Ralph Truman Movies

Screenwriter Robert Bolt's directorial debut is a lushly romantic saga concerning the 1812 love affair between the wife of William Lamb, Lord of Melbourne, and the author of the poem Childe Harold, Lord Byron. Excited and embarrassed by the attendant affections heaped upon him, Byron found his writing talent waning, and in 1813 the lovers ended their affair. In her first novel, Glenarvon in 1816, Lady Lamb included a satiric portrait of her former lover. But when she later witnessed Byron's funeral in 1828, she was so affected by his death she never mentally recovered from the trauma. The film charts the doomed romantic course for Lady Caroline Lamb (Sarah Miles), beginning with her marriage to the politically promising William Lamb (Jon Finch) and continuing with her scandalous affair with Byron (Richard Chamberlain). The film then chronicles Lady Caroline Lamb's supreme sacrifice on behalf of her husband's political career. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

John Ford's last western film, Cheyenne Autumn was allegedly produced to compensate for the hundreds of Native Americans who had bitten the dust in Ford's earlier films (that was the director's story, anyway). Set in 1887, the film recounts the defiant migration of 300 Cheyennes from their reservation in Oklahoma territory to their original home in Wyoming. They have done this at the behest of chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland), peaceful souls who have been driven to desperate measures because the US government has ignored their pleas for food and shelter. Since the Cheyennes' trek is in defiance of their treaty, Captain Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark), who agrees with the Indians in principle, reluctantly leads his troops in pursuit of the tribe. While there was never any intention to shed blood, the white press finds it politically expedient to distort the Cheyennes' action into a declaration of war. Thanks to the cruelties of such chauvinistic whites as Captain Oscar Wessels (Karl Malden), the Cheyennes are forced to defend themselves--and whenever Indians take arms against whites in the 1880s, it's usually misrepresented as a massacre. Only the intervention of US secretary of the interior Carl Schurz (Edward G. Robinson) prevents the hostilities from erupting into wholesale bloodshed. Based on a novel by Mari Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn is a cinematic elegy--not only for the beleaguered Cheyennes, but for John Ford's fifty years in pictures. It is weakest when arbitrarily throwing in a wearisome romance between Richard Widmark and pacifistic schoolmarm Carroll Baker, who out of sympathy for the Indians has joined them in their 1500-mile westward journey. When the Warner Bros. people decided that the film ran too long, they chopped out the wholly unnecessary but very funny episode involving a poker-obsessed Wyatt Earp (James Stewart). Contrary to popular belief, this episode was included in the earliest non-roadshow prints of Cheyenne Autumn; the scene was excised only when the film went into its second and third runs in 1966 (it has since been restored). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Under Ten Flags is a fact-based British maritime epic set during World War II. Allied ships are being victimized by a German surface raider, which sails under friendly flags until moving in for the kill. Since so many nationalities were involved in making this film (both before and behind the cameras), it is difficult at times to determine whose side one is supposed to be on. On screen, the Germans seem the cleverest and most resourceful of all the combatants; at times, one hopes that they'll get away with their high-seas perfidy--especially since the captain is played by charismatic American actor Van Heflin. Under Ten Flags has a minimum of war action, but this didn't prevent an enterprising home-movie firm from excerpting nine minutes' worth of highlights for an 8-millimeter version--which did better business than the original 92 minute feature! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Beyond This Place is a tame murder mystery based on a novel by A. J. Cronin. Van Johnson is cast as an American citizen whose British father has supposedly been dead for years. On a visit to London, Johnson discovers that his father is very much alive, serving a life sentence for murder. Johnson inaugurates his own investigation, retraces the trail of circumstantial evidence, and unearths the real culprit. Director Jack Cardiff was not happy with his work on Beyond This Place, possibly because he was obliged for box office purposes to use an American star in an essentially British story. The film was released in the US as Web of Evidence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The eponymous Spaniard--actually a Britisher of Spanish heritage--is Basil Dignam, falsely convicted of murder. As he is led away, Dignam places a curse on the heads of his judge (Michael Hordern) and jury. Two of the jurors die mysteriously. The notion that Dignam may be orchestrating these deaths from behind bars is squelched when the prisoner himself kicks off. Hordern and his daughter Susan Beaumont play detective to solve the mystery. The Spaniard's Curse is adapted from a novel by Edith Pargiter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Anthony Steel stars in this fanciful wartime drama. Stationed in Libya, British soldier Steel is wounded, then nursed back to health by a band of Nomads. He manages to marry the tribal chieftan's daughter (Anna Maria Sandri) before getting down to the serious business of fending off the Nazis. Ten years afterwards, Steel's brother returns to the tribe, there to take his late father's place. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Directed by Roy Kellino, this British comedy stars David Niven as Roger Tweakham, an accountant for a silk manufacturer who finds himself digging deeper and deeper into trouble. Not only is he suddenly smitten by a French model (Geneviève Page) despite his marriage to his wife (Dorothy Alison), Roger has also devised an ambitious plan to fix the financial books to make his company appear more successful than a rivalrous nylon maker. The final film for director Kellino, who suffered a fatal heart attack before it was released, The Silken Affair was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Robert Lewis Taylor. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Jack Hawkins is starred as a gruff, intensely dedicated Scotland Yard superintendent. Working as much by instinct as through scientific methods, Hawkins and rookie sergeant John Stratton tackle the case of a string of unsolved safecrackings, committed by the elusive Richard Leech. This Dragnet approach gives way to suspense as robbery leads to murder. A neat surprise twist caps this finely honed example of British moviemaking know-how. The Long Arm was released in the U.S. as The Third Key. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Richard Attenborough stars as a former crew member of a British gunboat, which was distinguished by a heroic wartime record. Attenborough and several fellow ex-crewmen buy the vessel in peacetime. They clean, paint and renovate the ship, then proceed to launch a smuggling operation. The film gradually veers towards fantasy as the ship itself assumes a "conscience" and starts to rebel against the crew's criminal activity. The Ship That Died of Shame tempers its moralizing with some first-rate comedy vignettes during the renovation sequences. The film was shorn of nearly 15 minutes and retitled PT Raiders for its first American run, but both original title and full running time were restored for television. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

As an actor, British film star Stewart Granger was very handsome, but this is all that is required of him in Beau Brummell. Granger plays the famed 18th-century dandy and social arbiter who rises from poverty to become the adviser and severest critic of the Prince of Wales (marvelously portrayed as a self-involved neurotic by Peter Ustinov). Secure in his station in life, Brummell goes one step too far when he jokes about the Prince's obesity. The future King George IV will forget the whole thing if Brummell will apologize, but the haughty trendsetter refuses to do so. Brummell is banished from court, losing everything -- including his chance at finding happiness with the aristocratic Elizabeth Taylor -- in the process. Filmed on location in England, Beau Brummell was based on the same war-horse play by Clyde Fitch that had served as the inspiration for the 1924 Brummell starring John Barrymore. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Errol Flynn buckled his last swash in The Master of Ballantrae, playing out the final film of his Warner Brothers contract in this high seas adventure, liberally adapted from the Robert Louis Stevenson yarn. Flynn plays Jamie Durrisdeer, a Scottish heir, who fights for freedom against the British. When the rebels are defeated, Jamie must flee to the West Indies with Col. Francis Burke (Roger Livesey), an Irish soldier of fortune, in order to escape capture. After battling pirates, Jamie puts together a small fortune and returns to Scotland to marry his true love, Lady Alison (Beatrice Campbell). But Jamie's hopes are dashed when he finds that Lady Alison, thinking that Jamie was dead, is now engaged to his brother Henry (Anthony Steel), who may have betrayed Jamie to the English. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Originally advertised as "Colossal Quo Vadis," this opulent MGM production is far and away the most elaborate of the many versions of Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel. The plot, as always, concerns the romance between a beautiful early Christian woman (Deborah Kerr) and the initially agnostic Roman soldier Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor). This love story is laid against the larger intrigues of the debauched emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov), who hopes to gain immortality by destroying Rome with a fire and remaking it in his own image. Part of Nero's master plan is the elimination of the Christian "threat," leading to the climactic lion picnics in the arena. In spite of the many more celebrated highlights (the burning of Rome, the rescue of Lygia [Deborah Kerr] from a rampaging bull, the upside-down crucifixion of Simon Peter), the scene that remains most vivid in the memory is the posthumous "final insult" delivered to Nero by his contemptuous former aide Petronius (Leo Genn). Sophia Loren can be briefly spotted as an extra during one of the crowd scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi