James Robertson Justice

The British Seven Thunders was released in the US as Beasts of Marseilles. Set in 1943, the film stars Stephen Boyd and Tony Wright as escaped POWs Dave and Jim. Hiding out in Marseilles, the two protagonists battle over the affections of local gamine Lise (Anna Gaylor). When they find the time, Dave and Jim plan an elaborate breakout for the other POWs sequestered in the French port city. After an engaging opening, the film relies upon serial-like thrills and hairbreadth escapes to keep the audience awake. Stealing the show from the nominal stars are those grand old British troupers James Robertson Justice and Kathleen Harrison.Read More »

Lewin’s fascination with the exotic and the esoteric comes to a head in his final film. A British archaeologist working in Mexico becomes convinced that a local woman is actually the reincarnation of an Aztec princess. The idea of Mexico as a place where the archaic coexists with the modern fascinated foreigners from Antonin Artaud to William Burroughs. Having already juxtaposed the archaic and the modern in Pandora, Lewin revisits this trope here. The Living Idol dares the ridiculous (even) more than most other Lewin films, and doesn’t always pass the test. But its striking use of widescreen cinematography, as in the climactic moment of a sinister panther stalking a deserted Mexico City plaza, makes it a worthy companion to Dorian Gray and Pandora.Read More »

Lively comedy sending up British stiff-upper-lip prisoner-of-war dramas, starring James Robertson Justice as Sir Ernest Pease, a bombastic scientist who ends up in a German PoW camp during World War II. The inmates, led by Jimmy Cooper and Jock Everett, are forced to help him escape.Read More »

Plot:
A woman writes a best-selling book for women warning them about the “dangers” of men. A handsome photographer for a national magazine arrives in her town to do a feature story on her. Complications ensue.

The lady of the title is author Dorinda Hatch (Joan Caulfield), who writes a scathing best-seller in which she trashes all men. Photographer Bill Shelby (David Niven) vows to make Dorinda eat her words, thereby proving the superiority of the male of the species. Suffice to say that he doesn’t succeed–at least until the very, very end. The middle portion of The Lady Says No consists of a surrealistic dream sequence in which Dorinda realises that she loves Bill despite his rampant chauvinism. This film is not a likely candidate for screening at the next N.O.W. meeting. Lady Says No was produced and directed by Frank Ross, who at the time was married to star Joan Caulfield.
Read More »

In 1942, Rommel halts his victorious Afrika Korps and sends German agent John Eppler
and radio operator Sandy to Cairo. Their mission is to learn where the British plan to
launch their counteroffensive. Eppler immediately communicates with Amina, an Egyptian
cabaret dancer and his former mistress, who agrees to help him. Unknown to them,
British counterespionage chief Captain Robertson has learned of Eppler’s presence in
Cairo and is working with the leader of Cairo’s Jewish underground, Radek. Amina lures
an ineffectual British officer, Major Wilson, to her houseboat and has him drugged and
robbed of his briefcase containing British counteroffensive details. While Eppler and
Sandy relay the information to Rommel that the battle will take place at Alam Halfa,
Yvette, a member of the Jewish underground, sneaks aboard the boat and revives the
unconscious Wilson. They are interrupted by Amina, who shoots Wilson but is herself
stabbed to death by Yvette. Eppler arrives and is about to kill Yvette when Robertson
and Radek appear and arrest Eppler. Eppler’s satisfaction at having already informed
Rommel that the counteroffensive will take place at Alam Halfa is short-lived. Robertson
had seen to it that the plans in Wilson’s briefcase were false–the real battle will take
place at El Alamein.Read More »