Donald Sinden Movies
British stage actor Donald Sinden transferred his base of operations to the screen in 1948. He was best known in the 1950s for his characterization of Dr. Benskin in the popular Doctor in the House film series. He later starred in the TV series Two's Company (1974), Never the Twain (1981), and Playing Shakespeare (1988), and was heard as the voice of Doc in the 1995 animated feature Balto. Donald Sinden wrote his autobiography in 1982, titled A Touch of the Memoirs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1959
Set in an anti-aircraft station along the British coast, this light comedy features Donald Sinden as Lt. Gordon Brown and Barbara Murray as his wife, Private Betty Brown. When a group of female recruits are posted to the base, the handsome lieutenant attracts their attention, especially the attention of blonde charmer Private Marge White (Carole Lesley). Then Lt. Brown's wife Betty gets posted to the base as well, and that causes no end of trouble. Regulations require that they cannot be working out of the same place, and so they hide their relationship. Meanwhile, the enamored Marge does not have a clue and neither does Major Pym (Naunton Wayne). The good Major then gives the flummoxed lieutenant leave to go visit his wife, and matters deteriorate even more. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sinden, Barbara Murray, (more)
The third of the droll British "Doctor" series, Doctor at Large once more stars Dirk Bogarde as young Dr. Simon Sparrow. Back in his old stamping grounds at St. Swithin's Teaching Hospital, Sparrow misses his chance at becoming chief surgeon when he crosses swords with the formidable Sir Lancelot Spratt (James Robertson Justice). Forced to go job hunting, our hero undergoes a variety of hilarious medical and romantic misadventures before ending up right where he started. Some of the film's best scenes involve shapely nurse Nan, played by Shirley Eaton of Goldfinger fame. Like its predecessors, Doctor at Large was based on characters created by real-life medico George Gordon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Dandy Nichols, (more)
- 1957
The small but resourceful Scots island of Todday, introduced in the 1949 Ealing comedy Whisky Galore!, made a return visit to movie screens in 1958's Rockets Galore--released in the U.S. as Mad Little Island. In the first film, the good people of Todday faced up to the appalling dilemma of a whisky shortage. Now we're in the space age, and Todday has been targeted as the location for a rocket-launching site. Banding together as before, the islanders do their best to sabotage the project under the unsuspecting noses of the blinkered British military. Mad Little Island was better received in America than it was in England, where it was perceived as an uninspired rewarming of yesterday's haggis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Carson, Donald Sinden, (more)
- 1956
In this thriller a woman witnesses a robbery, runs away from the scene and is rundown by a bus. The two thieves, realizing that she could get them arrested, sneak into the hospital where they plan to kill her. Their repeated attempts all end in failure. At the end, one of the thieves, feeling guilty about killing her, murders the other thief and saves the woman's life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, (more)
- 1956
Anthony Steel stars in this fanciful wartime drama. Stationed in Libya, British soldier Steel is wounded, then nursed back to health by a band of Nomads. He manages to marry the tribal chieftan's daughter (Anna Maria Sandri) before getting down to the serious business of fending off the Nazis. Ten years afterwards, Steel's brother returns to the tribe, there to take his late father's place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Steel, Donald Sinden, (more)
- 1956
In this British crime drama, an escaped killer heads for the French coast to find a mysterious treasure reportedly buried in a widow's mansion. The lonely widow is preparing to marry a man she doesn't love. Suddenly she begins receiving mysterious photos of her late spouse; they seem to suggest that he is alive. Frightened, she takes the pictures to the cops; they then implicate the fugitive and just as they get to the widow's mansion, they find the crook holding an invaluable statue of the Madonna. The cops inform the cornered thief that the statue is useless to him because no one will buy it from him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, (more)
- 1955
You gets what you pays for in An Alligator Named Daisy. Donald Sinden stars as a young songwriter who accidentally picks up someone else's alligator suitcase. Somehow this leads to the luckless Sinden being saddled with a baby alligator, who prefers to sleep within his piano. Glamour girl Diana Dors is the leading lady, revealing an unexpected flair for wacky comedy. Based on a novel by Charles Terrot, An Alligator Named Daisy seemed to show up every other day on TV in the early 1960s, possibly due to its pleasant Technicolor photography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sinden, Diana Dors, (more)
- 1955
Judging by the number of times it has shown up on TV, Above Us the Waves may be American viewers' favorite British war film. Most of the film is set in a British midget submarine, commandeered by John Mills. The sub's mission (together with its "fellow" vessels) is to sink the German battleship Tirpitz. This will be accomplished by the midget sub fleet sneaking into Norwegian waters, floating beneath the Tirpitz, then planting explosives. Only Mills' sub manages to complete the mission. Based on a true-life 1943 incident, Above Us the Waves takes a revisionist approach by showing the German officers and seamen to be human beings rather than faceless minions of Hitler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, John Gregson, (more)
- 1955
In this romantic comedy, a womanizing uncle tells the story of his good-hearted but fickle niece, whose tendency to always champion the underdog causes her endless romantic woes. It all begins when she breaks up with her fiance on the eve of their wedding so she can marry and help out a half-starved aspiring playwright. With her moral support and his talent, the playwright makes it big. Unfortunately, her old fiance shows up. He has lost his fortune and must flee the police. The tender-hearted lass, unable to resist a hard-luck story, then falls for her former love until he is proven innocent. It is at that point that the niece chooses her man once and for all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glynis Johns, Jack Buchanan, (more)
- 1955
The recent Mau Mau uprising in Kenya served as story material for the 1955 British film Simba. White farmer Dirk Bogarde and his neighbors are targeted for extermination by the zealously nationalistic Mau Maus. Native doctor Joseph Tomelty, whose brother had earlier been killed under questionable circumstances, endeavors to help the whites escape the hordes, only to discover that his own father is the local leader of the insurrectionists. Given the cruelties of colonial rule in Africa, it is hard for any film to make the Mau Mau total villains, despite their own well-documented brutal treatment of their enemies. Simba downplays side-taking and ideology, choosing instead to concentrate on the adventure and suspense elements. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Virginia McKenna, (more)
- 1954
Mad About Men is the delightful sequel to the saucy British comedy-fantasy Miranda. Glynis Johns returns in the dual role of amorous mermaid Miranda and her somewhat more reserved "human" lookalike Caroline. Having inherited a house in Cornwall, Caroline goes on an extended holiday, whereupon Miranda takes her place as mistress of the estate. The dialogue is rather silly and obvious, but there's much fun to be had as Miranda casts out her net for every eligible male in the vicinity. Though not a big hit in the US, Mad About Men became a "Late Show" mainstay on TV, especially when color television came into common usage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Crawford, Donald Sinden, (more)
- 1954
This second film version of Somerset Maugham's Vessel of Wrath lacks the casual charm of the first (which starred Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester), but is otherwise quite entertaining. Robert Newton stars as Honorable Ted, a slovenly, bibulous South Sea Island beachcomber. The black sheep of a prominent British family, Ted is paid an annual salary to stay as far away from England as possible. Prim-and-proper missionary Martha (Glynis Johns), the sister of heathen-hating Welsh minister Owen (Paul Rogers), takes it upon herself to reform the intractable Ted. The script then goes off on a tangent not found in the Maugham original. Due to illness, Owen is unable to travel to a native village in an attempt to halt a cholera outbreak. So he sends Martha, with a reluctant Ted along as interpreter, to the village in his stead in an attempt to cure the tribal headman's daughter. After they fail, they and an intern are sentenced to a horrible death by the angry villagers. Despite the radicial differences in their separate acting styles, Robert Newton and Glynis Johns make a copacetic screen team. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Newton, Donald Sinden, (more)
- 1954
