Tag Archives: Jack Hawkins

Synopsis:
Bribery, robbery and an escaped homicidal patient. Just one day in the life of Chief Inspector Gideon of Scotland Yard. Read More »

At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer Read More »

Alistair MacLean’s two-fisted, no-holds-barred adventure yarns are a natural for the screen. When Eight Bells Toll brings in more slugging, quick action twists, sharp dialog, amusing acting than many pix twice its length.
Anthony Hopkins has a role that creates a character full of resource, courage, cheek and personality. A kind of James Bond, without the latter’s trademarks. Character is a naval secret service agent assigned to find out how millions of pounds in gold bullion are being pirated. He starts his explorations in the bleakness of the Western Highlands of Scotland. Hopkins and his pal (Corin Redgrave) posing as marine biologists find mystery and hostility among the natives and the obvious suspect is a suave, rich Greek tycoon (Jack Hawkins) whose luxury yacht guests some odd characters. Read More »

Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
The Adventurers is set in South Africa at the end of the Boer war. Commando Pieter Brandt (Jack Hawkins) comes across the dead body of a diamond courier. Brandt buries both the courier and his valuable cache of diamonds then heads back to his regiment. After the cessation of hostilities, Brandt raises money for an expedition back into the mountainous regions where the diamonds are hidden. There’s no love lost among Brandt and his three treasure-hunting companions; particularly prickly is the relationship between Brandt and Clive Hunter (Dennis Price), whose wife is Brandt’s former fiancé. Sort of an African variation of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Adventurers is buoyed by an unusually vicious performance by Jack Hawkins. Read More »

Synopsis:
In 1879, the Zulu nation hands colonial British forces a resounding defeat in battle. A nearby regiment of the British Army takes over a station run by a missionary (Jack Hawkins) and his daughter (Ulla Jacobsson) as a supply depot and hospital under the command of Lieutenant John Chard (Stanley Baker) and his subordinate Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine). Unable to abandon their wounded soldiers even in dire circumstances, the regiment defend their station against the Zulu warriors. Read More »

I’m the marquis de Lafayette !
..or La Fayette ,the French spelling.The first thing to bear in mind is that ,at the time,it was the biggest budget France had ever spent for a movie:hence the cast which includes Orson Welles as Franklin -a part he had already played in Sacha Guitry’s “si Versailles m’était conté”-,Vittorio DeSica ,Jack Hawkins ,Edmund Purdom ,Liselotte Pulver;on the other hand,the French stars are not big names: Pascale Audret and Michel LeRoyer were far from being very famous compared with Bardot,Delon,Belmondo,Ventura or Moreau.Other assets were Claude Renoir’s peerless cinematography and a lilting tuneful score . Read More »

Quote:
British theatrical director Peter Glenville made his film directorial debut with 1955’s The Prisoner (Glenville had previous helmed the London stage production of this Bridget Boland play). The film is based on the real-life travails of Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty, who after suffering under Nazi persecution was imprisoned by the new Communist regime for remaining loyal to his religious convictions. Alec Guinness, his head shaved, plays an unnamed Cardinal in an unspecified Eastern European country who is clapped into jail. Here he is ordered by the politicos to issue a phony statement to his flock, one that will effectively end Catholicism in his country. Jack Hawkins plays the diabolically clever “Interrogator”, who is almost successful in convincing Guinness that his false statement will have a beneficial effect. The Prisoner fared better in its American release than it did in Europe, where it was branded both “pro-Communist” and “anti-Communist” by various single-issue pressure groups. Read More »