Honor Blackman Movies
British actress Honor Blackman began as a J. Arthur Rank contractee, where she was groomed for demure "English rose" types in films like Fame is the Spur (1947) and Quartet (1948). Honor would not realize major stardom until 1962, when she was cast as leather-clad karate expert Cathy Gale in the British TV adventure series The Avengers (until recently, U.S. audiences were permitted to see only the Avengers episodes featuring Ms. Blackman's successors, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson). International stardom ensued when Honor was seen in another martial-arts gig as the gloriously yclept Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (1964). She has played a wide variety of roles since, with special emphasis on droll comedy. Honor Blackman's last picture was the 1978 remake of The Cat and the Canary, though she continues to appear in British television, most recently on the weekly series The Upper Hand (1990-93). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1950
So Long at the Fair is based on a true story -- or at least, a story that has been told and retold so often that it is now accepted as truth. The year is 1889: the setting, the Paris Exhibition. Among the thousands in attendance are Vicky Barton (Jean Simmons) and her brother Johnny (David Tomlinson). After the first night of the Exhibition, Vicky is exhilarated, while Johnny seems a bit under the weather. The next morning, Vicky knocks on Johnny's hotel door, only to discover that her brother has disappeared. When she goes to the police and, later, to the British consul, the authorities refuse to believe her story. In fact, there is no evidence that Johnny ever existed! The outcome of this story is rather well known; still, it is perhaps best not to reveal any further details. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, (more)
- 1949
Diamond City is a British "western", set not in Australia as was often the case but in the wilds of South Africa. David Farrar is a lawkeeper sworn to lawkeep in the diamond mines. The poachers thereabouts try their luck at circumventing Farrar, but he's too fast for them. The final shootout isn't quite the Gunfight at the OK Corral, but it will serve until English history offers a real counterpart to that famous western battle. David Farrar's leading lady in Diamond City is future Avengers star Honor Blackman, who in 1949 was still in her blushing-heroine phase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Farrar, Honor Blackman, (more)
- 1949
Elizabeth Taylor played her first grown-up romantic lead in the Anglo-American melodrama Conspirator. Taylor portrays Melinda Greyton, the new bride of highly respected Major Michael Curraugh (Robert Taylor). It comes as quite a jolt when Melinda learns that her husband is actually a spy for the communists (ironically, Robert Taylor had been one of the friendliest of friendly witnesses during the HUAC hearings.) Much of the film takes place in a picturesque Welsh village, an unusual setting for a tense espionage yarn. Reversing the usual MGM "tailor the story to the stars" formula, the storyline in Conspirator is sometimes more compelling than its leading players. Still, Liz Taylor acquitted herself nicely, proving that she'd have little difficulty tackling meaty dramatic roles in future films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)
- 1949
The boy is Sam Walters (Patrick Holt). The girl is Susie Bates (future Avengers star Honor Blackman). The bike is one of several used by a British cycling club. Boy and girl have fun peddling about the countryside until the girl's pretty head is turned by David Howarth (John McCallum), a wealthy young man with a snazzy sportscar. When David joins the cyclers, Susie glows and Sam glowers. Set in Yorkshire, the film is pleasant to look at but difficult to understand (at least for those not accustomed to regional British accents). The presence of sex symbol Diana Dors in the cast enabled A Boy, a Girl and a Bike to secure good bookings in the U.S. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John McCallum, Honor Blackman, (more)
- 1948
When Homecoming was first released in 1948, some observers felt that Clark Gable's unusually sensitive performance was based on his own memories of losing his wife Carole Lombard in a 1942 plane crash. Intriguingly, Gable's Homecoming co-star is Lana Turner, with whom it was rumored that he was having an affair at the time of Lombard's death. Told in flashback, the story concerns the romance of war-time army surgeon Ulysses Delby Johnson (Gable) and Red Cross nurse Lt. Jane "Snapshot" McCall (Turner). Though married, Johnson cannot help to be drawn to Jane as they slog through the hellish battlegrounds of Italy and France. As the war draws to a close, Johnson is faced with a dilemma: how can he find happiness with Jane without bringing misery to his beloved wife Penny (Anne Baxter). As it turns out, Fate intervenes to solve Johnson's problem. Though well-acted and directed, Homecoming is just too thin to be spread out over 12 reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Lana Turner, (more)
Daughter of Darkness was based on They Walk Alone, a play by Max Catto. The heroine of the play can be described as a "homicidal nymphomaniac," which understandably posed censorship problems when the Catto original was adapted to the screen. In her second film, Irish stage star Siobhan McKenna plays Emma Baudine, a "black widow" who lures men with her sexual charms and then murders them. Because she is the trusted assistant of village priest Father Corcoran (Liam Redmond), no one suspects what Emma is up to -- no one, that is, except the inquisitive Bess Stanforth (Anne Crawford), who emerges as the heroine of the piece. Also appearing in her first movie role is Honor Blackman, long before her international TV fame vis-a-vis The Avengers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Crawford, Maxwell Reed, (more)
- 1948
The first of three well-received "omnibus" films hosted by Somerset Maugham, Quartet features four of Maugham's most celebrated stories, each introduced by the author himself. In "The Facts of Life," a seemingly innocent British youth (Jack Watling) is targeted for a shakedown by a beautiful adventuress (Mai Zetterling), while Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne perform their usual brilliant byplay. In "The Alien Corn," a young aristocrat (Dirk Bogarde) hopes to become a professional concert pianist. "The Kite" tells the story of a preoccupied inventor (George Cole) who places his hobbies ahead of his wife (Susan Shaw) as an indirect means of defying his dominating mother (Hermione Badderly). The film concludes with "The Colonel's Lady," wherein the title character (Nora Swinburne) embarrasses her stuffy husband (Cecil Parker) by publishing a torrid volume of romantic poetry. Each of the short tales in Quartet possesses its own mood, pace and rhythm, and each is a gem in its own right. The popularity of Quartet resulted in two more Maugham compendiums, Trio and Encore, not to mention the multistoried American film O. Henry's Full House. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, (more)
- 1947
When a young man from an economically depressed area of England (played by Michael Redgrave) decides that his calling is to help the beleaguered workers in his area, he takes as his symbol a sword passed down to him by an ancestor who picked it up at the Battle of Peterloo in 1819, where it had been used against workers. Beginning as an idealistic defender of the oppressed workers, he rises to power in the Parliament, where he discovers that power corrupts and he becomes the very type of politician he had originally set out to displace. Sometimes slow-moving, this is an interesting look into the reasons why the Labor and the Conservative factions are at loggerheads with each other in Great Britain. Very loosely based on labor leader Ramsay MacDonald's climb to power, the story was adapted by Howard Spring and is a combination of both fact and fiction. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Rosamund John, (more)
During its first season on Britain's ITV, The Avengers was by and large a "straight" espionage adventure series, with no sci-fi/fantasy trappings, and with two male secret agents -- Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Ian Hendry as Dr. David Keel -- handling the bulk of the action. Beginning with its second season, The Avengers adopts its more familiar format: fanciful, tongue-in-cheek spy shenanigans, occasionally incredible or downright improbable in nature, teaming Steed with a sexy female partner. In fact, during season two Steed is provided with two female teammates: Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), a widowed anthropologist and martial-arts expert with a fondness for leather outfits, and Venus Smith (Julie Stevens), a nightclub singer who manages to perform one song in all of the six episodes in which she appears. Also, briefly upholding the "all-male" tradition established in season one, Steed is partnered in three episode with Dr. Martin King (Jon Rollason), who like his predecessor, has joined the secret service in order to avenge the death of a loved one, thereby tenuously "justifying" the series' title. By the middle of the second season, the popularity of Honor Blackman was such that Steed was permanently partnered with Cathy Gale. Not only is the character one of the first British action heroines who was thoroughly capable of fending for herself without the hero's help, but there is also the implication that Steed and Cathy are lovers in their off-hours. Although they seldom touch one another except in the line of duty, the warm and intimate verbal rapport between the two characters speaks volumes! Like season one, season two of The Avengers was produced in black-and-white and on videotape. Several of the season's 26 hour-long episodes survive, albeit in kinescope form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Honor Blackman, (more)
By the time its third season rolled around, The Avengers was British television's most popular action-adventure series, and had gained an international reputation thanks to its tongue-in-cheek plot convolutions and the innuendo-laden rapport between its two leading characters: erudite, bowler-hatted secret agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and his "talented amateur" partner, the sexy, leather-clad martial arts expert Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman). However, the series had not yet been sold to the United States -- and indeed would not make the trip across the big pond until season four, by which time Honor Blackman had been replaced by Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel. Originally telecast in the U.K. from September 28, 1963, through March 21, 1964, the 26 hour-long episodes in The Avengers' third season were in black-and-white, and originally videotaped. Most of the surviving prints (which were not distributed in the U.S. until over two decades after their initial telecast) are in kinescope form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Honor Blackman, (more)
