Roger MacDougall Movies
Playwright Roger MacDougall began writing the occasional screenplay in the late '30s, working both alone and in collaboration with others. Most of his plays were produced during the '50s. As a screenwriter, his best-known films are The Man in the White Suit and The Mouse That Roared. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1960
In this British comedy, a formerly rakish submarine captain is transferred to a desk job. His reputation as a hero and playboy precedes him. He meets an old comrade and his gorgeous fiancee, a Yankee widow. His buddy is quite wealthy and the retired captain realizes that he too must make plenty of dough to steal the woman away. He immediately engineers an elaborate quick money scheme. First he makes it seem as if he has become a traitor in order to get the newspapers to write bad things about him. He then plans to sue them all for libel. He leaves his phony trail and then maroons himself on a desert island. He is later rescued and interrogated by the Special Branch. Fortunately, he convinces them of his innocence and continues with his plan. He then goes to the woman's home and is there discovered by his buddy. The friend sees that the two really are in love and gallantly bows out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mason, George Sanders, (more)
The economy of the teeny-tiny European duchy of Grand Fenwick is threatened when an American manufacturer comes up with an imitation of Fenwick's sole export, its fabled wine. Crafty prime minister Count Mountjoy (Peter Sellers) comes up with a plan: Grand Fenwick will declare war on the United States. Grand Duchess Gloriana (Peter Sellers again) is hesitant: how can meek little Grand Fenwick win such a conflict? Mountjoy explains that the plan is to lose the war, then rely upon American foreign aid to replenish Grand Fenwick's treasury. Bumbling military officer Tully Bascombe (Peter Sellers yet again) leads his country's ragtag army into battle. They cross the Atlantic in an ancient wooden vessel, then set foot on Manhattan Island, fully prepared to down weapons and surrender. But New York City is deserted, due to an air raid drill. While wandering around, Sellers comes upon atomic scientist David Kossoff and the scientist's pretty daughter Jean Seberg. Kossoff has been working on the deadly "Q Bomb," a football-sized weapon with the destructive capacity of a hundred hydrogen bombs. Suddenly seized with patriotic fervor, Tully captures Kossoff, his daughter and the bomb and brings them all back to Grand Fenwick. Tully has "won" the war-precisely what he'd been told not to do. The upshot of this "victory" is that every world power converges upon Grand Fenwick to claim the Q Bomb for themselves. The satire is heavy-handed at times, but The Mouse That Roared contains several unforgettably hilarious moments, including one startling "false ending." One of the best gags involves the Columbia Pictures logo--a bit frequently cut from TV showings, worse luck. Based on one of the many "Grand Fenwick" novels by Leonard Wibberly, The Mouse That Roared was a success, yielding a Peter Sellers-less sequel, 1963's Mouse on the Moon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg, (more)
- 1956
Time is of the essence in this comedy when an American cabaret singer learns that she is in line for a large inheritance. The money will be hers if her ex-husband cannot produce a son by a given date. She immediately takes off to London to find him. Unfortunately, she discovers that his new wife is due to give birth any day. The situation grows complicated as they deal with the unborn's unknown gender, and the fact that neither the man's new marriage, nor the divorce may be legal. The time difference between New York and London is also a factor. At the last possible minute, the new wife bears twins: one girl, and one boy. The singer still gets the money, as the newlyweds did not consider the ramifications of Daylight Savings Time. Fortunately, she shares the wealth. Songs include "Give Me a Man" and "You're the Only One." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Winters, John Gregson, (more)
- 1955
Escapade has to be one of the most overused titles in movie history. This particular Escapade is a mild British comedy with something to say. John Mills plays a renowned pacifist author, whose sons Andrew Ray and Peter Asher are completely sympatico with their dad's views. Convincing their schoolmates to sign a petition begging for universal peace, the boys decide to present the list of signatures to the four world powers occupying Germany, including those rascally Russians and unpredictable Yanks. But they have to get to Berlin first, and to do that the headstrong lads steal an airplane. It turns out that the boys' long-term goal, cooked up with their sister Yvonne Mitchell, is to reunite their bickering father and mother. Escapade opens up the original Roger MacDougall play to the extent that we actually witness the plane in flight; beyond that, the dialogue and situations remain the same--even down to the slight pauses after the laugh lines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Yvonne Mitchell, (more)
- 1952
During the Irish "troubles", an IRA gunman (John Mills) wearies of the constant violence. He begins to preach a philosophy of peaceful persuasion, and refuses direct orders to blow up a London railway station. The gunman's impatient brother (Dirk Bogarde) find his sibling's new approach to be counterproductive to the movement. The rest of the IRA agrees, and soon the gentle gunman is branded a traitor and a price is placed on his head. Based on the stage play by Roger MacDougall, Gentle Gunman was seldom seen once the Troubles were resparked in the Ireland of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Dirk Bogarde, (more)
Alec Guinness has one of his finest comic roles in this Ealing satirical comedy about a much patronized amateur scientist whose latest invention creates an uproar in the British textile industry. In the British manufacturing country of Northern England, factory owner Michael Corland (Michael Gough) is showing competitor Alan Bimley (Cecil Parker) around his plant, hoping to borrow some money and marry off his daughter Daphne (Joan Greenwood). They come upon a curious contraption that turns out to be an experiment by employee Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness). Being a lower class worker, Sidney is summarily fired from his job. Sidney ends up working at Bimley's factory, where he is befriended by militant worker Bertha (Vida Hope). Daphne spots Sidney at the factory and he explains to her the results of his experiment -- a material that is indestructible and impervious to dirt. Bimley discovers this project and throws Sidney out. But Daphne, impressed by his experiments, funds Sidney, installing him in his own laboratory. After a few false starts, Sidney develops a pure white material that can't be dirtied or ruined. But it seems Sidney's invention is too brilliant and effective; if a material is marketed that will last forever, textile mills will go out of business and workers will lose their jobs. Suddenly, poor, luckless Sidney has both management and labor banding together to combat his new invention. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, (more)
- 1943
The Bells Go Down is a dramatization of London firefighting efforts during the 1940 Blitz. In structure, the film is very much like any other smoke-eating melodrama, with perhaps more emphasis on comedy than usual. The omnipresence of the Luftwaffe gives the film an urgency that others in its genre tend to lack. Making it all the more remarkable is the fact that most British studios were just as vulnerable as London's burned-down landmarks--a fact not lost on the actors, who perform with heightened credibility. Many of the better composed shots in The Bells Go Down would find their way into TV documentaries of the 1950s and 1960s as "reality" footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Trinder, James Mason, (more)
- 1940
In this British WW II comedy, a brave member of the Police War Reserve eventually becomes a hero when he exposes a conspiracy to sabotage the battleship Hercules on her first voyage. But at first his fellow officers believe that he is one of the enemy agents and pursue him down the docks, causing him to prematurely launch the ship and save it from exploding. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1939
This Man in Paris was the followup to the successful British comedy-mystery This Man is News. Barry K. Barnes and Valerie Hobson return as Simon and Pat Drake, London's answer to Nick and Nora Charles. The plot gets under way when Simon, star reporter for a London tabloid, is dispatched to Paris to gets the goods on a counterfeiting gang. Despite warnings from editor Macgregor (Alistair Sim) to stay out of the way of the police authorities, Simon and Pat insist upon doing a lot of sleuthing themselves. Inevitably, hero and heroine find themselves at the mercy of the villains, but one is certain that they'll wriggle out of their predicament none the worse for wear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Barnes, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1939
Cheer Boys Cheer is a provincial British comedy with slight Romeo and Juliet undertones. Edmund Gwenn and Moore Marriott play rival brewery owners who detest the sight of one another. Not so their children--the son of one man, the daughter of the other--who fall in love. One glance at the film's title, and the viewer knows that boy and girl will not take poison in the end. For so modest an endeavor, Cheer Boys Cheer has a remarkable talent lineup: Edmund Gwenn, Moore Marriott, Jimmy O'Dea, Nova Pilbeam and Alexander Knox in front of the cameras, and Walter Forde and Ronald Neame on the production end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1939
This Man is News is a British imitation of Hollywood's Thin Man pictures. The "Nick and Nora" herein are Barry K. Barnes as an investigative reporter and Valerie Hobson as his helpful wife (?) After writing a series of articles about an elusive gang of jewel thieves, Barnes is framed for robbery. He goes after the crooks himself, despite the "cease and desist" warnings of Scotland Yard and his own editor. This Man is News did well enough to warrant a sequel, but This Man in Paris did poorly enough to bring this would-be series to an abrupt end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Barnes, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1939
An Irish fellow is determined to become a singing radio star. Unfortunately, fate seems to be determined to thwart him at every turn in this comedy. The trouble begins when he leaves his Irish village to go to a British radio station where he believes he is going to get his big chance to sing. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that he is to be a contestant in a spelling bee. This enrages him and he winds up throwing a major fit on the air. The resulting publicity lands him a talent agent who believes that the recent press will make the Irishman a singing star. It is not to be, and the agent loses his job. He and the Irishman end up drowning their sorrows, commandeering a sports broadcast where their drunken comments and shenanigans inspire the station to hire them as comedians. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy O'Dea, Betty Driver, (more)
- 1937
When his Hollywood starring career dried up in the mid-1930s, matinee idol Charles Farrell headed to England, where he played newspaper reporter Brian Gaunt in the fast-paced meller Midnight Menace. The storyline acknowledges the fact that Television was firmly established in England in 1937, with the BBC beaming out programs on a regular schedule. On this occasion, however, a TV device is being used for nefarious purposes by a gang of foreign munitions manufacturers, operating out of a stationery shop in Soho. Head villain Peters (Fritz Kortner) intends to destroy a London disarmament conference in a midnight air raid, all the while posing as the head of a pacifistic organization. The fearless Brian Gaunt gets wind of this scheme and races against time to avert disaster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Farrell, Fritz Kortner, (more)
- 1936
Largely filmed on location inside Madame Tussaud's Wax museum, this horror movie centers on a banker who bets that he can spend an entire night in the London attraction's notorious Chamber of Horrors. Unfortunately, once there, he discovers himself to be a potential murder victim. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
