Harry Andrews

A Shakespearean actor takes poetic revenge on the critics who denied him recognition. Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart (Vincent Price) is a matinèe favorite Shakespearean actor of the old school, finding difficulty coping with new theater roles, who wreaks revenge on on the theater critics who give their annual Guild's "Best Actor" award to a new and upcoming actor rather than him. Incensed by their choice, he does this in the most ingenious and disturbing ways by imitating death scenes taken from his final repertoire of his beloved Bard's tales. Vincent Price is well supported by Dame Diana Rigg, as his dutiful daughter Edwina, and a bevy of the cream of British character actors, including; Ian Hendry, Sir Michael Hordern, Dennis Price, Robert Morley, and Arthur Lowe. —Brian Carruthers Edward Lionheart is an experienced Shakespearean actor who plays to packed theaters and is very popular among theatre audiences. But he is habitually treated with scorn and ridicule by professional critics. At an awards show, a critics' committee ignores him and gives the best actor award to a novice actor. Facing despair, Lionheart apparently commits suicide and the critics are amused by his demise. Secretly, a group of homeless people rescue Lionheart from a drowning death and agree to help him as he seeks revenge. Two years following his apparent death, Lionheart sets out to destroy the critics who ruined his life. He stages a series of murders and other crimes which are specifically based on violent scenes from William Shakespeare's plays. —Dimos I Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart (Vincent Price) is as an actor overlooked for a critics' acting award, despite producing a season of Shakespearean plays. After confronting the Critics' Circle, an attempted suicidal dive into the Thames results in Lionheart being rescued by your typical paraffin/meths/turps swigging tramps. Lionheart then (presumed dead) exacts his grizzly, and quite amusing, revenge on the critics who denied him his finest hour. —Paul Batey A serial killer stalks London, targeting theater critics who he kills in methods inspired by Shakespearean plays. The police grow to suspect the killer is Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart (Vincent Price), an egotistical actor who leapt to his presumed death after being denied an important award, mainly due to his refusing to appear in any play not written by William Shakespeare. The remaining critics and the Police find themselves helpless to stop Lionheart's increasingly baroque revenge, though they contact his daughter, Edwina (Dame Diana Rigg), in a desperate attempt to find something they can use against him. Everything builds to a reenactment of King Lear in which Lionheart will succeed or die once and for all. —rmlohner

Based on the bestselling biography by Robert K. Massie, but less sympathetic to its main characters, "Nicholas and Alexandra" follow the last thirteen years in the life of Russia's Emperor and Empress as they face personal heartache, disloyalty and Revolution. Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman, Irene Worth, Sir Michael Redgrave, Dame Diana Quick, Brian Cox and Tom Baker star.

The film opens during the Battle of France in May 1940, with RAF pilots evacuating a small airfield in advance of the German Blitzkrieg. The pilots, along with British and French military, leave just as German aircraft arrive and execute a heavy strafing attack. RAF Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding (Laurence Olivier), realizing that an imminent invasion of Great Britain will require every available aircraft and airman to counter it, stops additional aircraft being deployed to France so that they are available to defend Britain. The camera looks over of the deserted beaches of Dunkirk while the BBC relays British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's declaration that "what General Weygand called the battle of France is over, the Battle of Britain is about to begin". Albert Kesselring arrives to inspect a large German airfield in captured France. Hundreds of Heinkel bomber aircraft are stationed under his command. Luftwaffe commanders are stunned when the Fuhrer informs them that the British are not their "natural enemy" and delays their attack while attempting a diplomatic settlement. In neutral Switzerland, the German ambassador (Curt Jürgens) officially proposes new peace terms to his British counterpart (Ralph Richardson), stating that continuing to fight the "masters" of Europe is hopeless. The Briton replies that his country will fight on. In England, commanders celebrate their good fortune, using the delay to build up their strength and continually train their pilots and ground controllers. The wait finally ends when Luftwaffe pilots receive orders to move to the front, where troops are preparing for a sea-borne invasion. The campaign begins with the Luftwaffe launching an early morning assault on "Eagle Day". The plan is to destroy the RAF on the ground before they have time to launch their Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. The Luftwaffe is aware of the British radar installations, and plan to attack them with their Stuka dive bombers. The fighter pilots question this, wondering if it is better if the British are warned by radar and come up to fight, where they can be shot down. Eagle Day proves highly successful, knocking two radar stations out of action and heavily bombing a number of the British airfields. British losses are relatively light, but the RAF is in the process of building its strength, and many of the pilots who lack combat experience are shot down. The airfields are heavily damaged, with many aircraft destroyed on the ground, and their ability to repair and rearm seriously affected. Adding to the RAF's problems is a battle between the commanding officers of 11 Group, Keith Park (Trevor Howard), and 12 Group, Trafford Leigh-Mallory (Patrick Wymark). 12 Group is tasked with protecting 11 Group's airfields while 11 Group meets the enemy, but in raid after raid 12 Group aircraft are nowhere to be seen. Called to meet Dowding, Leigh-Mallory explains that the "Big Wing" tactic takes time for form up, while Park complains that the tactic simply isn't working. Dowding ends the debate by pointing out it makes little difference; the problem is not the tactics but a critical shortage of pilots. Dowding wearily remarks, "We're fighting for survival, and losing". The turning point occurs when a squadron of German bombers becomes lost in bad weather at night and drops bombs on London. In retaliation, the RAF launches an attack on Berlin. Though the damage is negligible, Adolf Hitler is enraged, and publicly orders London to be razed. Hermann Goring (Hein Riess) arrives in France to personally lead the attack, confident that the end of the battle nears. Their first attack skirts the RAF, who are still defending their airfields to the south, and they bomb unopposed. Nighttime attacks follow, and London burns. Meanwhile, to supplement Commonwealth forces, the RAF has been forming units of foreign pilots who have escaped German-occupied countries; the main difficulty is their lack of English-language skills. While on a training flight, a Free Polish squadron accidentally runs into a flight of German bombers without escort. Ignoring the commands of their British training officer, they peel off one by one and shoot down several of the bombers. Park rewards them by elevating them to operational status, leading Dowding to do the same for the Canadian and Czech squadrons as well. While discussing the day's events, Park and Dowding examine the German switch to London. Given a respite, Park notes that he will be able repair his airfields and bring his squadrons back to full strength. Dowding adds that 12 Group units north of London are now all within range, while enemy fighters are at the extreme edge of their own range. He concludes that "turning on London could be the German's biggest blunder." The next German daytime raid is met by a massive response; watching his formations build up in 11 Group's operations room, Wing Commander Willoughby (Robert Flemyng) wryly states "this should give them something to think about." RAF fighters are arranged into large groups and attack with all force, overwhelming the Germans and breaking up their raid. Goring is incensed, ordering his fighters remain with the bombers, an order the pilots hate. Losses continue to mount on both sides. The climactic air battle of 15 September 1940 arrives, with Winston Churchill in attendance at 11 Group's operations room. In the underground bunker, British ground control personnel order every squadron into the air to meet the massive attack. Intense combat over the London sky follows, with both sides taking heavy losses. The outcome is so confused that Dowding refuses to pass comment on the events. The next day the RAF anxiously await a raid that never comes. Two German anti-aircraft gunners, who had earlier protected a French port teeming with Kriegsmarine vessels and landing barges, now observe a deserted harbor basin. Goring leaves the front, accusing his commanders of betrayal. As the campaign draws to a close, the words of Winston Churchill appear onscreen: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

In 1854, during the Crimean War, poor planning leads to the British Light Brigade openly charging a Russian artillery position with tragic consequences. A chronicle of events that led to the British involvement in the Crimean War against Russia and which led to the siege of Sevastopol and the fierce Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854 which climaxed with the heroic, but near-disastrous cavalry charge made by the British Light Brigade against a Russian artillery battery in a small valley which resulted in the near-destruction of the brigade due to error of judgment and rash planning on part by the inept British commanders.

A British agent sets out to uncover the hidden facts behind a British government employee's suicide. After security officer Charles Dobbs has a friendly chat with Samuel Fennan from the Foreign Office, the man commits suicide. An anonymous typed letter had been received accusing Fennan of being a Communist during his days at Oxford and their chat while walking in the park was quite amiable. Senior officials want the whole thing swept under the rug and are pleased to leave it as a suicide. Dobbs isn't sure as there are a number of anomalies that simply can't be explained away. Dobbs is also having trouble at home: his beloved wife keeps having affairs. He's also pleased to see an old friend, Dieter Frey, whom he recruited after the war. With the assistance of a colleague and a retired policeman, Dobbs tries to piece together just who is the spy and who assassinated Fennan. —garykmcd

A small aircraft crash lands in the Kalahari Desert. One of the passengers decides to search for help, while the remaining five, including one woman, take shelter in a mountain populated by a troop of baboons. A small airplane crashes in the sweltering deserts of southern Africa hundreds of miles from civilization. As parallels are drawn between the stranded group of seven passengers and a nearby pack of savage baboons, one of the men's survivalist nature gets the better of him, as he decides his chances of survival would be better if the other men were eliminated one-by-one.

In 1944, After the Norwegian resistance leader Royal Norwegian Navy Lieutenant Erik Bergman (George Chakiris) travels to Great Britain to report the location of a German V-2 rocket fuel plant, the Royal Air Force's No. 633 Squadron is assigned to destroy it. The only reason Germans have not been able to deploy their V2's in the war is because they don't have enough rocket fuel. If this plant is left as is, the D Day invasion could be blown up to smithereens. The squadron is led by Wing Commander Roy Grant (Cliff Robertson), a former Eagle Squadron pilot (an American serving in the RAF before the US entered the war). The factory will start shipping fuel in 18 days, so Roy has 17 days to train his squadron for this mission. Roy is to train his squadron at a valley in Scotland that mimics the entry to the fjord but is not as difficult to navigate as the actual fjord. Squad includes Group Captain Don Barrett (Donald Houston), Squadron Leader Frank Adams (Michael Goodliffe), Flight Lieutenant Gillibrand, Australian (John Meillon), Squadron Leader Scott (John Bonney), Flying Officer Evans (John Church), Flight Lieutenant Nigel (Sean Kelly), Flight Lieutenant Singh (Julian Sherrier), Flight Lieutenant Frank (Geoffrey Frederick), Flight Lieutenant Jones (Johnny Briggs) The plant is in a seemingly impregnable location beneath an overhanging cliff at the end of a long, narrow fjord lined with numerous anti-aircraft guns. The only way to destroy the plant is by bombing the cliff until it collapses and buries the facility, a job for 633 Squadron's fast and maneuverable De Havilland Mosquitos. The squadron trains in Scotland, where there are narrow glens similar to the fjord. There, Grant is introduced to Bergman's sister, Hilde (Maria Perschy). They are attracted to each other, despite Grant's aversion to wartime relationships. The Norwegian resistance is tasked with destroying the anti-aircraft defenses of the facility immediately before the scheduled attack. When unexpected German reinforcements arrive (Bergman is informed of this by his colleagues in the resistance), Bergman returns to Norway to try to gather more forces. Air Vice Marshal Davies refuses to delay the mission day, and Bergman insists that there is no way that the Brits can land any more re-enforcement by the way of land or water to neutralize the German guns. The Germans attack the air base causing loss of life and equipment, but Roy is able to re-group quickly. One plane is lost during training due to the difficult maneuvers involved. Roy spends time with Hilde after Bergman returns to Norway. However, Bergman is captured while transporting desperately needed weapons, taken to Gestapo headquarters and tortured for information. Since Bergman knows too much, he must be silenced before he breaks. Grant and newly married Pilot Officer Bissell (Scott Finch) are sent in with a single Mosquito to bomb the Gestapo building. Though they are successful, their shot-up Mosquito fighter-bomber crashes on its return (the landing gear doesn't work properly as it is all shot up), and Bissell is wounded and becomes blind. A tearful Hilde thanks Grant for ending her brother's suffering. Roy says his goodbyes to Hilde and leaves, as he knows he will most probably not survive the mission. Still worried, Air Vice-Marshal Davis (Harry Andrews) decides to move up the attack to the next day. The ammunition being used are Earthquake bombs which will topple the overhanging cliff on top of the fuel factory and bury it under rubble. The pilots are worried that their planes might be in danger from the explosion of bomb from the plane in front of them. 12 bombs are required to transfer enough force to topple the cliff. The men don't know what the factory makes, but Favis assures them that this is a critical mission. The resistance will attack at 0630 hours and the squadron is to enter the fjord between 0655 and 0705 hrs. However, the resistance fighters are ambushed and killed, leaving the defenses still intact. The resistance are not able to radio that their attack has failed, but they miss a critical check in point with London as well. Davis gets an intelligence call that the Germans ambushed the resistance fighters. Although Grant is given the option of aborting, he decides to press on. Many aircraft are lost to anti-aircraft fire and the remaining are attacked by the German air force after they drop their bombs. Many aircraft fly their planes into the cliff, after being hit and damaged. 9 aircraft are lost to score 6 direct hits and only 1 bomb is left. The last bomb budges the mountain, and it falls on top of the factory, burying it completely. The factory is destroyed at the cost of the entire squadron, though a few crews are able to ditch in the fjord. Grant crash-lands but a local man helps Grant's navigator, Flight Lieutenant Hoppy Hopkinson (Angus Lennie), pull the wounded wing commander from the burning wreckage. Back in Britain, Davis tells a fellow officer who is aghast at the losses, "You can't kill a squadron."

In 1841, a sailor named Ishmael (Richard Basehart) arrives in the New England town of New Bedford, Massachusetts to find work on a whaling ship. Due to a shortage of local lodgings, he is forced to share his room at the inn with a Pacific Islander and harpooner named Queequeg (Friedrich Von Ledebur), whom he befriends after a tense first meeting. Queequeg did not know that he was sharing his room with Ishmael and attacks him when he finds Ishmael in his bed. The owner of the Inn Peter Coffin (Joseph Tomelty) helps straighten the matter out. Ishmael learns that as an outsider, he needs permission from the sailors of New Bedford to join a whaling crew. As the whaling rights belong to the natives of the town. Officers Stubb and Flask grant him the permission when Ishmael agrees to their rights over any profits from whaling. The town church is littered with epitaphs of crews and sailors lost to whale attacks over the years. The next morning, the two of them join the crew of Pequod (They were attracted to the ship as it was adorned with all sorts of ivory, skulls and bones from whale hunting) under the command of Captain Ahab (Gregory Peck), who is obsessed with hunting and killing a legendary, white-skinned whale named Moby Dick, who was responsible for severing Ahab's left leg. Peleg (Mervyn Johns) questions Ishmael's desire to join a whaling ship as he was in the merchant service before and has never thrown a harpoon at a whale. Peleg offers Ishmael a 300th part of the profits when Bildad (Philip Stainton) wanted to offer him only a 777th part. Queequeg is offered 60th part of the profits due to his harpooning skills. The ship is loaded with supplies and readied for departure. Just before their departure, Ishmael and Queequeg encounter a man named Elijah (Royal Dano), who delivers an ominous warning about Ahab and that all but one of the crew who follow him will find their deaths on this voyage. Elijah says that the whale marked Ahab's soul. He says that the crew will smell land where there is no land and that Ahab would fall, but then rise within the hour. And after that all but one crew will perish. Bildad and Peleg get off the ship before it sails. The ship carries Carpenter (Noel Purcell), Pip the cabin boy (Tamba Allenby), Daggoo (Edric Connor), Tashtego (Tom Clegg) (harpooner) and Perth the blacksmith (Ted Howard). As the ship casts off, and for some time afterwards, Ahab remains unseen until he finally appears to align his crew to the hunt for Moby Dick and sets course for the Bikini Atoll, where the whale is said to dwell. While the crew reaps a fair bounty of oil on their journey, Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick remains foremost in his mind. The crew learns that Moby Dick was the whale that took Ahab's leg. Ahab works the crew into a frenzy and makes them take an oath to hunt Moby Dick. The crew know that Moby Dick has killed over 1000 men so far, has a crooked jaw and has many harpoons stuck in its hump. Whaling process requires boats with harpooners to be lowered into the water. The boats are rowed next to the whales, where harpoons are thrust into the whale and the boats are attached to the harpoons with rope. The boats then follow the whale and continue to harpoon it till it sprouts blood and dies. The carcass is recovered and brought aboard to strip off the meat and the whale oil. The bones are stripped and thrown back into the sea. The oil from one whale can power 1000 homes for a year. Ahab has studied the migration patterns of the whales by looking at old shipping charts and knows the exact location where he can find the whales. Yet, he first wants Moby Dick. Ahab says that he predicts to find Moby Dick at Bikini Atoll as per his study of the charts. When