Richard Thorp Movies
- 1996
Reminiscent of the United Kingdom's Have I Got News for You, the Australian series Good News Week was a current-events quiz show with a satircial slant. On each episode, two teams of celebrities attempted to answer questions pertaining to recent news events, all the while attempting to top one another in the wisecrack department. The series debuted over Australia's ABC network on April 12, 1996. Two years later, Good News Week moved to the 10 Network, where it remained until November of 2000, by which time it had expanded from 30 to 90 minutes weekly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Written and directed by Derek Ford, the British Suburban Wives is a spicy satire of modern manners and mores. Newspaperwoman Eve Whishaw relates the separate stories of eight married couples. The husbands are satisfied with their lot, but the wives are bored, bored, bored. The manner in which the ladies add a little fun to their lives originally earned this film an X rating. Current prints of Suburban Wives have been toned down to a hard "R". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Cornel Wilde co-produces, directs, and stars with his wife Jean Wallace in this uneven version of fabled King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Wilde, a skilled fencer, is Lancelot and appropriately enough, Wallace is his lady-love Guinevere. This time around, their traditionally chaste romance (Guinevere marries King Arthur) takes on a more modern veneer as she and Lancelot become intimate. Aside from their love story, several battles on horseback keep the knights busy as King Arthur struggles to hold onto his throne in the face of a challenge from King Leodogran (John Longdon). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, (more)
- 1963
It's Hoppity Goes To Town with sex in this 1963 British version of the old chestnut concerning an innocent country lass who travels to the big city and becomes corrupted, in this film version of Patrick Hamilton's novel The Street Has a Thousand Skies. Janet Munro runs the gamut of emotions as Jennie, a young girl from Wales who, with her girlfriend, is seduced and abandoned by a couple of heartless creeps in London, where she is later befriended by a kindly bartender John Stride. But Jennie snubs the bartender and takes up with a an unfeeling playboy. However, Jennie has gone around the park one time too many and is now torn between going back home or committing suicide. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet Munro, John Stride, (more)
- 1963
20,000 Pound Kiss was the 45th of 47 British second features based on the works of Edgar Wallace, all released between 1960 and 1963. The film jams quite a lot of plot into its 57 minutes, starting off with an extortion scheme. A man of limited means is told to ante up 20,000 pounds or face public exposure as a philanderer. Murder inevitably follows. 20,000 Pound Kiss was filmed at the Merton Park headquarters of producer Jack Greenwood; its release in America was confined to a TV package titled The Edgar Wallace Mysteries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
This routine wartime drama is set at sea and involves a British convoy trying to elude a group of German U-Boats. After one of the U-Boats is singled out and captured, the British admiral in charge of the current operation hits upon an ingenious but almost suicidal way of defeating the Nazi boats. He orders Lt. Commander Tarlton (Edward Judd) and a group of men to get in the captured U-Boat and then join the other U-Boats as though they had simply wandered off course for awhile. If done quickly and efficiently, Tarlton should be able to radio back the position of the enemy for a fast British offensive. Not an easy task in itself, and made much worse considering that the RAF and other British ships are going to consider the decoy U-Boat to be the enemy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Judd, Laurence Payne, (more)
- 1962
Investigating a series of student suicides at a prestigious university, Steed soon discovers that the deaths were all murders. He further learns that the cause of it all is a secret political organization that strong-arms students into joining its ranks. Posing as a coed, Steed's assistant Venus Smith (Julie Stevens puts her own life on the line for God and Country (and also finds time to sing a couple of songs). Written by James Mitchell, "School for Traitors" originally aired in England on February 9, 1963; it remained unseen in America until February 22, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
In this comedy, a milque-toast bank clerk is forced to deliver blackmail money to a seductive woman. Misunderstandings abound when the clerk's brother-in-law sees him leaving the woman's house. Soon word that the clerk has become a dashing rake is spread around the town. In the end, the owner of a sexy lingerie factory offers the clerk a partnership in his business. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
1957's The Good Companions was the second film version of the well-known J. B. Priestly play. The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth. Eric Portman, Celia Johnson and John Fraser are three Britons from various classes and walks of life who become involved in the fortunes of the Dinky Doos. Pooling their resources, the diverse "good companions" save the troupe from disbanding. Good-natured and high-spirited, Good Companions might have even been better had the director adopted a more intimate and less showbizzy approach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Portman, Celia Johnson, (more)
- 1957
First filmed in 1934 with Norma Shearer, Fredric March and Charles Laughton, Rudolf Bessier's stage hit The Barretts of Wimpole Street was lavishly remade in CinemaScope and Metrocolor in 1957. This time around, Jennifer Jones stars as the beautiful invalid Elizabeth Barrett, who lives under the despotic rule of her Victorian-era father Edward Moulton Barrett (John Gielgud). Literally swept off her feet by dashing, romantic poet Robert Browning (Bill Travers), Elizabeth's hopes for happiness are dashed by her autocratic, implicitly incestuous father until Browning takes decisive action. Virginia McKenna, wife of star Bill Travers, plays Elizabeth's rebellious sister Henrietta. The Barretts of Wimpole Street was the final directorial effort of Sidney Franklin, who also helmed the 1934 version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jones, John Gielgud, (more)
- 1955
The British The Dam Busters is the story of the development and utilization of the "bouncing bombs" in World War II. Michael Redgrave stars as Dr. Barnes Wallis, who developed these unorthodox explosives. Wallis' invention is put to practical use during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams in Germany. Most of the film is devoted to the two years spent in creating the bombs and training the pilots; the final sequence is a special-effects masterpiece, even allowing for the obvious models standing in for the dams. Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from both Guy Gibson's book Enemy Coast Ahead and Paul Brickhill's The Dam Busters, this film was Britain's biggest box-office success of 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, (more)
- 1948
A solid script by John Guillermin bolsters the otherwise so-so British filler Melody in the Dark. Eunice Gayson plays an actress who inherits a forbidding old mansion. Using her new domicile as a rehearsal hall for herself and her fellow thespians, Eunice is scared out of her wits by mysterious sounds emanating from nowhere. There's a logical explanation, of course, but try telling that to the cast during the film's first five reels. Musical relief is provided by such home-grown acts as The Keynotes, The Stardusters and The London Lovelies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
