Sylvia Syms Movies
Educated in convent schools, British leading lady Sylvia Syms trained for her craft at RADA. Syms made her film debut in 1956's My Teenaged Daughter. Though few of her films were memorable (exceptions include The Quare Fellow, Run Wild, Run Free), her popularity seldom faltered. Easing gracefully into character parts in the 1970s, Syms was frequently seen as bejeweled society matrons, often with hyphenated last names. She also starred as Isabelde Gines in British TV series Peak Practice. Sylvia Syms stage and screen credits should not be confused with those of Brooklyn-born nightclub entertainer Sylvia Syms, who died in 1992 at the age of 79. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Born to Win is the grimly ironic title of this jet-black comedy about heroin addicts. George Segal plays Jay Jay, an ex-hairdresser who struggles to support his expensive drug habit. To avoid arrest, Jay Jay turns "narc," informing on his fellow junkies. Eventually Jay Jay's sense of self-hatred threatens to overwhelm him. Also released as Born to Lose and Addict, Born to Win was the first American film for Czech director Ivan Passer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Segal, Karen Black, (more)
- 1969
Child actor Mark Lester proved that his sudden ascension to stardom in Oliver wasn't a fluke with Run Wild, Run Free. Lester plays a psychosomatically mute young Dartmoor boy, who avoids all human contact whenever possible. He is fascinated by nature, but cannot convey this love to his unimaginative parents (Sylvia Sims and Gordon Jackson). Through the kindness of a retired colonel (John Mills), likewise a nature aficionado, the boy is allowed to help train a white colt. When the colt becomes trapped in a quagmire, the boy is able to use his voice once more to summon help. Run Wild, Run Free was originally titled The White Colt which was the title of the David Rook novel on which it was based. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1969
This violent western finds a son leaving his father and family behind in the wake of the elder's violent guerilla warfare against society at large. David Galt (Vince Edwards) leaves his Confederate war-veteran father Josiah (Jack Palance) behind and settles in Texas. The son changes his name, living in relative solitude until his father's gang invades Texas six years later. Father and son battle it out in the inevitable showdown in this family feud. Neville Brand plays the Federal marshall. George Maharis and Christian Roberts play the sons of Parson Josiah Galt, the man driven insane by the death of his wife during the Civil War. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vince Edwards, Jack Palance, (more)
- 1968
In this psychological drama, the daughter of a British barrister is killed in a hit-and-run accident. Her bereaved father swears his revenge. When the man's neighbor is killed, the barrister finds himself accused of the death. He begins to wonder if he is not going stark raving mad. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
British agents drop like skeets in this convoluted espionage film. Jonas Wilde (Richard Johnson) is a successful British secret agent who wants to hang up his license to kill and retire. His superior, Canning (Harry Andrews), agrees to accept his resignation if he agrees to one last case -- killing a Czechoslovakian defector currently being held by the Americans. Wilde goes along with Canning's plan and, with the help of his housekeeper Rhoda (Diana Dors), completes the mission. But then Jonas is captured by CIA agent Lucinda (Sam Wanamaker), who reveals that an unknown agent in the British secret service is the force behind getting fellow British agents killed. When Jonas and Canning's wife, Barbara (Sylvia Syms), travel to Canning's headquarters, he is told that a British agent has been murdered. Jonas proceeds to take the dead agent's niece Mari (Barbara Bouchet) onto a boat for questioning and discovers false names, deceptions and increasing amounts of dead bodies. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Johnson, Carol Lynley, (more)
- 1967
The Saint was a long-running (1963-1969) British TV series based on characters created by Leslie Charteris. Roger Moore stars as Simon Templar, a handsome soldier-of-fortune of dubious principles and morals, but a handy man to have around whenever someone truly deserving is in distress. The Fiction Makers originated as a two-part Saint adventure, first telecast as episodes #104 and #105 in 1968 then released theatrically as a feature film. This time, Templar is assigned to protect famed novelist Amos Klein from vengeful gangsters. The assignment turns out to be a pleasurable one when "Amos Klein" is revealed to be a gorgeous woman (Sylvia Syms). The Fiction Makers was written by John Kruse and Harry W. Junkin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Though long defunct in the United States, the tiny production firm of Pathe continued churning out British programmers into the 1960s. Pathe's The Big Job stars Sidney James, Dick Emery and Lance Percival as a trio of none-too-bright bank robbers. Released from jail after 15 years, the intrepid trio makes a beeline for the location where they hid their stolen money. Uh, oh: the cash is squirreled away in a tree, and the tree has now been replanted in front of a police station. Thus, the "big job" of the title consists of the crooks' efforts to retrieve their swag without the Bobbies catching on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney James, Sylvia Syms, (more)
This big-budget, big-studio espionage film is set in the last years of World War II. George Peppard, Tom Courtenay and Jeremy Kemp parachute into Germany, with orders to destroy the Nazis' V-1 rocket base at Peenemunde. Given the order of billing, guess which special operative survives the longest. This being an MGM production, Peppard has time to commiserate with Sophia Loren, the wife of the Nazi collaborator whom Peppard is pretending to be. If you're wondering about the film's outcome, remember who won the war. Operation Crossbow failed badly in its first release; MGM, deciding that the title misled moviegoers into thinking that the picture was a "Robin Hood" derivation, cleared up matters by renaming the film The Great Spy Mission. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, George Peppard, (more)
- 1964
In this adventure, set in 19th-century India when the British were attempting to stop the slave trade against the Sudanese Moslems, a brave trooper and a new lieutenant must help a governess and her charge get to safety. The two soldiers despise each other. The experienced trooper has little tolerance for the naive bumblings of the lieutenant. As they travel, they encounter a variety of adventures including bouts with wild animals, dangerous geography, and Moslem guerrillas. The two men begin to respect each other. The older soldier also falls in love with the governess. Eventually, the rag tag travelers end up blowing an arsenal sky-high and rescuing several British soldiers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1963
Tony Hancock, as big a comedy star as it was possible to be in the Britain of 1963, decided to pull a "Charlie Chaplin" with The Punch and Judy Man. He plays an end-of-pier seashore entertainer who is loved by children but reviled by adults. Hancock's efforts to establish himself as a man of importance invariably end in disappointment and despair. Not even Tony Hancock's legion of fans could be persuaded to drink up the bathos ladled out in The Punch and Judy Man. Ironically, Hancock in real life ended up committing suicide in 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Hancock, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1963
Released in England under the title The World Ten Times Over, this dour drama is about the misfortunes of two aging single women. Billa (Sylvia Sims) and Ginnie (June Ritchie) live together in an apartment, and each works as a hostess at a night club. Billa is jaded and fed up with men, while Ginnie is an accomplished seductress. When Bob Shelbourne (Edward Judd), a rich executive who is separated from his wife, gets involved with Ginnie, Billa becomes envious. Bob gets Ginnie a job in a business run by his father (Francis De Wolff), who doesn't like the cozy arrangement. Billa's schoolteacher father (William Hartnell) visits, and Billa shocks him by revealing details of her affairs. The romantic entanglements proceed to challenge the friendship between Billa and Ginnie. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Syms, Edward Judd, (more)
Brendan Behan, the quixotic, eternally sloshed Irish poet/playwright, peppered his play The Quare Fellow with plenty of "gallows humor." The film version dispenses with most the play's morbid jests, leaving us with a grim, straightforward account of a Dublin death-row prison guard (Patrick McGoohan) and his growing empathy with two condemned prisoners. One could understand the removal of the play's comic elements had the film been made in timorous Hollywood. But since Quare Fellow was financed and produced in Ireland, it seems a inappropriately glum tribute to one of the country's boldest and most brilliant talents. Quare Fellow was directed by American "B" specialist Arthur Dreifuss, who also adapted Behan's play for the screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick McGoohan, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1962
In its time, Victim was considered as a daring a film as had ever been made in England. Taken at face value, Janet Green and John McCormick's screenplay is nothing new: Dirk Bogarde plays a lawyer who agrees to defend an old friend (John McEnery) on a theft charge, only to be enmeshed in a blackmailing scheme. What set this one apart is the fact that the lawyer had once been the male lover of his client. At a time when homosexuality was a criminal offense in England, any film that depicted the gay scene in a non-judgmental light was in for a rough time from the bluenose brigades. What really startled filmgoers of 1962 is that the homosexuals shown in Victim were seemingly normal, everyday blokes, a far cry from the stereotyped "nance" characters common to films. Denied the MPAA seal when it was released to the United States, Victim surprisingly ran into very little interference when it was released to television in the mid-1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1961
