Katherine Schofield Movies

This made-for-cable action story stars Brian Dennehy as a diamond dealer and Brooke Adams as a doctor who join forces to make their way to Kenya. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Director Tobe Hooper adapts Colin Wilson's edgy novel The Space Vampires in this in this horror/sci-fi epic with a cult following. The story concerns a joint British-American space probe of Hailey's Comet. Inside the comet, the astronauts, headed by Carlsen (Steve Railsback), find a spaceship that contains the dead bodies of several aliens, along with the naked bodies of three human-like creatures in suspended animation. They bring the aliens aboard the ship for examination, but the specimens are sloppily guarded and soon the trio spread contagion among the population of the ship. Returning to earth, the beautiful space vampire (Mathilda May) escapes into London and begins to feed of the bodies of the unwary Britons, turning the city into a zombie-populated wasteland. It is now left for Carlsen to stop the vampire invaders. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based on Quentin Crisp's autobiography, the once-controversial picture The Naked Civil Servant stars John Hurt as Crisp, a flamboyant character who publicly declared his homosexuality during the brutally homophobic and misogynistic England of the 1930s and '40s -- a time when this alternative lifestyle was still an offense punishable by imprisonment in Great Britain. (The man dyed his hair and wore makeup in an era when women were looked on with disapproval for such behavior!) Director Jack Gold handles the material with taste, discretion, and a generous supply of humor; it thus might seem bizarre to a contemporary viewer that anyone could be offended by this, but remember that the world was a different place in 1975. More than a few PBS subscribers threatened to yank their support when this British TV film was first offered to American viewers in the spring of that year. Fortunately, many others were willing to see beyond the film's controversial subject matter and revel in the excellence of the production and its participants; one of the film's biggest and most influential fans was none other than Milton Berle. Carl Davis, best known for his symphonic silent-movie restoration scores, composed the music. Hurt drew equal controversy later that same year for his work in another British drama-turned-PBS special -- when he played the psychotic Caligula in Herbert Wise's epic miniseries I, Claudius. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Liv Ullman portrays a female pope -- based on a long-held rumor that the papacy was held by a woman between the reigns of Leo IV and Benedict III -- in this rambling saga directed by Michael Anderson. The British version of the film has been cut, not only removing twenty-one minutes of the film but also an entire contemporary framing story. In the full version, a modern-day woman evangelist, played by Ullman, who feels an affinity to the legendary Pope Joan, pays a visit to her psychiatrist (Keir Dullea). Searching through her past lives to see whether she is the reincarnation of Pope Joan, the film then flashbacks 1000 years to pick up Joan (Ullman in an earlier incarnation of her character) undergoing a succession of trials and tribulations. Joan then meets up with and becomes the mistress of Adrian (Maximilian Schell), a monk with an artistic bent. After the death of Charlemagne when roving bands of Saxons are raping women and ransacking the countryside, Joan flees the country by cutting her hair short and dressing like a man. Together Joan and Adrian escape to Greece. In Greece, Joan's street-corner preaching draws the attention of Pope Leo IV (Trevor Howard), who is impressed by her impassioned rendering of the Gospel. Still disguised as a man, Pope Leo, clueless as to her true sex, hires her as his secretary. From there, she rises up the ladder of the Roman Catholic Church, becoming a cardinal and then Pope Leo's successor. But then she becomes pregnant by a lover from her past (Franco Nero) and Joan must hide her delicate condition from the papal authorities and the rowdy masses. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The oft-filmed "realistic" Emile Zola novel Nana was given the British miniseries treatment in 1968. Katherine Schofield essayed the leading role as ill-fated Parisian courtesan Nana. After fomenting a deadly feud between two of her lovers (who also happened to be brothers), Nana made up for all past misdeeds by conveniently succumbing to smallpox. The four 50-minute installments of Nana were originally telecast by BBC2. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the fourth episode of the six-part story arc "The Keys of Marinus," the Doctor (William Hartnell) and his companions have managed to locate two of the four keys necessary to keep the evil Conscience of Marinus alive. Their odyssey has already taken them to the sinsiter city of Morphoton and the treacherous Screaming Jungle. Now they have arrived in an icy wilderness -- and come face to face with the dreaded Soldiers of Ice. Written by Terry Nation, "The Snows of Terror" originally aired on May 2, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the fifth episode of the six-part story arc "The Keys of Marinus," the Doctor (William Hartnell) and his companions have managed to locate three of the four keys needed to sustain the omnipotent Conscience of Marinus. It hasn't been easy, what with the terrors inherent in the city of Morphoton, the Screaming Jungle, and the snowy Marinus wilderness. But worse is still to come; upon arriving in the city of Millenius, the time travellers are arrested for murder and sentenced to immediate execution. Written by Terry Nation, "Sentence of Death" originally aired on May 9, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide