Patrick Allen Movies

All the charm and joie de vivre of the 1953 Gregory Peck/Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday is purged from this hollow TV remake. The stunning but lifeless Catherine Oxenberg assumes the Hepburn role of a young princess who escapes the protocol of court life for a romantic fling in Rome. Tom Conti stands in for Gregory Peck as the American journalist who falls in love with the Princess. Ed Begley Jr. takes over Eddie Albert's part of the eccentric photojournalist who acts as comic relief to the leads. Heading the list of mistakes committed in this remake is the fact that Oxenberg behaves more like a bored Danielle Steele character than the impressionable, virginal heroine of the original. Rome may be eternal, but the 1987 Roman Holiday is terminal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This documentary tells the disturbing story of the men closest to Adolf Hitler. Hitler rose to power on his platform of social reforms called National Socialism-or Nazism-but soon turned his attention to world domination and the establishment of a "pure" Aryan race. This resulted in the abomination of the Nazi concentration camps, and the mass extermination of Jews, Gypsies, and other peoples seen as "undesirable". To engage in murder on the scale of that of the death camps, Hitler required assistance. Names like Eichmann and Goebbels are synonymous with this infamy. With actual film footage of German death camps, this chilling film looks at the work of those men. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide

Murder Is Easy is one of a multitude of 1980s TV movies based on the novels of Agatha Christie. Bill Bixby stars as an American investor, vacationing in England. While on a train, Bixby strikes up a conversation with the seemingly dotty Helen Hayes, who insists she's en route to Scotland Yard with evidence pertaining to three murders. When Ms. Hayes is herself killed, Bixby finds himself heading to the village of Wychwood Under Ashe to investigate the killings on his own. In a twinkling, both Bixby and lovely villager Lesley-Ann Down find themselves the principal suspects. Olivia De Havilland is also among the highly suspicious guest stars in Murder is Easy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Strange as it seems, the 1977 adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times was the first full-scale adaptation of this work ever seen on British television. Set (of course!) during the Industrial Revolution, the multiplotted story line was held together by the travails of Louisa Gradgrind (Jacqueline Tong), a former circus employee who was adopted by a stern businessman and whisked off to a bleak industrial village called Coketown. With four-hour-long episodes at its disposal, this TV version managed to retain most of the characters and incidents of the Dickens original, and also kept sight of the author's indictment of the iniquitous social conditions which determined the behavior and the destinies of the main figures. Produced by Granada Television, Hard Times later aired in America via PBS. The 1994 BBC TV version, sometimes also referred to as a "miniseries," was actually intended to be seen in a single showing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally titled Persecution, the British Terror of Sheba represents Lana Turner's entree into the "fading stars in horror flicks" sweepstakes. Turner plays a maniacally possessive millionairess who delights in dominating her tremulous young son (Mark Weavers). She knows that her son has a morbid fear of cats, and she uses this knowledge to keep him under her thumb. Even when he grows up (then portrayed by Alan Bates), Turner continues her reign of terror. As tragedy is heaped upon tragedy, we eagerly await Turner's comeuppance. When it comes, it's well worth the wait, even though The Terror of Sheba itself is hardly in the category of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (or even Die! Die! My Darling!). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This detective thriller features one of the most exciting boat chases ever filmed, a scene that has been compared to the car chase in Bullitt. It is also notable for having much scenic footage of the Netherlands and of Amsterdam. In this film, the headquarters of a drug-smuggling cartel is the quarry of American narcotics agent Paul Sherman (Sven-Bartil Taube). Though the cartel's activities are centered in Amsterdam, Sherman's search for the headquarters leads to an island castle owned by an offbeat religious group. Sherman and his partner Maggie (Barbara Parkins) run into serious trouble when they try to gain access to the forbidding site. Paul escapes captivity and chases the culprits by boat. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

While he began receiving international acclaim durring his stints with The Yardbirds and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Eric Claption truly rose to the status of rock's premier guitar hero with the bluesy power trio Cream, which teamed him with two unusually gifted and individual collaborators, Jack Bruce on bass and Ginger Baker on drums. Cranking out four acclaimed studio albums and a long string of live shows in a scant two years, Cream called it quits on November 26, 1968 with a concert at London's Royal Albert Hall, which was captured on film for this release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The famed British horror trio of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and director Terence Fisher brought John Lymington's sci-fi novel Night of the Big Heat to the screen in this slow-moving shocker. The plot concerns a small British island where alien protoplasm creatures are attempting to raise the temperatures to match those of their home planet. The result is a winter heat-wave so intense that most of the island's residents go up in flames. Lee and Cushing are among the few survivors able to battle the malignant extraterrestrial scourge. Fisher proves once again that his deliberately paced directorial style is better suited to Gothic horror than to what should be fast-moving sci-fi. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

A golf course turns into a killing ground for an unfortunate British agent. Investigating, Steed and Emma discover that the course is actually a front (or, technically, a "top") for an enemy espionage base. The foresighted villains use satellite technology -- then very much in its infancy -- to relay secret information, obliging Steed and Emma to follow through for a few well-placed chip shots. Written by Tony Williamson, "The Thirteenth Hole" premiered in England on January 29, 1966, and in America on August 18, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful espionage film a British agent and a man from NATO attempt to bust a communist spy ring. Following the discovery of a roll of top secret microfilm following a plane crash, the two finds themselves embroiled in a complex web of treachery and double agents. Fortunately, they survive all and bring the rogue spies to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This 1961 adaptation of Shakespeare's magical comedy of errors was performed entirely by puppets. Let's qualify that: the puppets are of the stop-motion variety, expertly manipulated into "humanity" by Czech animator Jiri Trnka. The adaptation is faithful to the text, while the technique allows a wider range of visual delights than any previous movie Midsummer--and an eminently convincing man-to-jackass transformation for vainglorious amateur thespian Bottom. The English-language version of this Czech animated feature was directed and adapted by Howard O. Sackler, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Great White Hope. Richard Burton provided the narration for this version, which was issued in 1963 and is still in circulation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this engaging costume melodrama of skulduggery on the low seas set back in the 18th-century, the swamps of a small seaside town and the nocturnal activities of the towns' men provide the atmosphere and action. The Royal Crown suspects a bit of smuggling is going on in this locale, and they send Captain Collier (Patrick Allen) and his crew to check it out. As the Captain gets into his investigation, mysterious swamp phantoms cloud up the real issue which seems plain enough to see. Captain Collier suspects that the odd village vicar (Peter Cushing) might be hiding something, and what better way to do that than by fortuitous ghosts to scare away the curious -- or by posing as someone he is not? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide