John Stafford Movies

A Graham Greene novel was the basic source for the British psychological melodrama Across the Bridge. Rod Steiger plays Carl Schaffner, a prominent financier who has absconded with company funds. A genius at improvisation, he plans to elude the authorities by murdering Paul Scarff (Bill Nagy) and assuming the dead man's identity. Upon arriving in Mexico, however, Schaffner learns to his chagrin that Scarff was himself an even more notorious fugitive from justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This mystery is adapted from a Graham Greene novel and begins as a British spy arranges a meeting with his son, whom he hasn't seen in four years. They are to meet in Venice, but unfortunately, the spy is unable to make the appointment. The boy then gets a mysterious call from his father breaking their date. Meanwhile, a compassionate hotel receptionist convinces her American lover to help the boy find his father. The boy friend investigates and discovers that the boy's father had found a fellow spy in trouble and was captured and drugged while trying help him. Both of the British spies are then placed on a boat and sent to Communist Europe where the police cannot catch them. Fortunately, the brave Yankee devises an ingenious plot to save them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The title is a reference to the mental state of leading lady Phyllis Calvert. Ms. Calvert plays an amnesiac, a victim of the wartime air raids, whose past is literally closed off to her. She doesn't know why, but everyone at every turn seems to want something from her--and some of these strangers have a homicidal glint in their eyes. Among the supporting players is Richard Burton, making his fourth screen appearance. Retitled as Her Panelled Door for U.S. theatrical release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set at the dawn of the 20th century, this British melodrama follows the exploits of a female physician who goes to spend her honeymoon with her new husband in his exquisite Sicilian villa. There they meet a cynical, strange old man. The trouble begins when she is called away to help quell an epidemic in Tunis. Suddenly the old coot begins trying to get the husband to have an affair with a fisherman's beautiful daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Not a remake of the 1934 Katharine Hepburn film of the same name, Spitfire was originally released in Great Britain as The First of the Few. Director Leslie Howard stars in this dramatization of the life and work of R.J. Mitchell, inventor of the Spitfire fighter plane. The film suggests, accurately as it turns out, that Mitchell was aware of Hitler's plans to conquer Europe by the air long before anyone else caught on (we see him watching a suspicious-looking group of "amateur" German gliding enthusiasts in the mid-1930s). David Niven, then a major in the British Army, was given leave to appear in this morale-boosting film as Mitchell's best friend, a dauntless test pilot. Ironically, Spitfire was released after the death of its star-director Leslie Howard, whose plane was shot down by the Germans somewhere between London and Lisbon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this African adventure, a band of Englishmen search for a buried cache of diamonds. Unfortunately, their greed creates considerable friction that erupts in violence culminating in the death of one party member and the wounding of another. The rest of the men end up abandoning the killer and opting to share their new-found wealth equally. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a hotel clerk is framed for a jewel theft by the real culprits and is forced to grab his wife and flee to France where he is mistaken for a famous singer by a bogus movie producer. Eventually, he ends up running into the real thieves and bringing them to justice. Also a song he wrote becomes a hit. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hollywood's Conrad Nagel heads cast of the British Ball at Savoy. The tux-garbed Nagel plays a baron who, while vacationing in Cannes, falls in love with opera star Marta Labarr. The prideful Labarr will have nothing to do with Nagel because of his wealth, so he poses as a waiter. When he's accused of being a thief, Nagel learns that there's two sets of justice, one for the rich, another for the poor. This 1936 remake of an earlier German film, was based on a novel by Alfred Grunwald and Fritz Lohner-Beda. Distribution of Ball at Savoy was handled in Britain and the US by RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this espionage romance, a French spy falls in love with a German operative who has been sent to learn how the French were able steal a German invention. Though she is assigned to kill the Frenchman, she instead falls in love and they decide to leave. Unfortunately, the woman knows that the car has been booby trapped and will fire a bullet into the driver when it reaches a certain speed. She saves her lover and dies in his arms. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, an artists paints his clothed model as if she had been dressed in very revealing garb. Later his servant sells the work to the manager of a soap company who wants to use it for advertising. The campaign is a great success and all are pleased--except the company president who sees one of the billboards and realizes that the almost naked model is none other than his daughter! ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Admirals All was based on the British stage farce by Ian Hay and Stephen-King-Hall. Wynne Gibson takes over from the stage version's Laura La Plante as temperamental American movie star Gloria Gunn. While on board a battleship for publicity purposes, Gloria is kidnapped by a band of comic-opera Chinese pirates. Even though no one is particularly anxious to get the girl back, gormless petty officer Dingle (Gordon Harker) scurries off to her rescue (Dingle was but a minor character in the play, but Harker was a major box-office draw). George Curzon, best remembered as the eye-twitching murderer in Hitchcock's Young and Innocent, scores a comic bull's-eye as the oafish pirate captain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Back before there was "no-fault divorce" couples wanting to split up had to provide hard evidence of spousal wrong-doing before a judge. This comedy centers on the attempts of one such couple to prove that the other is a schnook so they can be rid of each other. Separately, they hire detectives from the same agency to follow the other around. Comical mishaps ensue when the investigators (who have never met) end up falling in love while doing their job on the French Riviera. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide