Eleanor Bron Movies

Michael Caine's first starring role was a foray into dramatic irony, scripted by Bill Naughton from his novel and play. Alfie (Caine) is a charming, rogueish Cockney who cannot get his fill of women. He uses them without shame or malice, jumping from one promiscuous female's bed to another without much thought or feeling. Of course, Alfie's not as carefree as he would have the audience -- to whom he often speaks directly -- think: he treats his pregnant, common-law wife, Gilda (Julia Foster), quite shabbily, and has an affair with a married woman (Vivien Merchant) that leaves her pregnant, for which Alfie arranges an abortion. In the end, Alfie never finds lasting meaning or pleasure but remains an unrepentant, if low-class, Don Juan. Caine was Oscar-nominated for his performance. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

In preparing his romantic comedy Two For the Road, director Stanley Donen decided to utilize many of the cinematic techniques popularized by the French "nouvelle vague" filmmakers. Jump cutting back and forth in time with seeming abandon, Donen and scriptwriter Frederic Raphael chronicle the 12-year relationship between architect Wallace (Albert Finney) and his wife (Audrey Hepburn). While backpacking through Europe, student Finney falls for lovely music student Jacqueline Bisset, but later settles for Hepburn, another aspiring musician (this vignette served as the launching pad for the film-within-a-film in Francois Truffaut's 1973 classic Day for Night). Once married, Finney and Hepburn go on a desultory honeymoon, travelling in the company of insufferable American tourists William Daniels and Eleanor Bron and their equally odious daughter Gabrielle Middleton. Later on, during yet another road trip, Finney is offered an irresistible job opportunity by Claude Dauphin, which ultimately distances Finney from his now-pregnant wife. Still remaining on the road, the film then details Finney and Hepburn's separate infidelities. The film ends where it begins, with Finney and Hepburn taking still another road vacation, hoping to sew up their unraveling marriage. While critics did nip-ups over Stanley Donen's "revolutionary" nonlinear story-telling techniques, audiences responded to the chemistry between Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney, not to mention the unforgettable musical score by Henry Mancini. Note: many TV prints of Two for the Road are edited for content, robbing the viewer of Finney and Hepburn's delightful "Bitch/Bastard" closing endearments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Women in Love is set in 1920s England, where free-spirited artist Gudrun (Glenda Jackson) and her schoolteacher sister Ursula (Jennie Linden) make the acquaintance of lifelong friends Gerald (Oliver Reed) and Rupert (Alan Bates). The foursome attends a picnic in honor of a pair of newlyweds, who put a damper on the proceedings (literally!) by drowning in a nearby lake. Evidently unscathed by this tragedy, Gerald and Rupert participate in a nude wrestling match later that evening (this was the sequence that got the most press, thanks to fleeting glimpses of the male stars' privates). Gerald marries Gudrun, Rupert weds Ursula, and the foursome embarks upon a Swiss honeymoon. The holiday is marred by infidelity and sudden death, leaving Rupert to wonder aloud just what it is that makes men and women "tick." An Academy Award went to Glenda Jackson, while nominations were bestowed upon screenwriter Larry Kramer and cinematographer Billy Williams (who received an uncredited assist from director Ken Russell). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Also titled A Touch of Love, this British drama concerns a woman who decides to keep and raise a baby born out of wedlock. Sandy Dennis stars as Rosamund Stacey, a graduate student who has an affair with a television broadcaster, George (Ian McKellen). When she learns that she is pregnant, her friends advise her to have an abortion, but after some confusion she decides to have the child. She doesn't tell George about it, and they drift apart. Her child is born, but the little girl has a heart condition and must undergo delicate surgery. Her life is saved, and Rosamund returns to school to complete her doctoral degree. Her daughter is a year old when Rosamund meets George again and invites him to her home. The story was written by Margaret Drabble from her own novel The Millstone. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

National Health, or Nurse Norton's Affair is an antic filmization of Peter Nichols' play, originally staged by Britain's National Theatre. A scattershot satire of the red tape and inconsistencies of England's National Health program, the film is set in the men's ward of an old, crumbling hospital. Moments of lunatic farce dovetail into scenes of blood-drenched human tragedy, leading one wag to label this film Carry on Dying. The film's highlight is a lachrymose lampoon of TV medical soap operas. The cast of National Health is comprised of some of the most polished farceurs in the British isles. Nurse Norton is played by Lynn Redgrave (who ironically later starred in the American hospital-based sitcom House Calls), while other key roles are filled by TV comedienne Eleanor Bron, Carry On alumnus Jim Dale and future Who Framed Roger Rabbit? star Bob Hoskins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of the four-part story "City of Death," Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover) -- aka the notorious art thief Scaroth -- has vanished into the past, with the Doctor (Tom Baker), Romana (Lalla Ward), and detective Duggan (Tom Chadbon) in hot pursuit. Unless the Doctor can stop Scaroth, the entire Time Continuum will be cataclysmically disrupted. Catherine Schell appears as Countess Scarlioni, while comic actors John Cleese and Eleanor Bron make uncredited cameo appearances as a pair of looney art dealers. First telecast October 20, 1979, "City of Death, Episode 4" was written by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The highlights of two benefit concerts staged in support of Amnesty International are collected in this British performance film, which features ample helpings of both music and comedy. The members of the Monty Python comedy troupe serve as headliners, performing live variations on some of their most famous sketches. Additional humor is provided by such luminaries as Peter Cook, while the musical segments include performances by Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, and Sting, amongst others. While all of the performers deliver the goods, the film's overall effectiveness is unfortunately limited by the purely functional direction and often poor image quality. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Harold Pinter from the novel by Russell Hoban, Turtle Diary stars Glenda Jackson as a famed author/illustrator of children's books. In the midst of her success, Jackson suffers from writer's block. While casting about for new ideas, she makes several visits to the turtle tank at the local aquarium, where she becomes acquainted with shy bookstore clerk Ben Kingsley. From this point on, nothing is in the least predictable. What can one say that's sensible about a plotline that climaxes with a turtle hijacking? Screenwriter Pinter has a cameo role as "Man in Bookshop." Turtle Diary was the maiden effort of United British Artists, a consortium consisting of Glenda Jackson, Harold Pinter, and producer Richard Johnson (who also appears in the film). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) arrive at Tranquil Repose, a colony on the planet Necros, where the rich and famous can have their recently deceased loved ones cryogenically frozen. Unfortunately, Tranquil Repose currently houses the dormant body of Davros (Terry Molloy), creator of the dreaded Daleks -- but Davros is not quite as dormant as he seems. Written by Eric Saward, the two-part "Revelation of the Daleks" was originally telecast on March 23 and 30, 1985. This final adventure of Doctor Who's 22nd season was later re-edited as a four-chapter cliffhanger for American TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Little Dorrit was intended as the cinematic equivalent to the mammoth, eight hour Royal Shakespeare Company's staging of Dickens' Nicholas Nickelby. The film was released to theatres in two parts, each running approximately three hours. The first part, subtitled "Nobody's Fault," introduced us to the seamstress title character (Sarah Pickering), who chooses to live in debtor's prison with her father (Alec Guinness). Good samaritan Derek Jacobi endeavors to help both father and daughter. The second part, also known as "Little Dorrit's Story," details Dorrit's escape from penury to lasting happiness. Eschewing the usual 19th century-style British music often heard in Dickensian adaptations, director Christine Edzard creatively-and effectively--opts for the strains of Giuseppe Verdi. Edzard's eye for period detail is also deserving of unbounded praise. Unfortunately, Part Two of Little Dorrit spends nearly half of its running time recapping Part One, utilizing much of the same footage. For those familiar with "Nobody's Fault," "Little Dorrit's Story" is more a redundancy than a continuation. Still, taken together, parts one and two all fully deserving of the enthusiastic critical commentary that greeted them upon their original release-not to mention the multiple Academy Award nominations bestowed upon the project and its participants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV thriller stars Robert Loggia as a onetime CIA agent who defected to the Soviet Union to join the KGB. Discovering he has just months to live, the agent wants to return home to America; Scott Glenn plays the U.S. agent assigned to retrieve him. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

The third series of French & Saunders, which originally aired on the BBC in 1990, produced the various clips assembled as French & Saunders: Gentlemen Prefer French & Saunders. Gone With the Wind, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Exorcist, and Dangerous Liaisons provide fodder for Hollywood parodies, but much of the material focuses on original characters. Chat show hosts and pundits, cleaning ladies with attitude, women in prison -- Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders embody them all. Elsewhere, the duo aim their satiric sights at both the publishing and PR industries. Ladies' magazines and late-in-life hangers-on of Andy Warhol also get their due. There's also an opera documentary in which dueling divas belt out Kylie Minogue's "I Should Be So Lucky" and a feminine twist on the dirty-old-men characters who have been one of the show's staples from the beginning. "Modern Mother and Daughter," the sketch that provided the basis for Absolutely Fabulous, is included, with French originating the role that would be played by Julia Sawalha in the actual series. Sharp-eared viewers will catch a snippet of Inner City's Detroit techno classic "Good Life" in "Modern Mother"; sharp-eyed audiences, meanwhile, will notice that Eleanor Bron, who would go on to play Patsy's poetess mother in Absolutely Fabulous: Birth, appears as an over-the-top academic commentator in the Warhol segment. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide