Gordon Parry Movies

Director Gordon Parry's last two films were the 1959 Friends and Neighbors and this so-so, slapstick comedy about a zany naval base on an island just off the southern coast of Britain. Not having a whole lot to do, the klutzy commander (Cecil Parker), a womanizing second officer (Leslie Phillips) and just about everyone else are making money by smuggling and other sub rosa, shady activities. When this motley crew gets word that the powers-that-be want to shut down the base and transfer them to other posts, they start to invent all the reasons they can for remaining where they are. They get deeper and deeper into their deceptions until they are ready to stage a fake revolution with the collusion of the civilian islanders. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a surgeon overcomes his humble beginnings to become a renowned physician. His success is threatened when he messes up during an operation and a patient dies. To save his career, the desperate doctor kills the two assistants who saw the mistake. He then prepares to murder his wife. Fortunately, he ends up killed before he can get at her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A bellboy gets sweet revenge upon the employers at the hotel where he once worked after he inherits a lot of money in this lively British comedy. The sweetest revenge of all comes when he and the other lackeys team up to scam the wealthy, who look down upon them, hoping to get them to finance his attempt to buy the posh establishment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy of misunderstanding, a husband misses the train his wife is aboard and ends up staying at the very same hotel where his lovely ex-fiancee is holed up. She too has since married, and things get quite hectic when both of their jealous respective spouses suddenly show up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Three disparate male travellers quietly amuse themselves by fantasizing about the same beautiful blonde in this interesting, episodic comedy. A French bus driver sees her first and promptly imagines that she is a seductive photographer's model. In his fantasy, the two end up having a passionate affair on the French Riviera. In the next episode, a Yankee Army officer sees her on the ferry across the Channel and imagines that she is a cabaret chanteuse from Berlin. In the final episode, a British fellow sees her on the boat and imagines that she is a film star who needs his help to get away from the pesky press. Unfortunately, for the three, she proves to be a different sort of woman all together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Black-market babies in a British boardinghouse provide the basis of this brutal crime drama. Though the landlady is outwardly upstanding and self-righteous, she is really the brains behind the operation. Her newest tenant is the pregnant lover of a convicted killer who has come there to avoid publicity. There the hapless girl is horribly mistreated as are all of the "guests." But despite the abuse, the young woman refuses to report it. Another boarder, who lost her baby due to the landlady's refusal to call a doctor, becomes the young woman's friend. Eventually things become so bad that a houseworker phones the police. Just before they arrive, the evil landlady shoves the pregnant woman down a flight of stairs and leaves her there to die. The wicked woman is then arrested and goes on to get her just desserts. This film received the very first British "X" rating. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tom Brown's Schooldays was the second film version of Thomas Hughes' semiautobiographical novel. John Howard Davies, who'd previously essayed the title role in Oliver Twist, stars as first-year Rugby student Tom Brown. In his efforts to adjust to boarding-school life, Tom must contend with the calculated cruelties of all-around bully Flashman (John Forrest). One of the boy's few allies is new schoolmaster Doctor Arnold (Robert Newton), who believes that discipline can be tempered with kindness, a "radical" notion so far as his colleagues are concerned. Despite the authenticity of its British surroundings, the 1951 version of Tom Brown's Schooldays isn't quite as good as the 1940 Hollywood adaptation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Professional gambler Lucky (Dermot Walsh) is having trouble living up to his name. That's before Lucky meets Joan (Glynis Johns), a winsome lass who proves to be a human good-luck charm. Lucky woos Joan into accompanying him on the gambling circuit so he can clean up. She convinces herself that he'll reform, but it takes a near-tragedy to do that. Third Time Lucky was a Late Late Show perennial in the 1950s and 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This multistoried drama purports to detail the events occurring in a single 24-hour period on Bond Street, a "typical" British thoroughfare. The Grand Hotel-like construction of the film allows for several colorful character vignettes. The "dramatis personae" includes an unpredictably temperamental dressmaker, a blinded war veteran, an escaped POW, a gang of blackmailers, and the owner of a valuable string of pearls. Linking the four main plotlines together is the impending wedding of Julia Chester-Barratt (Hazel Court in her pre-horror days). The presence of Roland Young in the cast assured Bond Street a few healthy American bookings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide