Leslie Gilliat Movies

The later years of the life of author D.H. Lawrence are dramatized in this screen biography. Following the controversial reception of his novel The Rainbow, David Herbert Lawrence (Ian McKellen) and his wife Frieda (Janet Suzman) leave England for the U.S., where they hope that Lawrence's bold themes will be received in a more tolerant climate. Such is not the case, and the Lawrences travel first to Mexico, and then to Italy while David attempts to complete and then publish his best known (and most controversial) work, Lady Chatterley's Lover. However, as the furor over the book taxes David's well being, tuberculosis saps his physical health. The supporting cast includes John Gielgud as censorship crusader Herbert G. Muskett and Ava Gardner as Mabel Dodge Luhan. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The Buttercup Chain, based on Janice Elliot's novel, details the intense friendship among four people that turns tragic over the course of one summer. France (Hywel Bennett) and Margaret (Jane Asher) are first cousins, born of twin sisters on the same day. As children, they were brought up as brother and sister. The two possess such a strong platonic love for each other that they are incapable of loving anyone else. When Margaret travels to London to live with France, he picks out beautiful Swedish student Fred (Sven-Bertil Taube) to be Margaret's lover. For himself, he selects American girl Manny (Leigh Taylor-Young). As they spend their holidays traveling in Spain, the countryside of England, and Sweden, the foursome communicate with each other and try to discover the meaning of love. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Cartoonist Ronald Searle's delightfully diabolical private-school girls are back in action in The Great St. Trinian's Bank Robbery. Comedian Frankie Howerd plays the head of a train-robbery gang who cleverly hides the loot from their biggest haul (presumably the infamous "Great Train Robbery" of 1963) in a deserted old mansion. The gang waits the traditional seven years for the statute of limitations to run out then returns to the mansion to dig up their $7 million booty. Unfortunately, the joint has been converted into the new site for St. Trinian's School for Girls. Even more unfortunately (for the crooks, but not the audience) those "girls" are all holy terrors. The film's climax occurs during a riotous Parents' Day ceremony, which predictably segues into a wild train chase. Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery might have been funnier had Alastair Sim, the star of the first three "St. Trinian's" entries, made a return appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this British wartime comedy, a group of captured con-artists must choose between jail terms or military service. Naturally they choose the army. Once they are assigned to a post they set up successful gambling and liquor operations. When they go overseas, they do the same thing. They are then asked to start a social club to boost morale. They do so, and the operation is only a hair's breadth away from being a brothel. They attempt to keep the joint a secret from visiting Parliamentary members, but it is not long before the cathouse is out of the bag. ~ Sandra Brennan, 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

The Smallest Show on Earth is a gentle, frequently uproarious takeoff of Britain's neighborhood-cinema industry. Real-life husband and wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna star as Matt and Jean Spencer, a middle-class couple who inherit a decrepit movie house in a tiny railroad whistle stop. They also inherit the theater's ancient, doddering employees: bibulous ticket-taker Percy Quill (Peter Sellers), former silent-movie accompanist Mrs. Fazackalee (Margaret Rutherford) and doorman/janitor old Tom (Bernard Miles). Making the best of things, the Spencers set up shop going through the usual travails of small-time cinema owners: substandard projection and sound reproduction, a dismal selection of films (all they can afford is American B-Westerns), and sundry mishaps with the audience. Just when they're about to write off the theater as a loss, crafty old Tom comes up with an underhanded but effective method to allow the Spencers to make a huge profit on their shaky enterprise. Though chock full of entertaining vignettes, the best and most poignant scene in The Smallest Show on Earth finds the three elderly employees tearfully reveling in a nostalgic screening of the 1924 silent film Comin' Thro' the Rye. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi