Billie Whitelaw

Frenzy

London is terrorized by a vicious sex killer known as The Necktie Murderer. Following the brutal slaying of his ex-wife, down-on-his-luck Richard Blaney is suspected by the police of being the killer. He goes on the run, determined to prove his innocence.

The Omen

Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.

Quills

In early 19th-century France, the Marquis de Sade is confined to an asylum where his forbidden writings continue to circulate beyond its walls. As the authorities tighten control, a clash unfolds between the Marquis’ unyielding imagination, the reformist ideals of the Abbé in charge, and the repressive measures of a doctor sent to silence him. Desire, power, and censorship collide in a battle over freedom of expression.

The Krays

Twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray are raised in east London, under the influence of their hateful but doting mother Violet. As they grow up, Ronnie's violent nature takes over, and Reggie follows his brother's lead. The two become notorious crime lords who rule over the East End club scene. But at the height of their power, the brothers veer into different lives, giving the older crime bosses a chance to reclaim what the Krays took from them.

The Lost Son

Xavier Lombard is a world-weary private eye in London, in exile from his native Paris; his best friend is Nathalie, a high-class call girl. He gets a call from an old friend from the Paris police department, now a businessman whose brother-in-law is missing. The missing man's parents hire Xavier over their daughter's objections, and quickly he finds himself in the realm of children's sexual slavery.

Joyriders

The growing relationship of two people who travel through Ireland in a series of stolen cars.

Jamaica Inn

The respected squire of a quiet Cornish village is in reality the leader of a gang of murderous pirates who attack passing ships, kill their crews and steal their cargoes.

The Dark Crystal

On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal and restore order to his world, before the grotesque race of Skeksis find and use the crystal for evil.

Maurice

After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.

Duel of Hearts

Lady Caroline Faye meets Lord Vane Brecon and is attracted to him. When she finds out that he is being accused of a murder he did not commit, she sets out to prove him innocent

Gumshoe

A would be private eye gets mixed up in a smuggling case.

Night Watch

A woman recovering from a nervous breakdown tries to convince her husband and and the local London police that she has witnessed a murder in the abandoned house next door.

Hell Is a City

Set in Manchester, heartland of England's industrial north, Don Starling escapes from jail becoming England's most wanted man. Ruthless villain Starling together with his cronies engineered a robbery that resulted in the violent death of a young girl. Detective Inspector Martineau has been assigned to hunt him down and bring him in. From seedy barrooms, through gambling dens the trail leads to an explosive climax high on the rooftops of the city.

Payroll

A vicious gang of crooks plan to steal the wages of a local factory, but their carefully laid plans go wrong, when the factory employs an armoured van to carry the cash. The gang still go ahead with the robbery, but when the driver of the armoured van is killed in the raid, his wife plans revenge, and with the police closing in, the gang start to turn on each other.

A Murder of Quality

At the request of his old war time colleague Ailsa Brimley, George Smiley agrees to look into the murder of Stella Rode. Brimley had only just received a letter from her saying she feared for her life at her husband's hand. The husband, Stanley Rode teaches at Carne School, but Smiley is doubtful that he had anything to do with his wife's death. As Smiley investigates, he learns that Stella was a nosy busybody who loved to learn other's little secrets and then gossip about them - or possibly blackmail them. When a student is killed and Smiley unearths a secret, he has the evidence to name the killer.Based on John Le Carré's 1962 thriller (his first) in which George Smiley is brought out of spy retirement to solve a murder in a British public school. The setting is based on Le Carre"s own schooldays in Sherborne and his brief experience teaching at Eton.

The Secret Garden

When a spoiled English girl living in 19th century India loses both parents in a cholera epidemic, she is sent back to England to live in a country mansion. The lord is a strange old man-- frail and deformed, immensely kind but so melancholy. She wishes to discover what has caused him so much sorrow and to bring joy back to the household. It all must have something to do with the screams and wails which echo through the house at night and no one wants to talk about.

Lena, O My Lena

Tom, a sensitive Liverpool student, takes a job on a loading dock in a Lancashire factory town. He's smitten with a girl named Lena who works in a machine shop next door and takes her out despite a bullying driver claiming her for himself.

Start the Revolution Without Me

Two sets of identical twins are accidentally switched at birth. One pair, Phillipe and Pierre DeSisi, are aristocratic and haughty, while the other, Charles and Claude Coupé, are poor and dim-witted. On the eve of the French Revolution, both sets find themselves entangled in palace intrigue.

The Flesh and the Fiends

Edinburgh surgeon Dr. Robert Knox requires cadavers for his research into the functioning of the human body; local ne'er-do-wells Burke and Hare find ways to provide him with fresh specimens...

Twisted Nerve

Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.

The Sleeping Tiger

A petty thief breaks into the home of a psychiatrist and gets caught in a web of a doctor who wishes to experiment on him and a doctor's wife who wishes to seduce him.

Charlie Bubbles

Charlie Bubbles, a writer, up from the working class of Manchester, England, who, in the course of becoming prematurely rich and famous, has mislaid a writer's basic tool – the capacity to feel and to respond. Now he must visit his estranged wife and son, whom he has set up on a farm outside his native city. His journey accidentally becomes an attempt to reestablish his connections with life, people, and his own history.

Leo the Last

Prince Leo, last in the line of rulers of a long-deposed monarchy on continental Europe and jaded with the frenetic search for kicks with the European jet-set, returns to his father's London town house for rest.

The Dressmaker

In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.

Lorna Doone

A feisty 17th-century Scotswoman falls in love with a despised landowner, to the dismay of her father.

The Fifteen Streets

In northern England around 1900, the worker John O'Brien lives near poverty in a small house in the worker's district. He falls in love with Mary, the teacher of his highly intelligent younger sister Kathy and daughter of a rich family. Their love is doomed by the social difference, but the vigorous Mary refuses to allow outer circumstances destroying their love.

Room in the House

Betsy Richards, a hard-working widow, tries to solve the domestic problems of her three grown-up sons.

Leopard in the Snow

A tender romance develops between an attractive young woman and a famous race car driver who lives incognito after supposedly being killed in an auto accident.

Eagle in a Cage

1815. A soldier becomes the governor of St. Helena and jailer of Napoleon

No Love for Johnnie

Johnnie Byrne is a member of the British Parliament. In his 40s, he's feeling frustrated with his life and his personal as well as professional problems tower up over him. His desires to win the next election are endangered by his constant looking for love and he is faced with the choice of giving up a career in politics or giving up the woman he loves.

The Picnic

A widowed teacher marries again, but her hopes of her daughter accepting a stepfather her own age, and her anticipation of a birthday picnic by the river are clouded by a series of murders in the district and by a fear rooted rather nearer home.

Shadey

A young man discovers that not only does he have the ability to read minds, but that if he holds a camera next to his head he can transmit the thoughts he sees onto film.

Deadly Advice

Mother rules the house with an iron hand and has such power over her daughters that they see themselves as becoming old unmarried, maids. Jodie has feelings for the local doctor, a man much older than her, for which her mother strongly disapproves. Beth finds a relationship with a male stripper in Bristol, but sees nothing in the future with Mother around. While both girls would like to be rid of Mother, nothing happens until Jodie sees images of H. R. Armstrong, the man who put the town on the map by dispatching his un-loving wife

Miracle in Soho

In London's colourful but seedy Soho, Michael Morgan is working mending the road. He is unhappy, with little hope of finding happiness. Then he meets Julia Gozzi, a barmaid, and "The Miracle" happens.

Jane Eyre

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

An Audience with Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks delivers an enjoyable hour of comic diversion with his lovely actress-wife Anne Bancroft, writer comedian Ronny Graham and British Shakespearean actor Jonathan Pryce. Brooks Spontaneous humor, social commentaries and zany sketches leave the audience rolling in the aisles and will leave you wanting more of Mel!

The Devil's Agent

Droste, a mild-mannered businessman, was an intelligence expert during World War II. When Droste runs into his old friend Baron Von Straub, the two rekindle a friendship that was interrupted by the war. However, when Von Straub asks Droste to deliver a small package to a friend in West Germany, the befuddled Droste is set up for a series of complicated spy games.

The Last of the Blonde Bombshells

After Elizabeth's husband dies, she begins to play her tenor saxophone again, and remembers when she was 15 and a member of the Blonde Bombshells, an all-girl (with one exception) swing band. Accompanied by the exception and urged on by her grand-daughter, Elizabeth hunts up all the old members of the band and urges them to perform, and in doing so, learns more than she knew about the band, its members, the roses on the drum set, and herself--the last of the Blonde Bombshells.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Jack Black is a disturbed commercial actor who believes himself to be trapped in a television play, followed around by an invisible camera.

Camille

Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.

The Adding Machine

An accountant whose job is about to be taken over by a computer starts to re-examine his life and his priorities.

Bobbikins

This adventure follows the story of a young navy man, his wife and their baby son, Bobby, also known as Bobbikins. To his surprise, Dad discovers his son talks, not baby-talk or gibberish but has adult conversations with his father only. Bobbikins learns stock market tips and passes them to his Dad. After making a killing on the stock market, problems really begin. The dad is presumed mad, the government is after him, and the breakdown of relations between the young couple ensues. But there is hope.

Make Mine Mink

In a mansion block in Knightsbridge, a gang of middle-aged biddies decide to brighten up "the dullness of the tea time of life" by staging a series of robberies on furriers, then donating the proceeds to charitable concerns. Terry Thomas as a retired army officer leads the gang, which includes Athene Seyler and Hattie Jacques, on a series of capers that nearly go awry when their maid, Billie Whitelaw, an ex-con and also a resident of the block, falls for a police officer.

The Fake

Someone is stealing priceless paintings from the great museums of the world and replacing them with nearly flawless forgeries. Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and Child" is being shipped to London's Tate Gallery for a special exhibition, and Paul Mitchell is assigned to protect it. Upon the painting's arrival, Paul realizes it has been switched. Eager to collect the museum's $50,000 reward, he teams up with Mary Mason, a Tate employee, to recover the original.

Breakout

For £1500, Chandler and his associates offer a prison break service.

Murder Elite

An English woman returns to her homeland after losing her fortune in America, and is stalked by a serial killer.

Hot Fuzz

Former London constable Nicholas Angel finds it difficult to adapt to his new assignment in the sleepy British village of Sandford. Not only does he miss the excitement of the big city, but he also has a well-meaning oaf for a partner. However, when a series of grisly accidents rocks Sandford, Angel smells something rotten in the idyllic village.

Small Hotel

The dining room of the Jolly Fiddler has long been presided over by Albert, an aged but very shrewd waiter. A past master of the gentle art of fiddling, he extracts the maximum profit from his job while managing to endear himself to both the customers and staff. Then, there's a visit from Mr Finch, who feels it's time Albert was replaced.

Not I

Performed at the Royal Court Theatre on 16th January 1973

Mr. Arkadin

Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective work. Gregory Arkadin says he can't remember anything before the late 1920s, and convict Guy Van Stratten is happy to take the job of exploring his new acquaintance's life story. Guy's research turns up stunning details about his employer's past, and as his work seems linked to untimely deaths, the mystery surrounding Mr. Arkadin deepens.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

After finding her boss, a private detective, has committed suicide and has left her his agency, Cordelia Gray is asked to investigate the suicide of the man's son. During the course of her investigation, Cordelia becomes obsessed with the young man's memory and his increasingly suspicious death.

Slayground

After thieves botch an armored truck robbery that leads to the death of an innocent young girl, her father vows revenge by recruiting a sociopathic hitman to track them down and assassinate them.

Poet Game

Mercurial, hard-drinking poet Hugh Saunders (Sir Anthony Hopkins) awaits his fortieth birthday, trying to preserve his art and his marriage against the temptations of celebrity and addiction.

The Chain

Comedy featuring interweaving stories of seven households caught up in a property chain on moving day, each one dependent on the other.

The Cloning of Joanna May

Joanna once was married to Carl May, a very rich and powerful nuclear energy magnate. They love each other, but had to divorce after Joanna was caught on an incidental love affair. Since then Carl has made Joanna's life impossible. 10 years later she's fed up with the situation and decides to visit him, only to find that once he made three copies of her

A Tale of Two Cities

Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French doctor Alexandre Manette serves an 18-year imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, followed by his release to live in London with the daughter he has never met.

I, Of Whom I Know Nothing

John Calder, Samuel Beckett’s British publisher, moved to Montreuil, a town to the east of Paris, where Calder met with Billie Whitelaw, the muse, so to speak, of Beckett’s stage work, who is now relegated to a nursing home for actors.

Skallagrigg

Back in the 'bad old days' when the physically and mentally disabled were locked away in institutions a legend grew of someone who could stand up to the authorities and help them. This charming story is how a group of disabled people went to chase that legend. To assist them John is forced to come to terms with his daughter and her friends.

Mr. Topaze

Mr. Topaze is an unassuming school teacher in an unassuming small French town, who is honest to a fault. He is fired when he refuses to give a passing grade to a bad student, the grandson of a wealthy baroness. Castel Benac, a government official who runs a crooked financial business on the side, is persuaded by his mistress, Suzy, a musical comedy actress, to hire Mr. Topaze as the front man for his business. Gradually, Topaze becomes a rapacious financier who sacrifices his honesty for success and, in a final stroke of business bravado, fires Benac and acquires Suzy in the deal. An old friend and colleague, Tamise questions him and tells Topaze that what he now says and practices indicates there are no more honest men.

Brown Skin Gal, Stay Home and Mind Bay-Bee

In this sad world where words unspoken do more damage than words spoken too much, a woman and her lodger are destined to stay on separate paths.

The Comedy Man

A middle-aged stock actor goes to London to try the big time. After much frustration, he lands a job doing TV commercials, gaining wealth and recognition. He eventually gives it all up to return to stage work and keep his pride.

Morrissey - Hulmerist

Seven promotional films by Morrissey, released initially on VHS in 1990 and then on DVD in 2004. It was certified Gold by the RIAA on 18 January 1991. The title refers to Morrissey's childhood home in Hulme, Manchester. The L is silent, so it sounds like "humourist". The music videos: 1) The Last of the Famous International Playboys 2) Sister I'm a Poet 3) Everyday is Like Sunday 4) Interesting Drug 5) Suedehead 6) Ouija Board, Ouija Board 7) November Spawned a Monster

Tangiers

A former CIA agent is forced by crooked agents of the government to pose as a notorious smuggler of the Tangier Straits who happens to be a stiff

The Story of 'Frenzy'

Documentary about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Frenzy'.

The Entertainer

Adaptation of John Osborne's play.

Samuel Beckett: Silence to Silence

The elusive author of Waiting for Godot cooperated in the production of this portrait, which traces Beckett’s artistic life through his prose, plays, and poetry. Billie Whitelaw, Jack McGowran, and Patrick Magee—Beckett’s great dramatic interpreters—appear in selected extracts from the plays; Beckett specialist David Warrilow narrates a variety of texts.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In this Dan Curtis production of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, Jack Palance stars as Dr. Henry Jekyll, a scientist experimenting to reveal the hidden, dark side of man, who, in the process of his experiment, releases a murderer from within himself.

The Water Babies

Grimes, an amoral chimney sweep, occasionally likes to steal valuables from his clients. One day, on the verge of being caught, he frames his young apprentice, Tom, for the crime. Tom runs away and jumps into a river where, instead of drowning, he finds himself transformed into a mystical aquatic creature. Swimming and breathing effortlessly, he discovers a colorful underwater world replete with creatures both cruel and kind.

The Curse of 'The Omen'

The filming of "The Omen" (1976) was plagued by tragedy and bizarre incidents. "The devil was at work and he didn't want that film made" - Producer Harvey Bernhard.

Samuel Beckett: As the Story Was Told

A two-part biography of the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. The first part covers the traumas of his formative years: his ill-fated love affair with his first cousin, the death of his father, and his decorated service with the French Resistance. He had settled in France before the Second World War, met fellow Irishman James Joyce, and begun writing. Patrick Magee's television performance of `Krapp's Last Tape' (1972) is interwoven with key landscapes and personalities from Beckett's life. The second part concludes the story of how Beckett finally began to connect with his audience, principally through `Waiting for Godot'. Includes an interview with the actress Billie Whitelaw, a celebrated interpreter of his work.

Rockaby

A one-woman play written by Samuel Beckett at the request of Daniel Labeille. The piece was produced by Labeille on behalf of the State University of New York's Programs in the Arts for a festival and symposium in commemoration of Beckett's 75th birthday (Wikipedia). A self-reflective drama of a figure, W, rocking "to and fro" in her dead mother's rocking chair wearing her mother's sequined funereal garment. With the aid of her pre-recorded voice, W recounts the different phases of a single memory in a bid to connect with "another creature like herself" before rocking herself into an eternal sleep.

Notfilm

NOTFILM is a feature-length experimental essay on FILM -- its author Samuel Beckett, its star Buster Keaton, its production and its philosophical implications -- utilizing additional outtakes, never before heard audio recordings of the production meetings, and other rare archival elements.

Carve Her Name with Pride

London, England, during World War II. After living a tragic life experience, young Violette Szabo joins the Special Operations Executive and crosses the German enemy lines as a secret agent to aid a French Resistance group.

Ghost Trio

A female voice identifies a lone man in a room. The shots cut closer, revealing he is holding a cassette recorder, playing Beethoven's "Ghost" Piano Trio no. 5. The film repeats the imagery, and then shows what he has been reacting to.

Last Summer's Child

Young Col is not enjoying his Cornish holiday and wishes his father would not join the family. Events make him grow up rather fast.

Thomas Hardy: A Haunted Man

Drama documentary from 1978 exploring the private feelings of novelist Thomas Hardy through the poems of love and remorse that he wrote after the death of his first wife, Emma.

Freddie As F.R.O.7.

Frederick is a young medieval French prince with magical powers, turned into a frog by his evil sorceress aunt, who kills his father in a bid to seize the throne. After being pursued by his aunt, the prince is saved by the Loch Ness Monster, who indebts herself to him, and hides out with a colony of anthropomorphic frogs for a time. After ultimately deciding to accept his fate and fight evil using his powers, Freddie grows to the size of an adult human, travels to the future, and becomes a French secret agent with a sentient car.

Making Samuel Beckett's 'Rockaby'

The filmmakers accompany Alan Schneider, director of the American premieres of most of Beckett's plays, and producer Daniel Labeille to the home of Billie Whitelaw, whom Schneider, ironically, had never met previously, and takes us through the rehearsal process of Beckett's newest play, including the recording of the dialogue, as almost all of it is voiceover. The final fifteen minutes of the film are the premiere performance in its entirety.

Night Duty

A night worker at a mental institution finds his job beginning to change.

Wife of Bath

Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic poetry. For attacking a young woman, an arrogant knight of King Arthur’s court is sentenced to death if he cannot answer the question “what do women most desire?” He travels far and wide with no success until he meets an old woman who promises him the answer, but at a price.