Terry-Thomas

The concept behind the 1977 Hound of the Baskervilles involved having "underground" director Paul Morrissey bring an irreverent slant to the original Sherlock Holmes mystery. The film thus casts Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as Holmes and Watson, with such reliable British performers as Terry-Thomas, Joan Greenwood, Denholm Elliott, Hugh Griffith, Spike Milligan, and Roy Kinnear in cameos. Producer Michael White took on the project; it mirrored his previous experience of combining spoofery and fidelity to source material with Monty Python's Jabberwocky. Examples of the film's zaniness include the casting of a lovable Irish wolfhound as the "deadly" Baskerville mastiff and having Holmes and Watson speak in thick provincial accents. For its American release, Hound of the Baskervilles was whittled down to 78 minutes, with several of its scenes out of sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is not the same kind of film as the 1962 production, Tom Jones. In fact, it is a "nudie musical", as evidenced by the presence of singing star Georgia Brown in the dual role of Jenny Jones and Mrs. Waters. The project originated as a Las Vegas stage presentation, with Nicky Henson in the lead. The plot of the Henry Fielding novel about the "boy born to be hanged" is followed in spirit rather than to the letter, with busty Joan Collins thrown in like a lagniappe as a lady highwayman. Wandering through the proceedings are such English stalwarts as Trevor Howard and Terry-Thomas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vault of Horror is the first sequel to 1972's horror hit Tales from the Crypt. It is also known as Tales from the Crypt, Part II. It continues it's predecessor's popular formula of using established stars in five witty short horror episodes. The first, "Midnight Mass," shows that having a vampire for a relative can be upsetting, to say the least. In "The Neat Job" a nagging neat-freak is neatly nullified. In "This Trick'll Kill You," a colonial overlord learns that it's not safe to steal magic tricks from natives. "Bargain in Death" exposes the greed of two insurance swindlers, and "Drawn and Quartered" takes "The Picture of Dorian Grey" one better. Among the stars appearing in these episodes are Terry-Thomas, Glynnis Johns, Curt Jurgens, Denholm Elliott and Tom Baker. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Robin Hood is one of the first animated films produced by the Walt Disney Company after Walt Disney's death in 1967. For the film, the studio's animators took the Disney tradition of adding human-like animal sidekicks to established tales (Cinderella, Pinnochio) a step further by making Robin Hood's legendary characters creatures themselves. Robin Hood (Brian Bedford) is a wily fox; Maid Marian (Monica Evans) is a beautiful vixen; Little John (Phil Harris) is a burly bear; Friar Tuck (Andy Devine) is a soft-spoken badger; the Sheriff of Nottingham (Pat Buttram) is a greedy wolf; and the scheming Prince John (Peter Ustinov) is a sniveling, groveling, thumb-sucking undersized lion with a serpent sidekick named Sir Hiss (Terry Thomas). The film begins after Prince John and Sir Hiss have tricked the true King into leaving the country on a phony crusade. With the help of the Sheriff of Nottingham, they tax the life out of Nottingham's peasants, leaving them all penniless but with the courageous Robin Hood as their only hope. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide

This sequel to the stylish 1971 melodrama The Abominable Dr. Phibes once more stars Vincent Price in the title role. Long believed dead, Phibes arises from a state of suspended animation, in search of the means to bring his deceased wife back to the land of the living. Phibes also wears a rubber mask to disguise his own horribly disfigured countenance. (The giveaway: he never moves his mouth when speaking, and eats by applying his fork to his neck!) With the aid of the enigmatic, never-speaking Vulnavia (Valli Kemp), Phibes follows an Egyptian expedition, seeking out an ancient elixir of life and killing everyone who gets in his way. In the original film, all of the doctor's grisly but ingenious murders were motivated, and all were linked by a Seven Deadly Plagues throughline. In the sequel, Phibes kills whenever he feels like it, and utilizes an impressive array of death-dealing contraptions (one victim literally has his skin blown off his body by a high-powered electric fan). This marks one of the only films ever made to wrap with Vincent Price singing "Somewhere, Over the Rainbow." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Leon (Bourvil) is the owner of a cafe in a small town in occupied France in this comedic war story. Like most French of the time, he tries to get along with the German invaders. When his daughter (Sara Franchetti) brings home a downed British aviator, Leon becomes involved by helping the man escape to England. Through a strange turn of events, he accompanies the pilot back to Britain. Leon is thought to be a spy at first, but soon he is trained by British intelligence to help the Allied cause back in France. This was one of the last films for Bourvil, the beloved French comedian who often played the common man caught up in circumstances beyond his control. Terry-Thomas plays a British captain with typical flair. The color process is not credited. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Donald Pleasence, Shelley Winters, Tammy Grimes, and Terry-Thomas star in the obscure British black comedy Arthur!! Arthur? Pleasence plays a henpecked, introverted little nebbish, unhappily wed to Winters. Escaping into fantasy, Pleasence conjures up an extroverted alter-ego, which eventually overtakes his "real" self. Newly emboldened, he murders his wife, cashes in her insurance policies, and runs off with Grimes. But she proves a bit too clever for both of Pleasence's personalities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Abbott, a citizen of Ancient Rome, is transported against his will to the 20th Century. No sooner has he landed in Tinseltown than he's pounced upon by opportunists and sharpsters. Ad man Terry-Thomas exploits Abbott for marketing purposes, while gorgeous Lisa Seagram hopes to use the hapless Roman as a launching pad for her own showbiz career. There's a lot of comic talent in 2000 Years Later--in addition to Terry-Thomas, the film features Edward Everett Horton, Pat Harrington Jr. and Casey Kasem. In keeping with its title (in a manner of speaking), the film fares well as a 1960s time capsule, with cameo appearances by such icons of the decade as singer Monty Rock III and designer Rudi Gernreich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this caper movie, a gang of prison inmates sneak out and rob the Royal Mint. They then sneak back to prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Diabolik (John Phillip Law) is the criminal mastermind who has just pulled off a huge heist. He spends most of his free time with his girlfriend, Eva (Marisa Mell), in fond embrace. The police minister (Terry-Thomas) is approached by Valmont (Adolfo Celi), a master criminal who proposes to use his underworld connections to catch Diabolik for the police. In between their gratuitous lovemaking, he and the exotic Eva are chased by police and the mob in this plodding crime drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This light romantic comedy is set during the November 9th power outage of 1965 that darkened New York and much of the East Coast. Margaret (Doris Day) is a theater actress who storms out on her architect husband, Peter (Patrick O'Neal), when a pretty female reporter spends too much time interviewing him for Margaret's liking. Later, Waldo Zane (Robert Morse), an embezzling business executive, has car trouble while fleeing his company. Margaret's house is nearby, so he sneaks in, and, after taking a drink of her elixir, he falls asleep beside her by mistake. Naturally, her husband soon appears, and comedy ensues in cases of mistaken identity and scheduling mix-ups. Columnist Earl Wilson makes a cameo appearance as does director Hy Averback. Steve Allen plays the radio announcer, Jim Backus a car dealer, and Pat Paulsen deadpans his usual facade in his role as a train conductor. Though this romantic comedy came out a couple years after the infamous New York City-wide blackout, it is based on French playwright Claude Magnier's production Monsieur Masure, which was written in the '50s. The actual power failure resulted in a population explosion exactly nine months later, and over double the average number of kids started school in 1971 as a direct result of the darkness. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide