Elwyn Brook-Jones Movies

In this comedy, a common chemist lives up to his lineage (he's a direct descendant of Dr. Jekyll), and creates a concoction which changes him into a suave jewel thief. After pulling off a caper, the thief becomes his original self and then helps bring in a gang of robbers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In anticipation of Elvis Presley's Kissin' Cousins, British rock-and-roll idol Tommy Steele plays a dual role in The Duke Wore Jeans. Tony (Steele) is a young nobleman who wants to wriggle out of an arranged marriage-especially since he's already taken a bride in secret. Upon meeting a carefree bloke named Tommy (also Steele), Tony talks his new friend into trading places. In a twinkling, Tommy is jetting off to the mythical banana republic of Rittalia, where he promptly gets mixed up in political intrigue. Playing the pretty princess whom Tony/Tommy is slated to marry is June Laverick, while Michael Medwin provides laughs as the obligatory comical valet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a detective refuses to believe that his client's wealthy, crippled wife died in a boating accident. As he looks deeper, the gumshoe proves that his employer and his mistress were behind it all along. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

American actor Alex Nicol heads the cast of the British crime melodrama The Gilded Cage. Nicol and Michael Alexander play Steve and Harry Anderson, a pair of siblings who become involved in an art theft. Accused of leading the crooks, Harry is thrown into the pokey. Steve, a customs inspector, spends the rest of the film trying to prove his brother's innocence. Gilded Cage was produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman, the same team responsible for the TV adventure series The Saint. Veronica Hurst, an English actress best known for her work in the American horror melodrama The Maze, is the woman in the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The always welcome Greta Gynt plays a mystery writer in Three Steps in the Dark. Greta's uncle, millionaire Nicholas Hannen, calls his heirs together to announce a change in his will. Someone isn't pleased with this codocil, and Hannen is promptly done away with. Herself a suspect, Greta circumvents the cops to solve the mystery herself. With only 60 minutes at its disposal, this British meller dispenses with such inconsequentials as characterization and logic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Raft plays Lucky Nick Cain, a successful American gambler who acts as an advance man for a posh Italian casino. Colleen Gray is a tourist who loses all her money at the casino, but Cain falls in love with her and tries to make good her debts. Cain and the girl find themselves in jeopardy when both are framed for a murder. The gambler does a little detective work on his own, and traces the killing to a gang of counterfeiters. Lucky Nick Cain was one of several "tax shelter" European films made by the notoriously improvident George Raft. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a reporter helps prove the innocence of a man wrongfully incarcerated for dealing drugs. The reporter learns of the situation when the convict's vagabond pals, with his influence and support, justice soon prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The old one about the much-exploited child prodigy is given a new coat of paint in the English-Austrian Entfuhrag ins Gluck (Wonder Child). Bobby Henrey, the amazing juvenile star of The Fallen Idol, is here cast as 7-year-old musical genius Sebastian Giro. Mistreated by his avaricious adult manager, Sebastian runs away to a remote Alpine village. He then falls into the hands of a gang of kidnappers, led by the basically sympathetic Jack (Robert Shackleton). Eventually seeing the error of his ways, Jack and his girlfriend Anni (Christa Winter) protect Sebastian against the homicidal intentions of the other crooks (one of whom is played by a young Oskar Werner). Though the film was produced in Austria, the dialogue was spoken in English--then redubbed into German. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 1948, "The Archers" -- the writing and directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger -- had completed The Red Shoes, one of their greatest international successes, but it had yet to be released when the Rank Organization, doubting the commercial appeal of the picture, severed ties with the team and Powell and Pressburger signed a new deal with Alexander Korda's London Films. Their first project for Korda, The Small Back Room, was a dramatic change of pace, a thriller set in London in the midst of World War II. Sammy Rice (David Farrar) is explosives expert who works with British military intelligence as part of a ragtag munitions research team studying new ways to defuse enemy weapons and improve allied arms. While he's brilliant on the job, Rice is a troubled man with an artificial leg that causes him chronic pain and an appetite for alcohol that stands between him and those around him, especially his girlfriend and secretary Susan (Kathleen Byron). Rice's latest project is finding a way to defuse a new German bomb that's cleverly disguised as a children's toy, but Rice finds himself battling his superiors when Waring (Jack Hawkins), an unscrupulous businessman who has been pressed into service with the explosives team, and his colleague Professor Mair (Milton Rosmer) begin lobbying the Army to purchase a new weapon that Rice feels is both ineffective and dangerous. Despite excellent reviews and a fine cast that includes Cyril Cusack, Sidney James and Robert Morley in a cameo appearance, The Small Back Room was a box office disappointment on its original release, and it appeared in edited form in the United States under the title Hour of Glory, though later video releases allowed Americans to see the film in its original British cut. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Good Time Girl, directed by David MacDonald and based on a story by Arthur La Bern (It Always Rains On Sunday) starts off unpromisingly, as juvenile justice official Flora Robson tries to keep a would-be female felon on the straight-and-narrow, telling the cautionary tale of Gwen Rawlings (Jean Kent). A victim of an unhappy home and her own stupidity, Rawlings leaves home and, with help from her sleazy new neighbor Jimmy Rosso (Peter Glenville, the future director), gets a job as a hat-check girl at a club run by Max Vine (erbert Lom). But Jimmy's jealousy soon gets him fired, and leaves him aiming for revenge on Max and Gwen. Despite the best efforts of Michael Farrell (Dennis Price), the one truly decent man she's ever met, Jimmy achieves his goal and Gwen is sent to a reformatory. It is there that she's truly corrupted by being locked up with more seasoned juvenile (and not so juvenile) felons, who know how to game the system -- whem she escapes, she's a professional criminal, and, taking on a new alias, falls in with a pair of loose-living gents. She manages to commit a vehicular homicide, and then falls in with a pair of American military deserters (Bonar Colleano, Hugh McDermott) who aren't above committing pre-meditated murder. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In one of his rare visits to his home turf, British actor David Niven essayed the title role in Bonnie Prince Charlie. The film's principal challenge was to transform 18th-century Scottish Prince Charles into a sympathetic character, which, patriotism aside, he most decidedly was not in real life. The court-intrigue scenes are the weakest aspect of the film; the strongest moments take place on the battlefield, where Charles "the pretender" and his followers face down the battalions of King George II (Martin Miller). Even in defeat, Charles is the victor, successfully eluding his British pursuers and escaping to France. Filmed in Technicolor at a cost of $4 million, Bonnie Prince Charlie fell with a thud when it premiered at a kidney-busting 140 minutes. Subsequent reissues were cut by as many as 40 minutes, and some were economically reprocessed in black-and-white. Thanks to constant exposure on American television, this notorious flop finally posted a profit in the late 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carol Reed's taut character study (disguised as a suspense melodrama) was adapted from the novel by F.L. Green and stars James Mason in his star-making role as I.R.A. operative Johnny McQueen. Breaking out of jail, Johnny takes it on the lam, but idealism forces him out of hiding in order to raise money for the I.R.A. cause he believes in so strongly. He decides to rob a bank, but the hold-up goes bad and Johnny is seriously wounded by the police. Staggering through the streets of Belfast, Johnny meets a succession of people who either want to help him or turn him over to the authorities. Johnny finally stumbles into a pub, where he is taken in by a homosexual artist (Robert Newton) who wants Johnny to pose for him in order to capture the desperation in his eyes. Johnny breaks free from the artist and tries to make his way to the waterfront in a final effort to escape ... but the police are slowly closing in. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide