A French nobleman deserts his wife because of an ancient family secret.
Biography of risk-taker and raconteur John Huston from his childhood to become one of the most highly respected filmmakers in the world.
A spoiled teenager spends the summer at the French Riviera with her rich, widower, playboy father, but when his old flame resurfaces, she resolves to keep her frivolous lifestyle at all costs.
A film biography with a difference, Sir John Mills' Moving Memories charts the life of one of Britain's most distinguished actors. Compiled from interviews with the man himself and with his family and friends, it traces his career from humble beginnings to all-time great of British cinema. The many film clips reveal an electric screen presence and a willingness to undertake a range of difficult, challenging roles.
The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but both have sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.
In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.
After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.
A couple falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building - but will it happen?
General Candy, who's overseeing an English squad in 1943, is a veteran leader who doesn't have the respect of the men he's training and is considered out-of-touch with what's needed to win the war. But it wasn't always this way. Flashing back to his early career in the Boer War and World War I, we see a dashing young officer whose life has been shaped by three different women, and by a lasting friendship with a German soldier.
Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH, James thinks up the ultimate plan - that every agent will be named 'James Bond'. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle.
Victor and Hillary are down on their luck to the point that they allow tourists to take guided tours of their castle. But Charles Delacro, a millionaire oil tycoon, visits, and takes a liking to more than the house. Soon, Hattie Durant gets involved and they have a good old fashioned love triangle.
Proud Irishwoman Bridie Quilty journeys to Dublin while World War II rages across Europe. During her travels, she encounters J. Miller, who recruits her as a Nazi spy. She acquires the necessary information that leads to the breakout of a German spy who holds key information about the Allies' newest offensive plans. However, the arrival of British officer David Baynes and his romancing of Bridie lead to unexpected consequences.
A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation. When the real king is kidnapped, his followers try to find him, while the stand-in falls in love with the king's intended bride, the beautiful Princess Flavia.
A defrocked Episcopal clergyman leads a bus-load of middle-aged Baptist women on a tour of the Mexican coast and comes to terms with the failure haunting his life.
A Roman Catholic nun and a hard-bitten US Marine are stranded together on a Japanese-occupied island in the South Pacific during World War II. Under constant threat of discovery by a ruthless enemy, they hide in a cave and forage for food together. Their forced companionship and the struggle for survival forge a powerful emotional bond between them.
In the Australian Outback, the Carmody family--Paddy, Ida, and their teenage son Sean--are sheep drovers, always on the move. Ida and Sean want to settle down and buy a farm. Paddy wants to keep moving. A sheep-shearing contest, the birth of a child, drinking, gambling, and a racehorse will all have a part in the final decision.
In this romantic drama, beautiful Red Cross volunteer Lee Ashley arrives on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the death of her husband, Howard, in the Battle of Guadalcanal. There, Ashley falls for the gruff, seductive Marine Lt. Col. Colin Buck, but struggle and tragedy follow when the widow learns about the reality of Buck's life back home.
The lives of a disparate group of unfulfilled people converge at a small, seaside English hotel.
Fortune hunter Allan Quatermain teams up with a resourceful woman to help her find her missing husband lost in the wilds of 1900s Africa while being pursued by hostile tribes and a rival German explorer.
The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch -- the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Jean Simmons portrays young Bess in this rich tapestry of a film that traces the tumultuous, danger-fraught years from Elizabeth's birth to her unexpected ascension to the throne at a mere 25. Charles Laughton reprises his Academy Award®-winning* role as her formidable father Henry VIII. Deborah Kerr plays her last stepmother (and Henry's last of six wives), gentle Catherine Parr. And Simmons' then real-life husband, Stewart Granger, adds heroics as Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour. In a resplendent world of adventure, romance and court intrigue, Young Bess reigns.
A sensitive young man recalls his time in boarding school when the only person who seemed compassionate towards him was his housemaster's wife.
Three skydivers and their travelling thrill show barnstorm through a small midwestern town one Fourth of July weekend.
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).)
In a mid-19th century Essex country house, a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.
Widowed Welsh mother Anna Leonowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna and the King have a clash of personalities as she works to teach the royal family about the English language, customs and etiquette, and rushes to prepare a party for a group of European diplomats who must change their opinions about the King.
A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. The climate in the region is hostile and the nuns are housed in an odd old palace. They work to establish a school and a hospital, but slowly their focus shifts. Sister Ruth falls for a government worker, Mr. Dean, and begins to question her vow of celibacy. As Sister Ruth obsesses over Mr. Dean, Sister Clodagh becomes immersed in her own memories of love.
Idealistic young Barbara is the daughter of rich weapons manufacturer Andrew Undershaft. She rebels against her estranged father by joining the Salvation Army. Wooed by professor-turned-preacher Adolphus Cusins, Barbara eventually grows disillusioned with her causes and begins to see things from her father's perspective.
The peculiar antics of Laurel, an emotionally troubled young girl, are the focus of The Chalk Garden – a stately household drama set on the cliffs of the English south coast. Edith Evans plays a matriarchal grandmother who, in raising her granddaughter, has neglected her other love – a barren chalk garden. Mayhem ensues as Laurel's behavior frightens away a succession of governesses until an enigmatic one is hired in spite of her mysterious references. She skillfully sets about tending to the girl's reckless emotions and the pitifully failed garden.
An adman attempts to rebuild his shattered life after suffering a nervous breakdown.
Depressing and realistic family drama about the struggles of unemployment and poverty in 1930s Lancashire. The 20-year-old Kerr gives an emotionally charged performance as Hardcastle, one of the cotton workers trying to make life better. Interlaced with humour that brings a ray of sunshine to the pervasive bleakness, this remains a powerful social study of life between the wars, and was a rare problem picture to come out of Britain at the time.
Clemson Reade, a business tycoon with marriage on his mind, and Effie, a U.S. diplomat, are a modern couple. Unfortunately there seems to be too much business and not enough pleasure on the part of Effie. When Clemson meets Tarji, a princess trained in all the arts of pleasing men, he decides he wants an old fashioned girl. Princess Tarji's father is king of oil-rich Bukistan. Because of the oil situation and to maintain good political relations during the courtship between Clemson & Tarji, the State Department assigns a diplomat to maintain protocol until the wedding - Effie!
The year is 1880. On the outskirts of the fictional small Scottish town of Levenford there stands a strange building, half cottage, half castle, embraced with thick stone walls. The townsfolk nickname the fortress "Hatter's Castle", for James Brodie, the man who built it. Brodie is a hatter who keeps the members of the family in fear and submission; he is brutal, arrogant, selfish and cruel. His wife, who has long been ailing, and his daughter Mary, are in awe of him. His son Angus, aged 15, alone dear to his heart, suffers under his love as the others suffer under his sternness.
A Communist officer falls hard for a married woman trying to escape from Hungary.
A woman in London unexpectedly inherits a Texas ranching fortune, and takes a transatlantic voyage to collect her fortune, not suspecting two men aboard both plan on winning her hand before she reaches America. One is a gambler interested in her money, and the other, a rich man looking for a wife. The rich man's friend, meanwhile, believes the heiress is actually a gold-digger.
Prudence Hardcastle is on the pill. So is her sister-in-law, but someone has been swapping aspirin for their pills. Is it the teenage niece, the maid, the chauffeur, a lover, Prudence's husband Gerald, or all of the above?
During the 1940s, Maurice Bendrix, a writer recently discharged from the armed service, falls in love with Sarah Miles, whom he interviews for a book. Sarah is married, but she and Maurice eventually give in to their mutual attraction, leading to an affair that lasts several months. Maurice's jealousy, along with the bombing of London by the Germans, seemingly leads to the end of their relationship. However, the reasons are later revealed to be more complex.
Following the death of his only son, a ruthless businessman reflects on his life, his unhappy marriage and his questionable parenting skills.
A World War II veteran wants to return to advertising on his own terms, but finds it difficult to be successful and maintain his integrity.
Ad-agency president Dan Edwards goes to Mexico to celebrate his nineteenth wedding anniversary and winds up getting divorced by mistake, whereupon his wife Valerie marries his best friend Ernie Brewer by mistake.
Five years after George Radcliffe was the chief witness in a high profile murder case, his wife receives a blackmailing letter accusing him of the crime.
In the late 1930s, Sheilah Graham’s Hollywood column quickly becomes popular for its biting tone. At a party, she meets author F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the two begin a torrid affair. Scott laments that his writing has fallen out of fashion, and when he is fired from his screenwriting position, he begins drinking heavily. Soon his intrusive, volatile behavior threatens their relationship and Sheilah's career.
A short film containing a collection of clips from various Hollywood movies.
The small English town of Penny Green is swarming with scandal when textbook author Mark, unhappily married to the shrewish Mabel, cultivates a friendship with Effie, a young pregnant girl. As the townsfolk theorize that Mark is the baby's father, Effie - already troubled because of her impending motherhood - commits suicide, and circulating rumors lead the authorities to think Mark killed her. The innocent writer must fight to clear his name.
After World War II service changes them, a married couple dread their postwar reunion.
Englishwoman Grace Allingham marries Frenchman Charles Edouard de Valhubert, but their marriage quickly becomes unusual. Because Charles cheats on her and lives away from his family out of professional obligation to his government, Grace ends up raising the couple's son, Sigismond, on her own. Grace and Charles are finally reunited after nearly a decade apart, and, while they seem headed for a permanent split, there's still a spark between them.
An insecure, aggressive widow of a tea garden manager reluctantly develops an affectionate relationship with an Indian housewife and her family.
Penn of Pennsylvania is a 1941 British historical drama film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Deborah Kerr, Clifford Evans, Dennis Arundell, Henry Oscar, Herbet Lomas and Edward Rigby. The film depicts the life of the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn. It portrays his struggle to be granted a colonial charter in London and attracting settlers to his new colony as well as his adoption a radical new approach with regard to the treatment of the Native Americans. It is also known by the alternative title Courageous Mr. Penn.
During India's first years of independence from Britain, Steve Gibbs lands his armaments loaded plane in Ghandahar province hoping to get rich. Pacifist Prime Minister Singh hopes to reach an agreement with guerilla leader Khan, the maharajah is a fool, and the British residents are living in the past. Steve's love interest is Joan Willoughby, the blind daughter of a parson.
In the 1950s, a small group of artists monopolized the attention of the cameras and the public. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford together form the "rat pack": they sing the most popular hits of the moment, star in the most profitable Hollywood films and are already making a splash on television . This documentary, produced by a recognized specialist in the history of Hollywood, recounts the exceptional destiny of this informal group which flirted with the greats of this world, notably through Sinatra, personal friend of American President Kennedy.
A behind-the-scenes, promotional short about the making of the feature film The Gypsy Moths (1969), which extensively features free fall skydiving.
Martin Scorsese presents this very personal and insightful new feature-length documentary about British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
A retrospective of the life and career of actor Cary Grant, including clips from his films and interviews with his friends and co-workers.
There is only one Yul Brynner. No other actor had his looks, his range of talents, his energy and his capacity to draw others into the spell of his charm. A true sophisticate of deliberately mysterious origins, Yul Brynner was at home in a wide variety of languages and social environments.
World War II vets travel to England for a reunion at their old base. Stars Judi Trott, Barry Morse, Red Buttons, Deborah Kerr, Shane Rimmer, Robert Mitchum
A retrospective on the career of Robert Mitchum through interviews with friends and co-workers, scenes from his films and the actor himself.
Enormously successful writer Sir Hugo Latymer has a tryst with the past not altogether to his liking. This bittersweet comedy is the story of a cosmopolitan author caught in his declining years between two women, one being his wife of convenience for twenty years, the other, one of his former lovers.
Behind the scenes documentary of the filming of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana.
Two friends, Ann and Debbie, meet for drinks to discuss marriage difficulties.
A Traveltalk style documentary look at Rome.
This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years.
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.
In the late 1990s, iconic photographer Bruce Weber barely managed to convince legendary actor Robert Mitchum (1917-97) to let himself be filmed simply hanging out with friends, telling anecdotes from his life and recording jazz standards.
Documentary on the making of King Solomon's Mines (1950), highlighting the seven custom-bodied Dodge trucks used for the transportation of cast and crew.