While off on a drunken toot, three British naval officers attach an old baby carriage and a pawnbroker's sign to the stern of a foreign naval vessel. The next morning, a zealous officer spots the curious appendage and comes to the conclusion that the "pram" and sign are actually part of a sophisticated, top-secret radar device. Instantly, the British navy brass demands that their ships be outfitted with the same device -- and so it goes, with one bureaucratic misunderstanding after another snowballing into a major "international incident." You Know What Sailors Are top-bills Akim Tamiroff as the president of a mythical Foreign country, but the film belongs to Donald Sinden as the well-meaning young officer who precipitates the whole affair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Akim Tamiroff, Donald Sinden, (more)
The 1953 Clark Gable film Mogambo is a remake of Gable's 1932 seriocomic adventure Red Dust. Where the earlier film was lensed on the MGM backlot, Mogambo was shot on location in Africa by director John Ford. Gable is safari leader Victor Marswell, who plays "host" to stranded Eloise Y. Kelly (Ava Gardner, who is no better than she ought to be but is just right for our raffish hero -- the Gardner role was originally played along franker pre-Code lines by Jean Harlow). Anthropologist Donald Nordley (Donald Sinden) hires Victor to lead him into the deepest, darkest jungle. Along for the ride is Donald's wife, Linda (Grace Kelly), outwardly cool as a cucumber but secretly harboring a lust for Victor. Scorned, Kelly tries to kill Victor, but true-blue Eloise takes the blame for the shooting. Reportedly, Grace Kelly carried on an off-camera romance with Clark Gable, which ended when the differences in their ages proved insurmountable. Even so, it is the easy rapport between Gable and Ava Gardner which stole the show in Mogambo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, (more)
- 1953
Based on The Hand and the Flower, a novel by Jerrard Tickell, A Day to Remember stars Stanley Holloway as Charley Porter, captain of London darts team. When the team travels to the French town of Boulogne for the annual darts tournament, a good time is had by all--and more besides. Jim Carver (Donald Sinden), one of the team's members, is reunited with a little French girl he'd befriended during the war, who has now developed into a beautiful young woman (Odelle Versois). And Fred Collins (James Hayter) makes a poignant journey to the hotel where he'd honeymooned with his late wife (Brenda DeBanzie). The film works best as a low-key comedy-drama; it is least successful when it ventures into O. Henry territory and strains for "surprise" story twists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Holloway, Donald Sinden, (more)
The first of the popular British "Doctor" comedy series, Doctor in the House stars Dirk Bogarde as callow young medical student Simon Sparrow. Beginning his five-year internship at St. Swithin's Teaching Hospital, Sparrow continually runs afoul of head doctor Sir Lancelot Sprat (James Robertson-Justice). His social life is spiced up when Sparrow is taken under the wings of three student repeaters, who've flunked their prelims and are seeking a second chance. Most of the humor is very basic and not a little vulgar, ranging from the character name "Sir Lancelot Sprat" (say it really fast) to the now famous "What's the bleeding time?" routine. The film spawned several theatrical follow-ups, as well as a 1970s TV series; all were based on the semi-satirical novels by Dr. Richard Gordon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, (more)
- 1953
In this seagoing military drama set in World War II, Lt. Comdr. Ericson (Jack Hawkins) is made captain of a British corvette, a small escort vessel used to guide and protect convoys traveling through the Atlantic. Ericson had his confidence severely shaken during his last command, in which he lost his ship and most of its men following an attack by a German U-boat. As he leads a new and largely inexperienced crew aboard the H.M.S. Compass Rose, Ericson is once again thrown into a life-and-death dilemma that forces him to choose between destroying an enemy ship and sparing the lives of his own men. The Cruel Sea featured breakthrough early performances from Denholm Elliott and Virginia McKenna, and it was based on a best-selling novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, who stipulated that the film rights could be sold only to a British company. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, (more)
- 1948
Portrait from Life is an over-orchestrated "guilty pleasure" from the glory days of British romance pictures. A German professor sees a portrait in an art gallery which looks exactly like his daughter, who is assumed to have died in the war. The girl (Mai Zetterling) has been living as an amnesiac in Europe, under the protection of a former Nazi bigwig. British army major Guy Rolfe tries to cut through red tape and an tangled-up espionage plot to rescue the girl. Portrait from Life was issued in the US under the imaginative title The Girl in the Painting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mai Zetterling, Guy Rolfe, (more)
