Philip MacDonald Movies
British novelist and playwright Philip MacDonald specialized in thrillers and crime melodramas. MacDonald's plays Rynox, Gentleman's Gentleman, Nightmare, Circle of Danger and 23 Paces to Baker Street all made it to the screen, as did his complex mystery novel The List of Adrian Messenger. His screenwriting credits included John Ford's The Lost Patrol (1934) and several of 20th Century-Fox's "Charlie Chan" and "Mr. Moto" entries. Active in films until the 1950s, Philip MacDonald worked on such intriguing low-budgeters as Ring of Fear (a 1954 meller starring Mickey Spillane as himself) and Tobor the Great (1954). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi- 1990
Director Derek Jarman takes the viewer for a walk around his own garden in rural England for this non-narrative film. Many of the scenes depict the Passion of Christ, but the sufferings are instead visited upon a gay couple. Jarman then assaults the senses with a series of images, including a campy version of the song Think Pink from Funny Face. ~ John Voorhees, Rovi
- Starring:
- Derek Jarman, Tilda Swinton, (more)
- 1963
Adrian Messenger (John Merivale) asks his friend, British colonel Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott), to check on the whereabouts of the eleven men named on a written list. Not long afterward, the plane on which Messenger is travelling is deliberately blown up. The mystery killer slipped the bomb on the plane while disguised as a priest, and we soon learn that the killer adopts a different guise for each of his subsequent murders. As Gethryn tracks down the men on Messenger's list, he discovers that all had been POWs in the same Burmese stockade during World War II, and he deduces that the murderer, who is methodically decimating those on the list, had been a traitor and informer. Gethryn traces the killer to the British estate of The Marquis of Gleneyre (Clive Brook), where his visit coincides with the return of "prodigal" American relative George Brougham (Kirk Douglas). Gethryn is convinced that Brougham is the killer, and that he plans to murder the only heir who stands in the way of the family fortune, but he has no tangible proof. Filmed primarily in Ireland, The List of Adrian Messenger received good theatrical bookings by virtue of its gimmick: several of the bit characters are played by famous stars in heavy makeup, and each of these stars -- Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Curtis -- "unmasks" in the epilogue. In truth, only Douglas and Mitchum did any real acting under their mounds of collodion and crepe hair; the others showed up only to shoot their unmasking scenes (at a salary of $75,000 each!) and were "doubled" in the film itself. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- George C. Scott, Dana Wynter, (more)
- 1958
George Baxter (Jack Raine), a courier for the South African Diamond Company, arrives at his firm's California office to find the place in a state of disarray, with a strange girl (Joanna Moore) standing the middle of the room. Baxter concludes that the place has been robbed, but before he can say or do anything the girl has ducked into the nearby office of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), claiming to be a typist for a temp agency. Later on, Baxter is found murdered, and a man named Duane Jefferson (Alan Marshall) is charged. Perry wants to defend Jefferson, but the man refuses to identity the woman who could prove his innocence (and guess who that woman is?) Based on a 1956 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner, this episode offers a genuinely shocking twist just before the climax. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1957
Showing up at his doctor's office complaining of stomach troubles, Carl Borden (Ralph Meeker) is informed that there are traces of arsenic in his system. Under normal circumstances, only one conclusion could be arrived at -- Carl's wife Annette (Phyllis Thaxter) is trying to poison him. But these aren't normal circumstances, as we find out in the wryly cynical conclusion of the episode. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1956
Van Johnson portrays a blind American writer living in London. Blessed with an acute hearing sense, Johnson overhears a kidnapping plot but neither his friends nor the authorities believe him, chalking up his story as the product of a writer's imagination. Disgruntled, Johnson vows to scuttle the kidnapping himself -- with the assistant of his fiancée Vera Miles. Despite his handicap, Johnson puts the pieces together using sounds as evidence and guidance. Ultimately Johnson finds his life in danger when he corners the criminal in a dark alley. 23 Paces to Baker Street was one of several ''50s 20th Century-Fox films shot on location in London to take advantage of Fox's "frozen funds" -- money earned by the studio in England which by law could only be spent in that country. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Van Johnson, Vera Miles, (more)
