Griffith Jones

The Wicked Lady

A married woman finds new thrills as a masked robber on the highways.

Macbeth

Macbeth is a 1978 videotaped version of Trevor Nunn's Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play by William Shakespeare. Produced by Thames Television, it features Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth. The TV version was directed by Philip Casson. The original stage production was performed at The Other Place, the RSC's small studio theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It had been performed in the round before small audiences, with a bare stage and simple costuming. The recording preserves this style: the actors perform on a circular set and with a mostly black background changes of setting are indicated only by lighting changes.

The Rise of Catherine the Great

The woman who will become Catherine the Great marries into the Russian royal family when she weds Grand Duke Peter, the nephew of Empress Elizabeth. Although the couple has moments of contentment, Peter's cruel and erratic behavior causes a rift between him and Catherine. Mere months after Peter succeeds his aunt as the ruler of Russia, a revolt is brewing, and Catherine is poised to ascend to the throne as the country's new empress.

Hidden Homicide

A novelist wakes up with a gun in his hand and a corpse in the house he woke up in. He doesn't remember how he got there or even if he committed the killing.

The Day Will Dawn

When Hitler invades Poland, sports journalist Colin Metcalfe (Hugh Williams) is unexpectedly reassigned as a foreign correspondent in Norway. En route, his ship is attacked by a German U-boat, but his warning to the Royal Navy is dismissed and he loses his post. With the German invasion of Norway soon after, Metcalfe returns, determined to uncover enemy operations and strike back against the occupiers. (Note: The film was released in the United States under the alternate title The Avengers (1942).)

Kill Her Gently

A motorist picks up to escaped convicts. Instead of turning them over to the police he hires them to kill his wife.

They Made Me a Fugitive

After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.

Decline and Fall ...of a Birdwatcher

A young man's attempts at seduction and social climbing lead to mayhem.

Account Rendered

Police find that everyone had a motive for the murder of a wealthy woman.

Menace In The Night

A woman (Lisa Gastoni) witnesses the theft of soiled banknotes from a mail delivery truck, then is threatened by the perpetrators of the crime.

Uncensored

During the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War II, a Belgian resistance group revives the newspaper "La Libre Belgique" to expose and counter Nazi propaganda efforts to deceive the people. They are so effective that the Nazis offer a reward for the capture of the paper's staff, although they don't know their identities. One of them is a well-known entertainer, and when his jealous partner hears of the reward, he turns him in. The paper's publishers escape capture, but their staff doesn't. The paper's founders must find not only a way to keep from getting captured by the Nazis but keep their newspaper going and get their staff released.

This Was Paris

British agents operate in Paris during the Second World War.

Atlantic Ferry

The MacIver brothers (Michael Redgrave, Griffith Jones) build the first ship to cross the Atlantic by steam power alone.

Miranda

A young married physician discovers a mermaid, and gives into her request to be taken to see London. Comedy and romantic entanglements ensue.

The Rake's Progress

Vivian Kenway, a young Englishman from an aristocratic background, flunks out of Oxford, and decides to use his considerable charm to achieve his goal of, apparently, making dissipation his career. His derelictions include seduction, betrayals of sweethearts, family and friends, and Marriage for money. All this with no signs of remorse or redemption, since his life as a completely unprincipled rake is quite enjoyable...for him, at least. Then, World War II breaks out and he is given a chance to die a heroic death for flag and country. Maybe.

First a Girl

An aspiring singer quits her menial job and is talked into performing as a female impersonator by her friend. Her drag act makes her famous, which causes problems for her when a very determined young man falls in love with her. A remake of the 1933 German film Viktor und Viktoria.

Escape Me Never

Romantic quadrangle involving two brothers, one a burgeoning ballet composer; a willful heiress; and a waif.

Scarlet Web

An insurance investigator is framed for murder after a pretty woman hires him to recover a letter from a man who wants to blackmail her.

The Four Just Men

The Four Men of the title are British WWI veterans who decide to work secretly against enemies of the country. They aren't above a bit of murder or sabotage to serve their ends, but they consider themselves to be true patriots.

The Wife of General Ling

In this espionage drama, a Secret Service agent must discover who has been smuggling British arms into China. The prime suspect is a prosperous Chinese merchant-philanthropist and the agent thinks the merchant is working with the notorious Chinese guerilla warlord General Ling.

Look Before You Love

Romance in Rio for a girl of the embassy staff.

Marco Millions

Adaptation of the Eugene O'neill play.

Young Man's Fancy

An aristocrat falls in love with a human cannonball

The Mill on the Floss

Romeo and Juliet in 1930s England. The owner of the mill and the local lord are in conflict over water rights. The lord wins threatening the mill owner with financial ruin.

Honeymoon Deferred

After World War 2, a newly married couple travel to Italy on their honeymoon and visit the town where the husband fought. The town, however, holds some secrets.

Once Upon a Dream

An officer's wife has a romantic dream about her husband's man (servant) and comes to believe it is true. Meanwhile the husband has asked his servant to help him, after the war, to suggest ways to ignite the romance he and his wife had before the war, as well as find a way to make money in a post-war economy.

The Three Sisters

Olga, Masha, and Irina Prozoroff lead lonely and purposeless lives following the death of their father who has commanded the local army post. Olga attempts to find satisfaction in teaching but secretly longs for a home and family. Masha, unhappy with her marriage to a timid schoolmaster, falls hopelessly in love with a married colonel. Irina works in the local telegraph office but longs for gaiety. Their sense of futility is increased by their brother's marriage to Natasha, a coarse peasant girl. She gradually encroaches on the family home until even the private refuge of the sisters is destroyed. They dream of starting a new life in Moscow but are saddled with the practicalities of their quiet existence. Despite their past failures, they resolve to seek some purpose and hope when the army post is withdrawn from the town.

A Yank at Oxford

A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.

End of Story

Play about a television playwright's attempts to make a mark when an opportunity is given to him to fill a slot left by a recently deceased rival. The poor state of the playwright's marriage also motivates him to prove his worth.

The Apple Cart

Shaw's comedy of ideologies looks forty years to the future at the impossibility of government as the British cabinet and monarchy face a day of "crisis" for the country. King Magnus is happy to engage a prime minister seeking to transform the nation into a constitutional monarchy, but who truly rules in this democracy: the king, the government or the businessmen? And do any of them care about the people?

Warm Feet, Warm Heart

Albert has to chose between his wife Ursula and Molly, the cook in his factory. One empties his wallet regularly, the other other feeds him heartily.

Money Talks

This exuberant comedy about Jewish domestic life tells the story of an old man who is to inherit a legacy if he can prove he is in need, and who thus begins to gamble spectacularly with his savings.

Strangler's Web

What appears to be a cut-and-dried case of murder of an aging one time showgirl on Hampstead Heath by her lover is complicated by several factors, including a far more respectable paramour, and her insistence that a great inheritance was due her that nobody can verify.

The Sea Shall Not Have Them

During the autumn of 1944, RAF Hudson, carrying a VIP passenger in possession of highly secret information, is shot down and ditches in the North Sea. Fighting the elements and trying to keep up morale, the occupants of the aircraft's dinghy talk about their lives awaiting the rescue they hope will come. The film's title reflects the motto of the RAF's Air Sea Rescue Service, one of whose high speed launches battles against its own mechanical problems, enemy action, time and the weather to locate and rescue the downed crew and the vital secret papers they carry.

The Truth About Women

A man recalls his relationships with the women he loved as he tries to help another man try to understand them as well.

Return of a Stranger

James Martin and Carol Wall have plans to elope, but a fight with her father's solicitor ends in murder committed by an unknown third-party, and Martin is hunted for the crime, knowing the solicitor was alive when he left him. Carol refuses to speak to him, and he escapes on a ship to South Africa. There, he is the victim of an accident that disfigures his face, and he returns to England to clear his name, believing he won't be recognized. Other than by everybody who knew him, it turns out.

Good-Time Girl

Sent to a home for "problem" girls, incipient juvenile delinquent Gwen receives a crash course in petty crime. Back on the outside, she falls in with the usual bad crowd, and suffers spectacularly as a result.

Treasure Island

Based on Robert Louis Stevenson's novel.

The Crowning Touch

Several stories linked by a hat.

The Comedy of Errors

The Royal Shakespeare Company act (and sing and dance!) Shakespeare's play about two sets of identical twins, separated at birth and brought together by circumstance.

The Collection

An elderly homosexual and a married woman are both intrigued by the same man.

Not Wanted on Voyage

The scheming Albert Higgins and his dim witted mate Cecil Hollebone, set out on a ocean voyage under the exasperated chief steward. Along for the trip are the wealthy Mrs. Brough and her secretary Pat. Soon Mrs. Broughs’ jewels are stolen…

A Choice of Coward: Blithe Spirit

While holding a séance for skeptical novelist Charles Condomine, self-proclaimed 'spiritualist medium' Madame Arcati inadvertently summons the spirit of his deceased first wife Elvira, leading to an increasingly complex love triangle with Ruth, his current wife of five years.

King's Rhapsody

1957 BBC Television production of Ivor Novello’s musical featuring Vanessa Lee, reprising the role of Princess Cristiane which she took in the 1949 stage premiere at the Palace Theatre, London.

Star of My Night

A world-weary sculptor meets a young ballerina and finds she has inspired a fresh outlook on life in him. He starts a life-sized sculpture of her but this enrages her jealous lover.

A Woman of No Importance

A witty but dissolute peer is about to engage as his secretary a young man who turns out to be his illegitimate son. Then he proceeds to make advances to the young man's fiancée.

The Three Sisters

Chekhov’s tale of a family distanced from their environment and living in a world of growing disillusionment is a stunning adaptation of the Russian writer’s play.