David MacDonald Movies
Scotland-born David MacDonald managed a rubber plantation before entering films in 1929 as a DeMille assistant. MacDonald returned to the British Isles in the 1930, where in 1937 he launched his directorial career. Best known for his wartime documentary work while serving with the British Film Army Unit--his Desert Victory and Burma Victory are still considered classics of their genre--he also has several above-average non-documentaries to his credit, notably the Thin Man-inspired This Man is News (1937) and the lavish costumer The Moonraker (1957). Ever the professional, MacDonald gamely tackled the challenge of 1949's Christopher Columbus. In the 1950s and 1960s, David MacDonald had settled into routine bread-and-butter assignments like 1954's Devil Girl From Mars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This gory British horror satire features a hammy Michael Gough as Doctor Storm, the demented overseer of a bizarre health resort advertising "Hairy Holidays" for teenage hipsters -- on whom he secretly performs diabolical mind experiments, turning them into mindless automatons directed by a remote-control device. Those lucky enough to escape the doctor's operating table are invariably tracked down by a leather-clad bike gang or decapitated by the doctor's car (thanks to handy fender-mounted scythes). Into this trap falls pop music star Robin Askwith, whose quest for a stress-relieving getaway lands him in Gough's house of horrors. Oblivious, at first, to his impending fate (thanks to the diverting presence of the doctor's pretty niece, Vanessa Shaw), Askwith eventually realizes that the fellow patients look just a bit too relaxed for comfort. Ostensibly the blackest of black comedies, some aspects of the film actually presage Lindsay Anderson's far more sophisticated Britannia Hospital, though the satire here is far less intelligent. The biggest laughs are provided by the badly dated, ultra-mod '60s clothing and dialogue. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Gough, Robin Askwith, (more)
- 1962
Timothy Bateson stars as a timorous bank clerk who fancies himself a brilliant scientist. Experimenting with alchemy in his spare time, Bateson stumbles across a method of manufacturing gold. Naturally, a group of unscrupulous businessmen gets wind of Bateson's marvelous discovery, and do their best (or worst) to appropriate it for themselves. Before the picture is over, the nervous clerk is obliged to rescue his kidnaped girlfriend Maureen Beck. Featured in the cast of The Golden Rabbit is Willoughby Goddard, whom 1950s TV addicts will remember as Gessler on the weekly series William Tell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Any movie with a title like Petticoat Pirates would be hard to dislike--and equally hard to believe. Anticipating the "feminist" films of the 1970s, the plot concerns a group of female officers in the British Navy. Angered by the sexism inherent in the Admiralty, the uniformed ladies stage a mutiny, taking a timorous male stoker as a sort of hostage. Not terribly credible to begin with, the film ultimately veers off into fantasy. Petticoat Pirates is both innocuous and inconsequential; you may have seen it, but chances are you don't remember it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Drake, Anne Heywood, (more)
- 1958
When the English Civil War is winding down but the Roundheads and Royalists are still at odds with each other, it is decided that the King, Raymond, should be moved from England to France for safekeeping. When the Cavalier assigned the task is thwarted by the discovery of the scheme, other measures must be taken. Good action scenes with a smidgen of romance thrown in for good measure. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Baker, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1958
In this comedy, two spinsters find their holiday in a rented cabin interrupted when a police detective appears looking for the corpse of the former renter's wife. A skeleton is discovered and the man is formally charged for the murder of his wife until it is revealed that the skeleton belongs to an ancient Englishman, not a modern woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Four terrifying stories from The Veil television series are introduced by Boris Karloff with titles "Summer Heat," "Vision of Crime," "Food on the Table" and "Jack the Ripper." ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff
- 1957
In this British comedy, a young man resorts to spying, extortion and just plain begging after he learns that he is to be replaced as headwaiter by a young woman. The story is based on a popular play. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1956
When John Preston (Christopher Lee) comes out of nowhere to settle in Deanbridge, he rises quickly in the town's small circle of leaders and meets Sally, the daughter of a leading family. He asks her to marry him, but then he begins to have repeating nightmares about a passionate blonde blackmailer. He consults the local doctor (Alexander Knox), who decides that Preston is unconsciously suppressing events from his past and should try to recover his memory before he gets married. This is an average psychological mystery worth watching for the good performances. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide
- 1955
This crime drama is made up of two different tales of murder gone awry. In the first episode, an angry man plans a murder/suicide to protect his daughter from an extortionist. In the other story, a vengeful doctor hypnotizes his wife's unsuspecting lover and suggests that he break into her room late one night. The doctor hopes that his wife will be so frightened that she will kill her lover. But things don't quite go as planned and when the wife learns the truth about her husband, he finds himself in mortal danger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
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Marius Goring stars in this TV adaptaion of Baroness Orczy's adventure novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. Goring plays Sir Percy Blakeney, 18th century English fop by day, rescuer of French aristocrats by night. Disguised as the Scarlet Pimpernel, Blakeney does his utmost to save deserving souls from the guillotine at the height of the French revolution. The TV series is more formularized than the novel, but admirable captures the spirit of the original. Four volumes of Scarlet Pimpernel episodes are currently available on videocassette: the episodes contained in Volume 2 are "Sir Andrew's Fate" and "Tale of Two Pigtails." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Alexander Knox is the One Just Man in this British crime melodrama. Knox plays a judge who takes the law in his own hands when obviously guilty miscreants get off scot-free. When Knox's tale is told, we are introduced to Peter Reynolds as a duplicitous playboy who attempts to defraud an insurance company. One Just Man looks suspiciously like two half-hour TV pilot films strung together. This 55-minute package was prepared by the brothers Danzinger, purveyors of many a pulse-pounding British programmer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this low-budget British science fiction tale (which, not surprisingly, has gained a cult following), Nyah (Patricia Laffan), a statuesque, leather-clad woman from another world, lands near a small Scottish town with her trusty robot in tow. It seems that Mars has recently seen a dramatic drop in their male population, and if the Martian species is to survive, healthy men are needed to serve as husbands on the red planet. Nyah has been sent forth to bring Earth men back with her, but the local Scotsmen aren't so interested in going -- and their women aren't about to give them up without a fight. The supporting cast includes horror fan favorite Hazel Court and Hugh McDermott. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This crime drama contains two stories. In the first, a luckless fellow has even worse luck when he is suspected of murder because the victim carried information that would have kept the man from inheriting a fortune. Fortunately, another person had an even greater motive for the killing and justice ensues. In the second, a widow gets revenge upon the two who killed her husband for money. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Death is the subject of this dramatic trilogy. In the first vignette, an agonizing woman must decide whether she should give her single dose of antidote to her poisoned son or her equally ailing husband. The second story centers on a deadly love triangle between a stage producer, his fiancee, and a jealous dancer. In the last tale, a smitten young girl, determined to be with her beloved music teacher, hides herself in one of his trunks and nearly suffocates. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1953
The Anglo-American melodrama The Big Frame was released in Britain as Count the Hours. Mark Stevens stars as a Texas-born test pilot who heads to England to marry his wartime sweetheart Jean Kent. At a reunion party with his air force chums, Stevens gets into a boozy brawl with one of the celebrants. When the man turns up dead, Stevens is Suspect Number One. While scurrying about London to clear himself, Our Hero unearths a smuggling ring. The moral of The Big Frame seems to be "auld acquaintances should be forgot." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Stevens, Jean Kent, (more)
- 1952
This British crime drama is set in a supposedly haunted London theater and centers upon a producer who rents the building from its female owner to put on a show. She does so on the condition that no one unlock the dressing room where her husband was murdered years before. Later, the woman's son is murdered on stage. The police find clues that lead them to the mysterious locked room. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1951
The Adventurers is set in South Africa at the end of the Boer war. Commando Pieter Brandt (Jack Hawkins) comes across the dead body of a diamond courier. Brandt buries both the courier and his valuable cache of diamonds then heads back to his regiment. After the cessation of hostilities, Brandt raises money for an expedition back into the mountainous regions where the diamonds are hidden. There's no love lost among Brandt and his three treasure-hunting companions; particularly prickly is the relationship between Brandt and Clive Hunter (Dennis Price), whose wife is Brandt's former fiancé. Sort of an African variation of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Adventurers is buoyed by an unusually vicious performance by Jack Hawkins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Hawkins, Peter Hammond, (more)
- 1950
Cairo Road is a standard British "police precinct" drama with a twist; this precinct is located in Cairo, Egypt. Eric Portman plays an Egyptian police chief who takes on the seemingly routine matter of a murdered Arab. Portman deduces that this was no ordinary street killing, and that the Arab was mixed up with drug smuggling. The chief leaves the relative security of his office to set a trap for the murderers within the teeming streets of Cairo. Cairo Road was photographed by Oswald Morris and included in its supporting cast a young Lawrence Harvey--two worthies who wouldn't be working in British programmers much longer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Portman, Laurence Harvey, (more)
- 1949
Diamond City is a British "western", set not in Australia as was often the case but in the wilds of South Africa. David Farrar is a lawkeeper sworn to lawkeep in the diamond mines. The poachers thereabouts try their luck at circumventing Farrar, but he's too fast for them. The final shootout isn't quite the Gunfight at the OK Corral, but it will serve until English history offers a real counterpart to that famous western battle. David Farrar's leading lady in Diamond City is future Avengers star Honor Blackman, who in 1949 was still in her blushing-heroine phase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Farrar, Honor Blackman, (more)
- 1949
A frequent visitor to the Late Late Show, the Anglo-American Snowbound is set in the frozen Alps. Robert Newton and Dennis Price head an expedition in search of a fortune of gold, stashed away by the Nazis in the last days of the war. Snowed into an old cabin, the men quickly get on one another's nerves. Just when tension reaches the boiling point, one of the party saves the day. He happens to be a movie screenwriter, who uses his cinematic knowhow to reach a solution to their dilemma. Snowbound is based on The Lonely Skier, a novel by Hammond Innes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Newton, Dennis Price, (more)
- 1949
Reverent to the point of tedium, Christopher Columbus stars Fredric March in the title role, and he's welcome to it. March's wife Florence Eldredge co-stars as Queen Isabella, who finances Columbus' expedition to find a westward route to India. After several reels devoted to table-top miniatures impersonating the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria (punctuated by rumbles of mutiny--no, not "rumble rumble, mutiny mutiny") Columbus reaches the New World. Though obviously filmed on an extravagant budget (Technicolor was still a rare commodity in 1949), the British Christopher Columbus has less going for it than the 1939 Porky Pig cartoon Christopher Columbus Jr.. Filmgoers stayed away in droves, as they would when the movie industry "rediscovered" Columbus for a brace of disastrous multimillion-dollar films in 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, (more)
- 1949
George Gordon, aka Lord Byron, the clubfooted 19th-century poet with the uncontrollable libido, is played by Dennis Price in this lavish British chocolate-box epic. From the vantage point of his deathbed, Byron recalls his life and many loves, imagining that he's pleading his case before a celestial court. Joan Greenwood looks like she's just stepped out of a portrait frame as Lady Caroline Lamb (whose own sordid story would also be filmed in due time). Her performance is far more persuasive than that of Dennis Price, who seems less libertine than precocious as Byron. Roundly ridiculed by British film critics in 1949, The Bad Lord Byron has stood the test of time -- not really a classic, but an acceptable rainy-day wallow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, (more)
- 1948
Director David McDonald adapted the screenplay of The Brothers from a novel by L. A. G. Strong. Set at the turn-of-the-century, the story concerns the feud between two farming families on a remote Western Scottish island. Patricia Roc plays Mary, a serving girl who goes to work for the Macrae clan. This not only causes renewed hostility between the Macrae and the rival McFarish family, but also foments dissension between Macrae brothers Fergus (Maxwell Reed) and John (Duncan Macrae). In a break from tradition, the film substitutes the novel's unhappy ending with an even unhappier one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Roc, Will Fyffe, (more)
