George Pollock Movies
British director George Pollock is best remembered for directing films in the 1960s Miss Marple series. He entered the film industry in 1933 and worked a variety of jobs through the mid-'50s when he became a director. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The third of many film and TV adaptations of the popular Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians is the title of the American edition, the hit play, and most of the movies), this 1965 version moves the action from a remote island to an isolated ski resort and otherwise rearranges the plot. The basic premise, however, remains the same. Ten strangers, eight of them guests and two of them servants, are lured to a dinner party and then trapped there to be killed one at a time by an unseen host who wishes to punish them for their disparate perceived crimes. The old nursery rhyme provides both the framing device, and, in the source material, the method of execution for each victim. In this version, however, the revised murder scenes include a hapless servant (Marianne Hoppe) falling to her death from a booby-trapped ski lift. Ten Little Indians features a varied cast that ranges from future Bond girls Shirley Eaton and Daliah Lavi to former teen idol Fabian and former Wyatt Earp TV star Hugh O'Brian. It also reunites My Fair Lady co-stars Stanley Holloway and Wilfrid Hyde-White. The film was the final directorial effort of George Pollock, who had previously helmed several adaptations of Christie's popular Miss Marple mysteries, starting with 1962's Murder, She Said. Christopher Lee makes an uncredited appearance as the recorded voice of absentee host/villain Mr. Owen. Despite its mountain setting, the picture was filmed in Ireland. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh O'Brian, Shirley Eaton, (more)
- 1964
Murder Most Foul represented Margaret Rutherford's third appearance as Agatha Christie's spinsterish sleuth Miss Marple. The film opens with Marple serving on a murder-trial jury. She forces a mistrial because she considers the accused to be innocent; to prove her theory, she traces the trail of evidence to a down-at-the-heels repertory company run by Ron Moody. She auditions for the troupe with a stirring rendition of "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," securing the job by flashing a roll of bills in front of the covetous Moody. While snooping about backstage, Miss Marple discovers both murderer and motive-and, as is customary in the "Marple" films, she nearly loses her own life in the process. Based on the Agatha Christie novel Mrs. McGinty's Dead, Murder Most Foul co-stars Margaret Rutherford's real-life husband Stringer Davis as Marple's friend and confidante Mr. Stringer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, (more)
- 1964
The last of Margaret Rutherford's "Miss Marple" films, Murder Ahoy is the only one of the series not based on an Agatha Christie original. The setting this time is a boat that has been purchased by a trusteeship to serve as a home for wayward kids. One of the trustees, Cecil Ffolly-Hardwicke (Henry Longhurst), dies while attending a meeting held aboard the boat. The police write the death off as "natural causes," but another trustee, our Miss Marple (Rutherford), suspects otherwise. Doing a little sleuthing on her own, she discovers that outwardly respectable Lionel Jeffries is using the boat as a "training school" for aspiring criminals, a la Fagin. This would seem to explain why Hardwicke was murdered, but Jeffries is much too obvious a suspect--as Miss Marple discovers nearly too late. Margaret Rutherford's husband Stringer Davis is back again as Miss Marple's platonic middle-aged friend Mr. Stringer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Rutherford, Lionel Jeffries, (more)
- 1963
This is one of a series of competent murder mysteries directed by George Pollock based on the Agatha Christie character, Miss Marple. Margaret Rutherford stars as the grey-haired, wily sleuth who will not give up until all the pieces of a puzzle have been neatly put in place. This time around, an old village recluse is found dead and everyone except Miss Marple believes he had a heart attack. She is suspicious because four members of the dead man's family stand to benefit from his death, especially when a highly valuable painting is added into the kitty. As she follows her instincts and logic, a few more murders eliminate the same number of suspects, and Miss Marple is compelled to lend haste to her investigation before someone else turns up dead. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, (more)
- 1962
Terry-Thomas stars in this British comedy as J. Barker-Rynde, a detective assigned to look into some dirty dealings at a health club. The supporting cast includes Lionel Jeffries, Eric Sykes, and Dennis Price. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry-Thomas, Eric Sykes, (more)
- 1962
When a traveling salesman arrives to hawk his wares in an economically depressed Italian village, the last thing he expects is to be assailed by the most beautiful single girls in town, but that is exactly what happens. The reason for it stems from the fact that all but one of the town's eligible bachelors have left to find work. The only available man left is a wealthy emigrant. He is looking for a wife and the impoverished parents of the daughters push their children to compete for his love. This creates considerable conflict until the village elders step in and decide that the rich man's bride will be selected by the first outsider to enter the village. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Sykes, Scilla Gabel, (more)
- 1962
Dumpy, dough-faced British comedienne Margaret Rutherford was not precisely the physical type Agatha Christie had in mind for the prim, tweedish sleuth Miss Marple. Still, Rutherford's first "Marple" movie Murder, She Said did so well at the box office that there was no question she would continue appearing in the role in the inevitable sequels. In this initial effort, Marple witnesses a murder being committed on a speeding train. She informs the authorities, but they find no evidence of a killing and write off Marple as a doddering eccentric. Determined to prove that she's not imagining things, Marple investigates the area around the stretch of railroad track where the murder occurred. She winds up on the estate of James Robertson-Justice, disguised as a maid. Many family skeletons are exhumed by Miss Marple before she proves that she indeed saw a murder and pinpoints the guilty party. Stringer Davis, Margaret Rutherford's husband, makes his first appearance as Miss Marple's chaste companion Mr. Stringer. Based on Agatha Christie's 4:50 From Paddington, Murder, She Said was released in some markets as Meet Miss Marple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, (more)
- 1960
An A.P. Dearsley stage play was the basis for the seven-reel British comedy And the Same to You. Brian Rix stars as the pugnacious nephew of clergyman Sydney Mullett. Stuck with the name "Dickie Dreadnought," Rix feels he has no choice but to pursue a career as a boxer. To mollify his uncle, Rix pretends to be the soul of religiosity, while his tough-talking manager William Hartnell poses as a Man of the Cloth. The script for And the Same to You was penned by melodrama specialist John Paddy Carstairs and veteran comic actor John Junkin (the too-tall road manager in A Hard Day's Night). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Don't Panic Chaps! is one of the least distinguished films in a run of 1950s British comedies set during World War II. This time around, four subpar Brit soldiers are dropped off on an island in the Adriatic Sea, not far from Sicily, to establish a base for military observation. After some time goes by, it becomes woefully apparent that the submarine crew that was supposed to pick them up, forgot. They soon find that a small group of German soldiers are on the island in that very same situation, forgotten by the war. These two opposing units call a truce and all seems to go relatively well until an attractive young woman shows up on the island (Nadja Regin), setting the soldiers back into a competitive, hostile attitude. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Price, George Cole, (more)
- 1959
Broth of a Boy is an even-keel film version of a play by Irish dramatist Hugh Leonard. Barry Fitzgerald plays the world's oldest man, a taciturn centenarian Irishman. Media representatives converge on Fitzgerald's village on the occasion of the old coot's 110th birthday. The eager TV exec who stages the event discovers that damage control is definitely in order: not only is Fitzgerald a widely despised poacher, but he also truculently refuses to participate in the ceremony. Broth of a Boy is a pleasant, easygoing satire of exploitive journalism--a target that is as viable today as it was in 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
One of the few Irish-made films of the 1950s to get an American release, The Poacher's Daughter stars Broadway actress Julie Harris, supported by members of the Abbey Players. Harris portrays an Irish colleen who sets her cap for Tim Seely, a young roisterer who's inherited a farm. Seely is a stranger to responsibility, and proves it by selling off his valuable sheep to buy a motorcycle. Thanks to the intervention of Harris's poacher father (Harry Brogan), Seely is dragged back to town and coerced into marriage at gunpoint. This is a comedy, mind you. Originally titled Sally's Irish Rogue, The Poacher's Daughter was based on George Shiels' stage play The New Gossoon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Harris, Tim Seely, (more)
- 1958
Rooney (John Gregson) is a handsome but unambitious Irish sanitation worker. Rooney's landladies would love to see him married to one of their daughters, or nieces, or whatever, but Rooney ain't buyin'. Barry Fitzgerald plays Rooney's elderly bedridden neighbor, whom the young man befriends, turns to for advice, and tries to shield from the old man's bickering relatives. Stronger on characterization than plot, Rooney was based on a popular novel by Catherine Cookson. The film is at its best when the camera roams around the misty streets of Dublin, and at its worst when it pauses for sentiment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gregson, Muriel Pavlow, (more)
- 1957
In this thriller, a journalist on holiday to a quiet English village finds himself embroiled in a web of blackmail and intrigue after he begins investigating the suspicious murder of an American composer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Michael Redgrave gives his greatest performance as Andrew Crocker-Harris, a boarding-school teacher who realizes that his life may be a failure, in this powerful adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play with a screenplay by Rattigan himself. Poor health forces Crocker-Harris to give up his teaching position after years of thankless service and scorn from his students and colleagues. His marriage to Millie (Jean Kent) is also in free fall, as his wife is openly having an affair with the school's chemistry teacher, Hunter (Nigel Patrick). The sensitivity of one student (Brian Smith) breaks through Crocker-Harris's reserved British exterior, but it takes the final departure of his wife, right before the school's graduation exercises, to wake him up once and for all. He discards his prepared speech and speaks openly to the assembled students, delivering a moving apology for having failed them as their teacher. The film's rich montage of incident and character detail builds to intense emotional heights that make this version of The Browning Version a classic. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent, (more)
David Lean's Madeleine was inspired by a true story that rocked the English legal system to its foundations in the mid-19th century. Told in flashback, the film explains why aristocratic young Scotswoman Madeleine Smith (Ann Todd, then the wife of director Lean) is on trial for murder. The audience is apprised of Madeleine's illicit romance with deceptively charming Frenchman Emile L'Angelier (Ivan Desny), her futile attempts to break off the relationship, her "proper" betrothal to Englishman William Minnoch (Norman Wooland), and the murder by poison of the now-inconvenient L'Angelier. The jury's verdict was as controversial in 1950 as it had been a century earlier. David Lean and scenarists Stanley Haynes and Nicholas Phipps refuse to take sides, permitting the viewers to draw their own conclusions about the notorious Madeleine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Todd, Norman Wooland, (more)
Based on Noël Coward's play "Still Life," Brief Encounter is a romantic, bittersweet drama about two married people who meet by chance in a London railway station and carry on an intense love affair. Sentimental yet down-to-earth and set in pre-World War II England, the film follows British housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), who is on her way home, but catches a cinder in her eye. By chance, she meets Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), who removes it for her. The two talk for a few minutes and strike immediate sparks, but they end up catching different trains. However, both return to the station once a week to meet and, as the film progresses, they grow closer, sharing stories, hopes, and fears about their lives, marriages, and children. One day, when Alec's train is late, both become frantic that they will miss each other. When they finally find each other, they realize that they are in love. But what should be a joyous realization is fraught with tragedy, since both care greatly for their families. Howard and Johnson give flawless performances as two practical, married people who find themselves in a situation in which they know they can never be happy. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, (more)
Immediately grabbing the audience's attention with a heart-stopping opening scene in a dark graveyard, acclaimed British director David Lean realizes the cinematic potential of Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel, and the result is considered by many to be one of the finest literary adaptations ever made as well as one of the greatest British films of all time. Crystallized into a tight 118-minute running time by Lean, Ronald Neame, and a corps of uncredited contributors, this is the story of young Pip, a lad of humble means whose training as a gentleman is bankrolled by a mysterious benefactor. Along the way, Pip falls in love with the fickle Estella, befriends the cheerfully insouciant Herbert Pocket, has memorable encounters with the escaped convict Magwitch and the lunatic dowager Miss Havisham, and almost (but not quite) forgets his modest origins as the foster son of kindhearted blacksmith Joe Gargery. The role of Pip is evenly divided between Anthony Wager as a child and John Mills as an adult; Alec Guinness makes his starring film debut as the jaunty Pocket; Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson are costarred as the younger and older Estella; and Martita Hunt is unforgettable as the mad Miss Havisham ("It's a fine cake! A wedding cake! MINE!") Remade several times, Great Expectations resurfaced in 1989 as a TV miniseries, with Jean Simmons, originally the young Estella, tearing a passion to tatters as Miss Havisham; and in 1998 it was remade again, in a contemporary version, with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, and Anne Bancroft in the Miss Havisham role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Valerie Hobson, (more)
- 1943
Demi-Paradise stars Laurence Olivier as a Russian inventor (accent and all). In Europe to promote his new propeller device, Olivier is put off by English customs and manners-or, rather, the lack of the latter. No one in 1939 England trusts a foreigner, least of all one of those shifty "Reds", but when Russia and England become allies against the Nazis, the previously persona non grata Olivier is welcomed with open arms. Penelope Dudley Ward co-stars as Olivier's previously suspicious landlady, who ends up falling in love with him. Demi-Paradise was made before the comic quaintness that afflicted Olivier's later performances set in, thus his Russian portrayal is straightforward and most convincing. The film was released in the US as Adventure for Two. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Marjorie Fielding, (more)
- 1940
The 1940 British production of Gaslight was the first of two cinematic adaptations of Patrick Hamilton's play. Oozing faux continental charm, Anton Walbrook inveigles his way into the confidence of the young mistress (Diana Wynyard) of a large Victorian mansion. Walbrook is searching for the rubies that he'd stolen from the previous owner of the house -- whom he'd also murdered. Suspecting that Wynyard is about to catch on to his secret, Walbrook enlists the aid of a sluttish maidservant to drive his loving bride crazy. The ploy almost works, but Wynyard is rescued by an unexpected ally. Gaslight was released in the U.S. as Murder in Thornton Square, then withdrawn entirely on the occasion of MGM's expensive 1944 remake of Gaslight, which starred Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. To avoid confusion, MGM allegedly ordered that all prints of the original Gaslight be destroyed. Evidently that order was not honored to the letter, since the 1940 Gaslight is still safely available for both theatrical and TV exhibition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, (more)
