Olive Sloane Movies

A short ghost story, this film is better than it looks at first glance. When Jean, the patient wife of novelist David, inherits a country house, it seems an ideal opportunity for David to complete his long-awaited book, even though the house harbors Patrick, a mischievous, family poltergeist. David is bored until he's seduced by Valerie, the curvaceous blonde divorcee who's typing his manuscript. When Jean, with Patrick's help, learns of the affair and confronts him, David swears that he is through with the blonde and will play the model husband. He's lying. This thriller is an entertaining treat, with enjoyable performances by Sandra Dorne as the temptress, Patricia Dainton as the wife, and Anita Sharp as a cantankerous housekeeper. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide

Donald Sinden and Peggy Cummins co-star as Pelham and Gay Butterworth in this routine comedy about a married couple whose hopes of acquiring an instantaneous fortune are suddenly dashed. When Gay finds out she is going to get a huge inheritance, the young couple go on a spending spree. Just a tad late, she also learns that the inheritance will be doled out one week by one paltry week -- unless her husband dies or they divorce. After all else fails, the couple decide to divorce and then remarry later, quietly -- but even this plan suddenly hits an unexpected hitch. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A false accusation divides a town and destroys a clergyman's career in this adaptation of the Philip King stage play of the same name. Anthony Quayle stars as Reverend Howard Phillips, a new arrival in a small town that's become overrun with punk kids. Trying to make a difference and improve the town's fortunes, Phillips earns the respect and love of Hester Peters (Sarah Churchill), a spinster and the daughter of the previous vicar. Unfortunately, Phillips runs afoul of Larry Thompson (Andrew Ray), leader of the delinquents running roughshod over the town. A nasty piece of work, Thompson has murdered one person and doesn't hesitate to concoct a false story that Phillips made an unwelcome homosexual advance toward him that turned into an assault. Instead of rallying to his defense, the narrow-minded town elders simply backbite and gossip. Director Terence Young went on to direct three of the first four James Bond films, Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), and Thunderball (1965). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

The British Brothers in Law is a characteristically enjoyable Boulting-brother farce, again extracting humor out of the commonplace. Ian Carmichael stars as a novice attorney, full of notions but coming-on a bit too strong for his fellow lawyers. Thanks to the intervention of irascible judge Miles Malleson, Carmichael is forced to jump in and starts swimming with a particularly prickly case. The experience teaches Carmichael how to bend and shape law to his advantage--and also how to curry favor with the public. Brothers in Law was based on a novel by Henry Cecil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A U.S. military officer is motivated by love and compassion to begin a life of crime in this action adventure story. Sgt. Joe Lawrence (Richard Widmark) is an American Army officer who, while stationed in Berlin shortly after the end of WWII, falls in love with Maria (Mai Zetterling), a refugee trying to raise enough money to move a group of German orphans to South America, where they can start life anew. Joe wants to help her, and with his buddies Sgt. Roger Morris (George Cole) and Brian Hammell (Nigel Patrick), Joe plans a daring robbery. A fortune in gold is being transferred from England to Germany via military transport, and Joe, Roger, and Brian intend to hijack the plane and grab the treasure. While the robbery goes off as planned, the three participants soon have second thoughts about what to do with their ill-gotten gains. Seven years later, leading lady Mai Zetterling would commence a distinguished career as a director with her film Wargame. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Golden Link gets off to a spectacularly violent start when a woman's body plummets into the hallway of an apartment building. It looks like a suicide, but police superintendent Blake (Andre Morrell) suspects murder. Blake is officially "off" the case before long; unofficially, he calmly putters around, asking questions, searching for clues. The chief murder suspects are the victim's husband (Patrick Holt) and daughter (Thea Gregory), both of whom had ample opportunity and motive. It turns out that Blake's instincts were correct, but his initial choice of perpetrators was way off. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alf Donkin (Jerry Desmonde) and his two nitwitted brothers (C. Dernier Warren and Mark Daly) adopt an orphaned baby girl. She grows up to be the delectable Pauline Stroud, whose beauty and vulnerability prompts the good-hearted Alf to be all the more protective of her. When Pauline falls in love with a crook (Peter Hammond), Alf and his siblings try to prevent their foster child from making the mistake of her life. Alf's Baby was based on It Won't Be a Stylish Marriage, a play by A.P. Dearsley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this farce, a soldier returns home after six years to find that his home is now also a boardinghouse, and he becomes enemies with a well-liked lodger. Everything turns out all right when the soldier learns that he has inherited a ranch in Texas and the lodger turns out to be a criminal. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

A novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop was the source for the grim British drama Tall Headlines. The son of a middle-class family is executed for murder. The family does its best to kick over all the traces, moving to a different community under an assumed name and never speaking of their son. All of these preventative measures seem futile when the dead man's younger brother begins evincing the same antisocial traits that eventually destroyed his sibling. All suspicions seem to be confirmed when the brother's wife turns up dead. There are several plot twists that would lose their value if they were repeated in this space. An excellent all-character-actor cast includes Flora Robson and Andre Morrell as the grieving parents, Michael Denison as the brother and Mai Zetterling as the initial murder victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A decidedly pre-Around the World in 80 Days Michael Anderson was the director of the British melodrama Waterfront. Robert Newton pulls out all the stops as an embittered, alcoholic sailor who deserts his family, only to return 14 years later. If he was expecting a warm reunion, he was sadly mistaken. Going off on another bender, the sailor pushes the envelope too far, eventually killing an old friend. Richard Burton shows up in a featured role. Based on a novel by John Brophy, Waterfront was released in the U.S. as Waterfront Women. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Returning to his old Elstree Studios headquarters in England, Alfred Hitchcock did his best with Hume Cronyn's adaptation of the James Bridie novel Under Capricorn. Costume drama was never Hitchcock's forte, as proven by his disappointing Jamaica Inn (1939), but Capricorn does have its moments. Set in Australia in the early 19th century, the film concerns the tribulations of Lady Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman), who was driven out of her home in disgrace after eloping with unkempt stableman Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten). Accused of the murder of Henrietta's brother, Flusky has been transported to Australia, where he starts life anew as a prosperous businessman, even while his wife descends further and further into alcoholism and self-hatred. When her cousin Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) comes to visit, Henrietta falls in love with him; she also confides that it was she, and not Flusky, who was responsible for her brother's death. The operatic climax finds Lady Henrietta doing the "right thing" at the cost of her own happiness. At times ponderously directed, the film comes explosively to life whenever Margaret Leighton, cast as Lady Henrietta's spiteful housekeeper, dominates the scene. On a technical level, Under Capricorn is distinguished by the same "ten-minute takes" that Hitchcock had utilized in Rope; particularly effective is an uninterrupted dialogue sequence, played against the backdrop of a spectacular Technicolor sunset (courtesy cinematographer Jack Cardiff). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not a film about scientific research, The Guinea Pig (US title: The Outsider) is the story of an incipient "affirmative action" program. An impoverished young British boy wins a scholarship. As part of a sociological experiment, he becomes the first product of his "class" to be accepted in a snooty upper-crust public school. Most of the film concentrates on the effect this experiment has on the school staff. Written by actor Bernard Miles, who also plays a supporting role, The Guinea Pig stirred up controversy at the time of its release because of the presence of an alleged profanity in its dialogue. If you must know, it's the same "filthy word" Audrey Hepburn shouts at the Ascot races in My Fair Lady (64). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide