David Birkin Movies
A few good men are sent on a secret mission as a few good women in this comic tale of wartime espionage, loosely based upon a true story. Steven O'Rourke (Matt LeBlanc) is an American intelligence agent who, during World War II, has been assigned to obtain an Enigma machine, a special encoding-and-decoding device that Axis forces have developed to transmit their most sensitive secret information. A working Enigma machine would be invaluable to the Allied cause; O'Rourke is able to obtain a machine, but Col. Aiken (Edward Fox), a British officer whose stiff upper lip sometimes overwhelms his common sense, mistakes O'Rourke for a plunderer and destroys the previous gadget, which is hidden in a typewriter. An altercation with Aiken lands O'Rourke in military prison, but he's released in time to carry out a new plan to obtain an Enigma for Allied use. A small factory has been set up in rural Germany to build the machines, which is entirely staffed by women, so O'Rourke, communications expert Johnno (David Birkin), and veteran intelligence man Archie (James Cosmo) are to infiltrate the plant disguised as women, with Tony (Eddie Izzard), an agent who moonlights as a drag performer, giving the men a crash course in looking and acting like women. All the Queen's Men also features Nicolette Krebitz as Romy, a double agent working at the Enigma plant, and Udo Kier as Lansdorf, a Nazi general. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Matt LeBlanc, Eddie Izzard, (more)
Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin, better known in the literary world as George Sand, not only took a man's name, but trotted around wearing pants and smoking cigars in public. No great shakes today, but in the 1800s she was perhaps the most famous (or infamous) woman in the world. One of the first original celebrities, aside from her garb and literary output, she was known to inspire many duels and broken hearts among other famous hedonist artists. One character describes her in Impromptu, as "that graveyard." The film engages in a sexual roundelay among Sand's (Judy Davis) many friends -- Eugene Delacroix (Ralph Brown), Alfred DeMusset (Mandy Patinkin), Franz Liszt (Julian Sands), and Frederick Chopin (Hugh Grant). The entire crew heads off to the summer estate of the Duke and Duchess d'Antan (Anton Rodgers and Emma Thompson), invited there by the culture-vulture hosts. Sand takes a bead on the sickly Chopin and spends her time throwing herself at him. Also on hand is Liszt's mistress Marie d'Agoult (Bernadette Peters) and Felicien Mallefille (Georges Corraface), Sand's recently jilted lover. Mallefille is jealous of any of the other guests who glance in Sand's direction and continually challenges them to duels. Marie, on the other hand, is enlisted by Sand to deliver a note to Chopin. But Marie, jealous of Sand, delivers the note substituting her name for Sand's. And as the weekend continues, the sexual merry-go-round continues at full tilt. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, (more)
- 1989
- PG
Richard Lester returned to his double-barreled successes of the 1970s, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, with Return of the Musketeers, a film that was inexplicably shelved for several years, making its belated premiere on cable television. Based on Alexandre Dumas's novel Twenty Years Later, the film takes place (appropriately enough) two decades after the death of Milady de Winter. Though Milady may have died, her nefarious schemes have been taken up by her daughter Justine (Kim Cattrall), who maneuvers with the conspiring Cardinal Mazarin (Philippe Noiret) to gain control of the crown through Queen Anne (Geraldine Chaplin). D'Artagnan (Michael York) calls for his old compatriots Porthos (Frank Finlay), Athos (Oliver Reed), and Aramis (Richard Chamberlain) to once again go "one for all and all for one." But complications set in when Athos and Aramis take sides with the crown and Athos' adopted son Raoul (C. Thomas Howell) falls in love in Justine. The film is dedicated to character actor Roy Kinnear who plays Planchet, who died in an equestrian accident during the production. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael York, Oliver Reed, (more)
