David Niven

  • Mark Robson – The Little Hut (1957)

    Mark Robson1951-1960ComedyUnited Kingdom
    The Little Hut (1957)
    The Little Hut (1957)

    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Adapted by F. Hugh Herbert from Andre Roussin’s risque stage farce that has become a staple of community theatres, The Little Hut is totally reliant upon the charms of stars Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger and David Niven. Granger is a businessman who is too busy to pay attention to wife Gardner (is he blind?) David Niven is the couple’s best friend, who harbors a secret longing for Gardner. All three are stranded on a desert island; you take it from there. Despite the much-touted scenes of Ava Gardner in a skimpy negligee, the film version of The Little Hut is about as racy as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.Read More »

  • J. Lee Thompson – The Guns of Navarone (1961)

    1961-1970ActionJ. Lee ThompsonUSAWar

    Quote:
    There’s arguably been no historical event that’s captured the imagination of Hollywood and film goers alike quite like the second World War. It simply dominates the War genre; it seems there’s a dozen or more such films for every one about Vietnam, never mind those that have received far less attention than even that controversial conflict. Maybe it’s that a war-weary public demanded feel-good adventures, perhaps it was a culmination of technologies and increases in budgets that allowed for such wide-in-scope pictures with great attention to detail, but whatever the reason, there was plenty of room in theaters for both historically accurate and incredibly grand, sweeping War adventures alike.Read More »

  • William Wyler – Wuthering Heights (1939)

    1931-1940DramaRomanceUSAWilliam Wyler

    AMG Synopsis:
    William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the classic Emily Brontë novel. A traveler named Lockwood (Miles Mander) is caught in the snow and stays at the estate of Wuthering Heights, where the housekeeper, Ellen Dean (Flora Robson), sits down to tell him the story in flashback.Read More »

  • Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger – A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

    1941-1950DramaEmeric PressburgerFantasyFilm BlancMichael PowellUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    After miraculously surviving a jump from his burning plane, RAF pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) encounters the American radio operator (Kim Hunter) to whom he has just delivered his dying wishes, and, face-to-face on a tranquil English beach, the pair fall in love. When a messenger from the hereafter arrives to correct the bureaucratic error that spared his life, Peter must mount a fierce defense for his right to stay on earth—painted by production designer Alfred Junge and cinematographer Jack Cardiff as a rich Technicolor Eden—climbing a wide staircase to stand trial in a starkly beautiful, black-and-white modernist afterlife. Intended to smooth tensions between the wartime allies Britain and America, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s richly humanistic A Matter of Life and Death traverses time and space to make a case for the transcendent value of love.Read More »

  • Delbert Mann – Separate Tables (1958)

    1951-1960Delbert MannDramaRomanceUSA

    Synopsis:
    It’s the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life at the Beauregard is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock is not what he appears to be. The news is particularly shocking for her frail daughter, Sibyl, who is secretly in love with the Major.Read More »

  • Nicholas Ray & Guy Green – 55 Days at Peking (1963)

    1961-1970DramaNicholas RayUSAWar

    Synopsis:
    This historical epic dramatizes the Battle of Peking, a turning point of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. When Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi (Flora Robson) orders the Boxers, a group of Chinese secret societies, to massacre foreigners within China, a group of ambassadors, their families and staff hole up in a diplomatic compound. Major Matt Lewis of the United States Marine Corps (Charlton Heston) leads the defense while romancing Russian baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner).Read More »

  • Blake Edwards – The Pink Panther (1963)

    1961-1970Blake EdwardsClassicsComedyUSA

    Synopsis:
    The trademark of The Phantom, a renowned jewel thief, is a glove left at the scene of the crime. Inspector Clouseau, an expert on The Phantom’s exploits, feels sure that he knows where The Phantom will strike next and leaves Paris for Switzerland, where the famous Lugashi jewel ‘The Pink Panther’ is going to be. However, he does not know who The Phantom really is, or for that matter who anyone else really is…Read More »

  • Sam Wood & William Wyler – Raffles (1939)

    1931-1940ComedyCrimeSam WoodUSAWilliam Wyler

    Synopsis:
    Man about town and First Class cricketer A.J. Raffles keeps himself solvent with daring robberies. Meeting Gwen from his schooldays and falling in love all over again, he spends the weekend with her parents, Lord and Lady Melrose. A necklace presents an irresistible temptation, but also in attendance is Scotland Yard’s finest, finally on the trail.Read More »

  • Gérard Oury – Le cerveau AKA The Brain (1969)

    1961-1970ClassicsComedyFranceGérard Oury

    Synopsis:
    Not long after pulling off a spectacular train robbery in Great Britain, the criminal genius The Brain is soon planning his next lucrative enterprise. Joining forces with Mafia boss Scannapieco, he devises a scheme to steal the secret funds of the fourteen member countries of NATO whilst they are being transferred by train between Paris and Brussels. By chance, precisely the same plan has occurred to small-time crooks Arthur and Anatole. By imitating The Brain’s methods, they confidently set about the heist that will make them millionaires. Unfortunately, nothing goes quite as planned…Read More »

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