David Pursall Movies
- 1984
Produced for cable TV by The Disney Channel, The Black Arrow is based on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson adventure tale. Stephen Chase plays the title character, a dogooding swashbuckler who tries to avenge his father's murder during the War of the Roses. Though Chase carries the bulk of the action, top billing is bestowed upon the film's villains, Oliver Reed (as Sir Daniel Brackley) and Fernando Rey (as the Earl of Warwick). The Stevenson original was previously adapted for the screen in 1948, with Louis Hayward in the lead. Black Arrow made its TV debut on January 6, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Reed, Fernando Rey, (more)
This police melodrama is set in a coastal resort where a young man becomes insanely jealous after learning that his girl has been with another. He takes her hostage in the town hotel and threatens to kill her. Now a hot-tempered police chief and his peace-loving lieutenant must somehow team-up to resolve the situation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Reed, Susan George, (more)
- 1976
- R
The long-running series of British "Carry On" comedies was nearing the end of the line when this 28th film in the cycle was released in 1976. Set in World War II, Carry On England explores what happens when the British military decides to set up an experimental mixed-gender anti-aircraft battery. While commanding officer Captain Melly (Kenneth Connor) is a stickler for military discipline, it soon becomes obvious that the interaction of male and female soldiers doesn't lend itself to a crack fighting unit, though it makes for plenty of broad physical comedy, especially with Major Bloomer (Windsor Davies), Melly's second-in-command, on deck. Judy Geeson, Patrick Mower, Jack Douglas, and Joan Sims lead the supporting cast. This feature was followed by That's Carry On (1977), a "greatest hits" collection of highlights from the series, and Carry On Emmanuelle (1978), which marked the end of the series until 1992's Carry On Columbus. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth Connor, Windsor Davies, (more)
- 1974
What Changed Charley Farthing stars Doug McClure as a wayfaring sailor stopping over in Havana. In the tradition of The African Queen, the sailor becomes a reluctant hero when he is hired to give safe passage out of Cuba to a young woman (Hayley Mills) and her father (Lionel Jeffries). This involves stealing a boat, ducking the authorities, and avoiding bullets. David Pursall and Jack Seddon adapted the screenplay from a novel by Mark Hebdon. What Changed Charley Farthing has been run repeatedly on American television under its alternate title The Bananas Boat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- PG
In this comic adventure, an impoverished Yankee geologist and his cohorts band together with a group of fortune hunters to search for the priceless "Southern Star," an enormous diamond. The geologist has a double stake in the hunt as he not only hopes to earn much-needed cash, he also hopes to marry the daughter of the financier who hired them. It is the geologist and his partner who find the diamond first. During the party the businessman holds to celebrate, the lights suddenly go out. When they flick back on, the diamond and the geologist's partner has disappeared, leaving the geologist to shoulder the blame for the crime. To prove his innocence the geologist sets out after this thieving partner. He is pursued by a group of crooks who want the valuable rock for themselves. In the end, the geologist triumphs and the businessman allows him to marry his daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Segal, Ursula Andress, (more)
Based on a novel by Jack D. Hunter, The Blue Max is a World War I aviation drama, told from the German point of view. Low-born infantryman George Peppard becomes a pilot, almost deliberately stepping on the sensibilities of his aristocratic comrades in the process. A national hero, Peppard wins the Blue Max, the highest award that can be bestowed upon an aviator. His fame is exploited by general James Mason, who tolerates Peppard's affair with Mason's wife Ursula Andress. The canny Mason knows that, eventually, Peppard will be expendable, and a "heroic" death can be arranged. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Peppard, James Mason, (more)
- 1965
Released in Great Britain as The ABC Murders, The Alphabet Murders stars a well-disguised Tony Randall as Agatha Christie's brilliant, insufferable Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Unfortunately, director Frank Tashlin chooses to open the film with one of his Pirandelloian gimmicks by introducing Randall out of make-up as himself, then cutting to Randall as Poirot. This has the effect of taking the audience "out" of the picture, and it takes a while for the film to recover. On its own, the plot is a good one, as Poirot investigates a series of murders, with the victims arranged alphabetically. There's also a well staged mid-film sequence, in which leading lady Anita Ekberg, as Amanda Beatrice Cross, supposedly comes to a soggy demise. But in never deciding whether to play "straight" or for laughs, The Alphabet Murders ends up a wildly uneven experience. Best bit: Poirot inadvertently confronting another Agatha Christie creation, Miss Marple (played without screen credit by Margaret Rutherford). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg, (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)
The Longest Day is a mammoth, all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Whenever possible, the original locations were utilized, and an all-star international cast impersonates the people involved, from high-ranking officials to ordinary GIs. Each actor speaks in his or her native language with subtitles translating for the benefit of the audience (alternate "takes" were made of each scene with the foreign actors speaking English, but these were seen only during the first network telecast of the film in 1972). The stars are listed alphabetically, with the exception of John Wayne, who as Lt. Colonel Vandervoort gets separate billing. Others in the huge cast include Eddie Albert, Jean-Louis Barrault, Richard Burton, Red Buttons, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Gert Frobe, Curt Jurgens, Peter Lawford, Robert Mitchum, Kenneth More, Edmond O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Jean Servais, Rod Steiger and Robert Wagner. Paul Anka, who wrote the film's title song, shows up as an Army private. Scenes include the Allies parachuting into Ste. Mere Englise, where the paratroopers were mowed down by German bullets; a real-life sequence wherein the German and Allied troops unwittingly march side by side in the dark of night; and a spectacular three-minute overhead shot of the troops fighting and dying in the streets of Quistreham. The last major black-and-white road-show attraction, The Longest Day made millions, enough to recoup some of the cost of 20th Century Fox's concurrently produced Cleopatra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, (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)
- 1961
In this routine mystery story by director Basil Dearden, someone who favors mysteries and comedies, Stewart Granger is John Brent, a VIP in a shipping company with a prison record behind him. When a quarter of million dollars goes missing from the company's vault, he is the primary suspect of Detective Superintendent Hanbury (Bernard Lee). Complications arise when Hanbury starts looking carefully at John's estranged wife Nicole (Haya Harareet) and the men she has on a string. The suspect list has suddenly expanded. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, Haya Harareet, (more)
- 1958
Count Five and Die is a neat British-made programmer set just before the D-Day invasion. Nigel Patrick plays a British major who heads a group of special agents, dedicated to misleading the Nazis into thinking the invasion will take place in Holland. The Allied spies, which include American Jeffrey Hunter and Frenchwoman Annemarie Duringer operate under cover as the owners of a documentary filmmaking firm. The plan is nearly destroyed when one of the spies turns out to be a Nazi agent. The title Count Five and Die refers to the length of time its takes for the traditional cyanide capsules (always doled out to secret agents in films of this nature) to take effect. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Hunter, Nigel Patrick, (more)