the captain Boomer (James Robertson Justice) of a passing ship, who recently lost his hand to the white whale, informs Ahab of Moby Dick's latest whereabouts near the coast of Madagascar, Ahab immediately breaks off a particularly successful hunt, unsettling his crew, particularly his chief mate Starbuck (Leo Genn) (2nd in command). Starbuck argues that hunting a dumb brute that acted out of instinct is not wise. But Ahab is adamant that his ego is worth more to him. Starbuck asks his fellow officers Stubb (Harry Andrews) (2nd mate) and Flask (Seamus Kelly) (3rd mate) for help wresting command of the Pequod from Ahab, which the two refuse. As the Pequod nears the atoll, a top-man falls from the ship's mast into the sea and disappears. Right afterwards, the Pequod is stuck in slack water for days. Casting bones to read his future, Queequeg foresees his death and orders the ship's carpenter to make him a coffin, before he sits down to await his demise. When one of the crew prepares to cut Queequeg's skin for fun, Ishmael rises to his friend's defense, prompting Queequeg to break his death reverie and defend Ishmael. Just then, Moby Dick briefly appears before the ship and escapes before the Pequod crew can pursue him. After rowing the ship out of the becalmed area, Ahab resumes the hunt. To motivate the crew, Ahab offers his own 10% of the profits from the entire voyage to the crew if they kill Moby Dick. They encounter the Rachel, another whaler from New Bedford, whose captain, Gardiner (Francis De Wolff), asks Ahab to help search for his son, who was carried off by Moby Dick. Ahab refuses his aid and departs. When the Pequod hits a typhoon, Ahab uses the gale to speed the chase, endangering the ship. Starbuck attempts to kill Ahab in anger but relents when in a rare humane moment Ahab reminisces about his self-destructive obsession for revenge. The ship is stuck by St. Elmo's fire (a type of Northern lights effect), but Ahab douses it and continues hunting for Moby Dick. Right after this conversation, a strange omen portends the fulfillment of Elijah's baleful prophecy (Ahab smells land in the middle of the ocean and the smell was coming from Moby Dick), which Ishmael recounts to Ahab. The captain seems affected but shakes off his doubts when Moby Dick reappears moments later. The Pequod crew sets out in their boats to bring him down. In the chaotic altercation, Moby Dick destroys Ahab's boat, but Ahab climbs onto the whale's back and stabs him until Moby Dick submerges, entangling Ahab in the harpoon lines on his back and drowning him. Starbuck has a chance to abandon the hunt but chooses instead to avenge Ahab. Moby Dick attacks the boats, smashing them and killing the men; he then rams and sinks the Pequod before disappearing. Ishmael, the only survivor, manages to cling onto Queequeg's coffin until he is found and picked up by the Rachel.

During King Arthur's time, a sword maker wishes to win Lady Linet's heart but first he must become a noble knight. As a blacksmith John can't hope to win the hand of Linet, daughter of the Earl of Yeonil. Off he goes to prove himself a noble knight. He makes himself a suit of armor with a winged chicken helmet and runs around fighting for King Arthur as the Black Knight. Evil doings include plots by visiting kings and a Druid sacrificial ceremony at Stonehenge. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> Young swordsmith John secretly becomes the Black Knight to help out King Arthur when Saracens and Cornish men plot to take over the country by mounting raids dressed up as Vikings. However, his thoughts are not only on the protection of England when the good lady Linet becomes threatened. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}