Geoffrey Toone Movies

Swordplay, secret messages, and the rustle of ballroom finery make this 1982 adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel a gala bash. Anthony Andrews heads the cast as English nobleman Sir Percy Blakeney, a conceited but amusing fop in the drawing rooms of British high society. But beneath his veneer of lacy impertinence is a man of bravado and derring-do. In disguise, he becomes the Pimpernel -- ta-da! -- and steals into France to rescue aristocrats condemned to the guillotine during the French Revolution. After each rescue, he leaves behind a scarlet pimpernel, a flower whose petals close at the approach of stormy weather. He also uses a signet ring engraved with a scarlet pimpernel to identify himself on the sealing wax of letters to compatriots. It is all jolly-good intrigue. Because he cloaks his schemes in great secrecy, not even his new wife Marguerite (Jane Seymour) realizes he is anything more than an innocuous dandy. Frustrated, the French send the ruthless Chauvelin (Ian McKellen) to England to serve as ambassador and ferret out the elusive Pimpernel. In a plot that ensnares Marguerite and closes the Pimpernel's petals, Chauvelin finally confronts his clever adversary, and it's en garde -- parry and thrust! ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of the four-part story "The Curse of Peladon," the Time Lords dispatch the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo (Katy Manning) to the future to investigate the planet Peladon, which has petitioned for membership in the Galactic Federation. No sooner have they arrived than the two time-travelers are plunged into a murder mystery -- and the culprit may very well be a ghost. Written by Brian Hayles, "The Curse of Peladon, Episode 1" first aired on January 29, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the third episode of the four-part story "The Curse of Peladon," the efforts by the King of Peladon to gain entry into the Galactic Federation are brought to a grinding halt by the resurrection of the sacred -- and apparently deadly -- Pel beast Aggredor. The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) suspects that the perpetrators of all this intrigue are none other than his old nemeses, the Ice Warriors from Mars. But both the Doctor and the audience are in for quite a surprise. Written by Brian Hayles, "The Curse of Peladon, Episode 3" first aired on February 12, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A very popular and fondly remembered British TV series from the Swingin' Sixties, Freewheelers was a "boy's own adventure"-style actioner involving a band of intrepid teenagers. Linking up with a secret government agency, the kids did battle against an exhausting array of villains, beginning with Von Gelb, an ex-Nazi who tried to resuscitate the Third Reich from his motor-launch headquarters. Though played tongue in cheek and larger than life, the series seldom descended into outrageous camp. The large and ever changing cast of regulars included, at one time or another, Hammer Films stalwarts Geoffrey Toone and Michael Ripper, onetime Bugaloos ingenue Caroline Ellis, and future Doctor Who regular Wendy Padbury. Making its Southern Television debut on April 4, 1968, Freewheelers ultimately clocked in at a daunting 104 episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This crime drama is set in 1910, and tells the tale of a doctor accused of murdering his wife. He swore that he didn't do it. The evidence speaks otherwise. The doctor staunchly claimed the overdose of tranquilizers found in her tea got there by accident and that he and his beautiful mistress had absolutely nothing to do with it. Never mind that after his wife's "accidental" death, he and his lover just happened to choose that moment for a Canadian vacation. Despite their absence, the London police continue investigating until they find the poor wife's body buried in the doctor's cellar. Even after his subsequent capture, extradition and guilty sentence, Dr. Crippen swears his innocence. It's unbelievable, but the story is true. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The time is World War I. The scene: a lonely trench, somewhere in the farthest reaches of the French battlefields. British "Tommy" Gary Cockrell shares the trench with his dying company commander. As he breathes his last, the commander informs Cockrell that he, Cockrell, has accidentally killed his own brother in the thick of combat. The rest of this 57-minute quota quickie finds Cockrell trying to make amends for his unintentional fratricide. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Terror of the Tongs is a gory, garishly colored melodrama written by Jimmy Sangster in the tradition of the Fu Manchu films. The villain is "Fu" himself, Christopher Lee, here eminently hissable as the leader of a vicious Chinese Tong operating in 1910 Hong Kong. Proper London merchant Geoffrey Toone is drawn into this netherworld when his daughter is murdered by Lee's minions. Conducting a one-man war against the Tongs, Toone eventually flushes out every member of the faction...leaving only Lee to vanquish at fade-out time. Though the crimson-dominated color photography of Terror of the Tongs is the film's prime asset, the picture was originally released theatrically in black and white. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yul Brynner and Kay Kendall star as Victor and Dolly Fabian in this successful cinematic version of the stage comedy by Harry Kurnitz. Victor is a larger-than-life symphony conductor who loves music but has all the social skills of a wounded rhinoceros. After his wife Dolly gets fed up with smoothing over his relationships with his musicians and everyone else, she dumps him and takes up an offer of marriage from a physicist. Alas! Documentation -- or the lack of it -- soon reveals that the Fabians were never really married in the first place. Unfortunately, they still have to get divorced in order to save face and this, of course, leads to an increasingly unexpected series of complications. Elegant and witty actress Kay Kendall died of leukemia three months after this film was completed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

"Site Three" is a top-secret missile base in this British meller. Geoffrey Toone stars as Sexton Blake, the Sherlock Holmes clone created by committee for the "pulps" and comic books. With his faithful young assistant Tinker (Richard Burrell), the all-knowing, all-seeing Blake try to ferret out an espionage ring operating within Britain's space program. A key ingredient to the proceedings is the truth serum developed and utilized by Blake. Murder at Site Three was based on Crime is My Business, a novel by W. Howard Baker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This suspenseful air-borne adventure can rightfully lay claim to being the Mother of All subsequent in-flight disaster films of the '70s. The trouble begins when the pilot and crew of a Canadian passenger plane suddenly find themselves doubled over from accidental ptomaine poisoning and unable to continue flying the plane. The only other person on board who can save the terrified crew is a former WW II flying ace who is petrified of flying again. Fortunately, a courageous steel-nerved ground controller is there to offer full-radio support. Later the film became the basis of a TV movie Terror in the Sky and the hilarious parody Airplane (1980). Arthur Hailey, who wrote the teleplay on which this was based, went on to write the novel and the screenplay for 1970's Airport. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This episode is based on a famous urban legend, previously filmed as the 1949 theatrical feature. Patricia Hitchcock (daughter of the boss) stars as Diana Winthrop, who attends the 1899 Paris World's Exposition in the company of her mother (Mary Forbes). Having left their hotel room to fetch some medicine for her ailing mother, Diana returns a few hours later, only to be told that she has not been registered. Further investigation reveals that no one can remember ever seeing Diana or her mother -- and there is serious doubt that her mother ever existed! The key to the mystery is a patch of wallpaper...and the solution involves an elaborate ruse to save the Exposition from being closed down before it has a chance to open. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lana Turner stars as Diane in this opulent costume drama. Set in 16th century France, the film finds the gorgeous Diane de Pottiers rising to a position of absolute power through her manipulation of the men in her life. Those men include King Francis I (Pedro Armendariz), Prince Henri (Roger Moore) and Diane's husband, the Count de Breze (Torin Thatcher). Diane's principal foe is the scheming Catherine de Medici (Marisa Pavan), who for the first time in her life has met her match in Our Heroine. Christopher Isherwood's screenplay is literate to a fault, though the film could have used a few more action highlights. The tepid box-office receipts of Diane hastened the end of Lana Turner's long association with MGM. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Young Britisher Susanne Mallinson (Claire Bloom) is visiting the occupied city of postwar Berlin, as the guest of her brother, Major Martin Mallinson (Geoffrey Toone) and his wife Bettina (Hildegarde Neff), whom he met during his initial stay in Berlin as a British Army doctor. They seem happily married, but Susanne soon notices that Bettina is trying to hide something, both from her and from Martin -- a secret involving a young boy (Dieter Krause) on a bicycle who seems to turn up everywhere she does, and figure whom she initially doesn't see. The truth finally comes out amidst a new skirmish between the British on one side and the East Germans in the Soviet zone on the other, and a man named Olaf Kastner (Ernst Schroeder), who seems to make a lot of mystery-shrouded trips in and out of the city's Russian Zone. Bettina was married to the mysterious Ivo Kern (James Mason), a handsome, smooth-talking former German army officer (with his own record during the Second World War -- as well as after -- to hide from) who was presumed dead after 1944, and declared so by the authorities. But now Ivo has turned up alive, an event that nullifies Bettina's and Martin's marriage, among other personal repercussions; and he has been working for the Russians in the eastern zone, engineering the kidnapping of people out of West Berlin. And he wants Olaf Kastner, who has been an embarrassment to the East Germans, and especially Kern's superior Halendar (Albert Waescher), with his success at rescuing people from the Eastern Zone; and Ivo might just get him if he can charm the wide-eyed, innocent Susanne sufficiently . . . . ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide