Mary Ure Movies

Robert Shaw stars in this taped-in-England psychological spellbinder. The plot involves two identical twins, former inmates of a mental institution. The unbalanced pair are hired to commit a contract killing. The plan, of course, is for each twin to provide an airtight alibi for the other. Robert Shaw's costar in The Break is his real-life wife, Mary Ure. Unlike most presentations of ABC's Wide World Mystery, which generally ran 90 minutes, The Break is on and off the TV screen in a single hour. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The authorities are certain that a teenager found with a bullet through his head was a suicide victim. It so happens that the victim's mother is a friend of policewoman Fran Belding (Elizabeth Baur), who can't bring herself to believe that the boy took his own life. Fran's boss Ironside has his doubts as well, and begins his own investigation--a daunting task, in that virtually each new clue contradicts the previous one. This is one of several Ironside episodes to feature an original song by Marty and David Paich, in this case "Your Time is Coming", performed by Carol Carmichael. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Opening with a montage depicting its subject's Civil War exploits, Custer of the West carries us across four years of fighting in less than four minutes of screen time. The Civil War ended, George Armstrong Custer (Robert Shaw) longs for action and to hold onto his rank of general, so General Phil Sheridan (Lawrence Tierney) sends him West, admitting that there will be no nobility to his cause there -- the government and the people want the land, and that means getting the Indians off of it by any means necessary. He arrives in time to see a party of Cheyenne (whom the real Custer never fought) kill a pair of miners by sending them rolling down a long hill in a runaway wagon -- that motif is repeated, in ever more striking, elaborate, and violent fashions, in two subsequent action scenes. Custer organizes his command around Major Marcus Reno (Ty Hardin), depicted as an ambitious officer with a drinking problem, and Captain Benteen (Jeffrey Hunter), a humane officer with a strange, almost mystical streak, who understands the Indians better than anyone else in Custer's command. Also present are Mary Ure as Custer's loving wife and Robert Ryan in a very flamboyant performance as a larcenous sergeant who comes to no good end after being stricken with gold fever. After getting his command into the shape it needs to be -- mostly by running everyone except a lone sergeant into the ground in an extended drill -- he carries out his mission, quietly detesting the motives behind his orders but executing them out to the letter. Regarded as a hero in the East, Custer returns to Washington only to jeopardize his career by testifying about the corruption he's found around him in the West. He is left a political pariah but once more. Sheridan intercedes, again getting Custer posted with the Seventh Cavalry now engaged against the Sioux. He is, by this time, disillusioned with the army that he serves and the politicians and the business interests in whose service it functions. Though he craves the glory that comes with battle, he sees soldiering of the type he is being asked to carry out as little more than organized slaughter, even relying on machines to do the killing in ever more indiscriminate ways with none of the contest between men, of strategies, and arms and resourcefulness -- that was his real joy. The demons and goals that drive him culminate with Custer's disastrous action at Little Big Horn, which is beautifully (if not necessarily accurately) staged, in a stunning visual and aural denouement. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

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, Rovi

Archetypal British "angry young man" Jimmy Porter (Richard Burton) is a college-educated bloke who can't seem to get any better job than working in a candy store. Jimmy's relationship with his wife Alison (Mary Ure) alternates between hugs and kisses when he's feeling good and verbal abuse when he's down on himself, which is often. Alison's best friend Helena Charles (Claire Bloom) advises Alison to escape her injurious marriage. Left with no one for a punching bag, Jimmy romances Helena. Having suffered a miscarriage, Alison returns, and Helena walks out of Jimmy's life. In keeping with its depiction of the dead-end existence of most of England's working poor in the late 1950s, nothing is truly resolved in Look Back in Anger. Playwright John Osborne (at that time married to Mary Ure) uses Jimmy Porter as a spokesman for Osborne's own spleen-venting harangues against the British government and class system. Not only did Look Back in Anger spawn a new genre of British social-protest films, but it also inspired two remakes, both filmed for television. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This fourth film version of A.E.W. Mason's adventure yarn The Four Feathers relies heavily on stock footage from the more famous 1939 adaptation (both were produced by Alexander Korda and codirected by Korda's brother Zoltan). Anthony Steel stars as 19th cntury British officer Harry Faversham, who begs off from serving with Kitchener's forces in the Sudan, preferring to stay in London with fiancee Mary Burroughs (Mary Ure). Almost immediately, Faversham receives the traditional "white feather" of cowardice from his three closest friends--and then is handed a fourth feather by Mary. Determined to prove that he is not a coward, Faversham heads off to the Sudan to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with his comrades. He also intends to return those dreaded feather to his three former friends, even resorting to native disguise at one point to do so. Laurence Harvey essays the old Ralph Richardson role of John Durrance, who is blinded by the sun and thus unaware of Faversham's true identity, while James Robertson Justice fills the shoes of Four Feathers' crusty C. Aubrey Smith ("War was war in my day, sir!") ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi