David Hayman Movies
British supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s. ~ All Movie Guide- 1986
- PG13
Vic Mathews (Tom Conti) is a Glasgow teacher who works in a Catholic school for backward students. Though the school is named for Edith Semple, a long-dead Scotswoman who supposedly performed several miracles in her lifetime, Vic is doggedly nonreligious, insisting that it's miracle enough that his students can learn anything. The rest of the faculty hopes to have Edith Semple canonized as a saint, but Vic wants no part of this. After he is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, Vic is amazed when the tumor suddenly vanishes, just like...like a miracle. Many other strange happenings occur around Vic, prompting extensive media coverage. Still, Vic steadfastly refuses to believe in divine miracles--which causes no end of trouble with the other teachers, the Vatican authorities, and Vic's new lady friend Helen Mirren. The easy-to-take Gospel According to Vic has also been released as Heavenly Pursuits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Conti, Helen Mirren, (more)
- 1985
The story of the real-life Scottish criminal who spent a decade in and out of British prisons is the subject of this film directed by John MacKenzie (Long Good Friday) and produced by Beatle George Harrison's company, Hand Made Films. The life of the violent criminal is captivating, for, following his turbulent years in and out of captivity, his later years saw him marrying a psychiatrist and supervising efforts at rehabilitating convicts. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1982
Coming Out of the Ice stars John Savage as the real-life Victor Herman, an American athlete born to Ukrainian immigrants. In 1931, when Herman was sixteen, he and his family moved to the Soviet Union when his father was transferred there for his job with Ford Motor Company. Four years later, Victor won the world parachute jump competition, but refused to accept an award bestowed by Josef Stalin or to renounce his American citizenship. Presumably as a result, Herman was sentenced to hard labor and then exile in Siberia; he would not be cleared of "counterrevolutionary" charges until 1955. He eventually returned to the United States nearly 45 years after he was first imprisoned. Filmed in Finland, Coming Out the Ice was first telecast on May 23, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Having already been seen spying for the Nazis in 1979's The Eagle Has Landed, Donald Sutherland once more infiltrates wartime England on behalf of Der Fuhrer in Eye of the Needle. Willing to kill even the most innocent of bystanders to complete his task, Sutherland manages to remain in Britain until the eve of D-Day in 1944. Discovering that the invasion is to take place on Normandy, Sutherland scurries to rendezvous with a U-boat off the treacherous Isle of Storms. His mission is thwarted by Kate Nelligan, the frustrated wife of paralyzed RAF commander Christopher Cazenove. Though having fallen in love with Sutherland, Nelligan nonetheless prepares to turn the man in when he kills her husband. Tension mounts in the closing scene as Sutherland races against time to (a) make contact with the U-boat and (b) stop Nelligan before she blows the whistle on him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, (more)
