Paul Carpenter Movies
- 1946
Produced, directed and scripted by Peter Ustinov (who did not star), Secret Flight was released in Great Britain in 1946, but not distributed in the U.S. until 1951 -- at which time it was panned as being out-of-date! The fact-based screenplay details the efforts of five dedicated British scientists to develop Radar and other preventative measures on the eve of WW II. The five "boffins" are played by Ralph Richardson, Raymond Huntley, John Laurie, Ernest Jay and David Tomlinson. Some excitement is engendered when a test pilot (Richard Attenborough) cooperates with the scientists' remote-control airflight experiments. Given the film's sober treatment of certain British wartime military maneuvers, it is surprising that Peter Ustinov frequently chooses to depict the scientists as Dr. Watson-style comic figures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Richardson, Raymond Huntley, (more)
- 1946
This holiday comedy is set during the Christmas of 1946 and centers upon a fellow who has returned to his native Canada to spend the Yule. When he receives a telegram from "the Fergusons," many memories of the Christmas they spent together come flooding back. The story jumps backward four years when the man was serving in the Canadian army and was stationed in England. This family took him in for the holiday. While there, the soldier finds himself pursued by the Fergusons' daughter and by their maid. The story then jumps to the present where the former maid--now in the military too--is seen preparing the soldier's Christmas dinner in their home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Walls, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1948
Before detective Slim Callaghan (Michael Rennie) can meet with prospective client Col. Stenhurst, he gets drugged, is ordered not to take the case by the colonel's step-daughter, and finds Stenhurst's dead body. So, of course, Callaghan investigates for himself, accurately predicting that several of the relatives will hire him. What he finds is a sordid history of murder and blackmail. Vernon Sewell's Uneasy Terms is a scrambled British attempt at American-style hard boil. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Rennie, Moira Lister, (more)
- 1949
Landfall takes place during the early portions of WWII. RAF pilot Rick (Michael Denison) is transferred to another squadron after sinking a British sub during a bombing raid. Disgraced, Rick has no one to turn to, save for sympathetic barmaid Mona (Patricia Plunkett). With her help, the pilot is able to find out the truth behind his "fatal error" and clear his name. Landfall was based on a novel by Nevil Shute, of On the Beach fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Plunkett, Edith Sharpe, (more)
- 1953
The title character of Albert, R.N is portrayed by-well, by no one. Albert is a papier-mache dummy, constructed by the British inmates of a German POW camp. The dummy is used as a diversion in a daring escape plan. Anthony Steel plays the mastermind of the getaway scheme, while Anton Diffring costars as the shrewd-and utterly despicable-Nazi commandant. Albert, R.N was released in the US under the unimaginative title Break to Freedom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Steel, Jack Warner, (more)
- 1954
Hollywood actress Marsha Hunt, blacklisted during the "Red Scare" of the early 1950s, was able to find occasional work in England. Ms. Hunt is top-billed in Diplomatic Passport, but hers is a secondary role to hero Paul Carpenter. The latter plays an American diplomat who is being used as an unwitting courier by diamond smugglers.Honor Blackman, twixt and tween her "English Rose" period and her leather-clad Avengers days, is the femme fatale. Diplomatic Passport was co-produced by Burt Balaban, of American theatre-chain fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This disappointing thriller from horror legend Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein) stars Alex Nicol as James Bradley, an America trumpet-player visiting London. Falsely accused of murdering a Spanish singer, Bradley can only prevent his own execution by finding the real killer. Not one of Fisher's more rousing films, this modestly-budgeted programmer co-stars Geoffrey Keen and Arthur Lane. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
In this thriller, a nearly bankrupt businessman blackmails a buddy into to murdering him within a week so that his wife can collect on his hefty insurance policy. Unfortunately, his business takes a sudden upswing, and he no longer has to die. Too bad his friend doesn't know that. The hero suffers several near misses before learning that it is partner and another who really want to kill him, not his friend whom they have kidnapped and framed. In the end, the villains shoot each other. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This film offers a trio suspenseful dramas. In the first, an unhappy wife refuses to mourn the death of her husband, a miner who was trapped in a mining accident. Instead, she gets herself a new lover. Unfortunately, the husband survived. In the second episode, one sister saves the other, who has been betrothed by locking the groom away. Unfortunately, she has locked away the wrong man. In the final vignette, a saboteur plants a bomb in a factory and must escape before it goes off. Unfortunately, just as he thinks he is home free, a helpful coworker returns the lunchbox he left behind in his haste to leave. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Also known as Chance Meeting, The Young Lovers can be described as an Iron Curtain romance. The boy, Ted (David Knight), works as a code expert at the American Embassy in London. The girl, Anna (Odelle Versois), is the daughter of a communist dignitary. When Ted and Anna fall in love, they find their every move monitored by both sides. The course of true love is eventually roadblocked by bureaucracy, forcing hero and heroine to escape to a neutral corner of the world; the trouble is, there isn't any such corner. A lighter variation on this theme can be found in Peter Ustinov's play and film Romanoff and Juliet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Odile Versois, David Knight, (more)
- 1954
In this crime drama, a man wrongfully convicted of murder goes back home to find the real killer and clear his name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
"You've never SEEN Gregory Peck until you've seen him in CINEMASCOPE." So read the publicity hype for 20th Century-Fox's Night People. Actually, Peck is his usual solid, stoic self as Col. Van Dyke, a CIA officer stationed in West Berlin. When an American soldier is kidnapped by the Soviets in the Eastern sector, Van Dyke is verbally assaulted by the soldier's influential industrialist father Leatherby (Broderick Crawford), who demands that something be done immediately. The Colonel realizes that it's not as simple as that: in return for the soldier, he is expected to turn over an elderly couple, both former anti-Nazi activists, to the East Germans, who will probably execute the couple. Leatherby backs off a bit when he meets the couple, then agrees to let Van Dyke handle the crisis in the most diplomatic manner possible. Things come to a head when the Colonel discovers that one of his trusted aides (Anita Bjork) is in league with the Soviets. Filmed on location in Germany, Night People is capped by a deliciously ironic coda. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, (more)
- 1954
Had the women-behind-bars drama The Weak and the Wicked been made in Hollywood, the cast would probably have included the likes of Ida Lupino, Marie Windsor, Peggie Castle and Hope Emerson. Instead, the film was lensed in Britain, with Glynis Johns and Diana Dors heading the cast. Framed on a charge of fraud, "good girl" Glynis is tossed into prison. Her cellmates include hard-boiled Ms. Dors, murder suspect Jane Hylton, blackmailer-poisoner Dame Sybil Thorndyke and shoplifter Olive Sloane. Each of their stories is detailed in a series of flashbacks. Downplay the potential sensational elments of the storyline, The Weak and the Wicked takes great pains to point out the positive values of a special rehabilitation program, wherein the main characters are given the opportunity to make themselves useful members of society. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glynis Johns, John Gregson, (more)
- 1954
This drama is comprised of two short films originally made to be shown on British television. The first short is the story of a scientist who invents a miraculous new drug that no one pays attention to. Distraught, the scientist is just about to end his life when his drug saves a child's life. In the second drama, the patriarch of an Irish family falls for the mechanisms of a con artist and threatens to squander the family savings on the foolish scheme. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Four friends go on a friendly fishing trip but only three return. This suspenseful drama chronicles the fate of the fourth who returns home an amnesiac after a three year absence to get revenge upon the "buddy" who knocked him out and left him to die. Any one of the remaining three could be a suspect as all of them are interested in pursuing his lovely widow. Unfortunately, the man's return coincides with a murder and he ends up blamed. Fortunately, his wife helps him solve the mystery and clear his name. The British title was A Stranger Came Home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paulette Goddard, William Sylvester, (more)
- 1954
The Sea Shall Not Have Them is our candidate for the most dramatic title of any British World War II film. Happily, the film itself upholds the promise of its name. The focus of the story is a dramatic rescue at sea, which consumes well over a third of the running time. A British bomber carrying high-ranking officer Michael Redgrave, commander Dirk Bogarde and two other men is blasted out of the sky by a German plane. The four men survive, board an inflatable dinghy, and patiently await rescue in the storm-tossed Atlantic. The Air-Sea Rescue Units are poised to write off the search for the downed flyers as hopeless, but Redgrave is carrying vital documents, and is therefore not expendable. Based on a novel by John Harris, The Sea Shall Not Have Them scores highest on its suspense content, and lowest on its banal dialogue exchanges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, (more)
- 1954
In this thriller, shot on location in Rhodesia, an American insurance investigator looks into the strange death of a diamond broker who drowned while diving for diamonds off the African coast. The broker had been insured for over $1 million. The sleuth's prime suspect is the broker's fiancee. He trails her as she goes on a dangerous safari. He quickly finds out that the broker isn't dead at all. The two had designed the scam to raise money for the dive. The agent and the crook engage in a canoe chase that culminates in the crook's capture. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, (more)
- 1955
The fast-paced world of stock-car racing provides the backdrop of this British adventure. The story centers on Katie Glebe as she attempts to save her father's failing garage after he is killed during a race. She ends up assisted by an American driver, Larry Duke. Unfortunately, creditor Turk McNeil is determined to take the garage to repay a debt. Real trouble ensues when Turk's lover Gina becomes interested in Larry. Turk then rigs the race and has Larry beaten up. Fortunately, this does not stop the determined Yankee from winning the race and the girl in the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This second entry in the British "Doctor" series once more stars Dirk Bogarde as young medico Simon Sparrow. Securing his first job as ship's doctor on a freighter, Simon again runs afoul of James Robertson Justice, here cast not as the irascible Sir Lancelot Sprat but as ship's captain Hogg. Unexpectedly, the freighter is obliged to take on passengers--specifically, the man-hungry daughter (Brenda DeBanzie) of the shipping magnate who owns the vessel, and toothsome French chanteuse Helene Colbert (Brigitte Bardot, in her first English-language film). As the older woman makes a play for the crusty captain, Helene sets her sights on the nonplussed Dr. Sparrow. Often funnier than its predecessor, Doctor at Sea proved the viability of the "Doctor" series, prompting several chucklesome sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Brigitte Bardot, (more)
- 1955
In this comedy, a jewel thief hides his loot on an abandoned scow. Later he is captured and thrown in jail after assaulting someone. Two models end up buying the boat. The barge is almost sunk in an accident. Later two tart old ladies end up with the goods. They then help the younger women get the reward money. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
In this crime drama, an author disbelieves a police report that states that his former friend, the town alcoholic, died of heart failure during a brawl at the local nightclub. In the end it is the killer's diabetes that gives him away. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
In this thriller, a reporter investigates the murder of a female blackmailer and soon finds himself hot on the trails of both the killer and the schoolboy that may have witnessed the crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Despite its provocative name, Britain's Eros Films was a small company set up for second-feature melodramas and murder mysteries rather than sexploitation flicks. The Narrowing Circle is a typical sausage off the Eros assembly line. The film is set in the offices of a magazine, where tensions and jealousies come to a head. A murder is committed; suspects include Paul Carpenter, Hazel Court, Ferdy Mayne and Russell Napier. The storyline cuts to the bone and gets everything settled within 66 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
The Anglo-American Behind the Headlines is not a remake of the 1937 RKO "B" of the same name, though both share a newspaper setting. Reporter Paul Carpenter heads the investigation of a murder case. The victim was black-mailing showgirl Hazel Court, and as usual there's a plenitude of suspects. Also as usual, the journalists prove to be quicker on the uptake than the cops on the case. Behind the Headlines was based on a novel by Robert Chapman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
