Elizabeth Sellars Movies

Linda (Elizabeth Sellars) is driven to the breaking point by her no-good husband. One day, he pushes her too far, and she kills him. With remarkable presence of mind, Linda is able to clean up all evidence of her crime and to effectively dispose of the body. But though she may be able to elude the law, Linda remains a prisoner of her own conscience. Setting this one apart from other British crime mellers of the era was the decision to film on location in a remote rural community. A passable timefiller when first released, Guilt is My Shadow ended up a staple of American TV in the 1950s and 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This British psychological melodrama stars Michael Gough as a man who is lost in the Brazilian jungles and presumed dead. He returns to civilization, only to discover that his wife (Elizabeth Sellars) has remarried. When it becomes obvious that Gough's mind has been unhinged by the ordeal, his former wife does what she can to help and comfort him. Instead of being grateful, the addled Gough commits suicide, arranging the evidence so that his wife will be accused of murder. The Night Was Our Friend was the sort of second feature on which director Michael Anderson cut his teeth before being entrusted with such loftier projects as Around the World in 80 Days (56). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If the plot of the 1993 Kevin Costner film A Perfect World seemed vaguely familiar, perhaps it's because it bears a more than passing resemblance to the British-made 1952 thriller The Hunted (U.S. title: Stranger in Between). Dirk Bogarde stars in this emotional melodrama as an escaped murderer, sloshing through the North Country mud. Bogarde is reluctantly saddled with a fugitive orphan boy (Jon Whitely), who insists upon tagging along. The murderer ends up sacrificing his freedom to rescue the injured boy from certain death. While The Hunted was greeted with moderate enthusiasm in Britain, its virtues were trumped by the French film critics of the era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

During the Irish "troubles", an IRA gunman (John Mills) wearies of the constant violence. He begins to preach a philosophy of peaceful persuasion, and refuses direct orders to blow up a London railway station. The gunman's impatient brother (Dirk Bogarde) find his sibling's new approach to be counterproductive to the movement. The rest of the IRA agrees, and soon the gentle gunman is branded a traitor and a price is placed on his head. Based on the stage play by Roger MacDougall, Gentle Gunman was seldom seen once the Troubles were resparked in the Ireland of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This British anthology was put together from the television series Douglas Fairbanks Presents. In the first two stories, Basil Sydney plays a surgeon who must operate on a man shot by his own daughter, and George Benson unwittingly becomes involved in a murder. The final story is a bit better, as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Constance Cummings play a couple who buy a haunted house, with deadly consequences. Co-director Terence Fisher went on to become a leading force in British horror with such classics as The Curse of Frankenstein and The Horror of Dracula. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Director Henry Koster and writer Daniel Taradash speculate mightily in this historical tableau charting the rise and fall of Napoleon (Marlon Brando), all due to his unrequited love for noblewoman Desiree (Jean Simmons). The film takes a chronological view of Napoleon's reign and posits Napoleon's love of a woman he wanted to marry as a young general but abandoned for the sake of his career. Both Napoleon and Desiree go their separate ways -- he to become Emperor of France and loveless husband to Josephine (Merle Oberon) and she to become Sweden's disinterested Queen. Napoleon and Desiree meet up again in a whimsical confrontation in which Desiree urges the Little Corporal to surrender and go to St. Helena. The film is based on a novel by Annemarie Selinko that, like the film, takes wild liberties with the truth. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Nigel Patrick plays a suave but dead-serious British narcotics agent in this sporadically exciting crime melodrama. Patrick is determined that the drug traffic will not spread into his territory. He finds an unexpected ally in Joyce Grenfell, an inveterate bird-watcher. Ms. Grenfell aids Patrick in trapping a brother-sister smuggling team (Elizabeth Sellars and Terence Morgan). Apart from the always delightful Joyce Grenfell, Forbidden Cargo is humorless Dragnet material transplanted to the high seas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British omnibus thriller, Three Cases of Murder includes two supernatural tales and a straight whodunit. The first segment, "The Picture," was directed by Wendy Toye, based on a short story by Roderick Wilkinson. A museum tour guide, Jarvis (Hugh Pryse), is plagued by artworks going missing, and by the mysterious repeated breaking of the protective glass over a gloomy landscape painting. Jarvis is fascinated by the dark, foreboding house in the painting. One day while he's admiring it, he bumps into a stranger (Alan Badel, who appears in all three segments). Jarvis ends up following the stranger into the world of the painting with terrifying consequences. Eddie Byrne (General Willard in Star Wars) plays the demented taxidermist, Snyder. In the second segment, "You Killed Elizabeth," written by Sidney Carroll (who co-wrote The Hustler), and directed by David Eady, lifelong friends fall in love with the same woman. George (Emrys Jones) has always stood in Edgar's (John Gregson) shadow. The two have a falling out when they realize they both love Elizabeth (Elizabeth Sellars), and when she later turns up dead, it affects the friendship in a surprising way. Badel plays the friendly bartender, Harry. The final story, "Lord Mountdrago," was based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham. Directed by George More O'Ferrall, the segment stars Orson Welles as Lord Mountdrago, the officious secretary of state for foreign affairs. Mountdrago uses his oratory powers to destroy the career of a charismatic political opponent, Owen (Badel again). Mountdrago then finds himself tormented by the vengeful Owen, who seems to have found a way to enter his dreams. Andre Morrell (Bridge on the River Kwai) plays Mountdrago's baffled psychiatrist. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Based on a best-selling Australian novel by D'Arcy Niland, The Shiralee stars Peter Finch as an Aussie "swagman," or poacher, saddled with a faithless wife (Elizabeth Sellars). Concerned over the well-being of his young daughter (Dana Wilson), Finch takes her out of her hostile environment and hits the road. Against the breathtaking landscapes and panoramas of the Outback, Father and Daughter grow to love and understand one another on a deeper and more profound level than ever before. The storyline rambles more than does Peter Finch, but the relationship between the two main characters holds the film together. The Shiralee was remade as an Australian TV miniseries in 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Flood Tide can be described as The Children's Hour gone ballistic. Michel Ray is David Gordon a sweet-faced little boy who dotes on his widowed mother Anne (Cornell Borchers) - but has a nasty, pathological penchant for lying. When a body washes up on the beach and a man is arrested, David tells a few "convenient" lies that get the fellow arrested. The owner of the adjacent beach house, Steve Martin (George Nader) returns from a trip, learns of the situation, and discusses in detail why he thinks the boy is being deceptive; he then spends the rest of the movie romantically pursuing Anne while attempting to earn David's trust and extract a confession from him that will free the unjustly convicted fellow. Flood Tide was directed by Abner Biberman, who as a former movie villain had a good grasp of what makes a sociopath tick--even a ten-year-old one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this airborne disaster movie, a has-been brilliant scientist plants a bomb on a transatlantic jet to exact revenge upon a passenger whom he blames for his daughter's death -- she died during a plane crash. When the booby-trap is discovered and the passengers learn the motive for the scientists' actions, one of the passengers attempts to kill the man the scientist blames. A fight erupts and a window is shattered. The helpful passenger is sucked right out of the plane. Only when the scientist spies a child resembling his own lost daughter does he regain his humanity and disarm the bomb. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This shockingly violent yet engaging crime drama is about a bitter battle for survival in the lingering poverty of post-World War II London. Richard Todd plays optimistic but ineffectual soap and shampoo salesman John Cummings whose job becomes even harder when his new car is stolen. The theft triggers an unraveling of Cummings' life, and he channels his desperate energy toward retrieving his stolen vehicle. He first tracks it down through young tough Tommy Towers (pop star Adam Faith), who actually stole the automobile, and then to his boss Lionel Meadows (Peter Sellers), who heads the car thief ring. Meadows hides his sadistic tendencies behind the facade of a legitimate business. Above the garage he uses as a front, he has locked Tommy's girlfriend, Jackie (Carol White), in his apartment and appropriated her as his moll. Cummings tries to get the police involved, but they cannot act for lack of any evidence. He then earns the trust of Tommy and Jackie to get better knowledge of how Meadows operates his business. In his naïve attempts to confront the car ring, Cummings is at first treated as an annoyance, but as his intention to destroy Meadows' business and livelihood becomes clear, the crime boss vows to destroy him in turn. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide