Shane Briant Movies

John Huston directed this cold war spy thriller (from a script by Walter Hill) concerning a British agent trying infiltrate the organization of a nefarious communist spy. Paul Newman is Joseph Reardon, a British secret agent commissioned by Mackintosh (Harry Andrews) to impersonate a jewel thief. When the police are tipped off about his diamond robbery, Reardon is arrested and shipped off to a high-security prison. At the prison, he meets a convicted Russian spy and the two are involved in a prison break, arranged by a mysterious group called the Scarperers. After the successful breakout, Reardon finds himself drugged and sent to Ireland. It turns out that the escapade was organized by Mackintosh in the hopes Reardon could infiltrate the Scarperers and gather information on the group's leader, Sir George Wheeler (James Mason), and prove him to be a Russian spy. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Hammer Films apply their characteristic Gothic touch to this offbeat psychological thriller about a bombastic 19th-century Baron (Robert Hardy) who keeps his two adult offspring imprisoned in the family estate, convinced they are afflicted by an evil curse of madness passed down from their late mother. Unfortunately, they're not the only ones to worry about: it seems a spate of recent murders in the surrounding village are being committed by his son (Shane Briant), who is being manipulated by his father's deranged will to leave the castle and act out Dad's twisted, violent fantasies. Superb photography and good use of locations lend a rich atmosphere to this psycho-costume-drama, and Patrick Magee turns in a good performance as the family doctor (somewhat reminiscent of his role in Coppola's Dementia 13). Director Peter Sykes keeps the horror fairly subdued until the bloody "shock" ending, which seems to spoil the mood a bit. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi