Michael Relph Movies

Vic Mathews (Tom Conti) is a Glasgow teacher who works in a Catholic school for backward students. Though the school is named for Edith Semple, a long-dead Scotswoman who supposedly performed several miracles in her lifetime, Vic is doggedly nonreligious, insisting that it's miracle enough that his students can learn anything. The rest of the faculty hopes to have Edith Semple canonized as a saint, but Vic wants no part of this. After he is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, Vic is amazed when the tumor suddenly vanishes, just like...like a miracle. Many other strange happenings occur around Vic, prompting extensive media coverage. Still, Vic steadfastly refuses to believe in divine miracles--which causes no end of trouble with the other teachers, the Vatican authorities, and Vic's new lady friend Helen Mirren. The easy-to-take Gospel According to Vic has also been released as Heavenly Pursuits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Scum refers to the label slapped upon reform-school inmate Ray Winstone. Such reformatories are called "borstals" by the British. When he isn't being beaten up by the other boys, Ray is being beaten down by The System. He rebels against this treatment and "wins" by becoming more vicious than any of his oppressors. Scum was originally filmed for British television, but rejected because of the bleakness of its outlook. In America, it went straight into theatres, where audiences had to strain to comprehend the "punk" jargon and thick provincial accents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Assassination Bureau is loosely based on a turn-of-the-century yarn written by Jack London. Nellie Bly-style girl reporter Sonya Winter (Diana Rigg) tries to get the goods on shady businessman Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed). Ivan is in charge of a wide-reaching organization which, for a price, assassinates those who "need killing." As a challenge, Sonya offers to pay Ivan a huge sum if he'll instruct his minions to assassinate him; Ivan agrees, hoping that it will put a little kick in his work. Despite his profession, Ivan isn't the villain of the piece; that honor goes to evil nobleman Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas), whose perfidy leads Sonya into joining forces with the Assassination Bureau. A wild climactic chase in a zeppelin caps this tongue-in-cheek escapade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

British pop performer Michael Sarne stars as young Ricky, a kid from London's East End who is yet another victim of urban socio-economic blight. Discouraged and frustrated, Ricky gets involved with a local gang hoping to support his family by turning to a life of crime. Rita Tushingham, in her third film appearance, plays the role of Ricky's girlfriend Catherine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A scientist's attempts to clear the name of a friend nearly destroy his life in this intelligent science fiction drama. Prof. Sharpley (Harold Goldblatt) is a research scientist from Oxford University working with the British government on experiments in sensory deprivation. One day, Sharpley suddenly and shockingly commits suicide by throwing himself under an oncomming train while holding a briefcase stuffed with cash. While investigating the death, the police present the theory that Sharpley was a double agent, perhaps allied with the Communists, and that the death was the final result of his shame over betraying Great Britain. However, Sharpley's friend and associate Dr. Henry Longman (Dirk Bogarde) strongly disagrees, and he speculates that Sharpley's death had something to do with his research. In hopes of clearing Sharpley's name with police investigator Maj. Hall (John Clements), Longman begins subjecting himself to sessions in a sensory deprivation tank in order to prove that use of the technique can make one unusually suceptable to brainwashing or hypnotic suggestion. Longman emerges from the chamber frightened and disoriented, and in Long's presence one of his associates is able to convince Longman that he no longer cares for his wife Oonagh (Mary Ure). The doctor returns home displaying a callous and distant attitude toward his pregnant wife, and his personality begins to display an increasing number of deeply troubling changes. James Kennaway adapted the screenplay from his own novel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In its time, Victim was considered as a daring a film as had ever been made in England. Taken at face value, Janet Green and John McCormick's screenplay is nothing new: Dirk Bogarde plays a lawyer who agrees to defend an old friend (John McEnery) on a theft charge, only to be enmeshed in a blackmailing scheme. What set this one apart is the fact that the lawyer had once been the male lover of his client. At a time when homosexuality was a criminal offense in England, any film that depicted the gay scene in a non-judgmental light was in for a rough time from the bluenose brigades. What really startled filmgoers of 1962 is that the homosexuals shown in Victim were seemingly normal, everyday blokes, a far cry from the stereotyped "nance" characters common to films. Denied the MPAA seal when it was released to the United States, Victim surprisingly ran into very little interference when it was released to television in the mid-1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British All Night Long is Othello to a jazz beat. Paul Harris is the Othello counterpart, a bandleader happily married to "Desdemona" Marti Stevens. Patrick McGoohan plays the film's funky Iago character, who covets Harris' job. McGoohan hopes to unnerve Harris by spreading rumors that Stevens has been unfaithful. Like the 1956 Joe MacBeth, All Night Long can either be taken seriously or as what used to be called 'high camp." Jazz aficionados will appreciate the brief appearances by Dave Brubeck, Johnny Dankworth, Paul Mingus, Tubby Hayes, Charles Mingus, Kenny Napper and several other top musicians. Also showing up in a cameo role is dancing star Geoffrey Holder, who wouldn't make a bad Othello (or Iago) himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kenneth More was beginning to segue into comedy roles when he took on the character of William in this standard sci-fi parody by director Basil Dearden. William is an unsuccessful guinea pig for a medical group interested in researching the common cold when he is soon fired and offered a job by the nearby National Atomic Research Center. They figure anyone who could fail at being a guinea pig is just what they need. They con William into thinking he will continue his guinea pig career by testing out some equipment for them before they send a group of astronauts to the moon. What they neglect to tell him is that the testing will be done by actually sending him to the moon. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Violent Playground opens with a few West Side Story style shots of a Liverpool street gang, commandeered by a very nasty-looking David McCallum. We're going to be seeing a lot more of McCallum before the final fadeout: His sister (Anne Heywood) is in love with an upright police officer (Stanley Baker). The film plods along predictable grounds until the climactic rumble sequence, which is as good as anything ever seen in Hollywood "J.D." picture. Violent Playground didn't get much American play in 1957, principally because there was a glut of such films at the time. The picture received a new lease on life in the early 1960s to cash in on the Man From UNCLE popularity of David McCallum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Smallest Show on Earth is a gentle, frequently uproarious takeoff of Britain's neighborhood-cinema industry. Real-life husband and wife Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna star as Matt and Jean Spencer, a middle-class couple who inherit a decrepit movie house in a tiny railroad whistle stop. They also inherit the theater's ancient, doddering employees: bibulous ticket-taker Percy Quill (Peter Sellers), former silent-movie accompanist Mrs. Fazackalee (Margaret Rutherford) and doorman/janitor old Tom (Bernard Miles). Making the best of things, the Spencers set up shop going through the usual travails of small-time cinema owners: substandard projection and sound reproduction, a dismal selection of films (all they can afford is American B-Westerns), and sundry mishaps with the audience. Just when they're about to write off the theater as a loss, crafty old Tom comes up with an underhanded but effective method to allow the Spencers to make a huge profit on their shaky enterprise. Though chock full of entertaining vignettes, the best and most poignant scene in The Smallest Show on Earth finds the three elderly employees tearfully reveling in a nostalgic screening of the 1924 silent film Comin' Thro' the Rye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Already a popular TV comedian in 1956, Benny Hill heads the cast of the zany comedy-mystery Who Done It? Eschewing his usual double entendres in favor of pure-and-simple slapstick, Hill plays a would-be private eye named Hugo. Before he quite knows what's happening, Hugo is up to his neck in espionage intrigue. Belinda Lee plays Hugo's dewey-eyed blonde assistant, George Relph is cast as a flustered Scotland Yard inspector, and David Kossof and George Margo portray a couple of sinister Iron Curtain spies. Who Done It? was scripted by T. E. B. Clarke, a mainstay of the droll Ealing comedies of the early 1950s. The film remained unreleased in the US until the late 1970s, when it was put on the market to cash in on the international success of The Benny Hill Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Basil Dearden was co-producer and co-director of the British "slice of life" drama Out of the Clouds. Filmed in quasi-documentary fashion, the story takes place during one unusually busy day at London's Heathrow Airport. The dramatis personae includes Gus Randall (Anthony Steel), a pilot with a chronic (and potentially fatal) gambling weakness; chief duty officer Nick Milbourne (Robert Beatty), who yearns to be a pilot himself; American engineer Bill (David Lorenz), who finds romance in the form of Jewish girl Leah (Margo Lorenz); and Captain Brent (James Robertson Justice), whose doubts about a new aircraft prove to be well-founded. The obligatory romantic triangle involves Gus, Nick and airline -hostess Penny Henson (Eunice Gayson). Out of the Clouds is an intriguing small-scale precursor to the Airport school of multicharactered drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A fair stab at yet another World War II comedy, this film by Michael Relph features the humorous antics of an ENSA troupe (the British equivalent of the American USO) and an absurd involvement with an army major (Alfred Marks) that leads to the capture of a German commanding officer (Marius Goring). The troupe of entertainers includes a pair of seasoned crooners, a level-headed piano player, a leader who seems to fail equally well at comedy and singing, his wife, and a few others. This disparate group gets mixed up in the Brit Major's agenda and precipitates a series of unexpected circumstances that somehow lead everyone to bumble through to ultimate triumph. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide