Stanley Unwin Movies
Wavering between straight documentary and cinema verite, Digital Dreams outlines the life, loves, works, and aspirations of Bill Wyman (1936- ), bass guitarist for the Rolling Stones. Having left the Stones during their 1981 Steel Wheels tour, Wyman, who'd previously cut solo albums in 1974 and 1976, endeavors to establish his own separate musical identity. This is conveyed by a steady stream of hallucinatory images, and by occasional Yellow Submarine-style animated sequences. Throughout, Wyman's music is performed con brio by the London Symphony Orchestra. Also starring Hollywood leading man James Coburn, Digital Dreams was directed by Oscar nominee Robert Dornhelm, an old hand at musical docudramas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bill Wyman, Astrid Wyman, (more)
One of the stars of Walt Disney's Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke, is re-united with that film's composer and lyricist, Richard M.Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, in this big budget and bloodless children's fantasy musical, based on the children's book by James Bond author Ian Fleming. Van Dyke plays Caractacus Potts, a failed inventor who lives in a big house with his two children -- Jemima Heather Ripley and Jeremy Adrian Hall -- and eccentric father Lionel Jeffries. Potts has to raise 30 shillings so his children can buy a broken-down racing car from the junkyard. After a disastrous attempt to sell his invention of whistling sweets to Lord Scrumptious (James Robertson-Justice), the local candy maker, he finally gets enough money for the car by doing a Dick Van Dyke dance routine at the county fair. Potts takes the car and miraculously transforms the vehicle into a shiny new car named Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. While on a picnic with the children and Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes), Lord Scrumptious' beautiful daughter, Potts concocts a fantasy tale about the magical powers of the car, which can now float on water and fly. In the tale, Baron Bomburst (Gert Frobe) wants the car for himself and kidnaps the automobile and the inventor. But Bomburst captures Grandpa by mistake along with the wrong car, so Potts, Truly, and the children have to enlist Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on a rescue mission to Bomburst's lair to save Grandpa. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, (more)
In this English comedy, the trouble begins when a bumbling young man embarrasses his grandfather, the British Prime Minister, by selling newspapers on a street corner. Soon the fellow finds himself given a reporter's job and sent to cover a story in a tiny coastal village. There he soon finds himself entangled in a massive scandal. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Norman Wisdom, Derek Bond, (more)
- 1962
This comedy features a commissionaire who hates shaving and establishes a strike at a razor manufacturing company to get his point across. ~ Rovi
- 1961
The "Carry On" gang take on employment agencies in this labored edition to the long-running comedy series. Sidney James is Bert Handy, who starts an employment agency by the name of "Helping Hands, Ltd." Bert proceeds to hire a bunch of loonies to do a collection of screwball jobs employers want done. As is usually the case, the employees make hash out of every assignment given to them. In fact, the agency is so unsuccessful that their landlord (Stanley Unwin) tries to have the business removed from his premises by raising their rent. But the landlord makes a deal with Bert that if his company can fix up an old house, they can have a 99-year lease on the property. Chaos ensues. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sidney James, Kenneth Connor, (more)
- 1960
Based on a British TV comedy, this is the tale of a London couple who inherit a pub in the country, only to find that their troubles are just beginning. Someone doesn't seem to want to make their business a success, but their invention should stop all that nonsense. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
- 1956
Droll British farceur Fred Emney is the star of Fun at St. Fanny's. Emney plays Dr. Septimus Jankers, headmaster of an exclusive boy's college. When the insititution is threatened with a shutdown instigated by its creditors, Dr. Jankers decides to "shake down" a wealthy, middle-aged student threatening to withhold that worthy's long-overdue student accreditation. The overaged "schoolboy" is played by music hall-TV comedian Cardew Robinson, who in 1956 was at the height of his popularity--so much so that he plays "himself'. Fun at St. Fanny's is chock full of the sort of healthily vulgar humor indigenous to the British stage of the 1940s and 1950s; even the title is a cheeky double-entendre. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fred Emney, Cardew Robinson, (more)
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