Jon Penington Movies
- 1970
This feature is basically a silent comedy as the only word spoken is "rhubarb." A Vicar (Harry Secombe) plays golf with the local police inspector (Eric Sykes), with the lawman cheating mercilessly with the help of his constable (Jimmy Edwards). Soon the Vicar calls on help from the Almighty to conjure up a lighting bolt to help his game. Sight gags and pantomime dominate this engaging 37 minute feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Secombe, Eric Sykes, (more)
- 1968
The British television series Til Death Do Us Part was the forerunner to the American TV hit All in the Family. The original series' Archie Bunker was Alf Garnett, a bigoted, profane cockney played by Warren Mitchell. The "Edith" was the dimwitted Else, portrayed by Dandy Nichols. The British series' catchphrase was not "Stifle yerself, dingbat" but instead "You silly moo!" Eschewing the heavy-handed social commentary indulged in by All in the Family producer Norman Lear, Til Death Do Us Part existed principally to invoke loud (and sometime embarrassed) gusts of laughter. Several feature films were spun off from the property: the first of these, Alf 'N' Family flashed back to Alf and Else's marriage, skipped ahead to the wedding of the Garrett's daughter Rita (Una Stubbs) to unwashed hippie Mike (Anthony Booth), and concluded with the family's move from their crowded flat to a home in the suburbs. Alf 'N' Family was scripted by Til Death Do Us Part creator Johnny Speight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This film is taken from the popular British television series. Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) is a middle-aged bigot who loves the Queen and all that for which the kingdom (or what is left of it) stands, right or wrong. He puts up with his dizzy wife, Else (Dandy Nichols), his liberated daughter (Una Stubbs), and her long-haired, liberal-minded husband (Anthony Booth), who causes him no end of grief. Till Death Us Do Part is the exact blueprint used for the popular U.S. television series All in the Family. Alf dreams of being knighted by the Queen, gets drunk at a wedding reception, and struggles with the changing world within the framework of his narrow-minded stubbornness. Ray Davies of the Kinks provides the title track for this offbeat but true-to-life comedy feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Mitchell, Dandy Nichols, (more)
- 1967
In this slapstick comedy two bumbling workmen attempt to take a long wooden plank through a London suburb to a building site. Mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Cooper, Eric Sykes, (more)
- 1966
This James Bond parody brings a new sort of jet-set secret agent to the screen -- one who hates flying, is afraid to shoot people, and would rather stay at home! Col. Mostyn (Trevor Howard) is the head of a special branch of British intelligence who is appalled to discover that a number of his best agents are either leaving the force or have turned out to be traitors. It is decided that Mostyn and his men need a special agent to ferret out those who leave his employ while knowing too much and silence them permanently. Mostyn decides the right man for the job is his old army buddy Boysie Oakes (Rod Taylor), but there's a bit of a problem -- while the job requires a globe-trotting assassin who can stare calmly into the face of death, Oakes is a mild-mannered fun seeker who is terrified of airplanes and faints at the sight of blood. None of this dissuades Mostyn, who still gives Oakes the assignment, but when he finds out that flying and guns are a big part of his new job, he hires someone else to do the dirty work for him. Oakes eventually develops a taste for the cars, women, gadgets, and danger of his new career, but the real acid test comes when he actually has to go on an assignment himself. The Liquidator was directed by Jack Cardiff, who along with a respected career as a director was one of the most distinguished cinematographers in the British cinema, lensing such classics as The Red Shoes, The African Queen, and Black Narcissus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard, (more)
- 1964
Kenneth More is The Comedy Man in this cinemazation of Douglas Hayes' novel. Having spent most of his life playing the provinces in obscurity, More gives the London TV scene a try. He fails at attaining stardom on his own terms, but becomes a celebrity on TV commercials. After basking in fame for a while, More decides that he's sold out and returns to regional repertory. Matching More's terrific starring performance are such British "regulars" as Dennis Price, Billie Whitelaw, Cecil Parker, Norm Rossington, and Frank Finlay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth More, Cecil Parker, (more)
- 1964
Lotte Tarp plays Miss 44 in this raunchy British/Danish sex farce, so it's a sure bet that the title doesn't refer to the calibre of a gun. Not much happens: there are some lovely shots of Copenhagen, and some lovelier shots of bosomy Danish starlets. Ian Carmichael must have needed a new suit or something, else why would he have agreed to this inexpensive programmer, which could do nothing for his career, and didn't. British comedian Tony Hawes is curiously billed as "Narration for Voice of Monty Landis," though Landis (best remembered for his many guest appearances on the TV series The Monkees) doesn't appear to have an active role in the proceedings. Oh, well: man does not live by Citizen Kane alone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian Carmichael, Lotte Tarp, (more)
- 1962
In this suspenseful WW II thriller, the hard-bitten commander of a British battleship stationed in Alexandria Harbor early in the war must force two captured Italian frogmen to tell him whether or not they planted time-bombs upon the ship's hull. The captives are uncooperative and the captain has them wait with the crew for the ship to explode. The minutes tick by and the increasingly nervous British sailors begin questioning their leader's judgment. Eventually, one of the hostages cracks and tells them that there is one mine, but he refuses to divulge its location or the time of detonation. The captain evacuates the ship and leaves the prisoners behind. He remains aboard and surreptitiously eavesdrops upon them. When he learns the mine's location, he attempts to have the bomb removed. Unfortunately he is too late and the ship is badly damaged. Desiring to fool the Italian reconnaissance planes he knows will come, the captain puts most of his crew on deck to make the Italian fliers think their mission failed. Meanwhile other crewmen frantically try to repair the ruined hull below deck. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Ettore Manni, (more)
- 1961
A normally placid pussy turns into a ferocious feline hell-bent for revenge against the treacherous trio who murdered her mistress in this interesting horror film. One of the killers was the woman's husband; the other two were her servants. The woman was quite wealthy, and the avaricious trio killed her to get at her fortune. Unfortunately, the crime was witnessed by the cat. Later the husband tries to convince his niece that the cat and the will must be destroyed. Soon after, the killer kitty leaps out and literally scares him to death. The cat then takes the niece and her lover to her aunt's corpse. In the end, the three inherit the fortune. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andre Morell, Barbara Shelley, (more)
- 1960
Although there may be a few minor gaps here and there in the storyline, Faces in the Dark is a suspenseful drama by director David Eady. Richard Hammond (John Gregson) owns a factory, and on the very day his wife Christine (Mai Zetterling ) is coming to his office to tell him she wants a divorce, he is accidentally blinded during an experiment. His wife relents in her decision, but Richard is still as abrasive as ever, and now the bumpy spots in his personality are made worse by self-pity and a suspicion that he is losing his sanity. Meanwhile, Richard begins to suspect that the cool and aloof Christine and Richard's partner conspire against him, but as a blind man he has fewer resources to pinpoint why he is suspicious. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gregson, Mai Zetterling, (more)
- 1960
An unfortunate sailor (Tony Wright) gets implicated in a murder he never committed in this confusing drama by David Eady. After a bookie is murdered, the sailor is caught in an ever-tightening vice that would trap him as the killer unless he can clear himself. Along the way to struggling free and tracking down the real culprits, several unsavory characters cross his path as well as a rather interesting woman (Shirley Eaton) who sets romantic sparks flying. Although director Eady and the cast have done their best with the story, it is too thin to survive even the short running time of 69 minutes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Wright, Shirley Eaton, (more)
- 1959
In this comedy, a man chooses an unethical way to help keep a financially struggling boy's club from closing down, by threatening to publish incriminating articles about prominent people who have recently died. His blackmail scheme is successful until he attempts to extort from a gangster's family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1959
The "crowning touch" of the title is a fancy woman's hat. It has been specially set aside at a posh British headwear shoppe, but no one comes to claim it. At this point the film takes a prismatic approach, with three of the shoppe's employees offering different reasons as to why the pretty young girl who'd ordered the hat never showed up. The Crowning Touch is a serviceable British shaggy-dog story, graced by the presence of such top talents as Greta Gynt, Griffith Jones, Sydney Tafler, Dermot Walsh and Irene Handl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this witty music-business satire, Johnny Jackson (Laurence Harvey) is a talent agent down on his luck who thinks his tide may have turned when he spots a teenage rock & roll fan wailing away in a coffeehouse. Dubbing him "Bongo Herbert" (Cliff Richard, in a role the now knighted and born-again pop icon would probably prefer to forget), Johnny puts Herbert on the fast track to teenage stardom, using his record company and radio connections to make Herbert's first single a smash hit. Johnny then decides that a little image modification might make Herbert a bigger draw, so his follow-up is a treacly, inspirational tune, "The Shrine on the Second Floor," which hardly gibes with Herbert's newfound fondness for strippers and love-starved American actresses. But just when Johnny thinks he has a meal ticket for life, it's discovered that Herbert is really a minor, making his contract with Johnny null and void. Cliff Richard was at the height of his first wave of popularity as "The British Elvis" when Expresso Bongo was released, leading to a great deal of speculation about how closely it mirrored his own career (the answer probably is: not very much). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms, (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)
- 1958
Befitting its title, Dublin Nightmare deals with the activities of the Irish Republican Army. British photographer John Kevin (William Sylvester) arrives in Dublin to attend the funeral of his friend. It turns, out however, that the friend isn't dead at all. Moreover, the "decedent" is an IRA leader, preparing for a bloody all-out offensive. John Tully's screenplay tries to cram way too much into a 64-minute running time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
In this charming children's adventure, a big game hunter's son doesn't share his father's love of killing; he prefers his animals alive. He dreams of having his very own coatimundi. Trouble begins when one of the rare creatures disappears from the local zoo. A newsreel cameraman is blamed for the theft until the boy steps forward and confesses his crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Prejudice is a main theme in this crime drama that follows the case of a West Indian man accused of a murder because of his dark skin. A lawyer helps the boy avoid arrest until the true murderer is revealed. The killer is discovered after the lawyer saves the boy who was captured by him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Off-his-trolley concert pianist Stephen Murray craves both money and publicity. He hopes to attain both by kidnapping beauteous lady journalist Patricia Dainton. Notifying the London media, Murray announces that unless his conditions are met, Dainton will be murdered five days hence "at the stroke of nine". It is the "helpless" heroine herself who engineers the psychopath's downfall. Leading lady Patricia Dainton, who'd begun her career in precocious teen-ager roles, made only a handful of films after At the Stroke of Nine before her 1960 retirement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
