Charles Frend Movies

The logic behind inflating Robert Bolt's minimalist romantic drama Ryan's Daughter into a 12-million-dollar epic seems to have been "When David Lean directs, it's a super-spectacular." Sarah Miles (who at the time was married to Robert Bolt) stars as Rosy, the daughter of Irish pub keeper Tom Ryan (Leo McKern). Married to tweedy, sexless schoolmaster Charles Shaughnessy (Robert Mitchum), restless Rosy has an affair with British officer Randolph Doryan (Christopher Jones). When village idiot Michael (an Oscar-winning turn by John Mills) innocently uncovers evidence of Rosy's indiscretion, the local gossips begin wagging their tongues. Shaughnessy chooses to remain above the scandal, assuming that Rosy will come to her senses. Later, Rosy's father informs on a group of IRA insurgents, hoping to keep the peace in his village. The locals assume that Rosy, still enamored of Doryan, is the informer, and exact a humiliating punishment. Realizing that his very presence has caused disgrace for Rosy, Doryan kills himself. For Rosy and Shaughnessy, life goes on...not happily ever after, just ever after. The film was lensed on location in Ireland by frequent Lean collaborator Freddie Young. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this children's adventure, an addled inventor develops a flying bicycle and endeavors to enter it in a contest that offers a substantial prize to the first person who can create a purely man-powered flying vehicle. A young man helps him win the prize. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a troubled adolescent girl must somehow adjust to the foster home she is sent to while her mother serves a prison sentence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this slapstick British comedy, a proud man from a family of seamen is so prone to seasickness that even the slightest aqueous movement makes him unbearably ill. The man's illustrious family history is witnessed from the Stone Age via flashback. To preserve his family's name and his own honor, he opens up a hotel for sailors with an amusement pier. It is a great success and this inspires the jealousy of the local residents who try to destroy his new empire. Fortunately, the fellow's sailor pals intervene and save the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Lease of Life was the next-to-last film in the relatively short cinema career of actor Robert Donat. Written for the screen by Eric Ambler, the story is set in a small rural community, where William Thorn (Donat) serves as parson. Upon learning that he has only a year to live, Thorn begins to see his parishioners, and his purpose on earth, in a whole new light. The plot is thickened when a dying villager puts his money into the parson's care; in dire need of cash to pay for his daughter's school tuition, Thorn is sorely tempted to dip into the funds himself. Exceptionally well cast, Lease of Life features Kay Walsh as Thorn's wife, Adrienne Corri as their daughter and Vida Hope as the wealthy villager's grasping missus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This gentle Ealing Studios comedy features young William Fox as a mischievous English lad. A goodly portion of the film shows Fox and his companions at play, aimlessly but enjoyably wandering about their neighborhood in search of adventure. Eventually the boy finds a discarded magnet, believing it to be a good-luck token; it turns out to be just that, enabling the boy to become a hero of sorts. The Magnet scores with young and old viewers alike, principally because it is told from the boy's point of view. William Fox would later sprout up to become leading British actor James Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Mills stars as Commander Scott, the leader of the ill-fated and famed 1911 expedition to be the first to discover the South Pole. The British were up against the Norwegians in the Arctic quest for fame and honor which was won by Norway. ~ All Movie Guide

Johnny Frenchman uses humor to drive home the point that, despite all previous rivalries and hostilties, the French and English should pull together during WW2. Aldwych farceur Tom Walls plays Nat Pomeroy, harbourmaster of a Cornwall fishing village, who is continually outsmarted by clever French fish poacher Lannec Florrie (Francoise Rosay). Pomeroy is further aggravated by the fact that Florrie's son Yan (played by French-Canadian radio favorite Paul Dupuis) is busily romancing Pomeroy's daughter Sue (Patricia Roc). But when the Nazis rear their ugly heads, the Cornish fisherman and the French miscreants band together to thwart the German menace. Many of the cast members of Johnny Frenchman are actual Cornish villagers and members of the Free French resistance movement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The San Demetrio is a British Merchant Marine vessel, traversing the Atlantic shipping channels in early 1940. The ship is disabled at sea, and thus left at the mercy of marauding Axis U-boats. The courageous crew manages to keep the San Demetrio afloat and guide it out of harm's way. San Demetrio, London is stylistically linked to the jingoistic "England Can Take It!" efforts of the wartime years. Despite its most ludicrous passages, the film is firmly based on fact (or at least the facts as related by author F. Tennyson Jesse). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set near the beginning of WW II, this exciting war drama follows a courageous British factory foreman as he makes a dangerous foray into occupied France to recover three machine parts that will be vital to the Allies. He is accompanied by a pair of tough British soldiers and an American girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The semidocumentary war film The Lion Has Wings states its case in broad strokes, juxtaposing images of rampaging German-dictator Adolf Hitler and appeasing British prime minister Neville Chamberlain with stock shots of bleating sheep. The film then depicts Great Britain as a great lion, willing and able to sprout "wings" in the form of waves of planes to hurl back the Luftwaffe. The dramatic portion of the film, lensed in ten days to assure timeliness (and, incidentally, a low budget) features an all-star British cast reflecting their native country's many reactions to the inevitability of war. All the on-camera talent involved (including Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson and June Duprez) donated their salaries to the war effort. Produced by Alexander Korda (who also directed a few bridging sequences, sans credit), The Lion Has Wings was distributed in the US by United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Donat stars as Dr. Andrew Manson in this adaptation of A.J. Cronin's best-selling novel. Manson devotes himself to treating the residents of a poverty-stricken Welsh mining community. Tuberculosis runs rampant in the village, and Manson is determined to help stem its tide and bring good health back to people who desperately need it. Through a series of unforeseen circumstances, Manson eventually leaves the community and begins working out of London, where he looks after wealthy hypochondriacs who don't really need his services but are willing to pay from them. While Manson gains money and prestige, he has turned his back on his friends, his wife (Rosalind Russell), and the people who need him most in the process. To give the film a more realistic "English" atmosphere, MGM shot The Citadel at their British studios, although they did import an American director (King Vidor) and leading lady (Russell) for the occasion. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The building of the great Canadian-Pacific Railroad that stretched from Montreal to Vancouver is chronicled in this realistic drama. Amidst the country's wild grandeur, two gambling vagabonds find themselves in a railroad boomtown where they hope to win a lot of the workers' money. While there, one of the gamblers falls in love with the daughter of the construction leader. He decides to abandon gambling in favor of good old- fashioned hard labor on the line. Meanwhile, the other gambler is robbed by a greedy bar maid and ends up giving up his life so that the railroad can continue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide