Peter Newbrook Movies

One-time BBC radio personality Mike Raven hams it up in this off-the-wall horror oddity as a demon who is revived when the blood from a virgin's pricked finger is spilled on his grave, freeing his vile soul to stalk more innocent prey. This leads to a lot of messy ritual murders in which Raven tears out the hearts of several chaste young women, who then rise from the dead to become his zombie brides. Though this is often very amateurish-looking at times, there are some genuinely chilling set-pieces and a visual style that gives the film an otherworldly ambience; the simple story is propelled by clever dialogue and some truly demented moments of humor. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A crazed sculptor (Mike Raven) realizes that his craft is made much easier by simply pouring molten bronze over his beautiful female models. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Nicki (Madeline Hinde) is a troubled teenage girl who feels guilty about her father's death. Her mother Anne (Renee Asherson) is a lonely woman who falls for opportunistic loafer Harry (Patrick Mower). When Harry tries to rape Nicki, she stabs him with a pair of scissors. Nicki is sent to a home for wayward girls where she becomes even more withdrawn. She is seduced by a lesbian and the two manage to escape the facility. They take temporary refuge with an old boyfriend and remain wanted criminals in this routine melodrama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this English comedy, the trouble begins when a bumbling young man embarrasses his grandfather, the British Prime Minister, by selling newspapers on a street corner. Soon the fellow finds himself given a reporter's job and sent to cover a story in a tiny coastal village. There he soon finds himself entangled in a massive scandal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This rock comedy features an alien who tries to distribute peace, love and understanding around Britain. ~ All Movie Guide

This British comedy details what happens to five sailors and a passenger as they spend fifteen hours on shore leave in London while waiting for their cargo ship to unload. The passenger, a lonely widowed business man named George (Bernard Lee), finds his way to a West End bar, where he meets Wanda (Erika Remberg), a seductive blackmailer, working in cahoots with photographer Paul (Derek Bond). Meanwhile, Lee (John Bonney), an Australian sailor, meets and falls in love with wacky beatnik Penny (Heather Sears). Arthur (David Lodge) tells the sailors that he is going to visit his mother when, in reality, he is heading off to seek a prostitute. Rough-and-tumble Harry (Inigo Jackson) finds himself robbed and left penniless after visiting a Soho saloon. Shy and naive Jamie (Colin Campbell) falls in love with the homeless Jean (Francesca Annis). As the hours go by, Jamie has to decide whether to leave Jean or to jump ship and marry her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Purporting to warn young people of premarital sex, this British drama is exploitation with a capital 'E.' Set in a conservative peaceful village, the drama begins with the arrival of a sexy Austrian girl who proceeds to seduce every man in sight. One of her victims is engaged. When his fiancee finds out, she has an insecurity attack and lets her beloved have sex with her. This results in pregnancy. Later the Austrian hussy gets raped by her steady because he is jealous of her other trysts. To top it off, she ends up contracting a dreaded venereal disease. Naturally all of those who sampled her ample wares get into quite a tizzy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Bridge on the River Kwai opens in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma in 1943, where a battle of wills rages between camp commander Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) and newly arrived British colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). Saito insists that Nicholson order his men to build a bridge over the river Kwai, which will be used to transport Japanese munitions. Nicholson refuses, despite all the various "persuasive" devices at Saito's disposal. Finally, Nicholson agrees, not so much to cooperate with his captor as to provide a morale-boosting project for the military engineers under his command. The colonel will prove that, by building a better bridge than Saito's men could build, the British soldier is a superior being even when under the thumb of the enemy. As the bridge goes up, Nicholson becomes obsessed with completing it to perfection, eventually losing sight of the fact that it will benefit the Japanese. Meanwhile, American POW Shears (William Holden), having escaped from the camp, agrees to save himself from a court martial by leading a group of British soldiers back to the camp to destroy Nicholson's bridge. Upon his return, Shears realizes that Nicholson's mania to complete his project has driven him mad. Filmed in Ceylon, Bridge on the River Kwai won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for the legendary British filmmaker David Lean, and Best Actor for Guinness. It also won Best Screenplay for Pierre Boulle, the author of the novel on which the film was based, even though the actual writers were blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, who were given their Oscars under the table. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this bright British comedy, we meet Capt. Henry St. James (Alec Guinness) as he stands before a firing squad and then learn of the curious chain of events that brought him to his fate. Henry is a ship's captain ferrying a steamer between Gibraltar and North Africa on a regular basis, and he's taken the notion of "a girl in every port" to a whole new level; he has a wife on each side of the water. In Gibraltar, there's Maude (Celia Johnson), an even-tempered housewife who keeps the house tidy and has dinner ready when Henry likes it. In North Africa, mate number two is Nita (Yvonne DeCarlo), who is a sultry fun seeker who likes to hit the nightspots and dance 'till dawn. Between the two of them, Henry would seem to have the best of both worlds; Chief Officer Ricco (Charles Goldner) openly envies Henry's remarkable romantic situation. But things start to go sour when Maude suddenly decides she's a stick in the mud and wants to start living it up, while Nita becomes a homebody and begins learning to cook; Henry is none too happy about either development, and before long he finds he has no spouse on either shore. The Captain's Paradise was trimmed from 93 to 84 minutes for its initial United States release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When a dim-witted detective poses as a waiter, he manages to locate a gang of criminals at a nightclub. ~ All Movie Guide