This children's sci-fi adventure chronicles the friendship between an 11-year-old and his grandfather's robot Tobor, who was designed to explore deep space. Tobor, unlike other machines, was endowed with human emotions. Trouble erupts when the communists kidnap him and try to make him do their evil bidding. Fortunately, Tobor is mind-linked to his creator and cannot be easily reprogrammed. The adventure begins when the boy and the scientists attempt to save the robot. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charles Drake, Karin [Katharine] Booth, (more)
A real "must see" for devotees of 1950s pop culture, Ring of Fear boasts a script co-written by character actor Paul Fix and a cast which includes the likes of animal trainer Clyde Beatty and pulp-fiction novelist Mickey Spillane. The story takes place in Beatty's travelling circus, where a homicidal maniac named Dublin (Sean McClory) is doing his best to wreck the show. It's all because Dublin is in love with Valerie (Marian Carr), the wife of aerialist Armond St. Denis (John Bromfield). Since the cops don't know who's behind all the trouble, they call in crime expert Spillane (cast as himself). Dublin nearly succeeds in bumping off Spillane before he himself is dispatched by a giant tiger. Representing the Law is Pat O'Brien, who delivers his silly dialogue with conviction. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Mickey Spillane, (more)
- 1952
The Hour of 13 is a leisurely remake of the 1934 thriller The Mystery of Mr. X. The year is 1890: London is being plagued by a series of murders. The victims are all policemen, and the killer seems to be operating in a deliberate pattern. Suave jewel thief Nicholas Revel (Peter Lawford) is compelled to seek out the killer, lest he himself be accused of murder by his friendly enemy, Inspector Connor (Roland Culver). Filmed at MGM's British facilities, The Hour of 13 makes excellent use of several topnotch English supporting actors, including Dawn Addams, Derek Bond, Leslie Dwyer, Michael Hordern, and Colin Gordon. The original Mystery of Mr. X made the tactical blunder of revealing the killer's identity in the opening credits; happily, Hour of 13 does not repeat this error. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Lawford, Dawn Addams, (more)
- 1951
Auteur theorists may have trouble discerning the "signature" of director Phil Karlson in the Columbia costume adventure Mask of the Avenger. John Derek stars as Capt. Renatu Dimorna, the son of an Italian aristocrat, who vows revenge after his father is murdered during the European political upheaval of 1848. To this end, Dimorna becomes a dashing Robin Hood type, swashbuckling his way throughout Italy. His principal rival is a traitorous military leader (Anthony Quinn), who is also Dimorna's rival for the affections of a beautiful woman (Jody Lawrance). Production values are quite good in Mask of the Avenger, belying the picture's modest budget. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Derek, Anthony Quinn, (more)
- 1951
Circle of Danger stars Ray Milland as an American at large in London, Wales and Scotland. During World War 2, Milland's brother had died in a commando raid. The details of his death were somewhat murky, and Milland would like to know the truth. The truth is murder in every sense of the word, though rather disappointingly, Milland himself is never in any peril. While Circle of Danger was produced by longtime Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison, the Master's touch is noticeably absent. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, Patricia Roc, (more)
- 1950
Lee J. Cobb stars as Ed Cullen, a San Francisco police lieutenant, embroiled in a clandestine romance with married socialite Lois Frazer (Jane Wyatt). When Lois kills her husband Howard (Harlan Warde), the flustered Cullen vows to cover for her. He arranges the evidence to suggest that Howard was shot during a robbery. Things get sticky when Cullen is assigned to investigate the case, together with his more honest younger brother Andy (John Dall). How can Cullen escape detection without destroying his brother's standing with the force? Man Who Cheated Himself is worth seeing if only to watch Jane Wyatt play against her established screen image. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lee J. Cobb, John Dall, (more)
- 1948
In this faithful remake of Blind Alley (1939), psychoanalyst Andrew Collins (Lee J. Cobb), his wife, his son, and some friends are taken hostage by escaped murderer Al Walker (William Holden) and his gang, including girlfriend Betty (Nina Foch). Collins, an advocate of rehabilitating criminals through psychiatry, induces his captor to talk about himself through the course of the night. By calmly and methodically piecing together the strands of the killer's unconscious motivation, Collins rids Walker of his literally murderous rage and prevents a massacre. Shrinks who practice in the noir universe are frequently painted as absurdly omnipotent. When not using their power for evil, like Dr. Cross (Vincent Price) in Alfred L. Werker's Shock (1946), they may be capable, like the benign Dr. Collins, of miracle cures. A more complex depiction of an unrealistically powerful, but ambiguously motivated, psychiatrist can be seen in Joseph Losey's The Sleeping Tiger (1954). In that British film, Dr. Clive Esmond (Alexander Knox) cures a criminal in a few short months but destroys his own marriage in the process. ~ Steve Press, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Holden, Lee J. Cobb, (more)
- 1947
Based on the novel by Agatha Christie and play by Frank Vosper, Love From a Stranger isn't quite as good as the 1937 version of the same property. This time, Sylvia Sidney and John Hodiak play the roles originally filled by Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone. Falling under the romantic spell of charismatic Manuel Cortez (Hodiak), impressionable sweepstakes winner Cecily Harrington (Sidney) marries him after a whirlwind courtship. It doesn't take long for Cecily to figure out that Cortez is a dangerous psychotic, bent on murdering his wife and claiming her fortune. Unable to convince anyone else of Cortez intentions (even though his behavior would, in real life, get him locked away in a minute), Cecily determines to outsmart her husband and catch him in his own trap. Ironically, Frank Vosper never saw either film version of Love From a Stranger, having died under mysterious circumstances in 1937 (too bad Agatha Christie never wrote that story!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Hodiak, John Howard, (more)
- 1947
In this slick melodrama, a sort of film-noir for women, a nightclub singer has an affair with an unhappily married San Francisco doctor. Though the physician desperately wants to leave his wife, he lacks the courage to ask for a divorce. In retaliation, the singer accepts an offer to move East and start up a new club in New York. Lost without the singer, the doctor is without option until his partner suddenly dies. With a burst of inspiration, he fakes his own death and flees to New York. Later, he is horrified to learn that his death has been officially declared a homicide, and so he goes into hiding in the singer's apartment. To cope with his fear and the increasing success of his lover, the physician begins drinking heavily. This only makes him paranoid and more depressed and he begins to suspect his lover is having an affair. Upon confronting the "lover," a fight ensues, the doctor wins, and thinking he killed his rival, he takes off -- only to end up in a horrible traffic accident that leaves his face unrecognizable. Though plastic surgery gives him a new identity, it is at that time that he is arrested and sent back to California to stand trial for his own murder. Rather than burden his family with the shock that he is still alive, the doctor insists that his lover keep mum, and he stoically goes to trial where he is sentenced to Death Row. Beautifully photographed by James Wong Howe in typically expressionistic style, the film focuses on the desperation and entrapment of the characters and expresses a true bleak, fatalistic film-noir sensibility which makes this film unique in the genre. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, (more)
- 1945
A New-York-bound hitchhiker is hit by a car. The driver, a successful art dealer, stops and finds that he has hit a beautiful girl. He takes her to his home and later learns that she was to be a dancer. As she recovers she cannot help but notice that her benefactor and his stepdaughter both seem a little touched. The suspense comes in when she figures out that the greedy dealer is planning to kill all his female relatives in order to receive a large inheritance. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charles Arnt
- 1945
- NR
Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi were given top billing in the Val Lewton-produced The Body Snatcher, but the film's protagonist is played by Henry Daniell. A brilliant 18th century London surgeon, Daniell can only make his humanitarian medical advances by experimenting on cadavers, which is strictly illegal. Karloff plays a Uriah Heep-type cabman who is secretly a grave robber, providing corpses for Daniell's research. The low-born Karloff enjoys blackmailing the aristocratic Daniell into silence; the two actors' cat-and-mouse scenes are among the film's highlights. Eventually, Karloff turns to murder to supply fresh bodies to Daniell. The doctor can stand no more of this, and kills Karloff. But though Daniell may be able to escape the law, he cannot escape his conscience, which manifests itself in the voice of the dead Karloff, whose repeated mantra "NEVER get rid of me! NEVER get rid of me!" drives Daniell to his death. Though billed second, Lugosi has an embarrassingly small part, though the scene he shares with Karloff is one of his best-ever screen moments. The Body Snatcher was based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson, which in turn was inspired by the homicidal career of notorious grave-robbers Burke and Hare. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, (more)
- 1944
A bizarre love affair forms the basis of this drama. It all begins with a few love letters between a Marine sergeant stationed overseas and a young woman back in the States. As soon as his tour is finished, the sergeant begins looking for the woman back home. He finds the girl's mother and she informs him that her daughter has gone away. The man is heartbroken until a friend of the mother tells him that the mother never had a daughter; the whole affair was manufactured by the lonely woman. When the mother learns of her friend's betrayal, she kills her. She then tries to kill the Marine, but during the scuffle, a gigantic painting of her "daughter" slips off the wall and crushes her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1944
Exiled from his own country during WW2, French filmmaker Leonide Moguy worked briefly in Hollywood, where he directed the patriotic thriller Action in Arabia. George Sanders stars as Gordon, an American newspaperman at large in Damascus. When a colleague is murdered, Sanders wants to find out why. He is helped along by glamourous secret agent Yvonne (Virginia Bruce), who is on the trail of a group of Nazi saboteurs. It turns out that the murder is tied in with a plan to destroy the Suez Canal in the name of Der Fuehrer. Though economically produced, Action in Arabia benefits from several rather spectacular-looking scenes of desert combat-most of these lifted from a never-finished 1933 filmed biography of Lawrence of Arabia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Sanders, Virginia Bruce, (more)
Humphrey Bogart considered this World War II action epic from director Zoltan Korda one of his finest films. Sergeant Joe Gunn (Bogart) is the commander of an American M-3 tank crew allied to the British Eighth Army, which is defeated by the Germans at Tobruk. Joining the scattered retreat across the Libyan desert, Gunn and his two remaining men, Jimmy Doyle (Dan Duryea) and Waco Hoyt (Bruce Bennett) search for water. Instead the tank crew finds an international mix of stragglers, including an officer doctor (Richard Nugent) with several soldiers and a British Sudanese sergeant, Tambul (Rex Ingram), with his Italian prisoner of war (J. Carrol Naish). The rag-tag column shoots down an attacking plane and takes its German pilot (Kurt Kreuger) as a second captive, although a soldier, Fred Clarkson (Lloyd Bridges) is killed in the fighting. After one well turns out to be dry, the troupe finally reaches an abandoned mosque with a well that provides a trickle of water. Two more prisoners are taken while scouting the area and reveal that an entire German battalion is en route to the same well. Gunn misleads them into believing that there is plenty of water to go around, sets them free to report back to their superiors, and then persuades his fellow Allies to help him fight the enemy force that's en route, even though they are staggeringly outnumbered. A betrayal, an escaped prisoner, and bloody skirmishes follow in short order as Hoyt goes in search of help while Gunn and his compatriots attempt to crush the German battalion. Sahara (1943) inspired several subsequent action films, most notably Last of the Comanches (1952), and was remade as a 1995 cable television movie. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, (more)
- 1942
The Milton Berle starrer Whispering Ghosts was clearly inspired by the Red Skelton comedy-mystery Whistling in the Dark (itself inspired by Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers). Uncle Miltie is cast as H. H. Van Buren, a radio sleuth who delights in solving real-life mysteries ahead of the official constabulary. At the behest of his sponsor, Van Buren tackles an unsolved case from ten years earlier: the death of an old sea captain. To this end, he visits the ship where the dirty deed took place, accompanied by his nervous valet Euclid (Willie Best, who played much the same role in Ghost Breakers). At first convinced that the ship is haunted, our hero deduces that the "ghosts" are actually a gang of crooks, in search of the treasure left behind by the murdered skipper. The arrival of Elizabeth Woods (Brenda Joyce), the lawful heir to the missing treasure, convinces Van Buren to stick around for a while to solve the decade-old murder and locate the captain's legacy. Why is it that none of Milton Berle's vehicles for 20th Century-Fox--Whispering Ghosts, Over My Dead Body, Margin for Error--have shown up on TV since the 1970s? Now there's a mystery worth solving! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Milton Berle, Brenda Joyce, (more)
- 1942
Slick gambler/burglar Brian Donlevy breaks into the house of Henry Daniell and his wife Diana Barrymore. Daniell is promptly murdered, and both the intruder and the wife fall under suspicion. Donlevy and Barrymore go on the lam, pursued by the cops--and by the Nazi spies who committed the murder. Nightmare was Brian Donlevy's favorite film, and the character of dishonest-but-decent gambler Daniel Shayne was Donlevy's favorite role; he later utilized the same characterization (under a different name) on the radio and TV series Dangerous Assignment. Nightmare also represented the best screen showing for the benighted Diana Barrymore, though unlike Donlevy she didn't think much of the assignment. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Diana Barrymore, Brian Donlevy, (more)
Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, the classic psychological thriller Rebecca was Alfred Hitchcock's first American film. Joan Fontaine plays the unnamed narrator, a young woman who works as a companion to the well-to-do Mrs. Van Hopper (Florence Bates). She meets the wealthy widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) in Monte Carlo, where they fall in love and get married. Maxim takes his new bride to Manderlay, a large country estate in Cornwall. However, the mansion's many servants refuse to accept her as the new lady of the house. They seem to be loyal to Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances. Particularly cruel to her is the prim housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who is obsessed with Rebecca. She continually attests to her beauty and virtues (referring to her as "the real Mrs. de Winter") and even preserves her former bedroom as a shrine. The new Mrs. de Winter is nearly driven to madness as she begins to doubt her relationship with her husband and the presence of Rebecca starts to haunt her. Eventually, an investigation leads to the revelation about Rebecca's true nature. Producer David O. Selznick had the final cut of the picture, which was drastically altered from Hitchcock's original vision. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, (more)
- 1939
Blind Alley, directed by Charles Vidor is a chilling psychological drama in the film-noir tradition reminiscent of the fine melodrama The Desperate Hours. Hal Wilson (Chester Morris) is an escaped killer who hides out in the home of noted psychologist Dr. Shelby (Ralph Bellamy). While Wilson's gang holds Shelby's family and servants hostage, the pipe-smoking mental doctor calmly tries to discover the reasons for Wilson's murderous proclivities. As gun moll Mary (Ann Dvorak) covers Shelby, Wilson willingly allows the doctor to psychoanalyze him, using hypnosis to trace the killer's childhood. Blind Alley works as a "film noir" complete with surrealistic dream sequences. A taut story and moody cinematography by Lucien Ballard -- with sharp direction from Vidor, and superlative acting by Morris and Bellamy -- earn this film noir entry a top spot in the genre. The film was remade scene-for-scene in 1949 as The Dark Past, with William Holden as the killer and Lee J. Cobb as the unflappable head shrinker. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chester Morris, Ralph Bellamy, (more)
- 1939
In this thriller, a playwright overhears a gang of men plotting a kidnapping and enlists the assistance of a detective to investigate them. They soon find the ring is fronted by a bogus employment agency that sends "clients" to check out potential victims. Action ensues as they endeavor to stop them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1939
A wealthy man's valet, Blore, concocts a blackmail scheme about an attempted poisoning when his employer passes out at a party in this farcical comedy. ~ Rovi
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