Basil Dearden

In London in the early 1900s reporter Sonya Winter (Diana Rigg) is researching the possibility of assassins using newspaper articles that serve as signals to high-profile murders that have been occurring. Winter shocked to find that businessman Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed) runs an assassination bureau, an organization that, for a price, will kill anyone in the world, but mostly certain high-profile transgressors. Sonya is a staunch supporter of womans rights and as a way of making a political statement that she can report in her newspaper, she offers to pay Ivan an enormous amount of money if he will have his bureau kill him. Ivan readily agrees thinking that the stunt will be good public relations and a boost to his business. But Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas) wants control of the business Ivan has established and attempts to make sure that the contract is fulfilled and Ivan taken out of the way. As Winter follows Dragomiloff to report on his eventual demise, they fall in love and she finds herself reversing her feelings about his bureau, but it may be too late to avoid the onslaught of assassins.

A master conman leads a pair of British accomplices on an international adventure of highly profitable dirty tricks.

In the Sudan, in 1884 to 1885, Egyptian forces led by British General Charles "Chinese" Gordon (Charlton Heston) defend Khartoum against an invading Muslim Army led by a religious fanatic, Mohammed Ahmed el Mahdi (Sir Laurence Olivier). After an Egyptian Army, commanded by British officers, is destroyed in a battle in the Sudan in the 1880s, the British government is in a quandary. It does not want to commit a British military force to a foreign war, but they have a commitment to protect the Egyptians in Khartoum. They decide to ask General Charles "Chinese" Gordon (Charlton Heston), something of a folk hero in the Sudan, as he had cleared the area of the slave trade, to arrange for the evacuation. Gordon agrees, but also decides to defend the city against the forces of Mohammed Ahmed el Mahdi (Sir Laurence Olivier), "The Expected One", and tries to force the British to commit troops.

An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread. Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns), seeking the possibility of some work at a country farmhouse, soon finds himself once again stuck in his recurring nightmare. Dreading the end of the dream that he knows is coming, he must first listen to all the assembled guests' own bizarre tales. —Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net> Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns), an architect, is summoned down to a house called Pilgrim's Farm by a prospective client whom he does not know. On arrival, he experiences strongly the feeling that he has been to the place before. He is taken into the house and introduced by his host to a group of people. These also are familiar, though none of them appear to know him. After somewhat constrained greetings, he tells them that he has met them all, and the house, and the situation is a recurring dream. He explains how this dream always starts quietly and pleasantly, at the present moment, but after a certain small incident invariably begins to darken into a ghastly nightmare, culminating in horror, a horror of his own creation, from which he wakes up sweating with fear. He never remembers his dream for more than a few moments after waking, until the next time it occurs. He then describes the incident which will mark the turning point of his dream, the breaking of a pair of glasses belonging to one of the party, a psychiatrist. Increasingly fascinated, the party one by one reveal that each has at some time undergone an "inexplicable" experience. The narration of these make up the body of the movie. Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) drives to a farmhouse in the countryside of London and he is welcomed by the owner, Eliot Foley (Roland Culver). Foley introduces him to psychiatrist Dr. Van Straaten (Frederick Valk), his friend Joan Cortland (Googie Withers), his young neighbor Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes), and race car driver Hugh Grainger (Anthony Baird). Craig says that he has the sensation of déjà vu since he had had a nightmare with them in that house, but one lady is missing. However, Mrs. Foley (Mary Merrall) arrives, completing the characters of his dream. The skeptical Dr. Van Straaten does not believe in the supernatural, but the guests describe supernatural events that they have lived. Grainger had a car accident and then a premonition that saved his life; Sally had met a ghost during Christmas; Eliot and his wife had lived an evil experience with a haunted mirror; two golfers loved the same woman and decide to win her in a game, but one of them dies and haunts the other; and Dr. Van Straaten tells the story of a ventriloquist with double personality that is dominated by his dummy. But when Dr. Van Straaten accidentally breaks his glasses and the power goes out, the nightmare continues. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Architect Walter Craig has just arrived at Pilgrim's Farm in the Kent countryside for the weekend on the invitation of its owner, Eliot Foley, who, on reputation, wants to hire him for a renovation, Craig never having met Foley until this moment with everything up to this point having been conducted over the telephone. But for Craig, it is all a case of déjà vu as he not only has seen Foley before, but also the farmhouse, and the other guests at the farm: Foley's mother, Hugh Grainger, Sally O'Hara, Joan Cortland, and Dr. Van Straaten. He has seen them all together like they are now in this very living room in a recurring dream, he even aware that there will be a late arrival of a dark-haired young woman, which is indeed the case. But he remembers little beyond this scant outline as the dream is always a fleeting thought after he awakens until he dreams it again. For some understanding of what is happening, Craig turns primarily to Van Straaten, who he is aware from his dream is a psychiatrist before Van Straaten divulges it himself. Because of the supernatural nature of the situation and wanting the doctor's take, Grainger, O'Hara and Cortland go on to tell stories in which they were directly involved which had a similar supernatural element of an evil and/or deathly nature, that death sometimes for they themselves. Even before Foley and Van Straaten proceed to tell similar stories of their own of which they were peripherally involved, Craig believes that danger awaits him if he stays. Van Straaten is able to convince him to face his fears for reality to play out, dream or no dream, instead of running away. Will Craig live to see the answers if they indeed are forthcoming? —Huggo