Bryan Forbes Movies

The "endless game" is espionage, which goes on and on despite government upheavals and changing international attitudes. Albert Finney plays a retired secret agent called back to active duty. Finney is entrusted with the task of finding out why his fellow retirees are being killed off. One of the victims is a woman who'd once been Finney's lover. Anthony Quayle makes his final screen appearance in this made-for-cable suspenser. Endless Game was written and directed by Bryan Forbes--surprisingly, his first foray into the spy-film genre. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this fast-paced, often complex murder mystery, a psychiatrist's patient and later his secretary are killed, yet the police seem unable to come up with any answers so the doc takes matters into his own hands. Roger Moore is Dr. Judd Stevens, a rather meek Chicago psychiatrist whose patient is killed while wearing a jacket borrowed from Stevens. After Stevens' secretary is brutally slain, Lieutenant McGreavy (Rod Steiger) is certain that Stevens is guilty and is ready to prove it, but when his vendetta gets too obvious, he is taken off the case. That leaves his partner Angeli (Elliott Gould), a much more sympathetic cop, to continue on with the investigation. Even then, the killings continue, so Stevens gives up on the police and goes for help to a wacky P.I. (Art Carney) who lives surrounded by clocks and at first seems like a hopeless nitwit. As Stevens continues in his pursuit of the killers, life is complicated by a Mafia bride who seeks his professional help and clues that lead increasingly to the Mafia and cops on the take. The acting may be a bit uneven, and Moore might have fared better if allowed a little Bond action, but the movie is engaging enough to maintain interest throughout. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Sunday Lovers is a fitfully amusing study of weekend romantic techniques as practiced in four different cultures. Each episode was filmed by a separate unit in the country where the story was set. "The French Method" (directed by Eduoard Molinaro) finds a businessman (Lino Ventura) trying to secure an important contract through the sexual allure of his secretary (Catherine Salviat)--only to give up the whole enterprise when he discovers that the secretary would be more valuable as a business partner. "An Englishman's Home" (directed by Bryan Forbes) is all about a chauffeur (Roger Moore) who poses as his boss in order to impress a series of sexy stewardesses. "Armando's Notebook" (directed by Dino Risi) finds a middle-aged Italian husband (Ugo Tognazzi) arranging an affair when his wife leaves town. And "Skippy" stars Gene Wilder (who also directed the segment) as an American psychiatric patient who falls in love with the equally neurotic Priscilla Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Walter Matthau plays a CIA agent who's been confined by office politics to a desk job. The disgruntled Matthau quits the service and heads to Europe, where he links up with former lover (an fellow ex-agent) Glenda Jackson. All goes smoothly until Matthau acts on the advice of yet another retired agent, Russian Herbert Lom, who suggests that Matthau write a tell-all autobiography. Spitefully, Matthau sends out copies of his first chapter to the heads of the CIA agencies throughout the world--and from that point on, he and Jackson don't have a moment's peace. This delights Matthau: now that all of his former colleagues are chasing after him, he has a reason to get up in the morning. As written by Brian Garfield, Hopscotch was a conventionally serious espionage novel. As adapted for the big screen by Garfield and Bryan Forbes, Hopscotch is a lively exercise in cloak-and-dagger comedy, even when the pursuit of Matthau turns deadly towards the end. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed in Austria, this British-made musical retells the story of Cinderella as it is found in books of fairy tales. The Prince, Edward, is played by Richard Chamberlain, Cinderella by Gemma Craven. In her role as the Prince's witty mother, Dame Edith Evans provides many of the movie's highlights. The musical score and songs written by Richard Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, who also provided the music to the movie Mary Poppins, were nominated for Academy Awards. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Britain's Bryan Forbes and France's Pierre Jourdan collaborated on the direction of the feature-length documentary I Am a Dancer. Rudolph Nureyev, the celebrated Russian ballet star who defected to the West in 1961, is the subject of the film. Seldom sitting still long enough to be interviewed for the camera, Nureyev prefers to let his dancing do his "talking." Forbes and Jourdan follow Nureyev from rehearsal hall to performance, alone and with his equally famous partner Margot Fonteyn. Originally produced for British television, I Am a Dancer was released theatrically in the US. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Taken from the popular play by Jean Giraudoux, The Madwoman Of Chaillot has an international all-star cast, but the final result falls short despite the talents of the celebrated thespians. The madwoman in question is the extremely eccentric Countess Aurelia (Katherine Hepburn). Roderick (Richard Chamberlain) is the peace-loving activist who, along with a local rag picker (Danny Kaye), warns the Countess of a plot to destroy the city. A quartet of villains led by the Chairman (Yul Brynner) are after the oil reserves that bubble under the water supply. Along with the Broker (Charles Boyer), the Commissar (Oscar Homolka), and the Prospector (Donald Pleasence), the evil developers plan to secure the oil rights to the region with or without the consent of the unsuspecting public. The Countess invites Josephine (Dame Edith Evans) to judge the villains, who are locked in the Countess's cellar for their crimes against the people of Paris in this lethargic film. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The Whisperers stars Dame Edith Evans as a lonely old woman whose imagination is getting the better of her sanity. She insists that she hears "whisperers" plotting and planning against her at all times; she also believes that these imaginary entities are spying on her. So suspicious is Ms. Evans of her nonexistent whisperers that she fails to notice the very real predators around her. She is robbed of her life's savings by a nasty "friend" (Avis Brunnage), and is exploited by her estranged con-artist husband (Eric Portman) and her no-good son (Ronald Fraser) Even when she catches on to the duplicity of others, Ms. Evans is so far gone with her "whisperers" that the authorities refuse to believe her. Seedy and sordid though it may be, The Whisperers won Edith Evans the Best Actress award from the New York Critics' Circle. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Years before the story proper in The Wrong Box gets under way, a "tontine" is drawn up on behalf several young British boys. Each of the boys' parents had placed 1000 pounds in a pool, to be invested and expanded upon. The resultant fortune will go to the last surving member of the tontine. A series of montages depicts the various demises of the heirs (our favorite occurs when one of them is inadvertently beheaded while being knighted by Queen Victoria). Finally, only two of the tontine participants are left: aged brothers Ralph Richardson and John Mills. On his last legs, Mills is determined that Richardson will not outlive him, and to that end attempts to kill his brother; each attempt fails spectacularly, with the doddering Richardson none the wiser. Standing to benefit from the tontine are Mills' dimwitted med-student son Michael Caine and Richardson's greedy nephews Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. When Richardson is supposedly killed in a train wreck, Cook and Moore don't want the authorities to find out, so they appropriate what they think is their uncle's corpse and ship it home in a box. Thus it is that Caine finds the body of a perfect stranger on his doorstep. The farcical complications begin flying about thick and fast from this point onward. Among the participants in this wacky gigglefest are such formidable talents as Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Wilfred Lawson, Thorley Walters, Norman Rossington, Irene Handl and Cicely Courtenedge. Based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrong Box is a delightful harkback to the glory days of Britain's Ealing comedies. We were so wrapped up in the story that we didn't even notice all those TV antennae sprouting up on the rooftops of Victorian London. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Kim Stanley plays a crooked medium who has become slightly unhinged since the death of her son. Craving money and publicity, she concocts a scheme with her weak-willed husband (Richard Attenborough). The pair will kidnap a wealthy young girl, collect the ransom, then use her "powers" to help the parents locate the child. The scheme falls apart, but not in the way that anyone might expect. Adapted by director Bryan Forbes from a novel by Mark McShane, Seance on a Wet Afternoon is a compelling psychological melodrama made doubly powerful by Stanley's mesmerizing performance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This third screen adaptation of Somerset Maugham's novel about the destructiveness of sexual obsession stars Laurence Harvey as Philip Carey, a club-footed artist who after two unsuccessful years in Paris decides to pursue a career in medicine instead. During his medical studies he falls in love with a waitress, Mildred Rogers (Kim Novak), who takes advantage of his attraction to her. When Mildred leaves him to marry another man, Philip falls in love with a writer (Siobhan McKenna), who encourages him to complete his studies. Under her tutelage, Philip excels in medical school. But when Mildred returns, pregnant and abandoned by her husband, Philip takes her in and cares for her, breaking off with the kind-hearted writer. Staying with Philip at his flat, Mildred has an affair with his best friend. Confronting her with her indiscretions, Mildred tells Philip how repulsed she is by his club foot and walks out on him. Philip once again throws himself into his studies, passing his examinations and taking an internship at a London hospital. There he hears Mildred has become a cheap prostitute. Philip travels to the brothel where she is living in poverty with her child and takes her under his wing once again. As before, Mildred walks out on Philip, trashing his apartment and taking to the streets. When Philip comes upon her again, he finds that her child has died and she is suffering from the advanced stages of syphilis. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Welsh librarian John Lewis (Peter Sellers), unhappily married to Jean Lewis (Virginia Maskell), falls in love with the glamorous Elizabeth Gruffydd Williams (Mai Zetterling). Zetterling is likewise saddled with a dull spouse, wealthy Vernon Gruffyd-Williams (Raymond Huntley). Finding themselves to be kindred spirits, Sellers and Zetterling plan an illicit affair. Alas, none of their carefully calculated schemes for a romantic tryst come to fruition thanks to a series of comic (but utterly credible) complications.
John ultimately concludes that adultery simply isn't worth the bother. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi