Elizabeth Sellars Movies
A stage actress from the age of 15, Scottish leading lady Elizabeth Sellars trained for adult roles at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Sellars spent most of the war touring military bases as star of that perennial stage favorite Jeanie. She first appeared on the London stage in 1946 in The Brothers Karamazov, then made her first film, Floodtide, in 1948. While her British filmwork in the 1950s was generally rewarding, she was saddled with thankless secondary parts in such Hollywood productions as Sabrina (1954), The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and Prince of Players (1956). Inactive in theatrical features since 1973's The Hireling, Elizabeth Sellars has kept busy with such made-for-TV movies as Voyage Round My Father (1984) and The Ghost in Monte Carlo (1990), as well as the weekly British series Shades of Greene and Beasts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1953
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
- 1953
John Mills followed his successful Gentle Gunman with the tensioned-filled meller The Long Memory. Convicted for a murder he did not commit, Davidson (Mills) spends 12 long years in prison. Upon his release, he vows to get even with the three witnesses who perjured themselves and clenched his conviction. Returning to the scene of the crime, he begins gathering clues as to the whereabouts of the witnesses. That's when he discovers that the alleged murder victim is alive and well! John McCallum co-stars as Inspector Lowther, who has spent the past dozen years mulling over the Davidson case, wondering if the man was innocent after all. For the sake of plot convenience, it turns out that Lowther is married to one of the lying witnesses! The Long Memory was based on a novel by Howard Clewes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, John McCallum, (more)
- 1952
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
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Jon Whiteley, (more)
- 1952
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
- Starring:
- John Mills, Dirk Bogarde, (more)
- 1951
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
- 1951
Teeny-tiny Hammer pictures built its reputation on second-feature melodramas before graduating to gore-encrusted horror epics. Cloudburst is a low-key thriller starring American actor Robert Preston, whose casting assured a certain degree of business in the States. Preston plays a code expert, resettled in England after the war and working at the British Foreign Office. One morning, Preston's wife is struck down and killed by a car driven by escaping criminals. Preston bypasses the efforts of Scotland Yard and pursues the criminals himself, using his codebreaking skills to track down the "big boys" in charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Elizabeth Sellars, (more)
- 1950
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
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Sellars, Patrick Holt, (more)
David Lean's Madeleine was inspired by a true story that rocked the English legal system to its foundations in the mid-19th century. Told in flashback, the film explains why aristocratic young Scotswoman Madeleine Smith (Ann Todd, then the wife of director Lean) is on trial for murder. The audience is apprised of Madeleine's illicit romance with deceptively charming Frenchman Emile L'Angelier (Ivan Desny), her futile attempts to break off the relationship, her "proper" betrothal to Englishman William Minnoch (Norman Wooland), and the murder by poison of the now-inconvenient L'Angelier. The jury's verdict was as controversial in 1950 as it had been a century earlier. David Lean and scenarists Stanley Haynes and Nicholas Phipps refuse to take sides, permitting the viewers to draw their own conclusions about the notorious Madeleine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Todd, Norman Wooland, (more)
- 1949
The all-purpose title Floodtide was trotted out once more for this 1949 British drama. Gordon Jackson plays a lowly shipyard worker who falls in love with Rona Anderson, his boss' daughter. For the girl's sake, Jackson keeps an eye out for opportunities to advance himself. Through determination and resourcefulness, he works his way up to an executive position with a shipping firm, but tries his best not to forget his humble roots. Filmed extensively on location, Floodtide was run on a seemingly hourly basis in the early days of American television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gordon Jackson, Rona Anderson, (more)
