Films: A-Z

$ (or rather, ‘Dollars’, but, this being 1971, typographical tricksiness was in)

Yet another modish Hollywood comedy caper which employs a convoluted plot to escalate confusion. Hamburg-based bank security chief Warren Beatty observes various...

335

10 Rillington Place

Adapted from Ludovic Kennedy’s splendid book and featuring Sir Lord Richard of Attenborough’s best performance. The true story of a man –...

59

1941

Post-Jaws and Close Encounters, Steven Spielberg emerged fresh from having ‘Wunderkind’ installed as a middle name to tackle a genre for which...

279

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

“Gooooot a whale of a tale to tell you lads, a whale of a tale or two-oo…” Kirk ‘snails’ Douglas steals the...

227

200 Motels

Fresh from his yak-toting cameo in Head, Frank Zappa made this gorggy orgy of groupies, frogs and horses, and suddenly the Monkees...

225

4 For Texas

Fankie and Deano pal about down Galveston way, setting up a riverboat casino and copping off with Ursula Andress and Anita Ekberg...

220

49th Parallel, The

War – or rather anti-war – propaganda from Powell (this time with Pressburger) and a story of a U-Boat landing in Canada...

269

55 Days at Peking

Of course, the bonus about “doing” a historical epic about the Boxer rebellion is that practically no-one will question the facts because...

286

84 Charing Cross Road

A celebration of London and friendship gets off to a slow, stiff-upper-lipped start

404

Abominable Dr Phibes, The

Vincent Price is a disfigured doctor, out to off the surgeons who bungled his late wife's operation in assorted arch manners based...

192

Adding Machine, The

This is hardly the epitome of Swinging Britain, based as it is on a play from 1923. Carnaby Street military jacket purchasers...

230

1

Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall

The film of the book of the war! Struggling manfully to match the genius of the book this doesn’t quite make it...

223

Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, The

Well, we all know about the on-set woes that dogged this baroque Gilliam escapade – language problems and heat exhaustion in Rome,...

248

Adventures Of Barry McKenzie, The

Barry Humphries can be an amazingly subtle comedian when he feels like it. Not so with this creation, an endless fusillade of...

326

Adventures… films, The

With Robin Askwith’s red-arsed Confessions ruling cinemas nationwide for no readily explained reason, sleaze kingpin Stanley Long got onto the cinematic equivalent...

221

After Hours

Black, black, black is the colour of this comedy from Scorsese – his only entry in the list, and one from his...

284

After the Fox

Americo-Brito-Italian comedy by Neil Simon, wherein Peter Sellers, yet again as a criminal plotting an elaborate robbery, gets to try out endless...

262

1

Airport

During the shooting for this, Jacqueline Bisset used to spend some time gathering herself before filming to get her character right. This,...

275

Airport ’77

The one with Jack Lemmon, clearly raising the money for that beach house in Malibu, though not a patch on Robert Wagner’s...

240

Airport ’79: the Concorde

Hurray! The most implausible of all the Airport films, and by Jove, that’s saying something. Yes, even more unlikely than George Kennedy...

179

Alex in Wonderland

Ah, yet another slice of ’70s self-indulgence. Paul Mazursky, fresh from Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice success, follows it up...

257

Alf Garnett Saga, The

Still scripted by Speight but with Stubbs and Booth unaccountably replaced by Michael Angelis and Adrienne Posta, this second stab at getting...

209

Alf’s Button Afloat

Over here, Cecil!

219

Alfred the Great

“Yes, I’m mainly known for my roles in films such as Blow Up, but I am also a quite accomplished television director,...

196

Alien

The only one in the series which doesn’t bring to mind a party of sullen Spanish school kids queueing at the Trocadero.

272

1

Alien3

Yes, we know its ‘Alien Cubed’ or whatever, but our database doesn’t allow such superscriptorial folderol to be perpetrated in headers, and...

235

Aliens

We’ve always insisted this Jamy Cameron effort was better than the first Riddler Scott number and we’re sticking to our guns. We...

222

All at Sea

Various old Ealing themes (Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts) are tied up in this late-period offering, with an unseaworthy Alec Guinness turning...

204

All That Jazz

Roy Scheider might well be advised to have a nice lie down here, as the all-singing, all-dancing, all-choreographing, all Lenny Bruce-biopic-editing, all-womanising,...

211

All These Women

Ingmar Bergman doing funny is like Woody doing serious – he can manage it, but when he tries too hard at it,...

224

Alphabet Murders, The

No one likes this film much, but we do, if only because it excitingly ties up two of our filmic obsessions –...

308

Amazing Mr Blunden, The

In between The Railway Children and Wombling Free – in quality terms as well as chronologically – Lionel ‘POSH’ Jeffries directed this...

419

American Werewolf in London, An

“Never spoof horror,” those in the filmic know (and Steve Coogan’s accountant) always say, “it’s beyond parody already.” Interesting, then, that three...

241

1

An Alligator Named Daisy

The curio’s curio, this one. A Rank musical comedy wherein we have to take it on trust that a) Donald Sinden is...

222

And Soon the Darkness

In which Brian ‘Avengers’ Clemens turns in what amounts to a proto-Thriller episode about two girls (Pamela Franklin and Michele Dotrice) on...

256

1

Angels One-Five

Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray – the Leo and Kate of British films, albeit better spoken – star alongside Jack Hawkins in...

227

Annie Hall

Woody’s masterclass in sticking little bits of angst-ridden stand-up routine together and doing little holes round the edges remains quite unlike any...

308

1

Anniversary, The

Eyepatch and cigarette holder-toting widowed matriarch Bette Davis dominates her three meek sons as one of them prepares to marry Sheila Hancock...

242

Apple, The

Hapless trashmasters Cannon Films fancy some disco musical action, and concoct a trite tale of a Canadian couple who enter the Worldvision...

189

April in Paris

Yep, it’s a Doris Day film again, of the sort shown on British TV with such frequency as to make British TV’s...

210

Arabesque

After the immaculate original Charade (OK, ‘original’ isn’t an entirely apposite word, but that non-stop mish-mash of the campier elements of North...

243

1

Are You Being Served?

On the tarmac the joke is presented, “Those people down there look small enough to be ants,” the answer is proffered, “They...

228

Arthur 2: On the Rocks

‘We’re on our way!’ Dudley Moore does his (in retrospect now rather uncomfortable to watch) millionaire dipso routine once more. Liza Minnelli...

370

7

Asterix Films, The

Hooray! Asterix on film; what could be better? Quite a lot, as it turns out, because what all Asterix films miss is...

213

Asylum

‘Come to the Asylum… to get killed!’ Robert Powell ignores this wise tagline as a trainee doctor at the titular establishment, asked...

208

At the Circus

A poor MGM Marx Brothers affair.

188

Attack of the Crab Monsters

Black-and-white quarry-bound Cormania, with the titular monsters rendered in full-size, rather wobbly-pincered, lumbering fibreglass. It’s a thing, isn’t it, the life-size sci-fi...

258

Avengers, The

From the panning on release to the fact that its terrestrial premiere took place on Channel 5, the world clearly had it...

214

Babes In Toyland

Hooray! An ’80s TV version of Victor Herbert’s whimsical Yuletide operetta, just what we wanted! The version you’re thinking of starred Laurel...

209

Bachelor in Paradise

Bob Hope comedy with one hell of a contrived plot. Hope’s a bachelor (of the non-confirmed variety) who makes a living writing...

TV Cream