Eric Young Movies
J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone) directed this Cold War action thriller. Gregory Peck is the American Dr. John Hathaway, a Noble Prize-winning scientist, teaching at a university in London. Lieutenant General Shelby (Arthur Hill), from the American Embassy, asks Hathaway to go on a mission to Communist China to obtain an enzyme, being developed by his old teacher Soong Li (Keye Luke), that permits crops to grow in any climate. Since the country holding the formula to this growth enzyme would be able to control the world, Shelby tells Hathaway that both the United States and the Soviet Union are anxious that the enzyme not stay in China. Hathaway doesn't want to go because of a burgeoning love affair with attractive professor Kay Hanna (Anne Heywood) and an opposition he holds to American foreign policy. But a call from the President changes his mind, and he is off to China. A transmitter is placed in his skull so that he can communicate with London. But Hathaway doesn't realize that the head implant can also be detonated from London, if necessary, and blow Hathaway's brains out. In China, Hathaway works with his old mentor Soong Li to perfect the enzyme. As they are near completion, the Red Guard storms the laboratory and attack Soong Li because of his opposition to the new movement in China, and Hathaway has to flee the country. Detecting the transmitter in Hathaway's head, the Chinese are in full pursuit. Hathaway makes it to the Sino-Soviet border, but then Shelby decides to activate the explosive device in Hathaway's head once he crosses over into Russia. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Anne Heywood, (more)
- 1968
Polly (Hayley Mills) is a shy young girl on a world tour with her impossible aunt (Brenda de Banzie). In Singapore, the ladies are entertained by their Eurasian guide (Shashi Kapoor). Polly begins an affair with the seductive guide, and upon the death of her aunt she finally comes out of her shell to blossom into full womanhood. Noel Coward had received some of the worst reviews in his life when he published the uncharacteristically bitter Pretty Polly and Other Stories; the film version of Pretty Polly substitutes sentiment for cynicism, but isn't much of an improvement over the Coward original. The film is better known under its American title A Matter of Innocence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hayley Mills, Trevor Howard, (more)
- 1965
Britain's Merton Park Productions briefly put its Edgar Wallace series on the back burner for the 1965 sci-fier Invasion. Per its title, the film involves a massive invasion of earth by extraterrestrials. Keeping within its tight budget, the film depicts only a handful of the invaders, who are fended off by the staff of a small hospital. Head doctor Edward Judd, who is caring for an imprisoned alien, decides to protect his patient from the invaders, who plan to kill the prisoner before he can betray them. Armed with little more than his wits, Judd saves himself and his charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Joseph Conrad's cerebral, philosophical novel Lord Jim is streamlined and simplified by producer/director/writer Richard Brooks for the action-and-adventure crowd. Peter O'Toole plays the first officer of a tramp steamer, who, during a hurricane, cravenly abandons ship, leaving the passengers to drown. Disgraced, O'Toole seeks out ways to redeem himself--not only in the eyes of the British maritime commission, but in his own eyes. He signs on to deliver a shipment of dynamite to a tribe of natives somewhere in the uncharted Orient. He also joins the natives' fight against feudal warlord Eli Wallach, hoping perhaps to die in their service, thus purging himself from shame (and, in true Messianic fashion, becoming a martyr in the process). Despite the impressive star lineup of O'Toole, Wallach, Jack Hawkins, Curt Jurgens and Paul Lukas, most press coverage went to leggy leading lady Daliah Lavi--including the 1964 Saturday Evening Post article about the making of Lord Jim, written by Richard Brooks himself. Filmed in Cambodia and Hong Kong, Lord Jim isn't precisely the Conrad novel, but fans weaned on O'Toole's Lawrence of Arabia will be satisfied. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter O'Toole, James Mason, (more)
Director Leo McCarey returned to the religious themes of his classics Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) for this action drama, his final film. William Holden stars as Father O'Banion, a Catholic priest assigned to relieve the retiring Father Bovard (Clifton Webb) at a mission in China. Along the way, O'Banion has unwittingly picked up a follower with a crush on him, Siu Lan (France Nuyen). The girl becomes the mission's cook, but before Bovard can depart, Mao's 1949 communist takeover begins. Red soldiers led by Chung Ren (Robert Lee) seize the mission as their local command center. Chung Ren rapes Siu Lan, impregnating her, while O'Banion is forced to watch. Unable to cross China's closed borders, both priests remain at the mission, ministering to the locals despite harassment by Chung Ren. Delighted by his son's birth, Chung Ren begins undergoing a change of heart. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Clifton Webb, (more)
- 1961
In London to close an oil deal, middle-eastern potentate King Tenuphon (played by Burt Kwouk of "Pink Panther" fame) is targetted for assassination. Assigned to protect Tenuphon, Steed suspects that the would-be killers are sequestered in a seedy suburban London flat. The climax involves a low-flying helicopter -- but who's at the controls? Written by James Mitchell, "Kill the King" was taped on August 30, 1961, and telecast on September 2. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
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
- Starring:
- Geoffrey Toone, Christopher Lee, (more)
- 1961
In this mystery, an Oxford archaeologist is murdered while investigating the Kytang Wafers, a valuable find. Not only is he killed, the wafers are also stolen. Now his former peers from the Oriental Research Institute must launch an investigation of their own. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard also begins its own investigation. The Yard detective learns from another that the perpetrator is a Korean-war vet who is working with a Kytang diplomat. The diplomat is preparing to kill the vet when the inspector appears and takes them both to jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Originally telecast as part of the British Saturday Serial anthology, The Voodoo Factor starred Maurice Kaufman as dedicated disease specialist Dr. David Whittaker. The supernatural revivification of a 200-year-old Polynesian spider goddess threatened to unleash a deadly malaria-style virus upon the world. All that stood between mankind and its destruction was the tireless Dr. Whittaker, who had of course been targeted for early extermination by the Goddess' fanatical followers. The six half-hour episodes of The Voodoo Factor were shown from December 12, 1959 to January 16, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Kaufman, Maxine Audley, (more)
