James Ware Movies
- 1974
Bill Fraser and Raymond Huntley star in the raucous British farce That's Your Funeral. Fraser and Huntley play Bullstrode and Holroyd, rival undertakers. The animosity between the two is amplified when drug traffickers attempt to use coffins and hearses to smuggle their wares. David Battley and John Ronane co-star in the sitcomish goings-on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A rousing chorus of Noël Coward's "Stately Homes of England" is heard as the opening titles of The Grass Is Greener fade into several stock shots of those stately homes. One of these mansions is owned by British earl Victor Rhyall (Cary Grant), who opens his home to American tourists in order to make ends meet. One such tourist is wealthy Texan Charles Delacro (Robert Mitchum), who sets his sights upon Victor's lovely wife, Hilary (Deborah Kerr). In his efforts to win back his wife, Victor presses his former girlfriend Hattie Durant (Jean Simmons) into service. The Grass Is Greener was adapted by Hugh and Margaret Williams from their own stage play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, (more)
- 1959
Ruthless young working-class Englishman Laurence Harvey takes a job in a North Country village controlled by millionaire Donald Wolfit. Harvey resents Wolfit's class consciousness and vows to rise to the top by wooing the millionaire's daughter, Heather Sears. Meanwhile he has an affair with Frenchwoman Simone Signoret. Though he regards Signoret as a mere self-gratifying conquest, she takes their romance seriously enough to kill herself when Harvey impregnates Field. Only as he leaves the chapel after marrying the millionaire's daughter does Harvey that his "smart" marriage, coupled with the guarantee of a fabulous business career, has been attained at the cost of his soul. Based on the novel by John Braine, Room at the Top was one of the most successful films of the British angry-young-man school; it later spawned two sequels, as well as a weekly TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, (more)
- 1954
Ginger Rogers and her then-husband Jacques Bergerac costar in this British melodrama, released in the U.K. as The Beautiful Stranger. Impoverished showgirl "Johnny" Victor (Ginger Rogers) moves into the villa owned by her British millionaire sweetheart Louis Galt (Stanley Baker), who has promised to marry her once he secures a divorce from his present wife (yeah, sure). By and by, Johnny falls in love with equally impoverished French artist Pierre Clement (Jacques Bergerac). When Galt is killed, Johnny and Pierre find themselves the chief suspects, especially since all evidence points to them and them alone. Taking it on the lam, the two lovers are carefully monitored by the actual murderer, who was involved in a myriad of illegal activities with the late Mr. Galt. The film's title song, "Love From a Beautiful Stranger," was written by José Ferrer and Ketti Frings, respectively the star and screenwriter of the 1955 film The Shrike. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Stanley Baker, (more)
