Ian La Frenais Movies

This melodramatic crime drama tells the story of homosexual gang leader Vic Dakin (Richard Burton), who likes a bit of rough sex with his petty criminal pal Wolfe (Ian McShane). Aside from payroll robberies, his gang is not above blackmailing sexually deviant members of Parliament. A Scotland Yard Police Inspector, played by Nigel Davenport, has been after his gang for years and does everything in his power to close it down. When one of the gang members, Frank (Joss Ackland), winds up hospitalized for an ulcer and looks likely to spill the beans to the police, some complicated shenanigans take place. ~ Clarke Fountain, 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

Hannibal Brooks (Oliver Reed) is a British prisoner of war assigned to care for an elephant in a zoo in Munich. Along with an American (Michael J. Pollard) and an Austrian (Helmut Lohner), the trio escapes with the elephant and heads for the Swiss border. They use the elephant to tear down a sentry post and gain access to the border crossing. They are betrayed by a Polish girl who aligns herself with the Nazis as the trio of escapees and their pachyderm protector evade the enemy in their attempt to escape. Comical moments are provided by the animal and James Donald who plays a captured British Army chaplain in this World War II adventure feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Two brothers looking to avoid becoming pawns of the establishment come up with a better way of making a living -- through theft -- in this satiric comedy. David Tremayne (Oliver Reed) is a successful London architect, and his younger brother Michael (Michael Crawford) is weighing his options after being kicked out of school. The brothers share a bemused disgust with the world around them and a desire to get through life without the burden of labor; toward this end, one day they begin plotting an elaborate scheme to steal the British Crown Jewels. Mind you, they don't intend to sell them, or even keep them very long -- the idea is to return them after a week, simply to prove that it could indeed be done, and make themselves famous in the process. After studying the procedures of Scotland Yard's Bomb Disposal Unit, the inner working of the Tower of London's Jewel Room, and the London ambulance services, the Tremaynes come up with a foolproof plan -- they call in a bomb threat to the Tower, and they are able to enter the Jewel Room posing as men from the bomb squad. They then feign injury and are able to escape in an ambulance. It all seems simple enough, and it actually works, until Michael "forgets" his part of the agreement to take half of the responsibility for the theft. The supporting cast includes Edward Fox, Frank Finlay, and Harry Andrews. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide