Anatole de Grunwald Movies

In this drama, from director Anthony Asquith, the lives and stories of three different people are linked together by their possession of an unusual car, a yellow Rolls Royce Phantom II. Lord Frinton (Rex Harrison) is a diplomat who purchases the exquisite auto as a gift for his wife (Jeanne Moreau). After Frinton's horse wins the Royal Gold Cup, Lady Frinton incurs the Lord's wrath when she is caught in the back seat of the Rolls with his underling John Fane (Edmund Purdom). In the 1930s, the car is bought by Italian gangster Paolo Maltese (George C. Scott), who is carrying on with the hatcheck girl Mae Jenkins (Shirley MacLaine). The two take a tour of Italy and see all the historic sights, but Mae is less than impressed. While Paolo is in the United States on one of his frequent hit-man assignments, Mae and a street photographer try out the back seat for comfort and carnal pleasure. Art Carney plays Paolo's associate Joey. In the final episode, Gerda Millett (Ingrid Bergman) is the married American woman who buys the car in 1942. With Hitler attacking Yugoslavia the brave and brazen beauty helps fight the Nazis by smuggling Davich (Omar Shariff) across the border, and this duo also find themselves in the back seat for a roll in the Rolls. Davich shows his gratitude by shipping the car along with Gerda back to the United States. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Terrence Rattigan, the playwright who brought us the multicharactered, multistoried Separate Tables, again offers us an episodic cross-section of humanity in The V.I.P.'s. When a heavy London fog paralyzes all air traffic, the lives of several people are profoundly affected. As indicated by the title, most of the characters in this portmanteau film are of the social and/or financial elite. Elizabeth Taylor wishes to leave her enormously wealthy husband Richard Burton in favor of playboy Louis Jourdan. Peripatetic European film producer Orson Welles is hoping to escape London with his newest protegee Elsa Martinelli in order to avoid paying his income tax. Australian businessman Rod Taylor, accompanied by his devoted (and adoring) secretary Maggie Smith, is anxious to head to New York to stave off a hostile takeover of his firm. And impoverished aristocrat Margaret Rutherford (who won an Oscar for her performance) would rather not go to Florida to accept a job as a social arbiter, but the wolf must be kept from the door. Before the fog disperses, you can be sure that at least one of the many plotlines will intersect with another. David Frost, in a tiny part as a reporter, was fond of recalling in later years that, while the major stars of The VIPS were introduced in the opening titles with animated limousines, he was consigned a tiny Volkswagen; alas, no such cartoon joke appears in the film, though on occasion the actors-particularly Mr. Welles-behave as though they were cartoons. Mercilessly skewered by the critics, The VIPS was a winner at the box-office, due in great part to the Cleopatra-inspired publicity concerning the top-billed Liz Taylor and Dick Burton. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A man is forced to prove who he really is -- and discovers that it isn't as easy as one might think -- in this drama. Sir Mark Loddon (Dirk Bogarde) is a titled member of the British aristocracy who lives a life of wealth, privilege, and notoriety, until one day Jeffrey Buckenham (Paul Massie), a pilot from Canada, makes a startling accusation. Buckenham and Loddon were both inmates in the same POW camp during WWII, and Buckenham is convinced that Loddon is not the man he claims to be; Frank Welney, an actor who was also a prisoner in the same camp, bore a striking resemblance to Loddon, and he is convinced that the actor has taken Loddon's place. The press picks up Buckenham's story, and the question of Loddon's identity becomes the talk of all England; Lady Maggie Loddon (Olivia de Havilland), Mark's wife, is deeply offended and insists that he sue for libel to restore his good name. Mark obtains the services of Sir Wilfred (Robert Morley), one of the nation's best-respected attorneys, but it soon becomes evident that proving Mark's identity in court may not be as simple as it might seem; Mark suffered severe head injuries during the war that cause him to stutter at times and also result in periodic spells of amnesia; the testimony of the many witnesses called by Sir Wilfred and his opponent, Hubert Foxley (Wilfrid Hyde-White), establish no clear consensus of who Loddon really is. Libel was based on the popular stage drama by Edward Wooll. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Faithfully adapted from a popular holiday play by Wynyard Browne, this moving British drama centers on a recently widowed, aging country vicar who hosts a family Christmas and learns a valuable lesson about keeping his own homefires alight before spending too much time tending the fires of others. Those coming for the holiday include his sister, his late wife's sister, and her cousin. The vicar's free-spirited youngest daughter and his son, a furloughed soldier, also show up. The preacher's eldest daughter lives with him and together they welcome their guests. The vicar is a good man and a caring fellow who spends considerable time caring for and counseling his parishioners, perhaps too much time, for he does not recognize the troubles of his own clan. His devoted oldest daughter quietly deals with a terrible dilemma. She is about to marry an engineer who has just found a long-term job overseas. She wants desperately to be with him, but will not leave her beloved father who seems to need her so much. Her little sister also has trouble. While in the city she fell in love with a soldier. He impregnated her, returned to the war, and was killed. Later the child died and she has become an alcoholic, something she eventually tells her brother and sister. Meanwhile the young people's aunts, learning of the situation, ask the youngest to return home to care for her father so the eldest can marry. Unfortunately, the young woman refuses and heads off to get drunk with her brother. When the vicar learns about his daughter's troubles, he and she have an emotional reconciliation. He then moves on to make peace with the rest of his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Innocents in Paris is a series of anecdotes bundled together by geography. First we see the efforts by British diplomat Alastair Sim to loosen up Soviet-agent Peter Illing long enough to forge an economic plan between Russia and England. Then we watch as dotty artist Margaret Rutherford purchases a copy of the Mona Lisa. Next we see British officer Jimmy Edwards go off on a toot in a Parisian bistro. The next vignette involves impressionable Claire Bloom, who is swept off her feet by a local rake (the human variety, not the garden implement). And so it goes for 102 minutes in the British version of Innocents in Paris, and 93 minutes in the American print. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Women of Twilight in this controversial British production are the unwed mothers living in a group home. Helen Alistair (Freda Jackson), owner of the shelter, uses a veneer of kindness and generosity to mask her true character: Helen exploits the young women as cheap labor, then farms out their babies to the black-market adoption market. The story concentrates on one of the young unfortunates (Rene Ray), whose tragic plight finally arouses the suspicions of the authorities. Considered raw meat in 1953, Women of Twilight seems to pull most of its punches today. The film was based on a play by Anatole de Grunwald. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

British stage and film star Ralph Richardson stepped behind the cameras for the first and last time to direct Murder on Monday. Richardson also starred in the film, portraying a clerk who suffers a blackout after a blow on the head. Upon recovering, Richardson is led to believe that he has committed murder during the past 24 hours. Originally released in Great Britain as Home at Seven, Murder on Monday was based on a play by R. C. Sheriff. No Orson Welles he, Ralph Richardson invited Sheriff to the set to help him properly interpret the original material; with the input of the author, and with the technical advice of producer Alexander Korda, was able to shoot the film in less than 14 days. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A supernatural tale based on a short story by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, this is the portrayal of a poor Captain in the Russian army in the nineteenth Century. His comrades in arms play cards nightly, but he cannot afford to join them until one night he dreams that he has gained from a mysterious aging countess her secret for winning at faro--a secret which legend has it she has sold her soul to obtain. This story has been filmed at least a dozen times, but this is by far the best version. Eight of the versions were silent films and another version was done as recently as 1965. A period piece, the settings and costumes are superb. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

A popular British stage play by William Douglas Home was the basis for this out-of-the-ordinary prison picture. Richard Greene heads the cast as Turnfell, a murderer facing a death sentence. Turnfell is but one of several inmates whose joys and sorrows are detailed in anecdotal fashion: others include a cockney forger (William Hartnell), an embezzling bank clerk (Ronald Howard) and a bigamist (Lesley Dwyer). Also on hand is the Governor (or warden), played with a refreshing lack of genre cliches by Sir Cedric Hardwicke and an Irish terrorist, well-played by a very young Richard Burton. Now Barabbas was a Robber was eventually given a general release under the streamlined title Now Barabbas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This multistoried drama purports to detail the events occurring in a single 24-hour period on Bond Street, a "typical" British thoroughfare. The Grand Hotel-like construction of the film allows for several colorful character vignettes. The "dramatis personae" includes an unpredictably temperamental dressmaker, a blinded war veteran, an escaped POW, a gang of blackmailers, and the owner of a valuable string of pearls. Linking the four main plotlines together is the impending wedding of Julia Chester-Barratt (Hazel Court in her pre-horror days). The presence of Roland Young in the cast assured Bond Street a few healthy American bookings. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally released in England as The Way to the Stars, Johnny in the Clouds is the story of how the Battle of Britain affected the lives of combatants and civilians alike. Terence Rattigan's screenplay concentrates on three groups of people: an American pilot and his wife, a doomed British officer with a wife and child, and a young couple who plan to marry despite the precariousness of wartime romances. Most of the action takes place at an air base and the neighboring village, where the private citizens react to rationing and other restrictions with various degrees of nobility and selfishness. The American title of this film is derived from the poem "Johnny in the Clouds," recited in tribute to the decease British airman; the U.S. version, which was released after the war, includes a prologue set in the deserted air base, with the bulk of the film offered as a flashback. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

English without Tears is a gentle satire of the temporary relaxation of class barriers in wartime England. Michael Wilding portrays the faithful family butler to a fabulously wealthy household. Each member of the family greets the news of upcoming world conflict with a different reaction, the most altruistic of which is that of the daughter (Penelope Dudley Ward), who joins the home service. When the butler rises to the army rank of lieutenant, the daughter sees him in a whole new light and falls in love with her onetime employee. There's little in this frivolous film that hasn't been done elsewhere, except perhaps for the opening-scene romantic complications in Geneva, which set the stage for the film's finale. English without Tears was released in the US in 1948 as Her Man Gilbey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Tomorrow we Live is the more upbeat American title of the British war drama At Dawn we Die. When his village is overtaken by Nazis, Frenchman Jean Baptiste (John Clements) tries to go to England. Armed with secret information about a German submarine base, Jean hopes to avenge his countrymen. Unfortunately, thanks to inquisitive soldiers and fifth columnists, Jean may never make it to the White Cliffs of Dover. On the plus side, however, Jean's fellow patriots do their best to sabotage the enemy until the (hopefully) inevitable day of Liberation. The strangest aspect of Tomorrow we Live is that all the Frenchmen are played by popular British actors, despite the influx of French expatriates in the United Kingdom. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi