86% (2) Whisky Galore 80 min, APPROVED, [Comedy, Crime] [Alexander Mackendrick] [25 Dec 1949]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win.
Actors: Basil Radford, Bruce Seton, Catherine Lacey, Joan Greenwood
Writer: Compton MacKenzie (novel), Compton MacKenzie (screenplay), Angus MacPhail (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Scottish Gaelic Country: UK
Plot: Based on a true story. The name of the real ship, that sunk Feb 5 1941 - during WWII - was S/S Politician. Having left Liverpool two days earlier, heading for Jamaica, it sank outside Eriskay, The Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in bad weather, containing 250,000 bottles of whisky. The locals gathered as many bottles as they could, before the proper authorities arrived, and even today, bottles are found in the sand or in the sea every other year.
Rotten Tomatoes: Originally released in Great Britain as Whisky Galore!, Tight Little Island is a comedy predicated on the notion that all Scotsmen are lushes. The tiny Scots Island of Todday suffers from a wartime whisky shortage. Luck of luck, a ship full of the precious liquid is wrecked on a reef. The islanders conspire to smuggle the whisky off the ship right under the noses of the pesky British revenue officials. Numerous clever comic complications occur before the happy ending--which, we are told by the narrator, was not so happy once all the whisky was consumed. Tight Little Island is regarded by devotees of British comedy as the best and most representative offering from the short-lived Ealing Studios.
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83% (2) Night Train to Munich 90 min, Not Rated, [Thriller, War] [Carol Reed] [29 Dec 1940]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, Rotten Tomatoes: 93%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 nominations.
Actors: Basil Radford, Margaret Lockwood, Paul Henreid, Rex Harrison
Writer: Gordon Wellesley (based on an original story by), Sidney Gilliat (screenplay), Frank Launder (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, German Country: UK
Plot: When the Germans march into Prague, armour-plating inventor Dr Bomasch flees to England. His daughter Anna escapes from arrest to join him, but the Gestapo manage to kidnap them both back to Berlin. As war looms, British secret service agent Gus Bennet follows disguised as a senior German army officer. His ploy is the not unpleasant one of pretending to woo Anna to the German cause.
Rotten Tomatoes: Based on the book Report on a Fugitive by Gordon Wellesley, this is an espionage film that has been stated by critics to possibly be among the top ten spy movies ever made. Replete with intrigue and suspense, the movie has all of the principles on a train as a scientist's daughter joins forces with Allied intelligence in a rescue effort involving top secrets. This movie, made just prior to WWII, gave a more temperate view of the Nazis than later movies.
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78% (1) The Winslow Boy 117 min, [Drama] [Anthony Asquith] [06 Jun 1950]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 78%, External Reviews
Awards: 2 nominations.
Actors: Basil Radford, Cedric Hardwicke, Margaret Leighton, Robert Donat
Writer: Terence Rattigan (play), Terence Rattigan (screenplay), Anatole de Grunwald (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: UK
Plot: In Edwardian England, a thirteen year-old cadet, Ronnie Winslow, is expelled from the naval academy at Osborne for stealing a seven shilling postal order. His father and sister become obsessed with proving his innocence at any cost to themselves, and turn the case into a national cause celebre.
Rotten Tomatoes: Based on the infamous Archer-Shee case of 1912, The Winslow Boy features Neil North as the 14-year-old title character. Accused of a petty theft, North is expelled from Naval College. His father, retired bank official Sir Cedric Hardwycke, is prevented by existing British law to clear his son's name. He engages attorney Robert Donat, who successfully petitions for the right to sue the Admiralty and make this august organization prove its charges in court. Public opinion, however, is strongly against Hardwycke and his family: particularly effected is Hardwycke's daughter Margaret Leighton, whose fiance breaks off their engagement. For dramatic purposes, Margaret finds solace in a romantic relationship with barrister Donat. Terrence Rattigan worked on the cinemadaptation of his own play, which was later restaged on American television. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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74% (1) Quartet 120 min, Approved, [Drama, Romance] [Ken Annakin, Arthur Crabtree, Harold French, Ralph Smart] [22 Nov 1948]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: Basil Radford, Ian Fleming, Jack Raine, Naunton Wayne
Writer: W. Somerset Maugham (stories), R.C. Sherriff (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: UK
Plot: Four of Somerset Maugham's short stories are brought to the screen with each introduced by the author himself. In the first story, The Facts of Life, a young man with great potential on the tennis courts goes to Monte Carlo and soon finds himself doing the exact opposite of what his father recommended. In 'The Alien Corn', an aspiring pianist devotes himself to perfecting his artistic skills but finds he likely hasn't the talents to reach the heights he so desperately craves. In 'The Kite', a young man who lives at home and loves kite flying goes against his overbearing mother's wishes and marries the girl he's been dating. He's soon back home, much to his mother's delight, but re-considers when his wife takes up a new hobby. In the final chapter 'The Colonel's Lady', a middle-aged man is shocked to learn that his somewhat dowdy wife has written a collection of racy poems and is now a best-selling author.
Rotten Tomatoes: The first of three well-received "omnibus" films hosted by Somerset Maugham, Quartet features four of Maugham's most celebrated stories, each introduced by the author himself. In "The Facts of Life," a seemingly innocent British youth (Jack Watling) is targeted for a shakedown by a beautiful adventuress (Mai Zetterling), while Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne perform their usual brilliant byplay. In "The Alien Corn," a young aristocrat (Dirk Bogarde) hopes to become a professional concert pianist. "The Kite" tells the story of a preoccupied inventor (George Cole) who places his hobbies ahead of his wife (Susan Shaw) as an indirect means of defying his dominating mother (Hermione Badderly). The film concludes with "The Colonel's Lady," wherein the title character (Nora Swinburne) embarrasses her stuffy husband (Cecil Parker) by publishing a torrid volume of romantic poetry. Each of the short tales in Quartet possesses its own mood, pace and rhythm, and each is a gem in its own right. The popularity of Quartet resulted in two more Maugham compendiums, Trio and Encore, not to mention the multistoried American film O. Henry's Full House. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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64% (1) It's Not Cricket 77 min, Approved, [Adventure, Comedy] [Roy Rich, Alfred Roome] [01 Apr 1949]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 64%, External Reviews
Actors: Basil Radford, Maurice Denham, Naunton Wayne, Susan Shaw
Writer: Lyn Lockwood (screenplay), Bernard McNabb (screenplay), Gerard Bryant (additional scenes)
External Links: Wikipedia IMDb Language: English Country: UK
Plot: " This is the regettable story of two Drones who didn't even know their own Zones. It starts in Germany, gets nowhere and stops at nothing." Radford and Wayne, cashiered from the army when they let a captured Nazi escape, become private detectives who later get involved with the same German and a missing diamond ...
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