Brenda Bruce Movies

Millions Like Us is a fundamentally honest dramatization of the British "home front" during World War II. Patricia Roc plays a worker in a defense plant who lives in an all-female rooming house. Shy and sheltered, Roc loses some of her inhibitions when she falls in love with an airman (Gordon Jackson). After they marry, he is killed in battle. Roc's coworkers and friends rally round her, giving her the strength to persevere. Millions Like Us attempts to show the temporary breakdown of the British class structure during the war, with everyone--highborn to low--pitching in, working together, and bolstering one another's morale. That the old social system would inevitably resume after the war wasn't important to British movie fans, who lined up in droves to see Millions Like Us. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

I Live in Grosvenor Square is better known by its American release title, A Yank in London. Anna Neagle, whose husband Herbert Wilcox produced and directed the film, stars as Lady Patricia Fairfax, who enters into a brief wartime romance with American air force sergeant John Patterson (Dean Jagger). The plot proper is based on a true WW II incident, wherein an Air Corps crew deliberately sacrificed their lives to save an English village of no strategic importance. The multinational supporting cast includes Rex Harrison, Robert Morley, Jane Darwell, and real-life American PFC Elliot Arluck. At the time of its release, I Live in Grosvenor Square was praised for the authenticity of its settings and characterizations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If nothing else, the British melodrama Night Boat to Dublin had topicality going for it. As Captain David Grant, Robert Newton heads the cast of this spy-hunt caper. The plot concerns the efforts to rescue a Swedish scientist from the clutches of Nazi ringleader Keitel (Herbert Lom) and his minions. The scientist is of course of the "atomic" variety, meaning that it's crucial to smuggle him to safety before the Germans can learn his secrets. The authentic Dublin dialects heard throughout the film add charm and authenticity to the proceedings, though they are a bit hard to understand at times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Anthony Asquith's first postwar effort, While the Sun Shines was based on a play by frequent Asquith collaborator Terence Rattigan. Set in WW2 London, the story revolves around Lady Elizabeth Randall (Barbara White), who is serving her country as an Air Force corporal. While en route to her marriage to the Earl of Harpenden (Ronald Howard, in his screen debut), Lady Elizabeth is wooed a French expatriate named Colbert (Michael Allen) and American lieutenant Joe Mulvaney (the inevitable Bonar Colleano). The resulting series of sexual misunderstandings puts Lady Elizabeth's military career-not to mention her impending marriage-in dire jeopardy. A harmless romantic farce, While the Sun Shines is generally out of favor with Anthony Asquith's many adherents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Anticipating The Defiant Ones by nearly ten years, the British My Brother's Keeper concentrates on the exploits of two handcuffed-together escaped convicts. The protagonists are career criminal George Martin (Jack Warner) and terrified "first timer" Willie Stannard (George Cole). The film is one long chase, with a brief respite to establish the relationship between Martin and his girlfriend Nora Lawrence (Jane Hylton). Despite the fact that they're polar opposites, George and Willie develop a grudging friendship and dependence upon one another, broken only by the events in the final scenes. Director Alfred Roome's utilization of actual exterior locations adds a great deal of credibility to the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British Don't Ever Leave Me stars "cute" Jimmy Hanley as a would-be criminal who is dragooned into a kidnapping plot. Among the potential victims is teenaged Sheila Farlane (Petula Clark), the daughter of Shakespearean actor Michael Farlane (Hugh Sinclair). When the plan goes awry, Sheila and her friends decide that they're having fun being kidnapped and refuse to go home! Featured in the cast is a young Anthony Newley, who'd recently gained fame as the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist. Don't Ever Leave Me is hardly memorable, though it managed to get plenty of American TV airplay in the 1950s and 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This British comedy centers around the game of Cricket. It is set as the British team and their legendary cricket player Sam Palmer, prepare for a big match with the Australians. It will be his swan song in the game. His son Reggie, a fledgling poet, must make a difficult decision. On one hand, he really wants to attend his father's final game, but on the other, he has also been invited to the home of world famous poet Alexander Whitehead. It is Whitehead who solves the dilemma as he is a Cricket fanatic. Together he and the boy speed off to the match. Actual Cricket players appear in the film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A father discovers that being a good role model for your son isn't always easy -- especially when you're a criminal -- in this bright British comedy. Percy Brand (Michael Redgrave) is an all-purpose con artist and small-time crook who makes a good living on the wrong side of the law but often finds himself behind bars as a result. Not wanting to present too bad an example to his son and needing an explanation for his frequent time away, he tells young Colin (Jeremy Burnham) that he's a missionary working with a religious group, and his good deeds take him all over the world on sudden missions of mercy. Colin accepts his father's word to the letter, and he grows up to be a law-abiding citizen who works as a barrister for Judge Crichton (Robert Morley), who has had to deal with Percy a number of times over the years. By this time, Percy has retired to a village by the ocean and is living nicely off his ill-gotten gains, but he gets roped into a scheme smuggling brandy and soon finds himself in trouble with the law again. Rather than go back to the pokey (and embarrass Colin), Percy and his mates concoct a bizarre plan by which they'll implicate Judge Crichton in the smuggling and send him to jail in their place. Director Charles Crichton directed a number of fine British comedies, right up to his final picture, A Fish Called Wanda, which he completed at the age of 78. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Legendary cinematographer (Freddie Francis) directed this Hammer horror film of madness and murder. The story concerns young Janet (Jennie Linden), a student at finishing school who is suffering from a series of recurring nightmares, having witnessed her mother stabbing her father to death. When her nightmares intensify, Janet is brought to the home of her guardian, Henry Baxter (David Knight). Henry is not home, but Janet is put into the care of his live-in nurse, Grace (Moira Redmond). Janet's nightmares continue, in which she sees a woman in white beckoning her into her parents' bedroom. Following the apparition, Janet sees the woman lying in bed, with a knife sticking from her chest. When Henry returns home, he is told by the doctors that Janet should be confined to a mental institution. Henry refuses, but the arrival of Henry's wife changes all that -- when Janet sees Henry's wife, who resembles the woman from her dreams, she grabs a knife and stabs her to death. Janet is committed to an institution for the criminally insane. However, it turns out that Grace had deliberately disguised herself as the woman in white to drive Janet over the brink and kill Henry's wife, so that they could be married. Henry and Grace get married, but Grace then receives reports that Janet has escaped from the institution and is returning to Henry's estate, bent on revenge. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This situation comedy finds rookie soldiers of the British Army trying to cope with military life while stationed in Malaya. Brigg (Hywel Bennett) is a young clerk who falls for the local school teacher Phillipa (Lynn Redgrave), the daughter of Royal Sergeant Major Raskin (Nigel Patrick). Brigg loses his virginal status in an encounter with the prostitute Juicy Lucy (Tsai Chin), while Phillipa also becomes sexually active for the first time. The film strikes a nice balance between comedy and serious drama as the soldiers are put to the test when a train wreck necessitates their involvement, and later several soldiers try to get sick leave by requesting circumcisions. Brigg and Phillipa finally get together when a bombing raid puts them in close proximity in this engaging military comedy. The Kinks' Ray Davies wrote the title track. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This feature-length dramatization of James Herriot's best-seller was issued by EMI as a big-screen theatrical release in England, but debuted on NBC as a telemovie in the United States, February 4, 1975. It stars Simon Ward as Herriot in his early days as a veterinarian. The story picks up in 1937, with Herriot's first assignment as assistant to eccentric Yorkshire vet Siegfried Farnon (Anthony Hopkins). The film's highlight is the strenuous delivery of a newborn colt; its most poignant moment is the mercy killing of a seriously ill dog. In between "cases," Herriot courts pretty farmer's daughter Helen (Lisa Farrow). The film eventually spawned a television series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Swallows and Amazons is based on the popular children's book by Arthur Ransome. The film is set in Britain's Lake District in the 1920s. The "swallows" and "amazons" are the members of an Our Gang-ish group of kids. They enjoy a variety of outdoor adventures, linked together more by locale than plotline, and buoyed by the engaging personalities of the children. Swallows and Amazons was followed a decade later by a sequel, Swallows and Amazons: Coot Club. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a drama that runs out of steam slowly, a small Cornish town is faced with the unwelcome news that nuclear weapons are stored in the nearby U.S. Marine base. This causes a great deal of commotion among the townspeople and adds a twist to the problems Geoff has in romancing Carol, who is already dating a Marine with pacifist leanings. Issues come to a head at the town meeting, when a Ministry representative explains that England would survive a nuclear war -- and almost sets off a war with that statement. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide