Des Roberts Movies

Racially-oriented motorcycle gangs battle it out in this violent film when a black biker spy infiltrates the white gang. The real-life Choppers were hired for this feature. Not to be confused with the 1970 Bulgarian film whose English language title is Black Angels. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

A battered houseboat on the Thames provides the setting for this romantic British comedy. Two newlyweds rent the leaky floating home. The trouble begins when the husband decides to move the scow to a better location. The rickety barge disrupts river traffic. Next the two get lost in a fog bank. When it finally lifts, they find themselves in France. Fortunately, their landlord's yacht is moored nearby and they are able to borrow some petrol. The landlord bets that he can beat them across the Channel with his yacht. The race begins. The yachtsman gets terribly drunk and his cannot stay on course. The newlyweds win the race. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This WWII espionage drama is based on the true tale of a British spy, as told in the story by J. Alvin Kugelmass. Alex Schottland (Jack Hawkins) is a career agent for England, having served during WWI. He is assigned to Nazi Germany and rises to the rank of general as WWII breaks out. His contact is Cornaz (Felix Alymer), who pretends to be a clock seller. But Cornaz's identity is discovered, and he is brutally murdered. Schottland overcomes suspicions and makes contacts with a new British agent, Lili Geyr (Gia Scala), who is a nightclub singer. His love for her is first feigned as part of the spy game -- then becomes real. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

There's a bit of Oedipus Rex in The Haunted Strangler, though it's not readily apparent at first. Boris Karloff plays 19th-century novelist James Rankin, who becomes obsessed with the long-closed case of the Haymarket Strangler. Twenty years earlier, a man named Styles (Michael Atkinson) was executed for the Strangler's crimes, but was he guilty? It turns out that the actual culprit was the surgeon who performed Styles' autopsy. Coming into possession of the surgeon's scalpel, Rankin is overwhelmed by mixed feelings of bloodlust and guilt. It is at this point that Rankin realizes that he is truly his own, and London's, worst enemy. Originally released in England as Grip of the Strangler, The Haunted Strangler was distributed by MGM in 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As an actor, British film star Stewart Granger was very handsome, but this is all that is required of him in Beau Brummell. Granger plays the famed 18th-century dandy and social arbiter who rises from poverty to become the adviser and severest critic of the Prince of Wales (marvelously portrayed as a self-involved neurotic by Peter Ustinov). Secure in his station in life, Brummell goes one step too far when he jokes about the Prince's obesity. The future King George IV will forget the whole thing if Brummell will apologize, but the haughty trendsetter refuses to do so. Brummell is banished from court, losing everything -- including his chance at finding happiness with the aristocratic Elizabeth Taylor -- in the process. Filmed on location in England, Beau Brummell was based on the same war-horse play by Clyde Fitch that had served as the inspiration for the 1924 Brummell starring John Barrymore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Mills stars as Commander Scott, the leader of the ill-fated and famed 1911 expedition to be the first to discover the South Pole. The British were up against the Norwegians in the Arctic quest for fame and honor which was won by Norway. ~ All Movie Guide

Produced, directed and scripted by Peter Ustinov (who did not star), Secret Flight was released in Great Britain in 1946, but not distributed in the U.S. until 1951 -- at which time it was panned as being out-of-date! The fact-based screenplay details the efforts of five dedicated British scientists to develop Radar and other preventative measures on the eve of WW II. The five "boffins" are played by Ralph Richardson, Raymond Huntley, John Laurie, Ernest Jay and David Tomlinson. Some excitement is engendered when a test pilot (Richard Attenborough) cooperates with the scientists' remote-control airflight experiments. Given the film's sober treatment of certain British wartime military maneuvers, it is surprising that Peter Ustinov frequently chooses to depict the scientists as Dr. Watson-style comic figures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filled with lots of WW II-era propaganda, this tuneful war drama tells the syrupy tale of a strong and beautiful Scottish lass who works in a Glasgow factory while her true love is in the Navy. One day she receives word that her beau is missing in action and presumed dead. Unable to believe this she continues her war-efforts, saving the factory from a strike and making efforts to boost the workers' flagging spirits on the stage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, an actress willingly sacrifices her career to marry a scientist and have a daughter. But try as she might, she cannot resist the call of the footlights and she goes back to the boards. Her husband then divorces her. Two decades pass and the daughter becomes a lovely young woman. Trouble ensues when she and her mother fall in love with the same radio producer. When her mother sees this, she gives the fellow up. The actress is then shot by a disgruntled old lover. This leads her to her ex-husband who has loved her all along. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Famed Swedish director Victor Sjostrom was coaxed out of retirement to direct his final film, Under the Red Robe, a swashbuckling adventure that takes place in the France of Louis XIII. Conrad Veidt stars as Gil de Berault, quick with his sword yet set for execution. But right before his sentence is carried out, Cardinal Richelieu (Raymond Massey) offers a stay of execution if Gil will find and kill a duke suspected of leading the revolutionary antimonarchist Huguenots. Gil tracks the duke to a castle, sneaks into the guarded fortress, and ends up falling in love with the duke's sister, Lady Marguerite (Anabella). Gil now has to save the duke without bringing about his own execution. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Most Tarzan enthusiasts consider 1934's Tarzan and His Mate to be the best of the Johnny Weissmuller-Maureen O'Sullivan Tarzan efforts. Certainly it is the sexiest, with Weissmuller and especially O'Sullivan wearing next to nothing for most of the film's running time. Picking up where 1932's Tarzan the Ape Man left off, the film's plot is set in motion by avaricious ivory hunter Paul Cavanaugh, who arrives in the African jungle in search of the fabled Elephant's Graveyard. Accompanying Cavanaugh is Neil Hamilton the former fiance of Jane Porter (Maureen O'Sullivan), who for the past two years has been living with jungle lord Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) without benefit of clergy (this is strictly a pre-code effort, as evidenced by Jane's bikini-like attire and the now-famous skinny-dipping sequence). Jane briefly entertains notions of returning to civilization, but opts for her blissful outdoor existence with Tarzan. The plot rears its ugly head again when Cavanaugh shoots Tarzan and leaves him for dead, the better to seek out the precious ivory unimpeded. Rescued by his simian friends, Tarzan races towards the elephant's burial site, where Cavanaugh and Hamilton have been eaten by lions and Jane is next on the menu. A convenient elephant stampede--heralded by that classic Tarzan ahh-ee-yahhhh-ee-yahhhh--saves Jane from the lion's fangs in the nick of time. Tarzan and His Mate was the last of MGM's "Tarzan" series to be targeted for a strictly adult audience: the remaining MGM Tarzans, made under stricter censorship guidelines, were geared for the whole family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This version of the Charlotte Bronte classic is the first to use sound. The story closely follows the book as it chronicles the romantic travails of a troubled orphan girl who grows up to be a governess in love with her employer who returns her affections. She has finally found happiness. Alas, her happiness is short-lived as she learns that her love has locked his crazy wife in a remote wing of the house. The distraught governess flees and gets engaged to a new man. Just before they marry, she learns that her true love's house has burned down, immolating his wife and leaving him nearly blind. Without hesitation she returns to him and romantic bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide