James Fox

  • John Schlesinger – Screen One: A Question of Attribution [+ Extra] (1992)

    1991-2000DramaJohn SchlesingerTVUnited Kingdom

    Sir Anthony Blunt was a Soviet agent in Britain for 25 years, the fourth man (after Maclean, Burgess and Philby) in the infamous Cambridge spy ring. Caught out in 1964, Blunt is granted immunity from prosecution and his treason is kept secret in exchange for a full confession. Meanwhile, he continues to work as an art historian, Director of the Courtauld Institute and Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures. Continually hounded by MI5, he presents his interrogator with a puzzle in the shape of a doubtful Titian painting. He also does art restoration work in Buckingham Palace, where he gets into an ambiguous conversation with the Queen. Meanwhile the investigators demand that he disclose the name of the elusive Fifth Man in the ring as part of his immunity deal, otherwise threatening to expose him to the nation.Read More »

  • Simon Langton – The Whistle Blower (1986)

    Simon Langton1981-1990DramaThrillerUnited Kingdom

    Robert Jones (Nigel Havers) works as a Russian translator at GCHQ in Cheltenham. Meanwhile, a couple of operatives suspected of being Soviet agents have died in apparent accidents, and GCHQ staff are encouraged to look out for suspicious behaviour in their colleagues. He confides to his father Frank (Michael Caine), a former GCHQ operative turned business-machine salesman, that he thinks the CIA are insisting that the British “plug the leaks” and that British Intelligence themselves, anxious to preserve their relationship with and funding from the Americans, may be behind the killings. The two men don’t know that they themselves are under surveillance. Then one day Robert dies in a fall…Read More »

  • Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg – Performance (1970)

    Nicolas Roeg1961-1970ClassicsCultDonald CammellUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    Performance is a 1970 British crime drama film directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, written by Cammell and starring James Fox and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, in his film acting debut. The film was produced in 1968 but not released until 1970. Cammell was heavily influenced by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (a portrait of Borges on a book cover can be seen at a crucial moment in the film).Read More »

  • Alexander Leith – Age of the Image (2020)

    2011-2020Alexander LeithBBCDocumentaryUnited Kingdom

    From the Introduction
    Every age is said to have its genius. The 18th century is often called the age of philosophy. The 19th century is the age of the novel. But our own age is undoubtedly an age of the image.

    Other periods had images, of course, but, in the last 100 years or so, we made more images than ever before, and they have changed not just what we see, but how we see.

    This was an era that rewrote the rules of image making. Beaming pictures into our homes, manipulating them, making the impossible visible and, in the digital age, revealing them in eye-opening detail.Read More »

  • Ken Annakin – Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965)

    1961-1970AdventureComedyKen AnnakinUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    In 1910, newspaper mogul Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley) decides to offer a large cash sum to the first pilot to successfully fly over the English Channel. Aviation experts from near and far enter the race, including the underhanded Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas), wild American flyer Orvil Newton (Stuart Whitman) and British ace Richard Mays (James Fox). Orvil and Richard come out as the front-runners, but both men are distracted by Rawnsley’s lovely daughter, Patricia (Sarah Miles).Read More »

  • Robert Parrish – Duffy (1968)

    1961-1970ComedyCrimeRobert ParrishUSA

    Plot Synopsis by Mark Deming
    In this caper comedy, Duffy (James Coburn) is a shaggy bohemian living in Tangiers who is approached for a less-than-legal business proposition by two half-brothers, carefree Stephane Calvert (James Fox) and stuffy businessman Antony Calvert (John Alderton). Though Stephane and Antony had different mothers, they share the same father, and they both hate him; Charles Calvert (James Mason) is a mean-spirited multi-millionaire who shows his sons little affection and isn’t very interested in cutting them in for the family fortune. Charles plans to transport several million dollars in banknotes by ship from Tangiers to Marseilles, and the brothers want Duffy to help them liberate the money from the ship. While the Calvert Brothers are persuasive, Stephane’s beautiful girlfriend Segolene (Suzannah York) is even more so, and Duffy finds that he not only wants to steal the cash from Charles, but the girl away from Stephane. Duffy was scripted by Donald Cammell, who gained a cult reputation for his first directorial effort, the Mick Jagger vehicle Performance.Read More »

  • Stephen Poliakoff & Charles Sturridge – Runners (1983)

    1981-1990DramaStephen Poliakoff and Charles SturridgeTVUnited Kingdom

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    RUNNERS (1983)
    Produced in 1983, it was originally headed for a cinema release but apparently that never happened and it ended up being shown as a TV movie only.

    In Stephen Poliakoff’s first film script, Tom Lindsay (James Fox) searches for his 13-year-old daughter, Rachel (Kate Hardie), two years after she ran away from their Midlands home. After an anonymous tip-off, he spots her, but the reunion is not what he has expected or hoped for….Read More »

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