) possesses both an acute sense of death and an obsessive desire to find out what happens after we pass on from this life. These interests are most noticeably evident in Edward's ongoing fascination with the paranormal, an obsession that his overworked parents merely tolerate as the curious boy makes his way around the hospice with a tape recorder determined to better understand the concept of mortality. Suddenly, into Edward's world rolls embittered, burned-out ex-magician Clarence (Michael Caine) -- who makes no attempts to hide the fact that he's not in the hospice by his own free will. Clarence has long since ceased to practice his trade, and no longer possesses the ability to recognize anything positive in either his surroundings or the people who inhabit them. He's irascible, ornery, and indignant, and he's just barely able to tolerate the young boy who's so interested in the one topic that plagues his thoughts most -- death. Before long, however, these two outsiders discover that their mutual need to make sense of the world means they have more in common than initial appearances would suggest. Soon embarking on a series of comic misadventures that help them both to better understand the many mysteries of life, Edward and Clarence form an unlikely bond that provides them both with the comfort they so desperately need during this uncertain stage in each of their lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Anne-Marie Duff, (more)
- 2007
Deeply disappointed with her life in middle age but unsure of what actions she should take to remedy her malaise, a forty-something woman named Anna (Kathryn Worth) is forced to acknowledge her inner turmoil after arriving at the holiday home of a bourgeois family and becoming distracted by the youthful energy in the home. Anna was in Italy visiting her old friend Verena (Mary Roscoe) when the antics of the energetic teenagers in the house found her gravitating every further away from "the olds." It's bumptious adolescent Oakley (Tom Hiddleston) whose youthful vigor stirs something deep within the dejected woman, and before long Anna realizes that her attraction to the boy may result from her longing to claim something that has been missing from her own life. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kathryn Worth, Tom Hiddleston, (more)
- 1990
- Add Poirot: The Mysterious Affair at Styles to Queue Add Poirot: The Mysterious Affair at Styles to top of Queue
Agatha Christie introduced one of her most famous characters, idiosyncratic Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, in her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and David Suchet, who has played Poirot in a number of films produced for British television, takes the character back to his beginnings in this screen adaptation. Poirot, newly arrived in England, is introduced to John Cavendish (David Rintoul), a close friend of Poirot's old comrade-in-arms, Arthur Hastings (Hugh Fraser). There's been recent controversy in the Cavendish household; John's widowed mother has recently remarried, and her new husband has made more than a few enemies among her family and friends. When Mrs. Cavendish is found murdered, police inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) is brought in to investigate, and the gifted Poirot is soon lending his much-needed skills in ferreting out the identity of the killer. Poirot: The Mysterious Affair at Styles first aired in the United States as part of the PBS anthology series Mystery! ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Suchet
- 1988
Originally made for British television, Dunroamin' Rising is graced with a topnotch veteran cast and a solid premise. The title refers to the Dunroaming Evening Tide Nursing Home, where resides 88-year-old Thorley Walters. As an economy move, Dunroaming is targeted for demolition and its residents are slated to be scattered to various less hospitable establishments. In protest, Walters embarks upon a hunger strike that ends up having wide-range repercussions. Dunroamin' Rising proved to be the last professional appearance of Thorley Walters, who died less than three years after its completion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Fay Weldon wrote the teleplay for this 5-part BBC TV adaptation of Jane Austen's 1812 novel Pride and Prejudice. Class-obsessed Mrs. Bennett (Priscilla Morgan) is dead set upon marrying off her five daughters to wealthy and influential young men. Headstrong Elizabeth Bennett (Elizabeth Garvie), the family's second daughter, resists her mother's plan. She is the "pride" that is "prejudiced" against snobbery and pomposity. Elizabeth is particularly incensed by the vain, aristocratic Fitzwilliam Darcy (David Rintoul)--at least until she realizes that Darcy is as prejudiced against high-toned class distinctions as she is. Telecast in the US on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre in the fall of 1980, Pride and Prejudice was later released to video in an uninterrupted, 226-minute single serving. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Garvie, David Rintoul, (more)
- 1979
The eight-part British drama series Prince Regent recounts the life of the title figure (Peter Egan), who was rechristened King George IV when he became English monarch. His father and predecessor, George III, had squandered his youth and much of his wealth on a string of mistresses, two marriages (only one of them legal), and all manner of debauchery during his long and turbulent lifetime (1762-1830). According to this series, George IV/Regent was not so much wicked as he was bored and restless, awaiting the death of his father while the older man grew more insane with each passing year, seriously jeopardizing the future of the British empire -- and his son's place within the realm. Prince Regent first aired in the U.K. beginning September 4, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Egan, Nigel Davenport, (more)
- 1975
- R
Peter Cushing stars as a police investigator whose search into a series of murders--committed during the full moon--leads him to a French zoo run by a strange keeper. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- 1973
The four-part British miniseries Weir of Hermiston was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's posthumously published novel of the same name. Set in Scotland during the Napoleonic Wars, the story focused on a French POW's escape from Edinburgh Castle. Stevenson died before completing the novel, thus the final chapters were penned by literary critic Arthur Quiller-Couch in 1897. This TV adaptation adheres to the Stevenson/Quiller-Couch original, with a few interesting re-interpretations of its own, courtesy of telewriter Tom Wright. Weir of Hermiston first aired in 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Fleming, Edith MacArthur, (more)
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