Terry Alexander Movies

In this costume adventure set in France during the Reign of Terror, a mysterious man known only as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues noblemen from the guillotine and leads them to safety across the English Channel. Chauvelin (Cyril Cusack) is determined to unmask the Pimpernel and bring him to justice. When evidence begins to suggest that the hero is actually foppish Sir Percey Blakeney (David Niven), Chauvelin blackmails Percey's wife, Marguerite (Margaret Leighton), into cooperating on the threat that he'll expose the criminal activities of her brother Armand (Edmund Audran). However, Marguerite doesn't much care for her husband, hardly believes he could be the heroic Pimpernel, and is startled when she finds out that he truly is the masked vigilante. The Elusive Pimpernel was originally shot in color as a musical, but the musical numbers were cut before the film was released, and the picture's American distributor chose to make only black-and-white prints (though the current home-video release is in color). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Former Hollywood musical director (and erstwhile government spy) Boris Morros was one of the producers of the British Tale of Five Cities. Bonar Colleano stars as British soldier Bob Mitchell, who has picked up American habits and speech patterns while employed in the U.S. Suffering from amnesia, Mitchell is led to believe that he is an American GI, though of course no records exist to verify this. Mitchell's confusion prompts a Manhattan-based magazine to launch a search for Bob's true identity, a search leading inexorably to the girls he left behind during WW II. The "five cities" visited during this exploratory journey are Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and London; Mitchell's Roman sweetheart is played by Gina Lollobridgida, while his Viennese amour is Eva Bartok. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Top Secret gets under way when George (George Cole), a janitor in a research plant, accidentally comes into possession of the plans for a revolutionary atomic weapon. As George embarks on his annual vacation, the research security team embarks on a nationwide search for the hapless broom-pusher. Meanwhile, the Russians get wind of the incident and intercept George, plying him with liquor and empty promises so that he'll hand over the plans to them. All the while, George never knows what the fuss is about: he thinks that the British and Soviet authorities are interested in his new plans for a modern sanitary system! No one takes Top Secret seriously--certainly not Oscar Homolka, who delivers a bravura performance as a Russian secret agent who wistfully yearns for the glories of the Czarist days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A tired-looking Tom Conway plays a private detective who is framed for murder. Eva Bartok, the head of a smuggling, has arranged the frameup. Eva is herself "set up" by the actual killer, unreconstructed Nazi Robert Adair. At this point, Bartok belatedly sides with Conway. Only one of the three above-mentioned actors is still alive at fadeout time: guess which one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lantern-jawed British comedian Frankie Howerd, best known to American TV fans as the star of the raucous historical satire Up Pompeii, heads the cast of The Runaway Bus. Howard plays Percy Lamb, a novice bus driver assigned to drive a coach from one London ariport to another. Alas, the city is enveloped in a thick fog, and poor Percy gets lost, along with his half-dozen passengers and a hidden cache of stolen gold. Most of the film's best moments go to Margaret Rutherford as a not-so-sweet old lady and Belinda Lee as a spy-novel addict. Petula Clark, who was already a top recording star in 1954, appears as a perky airline hostess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This documentary profiles the work of a palm reader who assures a woman bent on suicide that she will find happiness and assists a woman in the search for her long-lost son. ~ All Movie Guide

Alistair Sim plays a mild, innocuous little watchmaker who spends his off-hours as a professional assassin. His present target is windbag cabinet member Raymond Huntley. After various misfire attempts, Sim plants a bomb in a small radio and waits for the tube to warm up--but the authorities by now are on to him. The Green Man has some excellent setpieces, notably a droll snatch of black humor involving a body stuffed in a piano. The film's only debit is that, in the play upon which it is based, Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's Meet the Body, Sim's character is secondary, almost peripheral. By reshaping the film into a star vehicle, much of the play's intimate (albeit ghoulish) charm is dissipated. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title character in this fact-based POW drama is Franz von Werra, played by Hardy Kruger. Shot down early in the war, Luftwaffe pilot von Werra is incarcerated in an English prison camp. He refuses to submit to camp routine, insisting that he's on the brink of escaping. After two failed attempts, von Werra is transferred to a camp in Montreal. If you want to know what happens next, take a squint at the title. If you want to know how he does it and why he gets away with it, catch the film. One That Got Away was based on a novel by Kendal Burt and James Leasor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British comedy, set during WWII, a street laborer likes to harass the British soldiers and ends up drafted into becoming part of the British army labor regiment. Unfortunately, a mix-up occurs and he ends up being parachuted behind Nazi lines where he is mistaken for a Nazi officer. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Set in an Italian P.O.W. camp during World War II, this conventional escape drama shines the most in the portrayals of the various prisoners. Richard Todd is Lt. Col. David Baird, intensely and single-mindedly set on escaping. Bernard Lee is Lt. Col. Huxley who is the careful senior British officer with a view of the entire situation. Michael Wilding plays the deceptively dashing Major Charles Marquand, and some comic relief is provided by Dennis Price, an actor-prisoner more devoted to his production of Hamlet than leaving before the curtain goes up. The hitch in the plans to escape is insidious -- there is a traitor among the prisoners and before they can succeed, they have to find him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The weak story in The Bulldog Breed is an excuse to tie together a long series of funny episodes, slapstick incidents, and absurd situations. What does bring everything into a certain unity is the comic character type created by Norman Wisdom, an inept, likeable loser whose efforts to succeed against all odds somehow bumble through to final triumph. Playing Norman Puckle in this romp, he is heartbroken after being scorned by an unattainable blond and fails at a suicide attempt, only to end up in the Navy. Bungling most of his work there, he is surprised to discover that he has been chosen by the admiral to be the first man the Navy sends into space. This time, Norman's losing streak is up against a formidable phalanx of expertise -- what could possibly go wrong? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this Edgar Wallace mystery, the trouble begins when a Rhodesian jewel thief kills a policeman and simply disappears. Now it is up to an intrepid detective, a former cop, to solve the crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide