Liz Smith Movies

This 2000 TV miniseries is based on an 1839 Charles Dickens novel, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. The film begins with the burial of Mr. Nickleby beneath snow-covered earth. Attending are Nickleby's wife and teenage children, Nicholas (James D'Arcy) and Kate (Sophia Myles). Because Mr. Nickleby died broke after speculating on stocks, Nicholas needs money fast to provide for his mother and sister. When he seeks help from his uncle, Ralph Nickleby (Charles Dance) -- a cold-hearted businessman -- Ralph refuses cash and instead arranges for Nicholas to assist at a boarding school operated by Wackford Squeers (Gregor Fisher), a sadistic overlord who whips and starves his students. Soon, Nicholas rebels against the inhumane conditions at the school, thrashes Squeers, and flees. A pitiful and sickly student named Smike (Lee Ingleby) joins Nicholas and becomes a family friend. After working as an actor, Nicholas gets a good job at a counting house operated by the kindly Cheeryble brothers. Meanwhile, Ralph Nickleby tricks Kate into meeting his friend, Sir Mulberry Hawk (Dominic West), who wants to defile her. When Hawk strongarms her onto a billiard table, Kate escapes. Enraged, Nicholas and Ralph become thoroughgoing enemies. When Ralph uses his financial leverage to force an innocent young woman, Madeleine Bray (Katherine Holme), to marry one of his cronies, Nicholas foils the plot -- then falls in love with Madeleine himself. Ralph tries to strike back at his nephew through Smike, but fails -- although poor Smike dies. As the production reaches its climax, Ralph learns a startling secret when he and Nicholas confront each other. The final scenes of the film reveal the fates of the principal characters. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

Patrick Stewart stars as Ebeneezer Scrooge in this made-for-TV adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic holiday fable. Scrooge is a skinflint businessman who loathes the Christmas season and begrudges having to give time off to his best employee, Bob Cratchit (Richard E. Grant). On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his late friend and partner, Jacob Marley (Bernard Lloyd), who in the afterlife has come to see the error of his ways. Marley arranges for Scrooge to be visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Joel Grey), Christmas Present (Desmond Barrit), and Christmas Yet to Come (Tim Potter) in hopes of teaching Scrooge of the importance of embracing the joy of the holiday season. A Christmas Carol was produced for the TNT cable television network. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This 2000 television adaptation of Charles Dickens' Victorian classic was originally released as a six-hour, three-part miniseries on PBS. Adapted by Alan Bleasdale, this version of Oliver Twist gives viewers a new look at an old story, waiting 90 minutes to even introduce its eponymous hero (played by Sam Smith), and taking pains to establish the background of Oliver's parents, good-hearted Agnes Fleming (Sophia Myles) and all-around coward Edwin Leeford (Tim Dutton). All of the resolutely Dickensian touches are here, from greedy relatives to secret wills, to stolen lockets containing valuable information, and all are ably brought to life by a talented cast that includes Julie Walters as Mrs. Mann, Michael Kitchen as Mr. Brownlow, Lindsay Duncan as Elizabeth Leeford, Marc Warren as Monks, and Robert Lindsay as Fagin. As an added bonus, the miniseries' score, by Paul Pritchard, contains additional music by none other than Elvis Costello. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by George Orwell, this satiric comedy concerns Gordon Comstock (Richard E. Grant), an advertising copywriter who fancies himself a poet. While Gordon has published a small volume of his verse that received faint words of praise in the press ("promising" was the most enthusiastic adjective used, in a review that turned out to be written by his publisher), he is convinced that literary greatness lurks deep within him. Deciding that he should begin living the bohemian lifestyle that is the mark of a true artist, Gordon quits his job, even though his friends think he's gone daft and even his publisher Ravelston (Julian Wadham) believes that he's being rash. Gordon's girlfriend Rosemary (Helena Bonham Carter) thinks he's being a bit silly but stands by him, even though Gordon's voluntary descent into poverty has a dire impact on their sex life; Gordon's new digs in a cheap boarding house offer little privacy, thanks to his prying landlady (Liz Smith), and Rosemary lacks Gordon's enthusiasm for love in the great outdoors. Desperate for money, Gordon takes a job in a used book shop (where he sees his own book marked down to three pence...with no takers), and he is forced to rethink his new lifestyle when he learns that one of his increasingly rare sexual assignations with Rosemary has left her pregnant. Originally titled Keep the Aspidistra Flying after Orwell's novel, this film was more widely distributed as A Merry War; it also briefly played under the title Comstock and Rosemary. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

With the dead of Dibley's ancient vicar Percy Pottle, the ultra-conservative Dibley Parish Council requests that the Bishop send out a replacement ASAP. Imagine the surprise of blustery Council Chairman David Horton (Gary Waldhorn) when the new vicar turns out to be a youthful, exuberant and outspoken woman named Boadicea Geraldine Granger (Dawn French)--or Gerry for short. And that's how The Vicar of Dibley gets under way in the first episode of its first season, which also quickly establishes the unique eccentricities of Gerry's parishioners. In the subsequent weeks, Gerry tries to maintain her professional distance when she develops a crush on the producer of the BBC religious series Songs of Praise; confusion reigns when the citizens of Dibley jump to the conclusion that Gerry has booked Elton John to appear at the town's annual Autumn fair; a hurricane destroys the church's stained glass window, obliging Gerry to scare up 11,000 pounds for a replacement; and a upcoming election finds Gerry and David vying for the same post. The season's sixth and final episode concerns Gerry's "very special" service to bless all the animals of Dibley--very few of whom are particularly well versed in the, er, proper social graces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bear witness to the rise of the most corrupt and ruthless ruler ever to preside over the Roman Empire as filmmaker Paul Marcus tells the tale of Nero's unlikely ascent to the throne, and his historical fall at the hands of his own vengeful kingdom. After murdering his sister's husband on grounds of conspiracy, the increasingly incoherent Caligula exiles his grieving sibling and sets into motion a devious plan that will one-day find her son Lucius presiding over all of Rome. Beset on all sides by tyranny and bloodlust, Lucius rises to power as Nero while facing the constant wrath of all who oppose his legacy. His paranoia soon reaching a fever pitch, Nero struggles to maintain power as his army, his people, and his own mother, ultimately turn against him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this finely observed low-key drama, Alan Brandon lives by himself. Compared to his employee Bernard, he's practically upper-crust, but in reality he is just a small property holder. He has had his eye on Bernard's abused wife and teen-aged older daughter for some time and has yearnings for some kind of romantic contact with them. For a variety of reasons, Alan lets Bernard go and hires his wife Maud instead as his housekeeper. Meanwhile, Maud's older daughter has been carrying on a lackluster affair with Raif, an apparently parentless lad who lives in the town postmistress' house. When she discovers that she is pregnant, the last thing that she thinks of is marrying the boy, who could very well be the illegitimate son of a local priest. In typically British fashion, nobody admits to his or her real feelings, and fantasies abound. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A withdrawn Beunos Aries movie buff develops an unusually charged relationship with his new roommate in this off-beat psychological thriller. Reclusive and demanding, movie theater owner Adrian LeDuc is none too happy when circumstances force him to share his apartment. His outlook begins to shift, however, when he meets Jack Carney, a confident charmer with movie star looks. Adrian is both strangely attracted to and resentful of Jack, and the two form a sometimes awkward, often unspoken bond. This connection is challenged, however, when it is revealed that Jack may be hiding a horrible secret in regards to his enigmatic past. While it always remains grounded in the dynamics of the roommate's relationship, the film expands to encompass much more, from an implicit critique of obsessive movie fandom to a look at the bloody politics of the Argentinean military regime. Ultimately, however, the film is primarily concerned with creating a mood of slowly building suspense mixed with a streak of black humor, which becomes more pronounced as the film approaches its violent climax. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

British filmmaker John Schlesinger directs Separate Tables, a made-for-cable TV version of the Terence Rattigan plays Table By the Window and Table Number Seven. This 50-minute adaptation features Julie Christie and Alan Bates, each in a dual role. Set in a sleepy British town, a group of residents hide out in a hotel during the off-season and try to forget their troubles. Things get upset when former model Ann Shankland (Julie Christie) comes to visit her alcoholic ex-husband John Malcolm (Alan Bates). He is a struggling writer secretly in love with the hotel's owner, Pat Cooper (Claire Bloom). Other residents of the hotel include the overbearing Mrs. Railton-Bell (Irene Worth), whose distrubed daughter Sibyl (Christie) is strangely attracted to Major Pollock (Bates), a man who claims to be a military officer. The feature-length version of Separate Tables was released theatrically in 1958, starring Burt Lancaster and Wendy Hiller. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Trevor Howard is virtually the whole show in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End. He plays an eccentric-to-the-point-of-insanity nobleman whose love affair with the bottle is a long standing source of family embarrassment. Still, when the family mansion is plagued by an unfriendly ghost, Howard finds himself the only one willing or able to exorcise the spirit. Sir Henry at Rawlinson End was based on a radio play by Vivien Stanshall. As such, it is more satisfying for the ear than for the eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Herriot wrote several well-loved books about his experiences as a small-town veterinarian in the Yorkshire countryside of Britain in the 1930s. One of them gave its title to the film All Creatures Great and Small. That family movie was so successful that this movie It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, or All Things Bright and Beautiful was made. All the stories told explore the richness of the interactions between humans and animals and the quirky wisdom which a young country veterinarian develops under the wise and eccentric tutelage of his senior in practice, Siegfried Farnon. These stories later inspired a popular BBC television series. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Mike Leigh began his career as one of Britain's most interesting directors with this realistic drama about a woman looking for respite from an unsatisfying life. Sylvia (Anne Raitt) is a slightly overweight woman who works as a secretary and hasn't had much luck in romance. She shares her home with her retarded sister, whom she looks after, and has been dating Peter (Eric Allen), a schoolteacher whom she hopes will ask her to marry him. However, one evening they have a date that doesn't go especially well, and Sylvia discovers that Peter is impotent; he breaks up with her shortly afterward. The only other interesting relationship in her life is with Norman (Mike Bradwell), a hippie who rents out Sylvia's garage as a workspace for his underground newspaper and plays songs on his guitar for her sister. Bleak Moments was adapted from a play written by Leigh; as is his habit, the story was created in collaboration with the actors who originated the roles. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide