Alan Bridges Movies
Alan Bridges is best known as a distinguished television director for the BBC, but he also occasionally directs British feature films. One of his best movie dramas is The Shooting Party (1984), which won the Golden Palm award at Cannes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Pudd'nhead Wilson, Mark Twain's attack on racial prejudice in the guise of a mystery tale, was adapted for television in 1984 by Philip Reisman Jr. Ken Howard plays lawyer "Pudd'nhead" Wilson, so named because of his silly behavior and foolish appearance. Wilson, however, has a lot more on the ball than anyone suspects. He proves as much by unraveling a murder case that begins taking shape when mulatto slave Roxane (Lisa Hilboldt) switches her baby with one belonging to a prominent white family. Filmed on location at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Pudd'nhead Wilson premiered January 24, 1984, on PBS television's American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
D.P. is also known as Displaced Person, the original title of the Kurt Vonnegut short story from which this TV drama is adapted. As World War II winds down, a young black boy is raised by an order of nuns in a small German town. The locals tease the boy, claiming that his long-lost father is an African-American GI from the occupation troops. The eager youth heads off to be reunited with the man (Stan Shaw) alleged to be his father. D.P. originally aired May 6, 1985, on PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This British Merchant-Ivory look-alike was adapted from a novel by Isabel Colgate. In the summer before World War I, British nobleman James Mason invites an assorted group of acquaintances for a weekend shooting party on his huge estate. Among the participants are longtime rivals Edward Fox and Rupert Frazer, Fox's occasionally unfaithful wife Cheryl Campbell, and staunch anti-hunting advocate John Gielgud. The film unfolds in a carefully calculated but seemingly spontaneous fashion, in the manner of its 1938 ancestor Rules of the Game. Also like the earlier film, The Shooting Party casts a jaundiced eye towards class consciousness--and ends with a sudden, senseless but not altogether unexpected tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Fox, Cheryl Campbell, (more)
The returning soldier is amnesia victim Alan Bates, who remembers nothing of his life before suffering shell-shock--not even his long-term marriage to snooty Julie Christie. Spinsterish Ann-Margret, who has long harbored a fondness for Bates, hopes to take advantage of his memory loss. But both Christie and Ann-Margret are challenged by a third woman, Bates' childhood sweetheart Glenda Jackson. Poor Bates deals with all of this by not dealing with it. A fairly faithful rendition of the Rebecca West novel on which it is based, Return of the Soldier ambles along at its own languid pace to a inconclusive conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Christie, Alan Bates, (more)
- 1978
The French Riviera felt the heavy hand of German occupation much later than the rest of the country, and was a haven for wealthy misfits who had no other place to go to escape that regime. Despite the certain knowledge that their doom is approaching, the characters in this film party and quarrel as if their world were not disintegrating rapidly. In the main story, Konrad (Michel Piccoli), an Austrian surgeon, has fled his newly Nazified country for the Riviera. There, he encounters Laura (Lara Wendel) the 13-year-old daughter of an anti-fascist Italian Contessa (Claudia Cardinale). When the girl perceives that he loves her, she offers herself to him. Horrified, he sends her away. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Claudia Cardinale, (more)
- 1977
Veterans and war-sympathizers get angry when a Canadian professor begins speaking out with his pacifist ideals shortly after World War II. The tension rises as threats and violence soon erupt. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1975
In this tense story of an unusual romantic triangle, middle-aged Ann (Vanessa Redgrave) and her teenage daughter Joanna (Susan George) manage a failing hotel on an island off the British coast. One day, the hotel receives an unexpected guest, a man named Joe (Cliff Robertson). Joe and Ann had an affair years ago, and it's suggested (though never stated) that Joanna could be their child. Joe and Ann soon renew their relationship, but Ann discovers that she has a rival for Joe's affections when Joanna makes her interest in the handsome older man clear. Also shown under the title Winter Rates (the title of the stage drama upon which it was based), Out of Season was at one time to have been directed by the noted playwright Harold Pinter, but he was eventually replaced by stage and screen veteran Alan Bridges. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Cliff Robertson, (more)
- 1974
Ignoring the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," producer Carlo Ponti mounted a TV remake of the 1945 British masterpiece Brief Encounter. Sophia Loren (Mrs. Ponti) stars as a bored married woman who embarks upon a brief romantic fling with an equally married man (Richard Burton). Throughout their relationship, Loren and Burton are plagued by guilt; ultimately, they sacrifice their potential happiness in favor of "the right thing." John Bowne based his script on the 1936 Noel Coward playlet Still Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Richard Burton, (more)
- 1973
Based on the novel by L. P. Hartley, The Hireling is a dissection of antiquated but hardly dormant British class distinctions. Chauffeur Robert Shaw is in the employ of aristocratic widow Sarah Miles. When she suffers a nervous breakdown, Shaw helps her through her recovery. They grow to love each other during the convalescence; but when she is cured, Ms. Miles refuses to regard Shaw as an equal, and the original status quo is reinstated. The Hireling provides an interesting contrast to the similarly structured American film of 1991, Driving Miss Daisy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Shaw, Sarah Miles, (more)
- 1971
This British made-for-television drama tells the story of an English spy living abroad. John Le Mesurier stars as Adrian Harris, an English diplomat who trades loyalties and becomes a Russian spy. Harris escapes to Moscow after his covert activity is uncovered and he lives in exile, until some journalists come sniffing around for his story. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1968
On the Eve of Publication was both the blanket title and the name of the first episode in this British TV trilogy of plays by David Mercer. Leo McKern starred in the first installment (originally aired November 27, 1968) as Robert Kelvin, a socialist newspaperman with a predilection for letting his heart rule his head. The second play, The Cellar and the Almond Tree, aired two years later over the BBC; this time, Andrew Keir was cast as Kelvin. Keir repeated the characterization for the trilogy's final entry, Emma's Time, which was seen on May 13, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 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
- 1965
John Carson (not Johnny Carson, as listed in some source books) stars in the grim British programmer Act of Murder. Carson plays an actor who still carries a torch for his ex-mistress Justine Lord, even though she is now happily married to Anthony Bate. With cold-blooded resolve, the actor conducts a campaign to drive Bate to a nervous breakdown. Instead, the distracted husband is driven to commit murder. Act of Murder was given a limited American release by Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Justine Lord
- 1946
Starring Ken Curtis and the hayseed singing group the Hoosier Hot Shots, this musical Western is really Lady for a Day with a switch in gender. Rotund Guy Kibbee is Dusty Nelson, the handyman at the Bar B dude ranch, whose daughter Susan (Jeff Donnell) is arriving with her socialite fiancee, Jerome Winston (Robert Scott). Susan believes her father owns the ranch, and to spare Dusty any embarrassment, the Hot Shots, ranch manager Curt Durant (Curtis) and sidekick Big Boy Stover (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) agree to continue the deception. The real owner (Al Bridge) turns up at the most inopportune moment, naturally, and when the snooty Winstons learn the truth, Jerome is forbidden to marry Susan. That is fine with the girl, who has fallen in love with Curt and he with her. In between the comedy, Curtis, the Hot Shots, Carolina Cotton and other country & western acts perform "The West is as Wild as Ever," "Blue Bonnet Girl," "Rhythm Is Our Business," and "(Back Home Again in) Indiana." Curtis made eight singing cowboy Westerns for Columbia but never posed any real threat to either Gene Autry or Roy Rogers. The actor turned to supporting roles instead and is best remembered for playing "Festus" on television's Gunsmoke. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Nurse Chapman begins to fall in love with a gangster and ends up entertaining miners until she manages to pull herself out of this bad situation. ~ All Movie Guide