Versatile director Roy Baker tackles the question of racial bias in this dated but effective drama, a working-class version of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Jacko Palmer (John Mills) is a dedicated, talented union leader who manages to mediate an upheaval over a black foreman at work and prevent a strike. Meanwhile, Palmer's daughter Kathie (Sylvia Syms) has fallen in love with a schoolteacher colleague of hers, Peter Lincoln (Johnny Sekka), who happens to be black. The couple plan on marrying, and that creates havoc in the Palmer home where Kathie's mother throws a fit. The full gamut of racial prejudices unfolds, while the father tries to reconcile his own feelings and root out any biases that lurk there. Johnny Sekka might be better known to U.S. audiences as Dr. Benjamin Kyle in the TV series, Babylon 5. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1961
This French/Italian sword 'n' sandal effort is set in the Rome of 476 BC. The Eternal City is threatened with invasion from the Etruscans, with soldier-of-fortune Louis Jourdan in the vanguard. When offered a truce, Jourdan demands that the Romans offer hostages as a sign of good faith. He is especially interested in making the acquaintance of Sylvia Sims, the militaristic leader of a group of female warriors (the "Amazons" of the title). As the film hastens to its conclusion, we learn that Jourdan and Syms are the only honorable people around; with plenty of treachery and back-stabbing in both the Roman and Estrucan camps, it's a wonder if anyone will be left standing for the final battle scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jourdan, Nicole Courcel, (more)
- 1960
Lilli Palmer stars as a nun in a World War 2-era Italian convent. At the risk of her own life and those of her cloistered colleagues, Palmer hides a group of Jewish orphans from the Nazis. She then attempts to shepherd the kids to the safety of foster homes. Danger looms in the form of Nazi colonel Albert Lieven, who isn't quite as sympathetic as the nuns. Costar Sylvia Syms has some of the film's best scenes. There's little in Conspiracy of Hearts that we haven't seen before, but the actors manage to inject humor, warmth and pathos into the all-too-familiar proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lilli Palmer, Sylvia Syms, (more)
William Holden stars as an American artist who becomes involved with the sordid underworld of prostitution in Hong Kong in The World of Suzie Wong, based on Paul Osborn's Broadway adaptation of the novel by Richard Mason. Holden is American architect Robert Lomax, who travels to Hong Kong to paint. He meets Suzie Wong (Nancy Kwan), an attractive woman who passes herself off as a high-society heiress. It is with great surprise that Robert spots her in a Hong Kong dive entertaining a bunch of sailors. It turns out that Suzie is a prostitute and Robert has observed her plying her trade. Suzie proposes that Robert put her up as a kept woman, but Robert will hear nothing of it, preferring to use her as a model for his paintings instead. Suzie then becomes involved with playboy Ben Marlowe (Michael Wilding), while Robert meets Kay O'Neill (Sylvia Syms), a British banker's daughter, who helps Robert to sell his paintings. But Ben breaks off his relationship with Suzie and Kay, uncomfortable with Suzie the prostitute posing for Ben, leaves him. Abandoned by their lovers and thrown together, the two become involved, with tragic consequences. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Nancy Kwan, (more)
- 1959
This curious African Queen derivation stars Curt Jurgens as Mark Conrad, an Austrian exile and Orson Welles as blustery ferry-boat captain Cecil Hart. Banned from both Hong Kong and Macao, Conrad is forced to spend his life on Hart's ferry, shuttling endlessly between the two countries and irritating everyone with whom he comes in contact. Conrad redeems himself when he rescues Hart and the passengers during a raging storm. Poor Welles is reduced to Gale Gordon-like bombast throughout the proceedings, while leading lady Sylvia Sims has practically no purpose in the film whatsoever. Ferry to Hong Kong was released in America through 20th Century-Fox along with several other like-vintage Rank Organisation films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curd Jürgens, Orson Welles, (more)
In this witty music-business satire, Johnny Jackson (Laurence Harvey) is a talent agent down on his luck who thinks his tide may have turned when he spots a teenage rock & roll fan wailing away in a coffeehouse. Dubbing him "Bongo Herbert" (Cliff Richard, in a role the now knighted and born-again pop icon would probably prefer to forget), Johnny puts Herbert on the fast track to teenage stardom, using his record company and radio connections to make Herbert's first single a smash hit. Johnny then decides that a little image modification might make Herbert a bigger draw, so his follow-up is a treacly, inspirational tune, "The Shrine on the Second Floor," which hardly gibes with Herbert's newfound fondness for strippers and love-starved American actresses. But just when Johnny thinks he has a meal ticket for life, it's discovered that Herbert is really a minor, making his contract with Johnny null and void. Cliff Richard was at the height of his first wave of popularity as "The British Elvis" when Expresso Bongo was released, leading to a great deal of speculation about how closely it mirrored his own career (the answer probably is: not very much). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1958
The British Ice Cold in Alex was released in the US as Desert Attack. John Mills stars as Captain Anson, a grumbling alcoholic sent on a WW2 mission to Alexandria. Travelling to his destination by ambulance, Anson becomes acquainted with his fellow passengers, nurses Sister Diane Murdoch (Sylvia Syms) and Sister Denise Norton (Mary Clare) and South African officer Captain Van Der Poel (Anthony Quayle). One of these worthies is a German spy-and only two of the passengers will survive until the fade-out. For its American release, Ice Cold in Alex was not only given a new title, but was also trimmed from 132 minutes to 79. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1958
Bachelor of Hearts stars Hardy Kruger as Wolf, a German exchange student attending Cambridge University. Initially arousing the distrust and disdain of his classmates (WWII was, after all, only thirteen years in the past), the affable Wolf slowly wins them over. He also finds romance in the lovely form of an English miss named Ann (Sylvia Sims)-but only after he has gotten himself in quite a pickle by lining up several dates simultaneously (hence the film's title). Filmed on location at Cambridge, Bachelor of Hearts affords ample screen time to the music of the university's highly regarded Jazz Club. The script was cowritten by Leslie Bricusse, later the composer/lyricist/librettist of such filmusicals as Dr. Dolittle and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hardy Kruger, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1958
In direct contrast to his later lush-budgeted international epics, director J. Lee Thompson turns his lenses towards the London slums in the sincere but saccharine No Trees in the Street. Based on the play by Ted Willis, the film is set in the years just before World War II, when England hadn't completely dug itself out of the worldwide depression. Melvyn Hayes is featured as an aimless teenager, who tries to escape his squalid surroundings by entering a life of crime. He falls in with local hoodlum Herbert Lom, who holds the rest of the slum citizens in the grip of fear--including Hayes' own family. No Trees in the Street chronicles Hayes' sordid progress from nickel-and-dime thefts to murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvia Syms, Herbert Lom, (more)
- 1958
When the English Civil War is winding down but the Roundheads and Royalists are still at odds with each other, it is decided that the King, Raymond, should be moved from England to France for safekeeping. When the Cavalier assigned the task is thwarted by the discovery of the scheme, other measures must be taken. Good action scenes with a smidgen of romance thrown in for good measure. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Baker, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1957
The Birthday Present is a bitter half-hour anecdote stretched to 100 minutes. Tony Britton plays a British toy salesman who purchases a watch for his wife's birthday while visiting the Continent. Not wishing to pay the customs duties, he hides the watch upon his return to England. Britton is caught with the goods, and his life is never the same afterwards. Intended as a slice of raw realism, Birthday Present plays more like a cautionary social studies film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Britton, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1957
Based on a popular British television drama, this 1957 film features a riveting performance from Yvonne Mitchell as a housewife who can't keep house. Mitchell plays Amy Preston, who after 25 years of marriage still hasn't mastered the domestic arts necessary to sustain a traditional 1950s-style marriage. Her long-suffering husband Jim (Anthony Quayle) finally gets fed up with Amy's unpalatable dinners, her slovenly dress, and the messy home. He takes up with Georgie Harlow (Sylvia Sims), a young woman at his workplace and realizes that he will soon have to choose between the two women. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne Mitchell, Sylvia Syms, (more)
