John Mills
Sir John Mills, CBE (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 1908 – 23 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. On screen, he often played people who are not at all exceptional, but become heroes because of... Read full bio →
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Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The Afric...
Bright Young Things
During the 1930s in England, a group of young socialites dominate the national gossip with extravagant and outlandish antics. Among the group is the aspiring novelist Adam Fenwick-Symes, who is attempting to raise enough money to marry fellow member Nina Blount.
Cats
"Jellicle" cats join for a Jellicle ball where they rejoice with their leader, Old Deuteronomy. One cat will be chosen to go to the "Heavyside Layer" and be reborn. The cats introduce themselves.
Bean
Childlike Englishman, Mr. Bean, is an incompetent watchman at the Royal National Gallery. After the museum's board of directors' attempt to have him fired is blocked by the chairman, who has taken a liking to Bean, they send him to Los Angeles to act as their ambassador for the unveiling of a historic painting to humiliate him.
Hamlet
The Grotesque
Sir Hugo (Sir Alan Bates) is more interested in reconstructing dinosaur bones than in paying attention to his wife, Lady Harriet (Theresa Russell). He's not thrilled when daughter Cleo (Lena Headey) brings home her betrothed, Sidney (Steven Mackintosh), who aspires to be a poet.
Deadly Advice
Advised by the ghosts of five notable British killers, small town librarian Jodie sets out to murder her domineering mother, Iris, and anyone else who stands in her way to happiness.
Around the World in 80 Days
The plot centres around Phileas Fogg making a £20,000 wager with three members of the Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the world in 80 days.
The Lady and the Highwayman
Swashbuckling tale of romance, betrayal, jealousy, banditry, murder, and court intrigue set in the 1660s, during the Restoration to the English throne of King Charles II.
Who's That Girl
An uptight New York tax lawyer gets his life turned upside down, all in a single day, when he's asked to escort a feisty and free-spirited female ex-convict whom asks him to help prove her innocence of her crime.
When the Wind Blows
With the help of government-issued pamphlets, an elderly British couple build a shelter and prepare for an impending nuclear attack, unaware that times and the nature of war have changed from their romantic memories of World War II
The Masks of Death
Sherlock Holmes investigates the case of a string of mysterious deaths with no apparent causes and the case of a missing German Prince that could cause war between England and Germany.
Sahara
After her father dies, young Dale takes his place in a trans-African auto race, but ends up being abducted by a desert sheik.
Gandhi
Director Richard Attenborough tells with this epic, and elaborate produced film, the story of freedom and peace fighter Gandhi, the Indian who helped give Indians their independence. The film was nominated in eleven categories at the Academy Awards, winning eight in total.
Zulu Dawn
In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership.
The Thirty Nine Steps
In this version of the famous tale, Richard Hannay gets framed for murder and involved in a Prussian plot to pre-empt a war.
The Big Sleep
The classic Raymond Chandler tale retold with Mitchum taking over the Bogart role.
Oklahoma Crude
Featuring four Academy Award® winners and directed by the legendary Stanley Kramer. A tough feminist, her estranged father and a grizzled hired hand try to take on a big oil company in Oklahoma.
Young Winston
This historical drama is an account of the early life of British politician Winston Churchill, including his childhood years, his time as a war correspondent in Africa, and culminating with his first election to Parliament.
Lady Caroline Lamb
Lady Caroline Lamb, dissatisfied in her marriage, has an affair with the dashing Romantic poet Lord Byron.
Dulcima
Dulcima, treated as a drudge by her family, becomes a housekeeper to Parker, a curmudgeonly widower living in drunken disarray on a neighbouring farm. When she sees the amount of money he has stashed around the place, Dulcima is happy enough to indulge his growing desire for her, and a strange, yet mutually beneficial, relationship develops.
Ryan's Daughter
Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married woman in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.
Oh! What a Lovely War
The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the three boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.
La morte non ha sesso
While trying to solve a series of murders, a possessive narcotics detective hires a hit-man to kill his unfaithful wife, but the hunter and the hunted soon begin an affair.
Chuka
A group under siege at an Army fort grapple with painful memories.
The Wrong Box
In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other—or can be made to have seemed to do so.
The Truth About Spring
During the 1960s, a Caribbean sailor and his tomboy daughter search for buried treasure but run into unsavory characters and a cute lawyer who's after romance.
Operation Crossbow
Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant. The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German cast speaking their own language) and discovery by British Intelligence of the weapon.
King Rat
Fast-talking wheeler-dealer Corporal King is stuck in a Malaysian P.O.W. camp during World War II and uses bribery and larceny to take de-facto control of the camp.
The Chalk Garden
The peculiar antics of Laurel, an emotionally troubled young girl, are the focus of The Chalk Garden – a stately household drama set on the cliffs of the English south coast. Edith Evans plays a matriarchal grandmother who, in raising her granddaughter, has neglected her other love – a barren chalk garden.
Tiara Tahiti
James Mason and John Mills star in this comedy-drama about a tough colonel and a refined captain who clashed during the war, and continue their personal battle in peace-time Tahiti.
The Singer Not the Song
The Singer Not the Song is a 1961 British drama film based on the novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop that was directed by Roy Ward Baker and filmed in Spain.
The Parent Trap
Hayley Mills plays twins who, unknown to their divorced parents, meet at a summer camp. Products of single parent households, they switch places (surprise!) so as to meet the parent they never knew, and then contrive to reunite them.
Flame in the Streets
During the 1960s in Britain, tense race relations between whites and blacks are affecting the workplace, the family, the dating scene, and the society at large.
Tunes of Glory
After World War II, a Highland Regiment's acting Commanding Officer, who rose from the ranks, is replaced by a peace-time Oxford-educated Commanding Officer, leading to a dramatic conflict between the two.
Swiss Family Robinson
After being shipwrecked, the Robinson family is marooned on an island inhabited only by an impressive array of wildlife. In true pioneer spirit, they quickly make themselves at home but soon face a danger even greater than nature: dastardly pirates.
Tiger Bay
In Tiger Bay, the docklands of Cardiff, rough-and-tumble street urchin Gillie witnesses the brutal killing of a young woman at the hands of visiting Polish sailor Korchinsky. Instead of reporting the crime to the authorities, Gillie merely pockets a prize for herself — Korchinsky's shiny black revolver — and flees the scene.
Ice Cold in Alex
A group of army personnel and nurses attempt a dangerous and arduous trek across the deserts of North Africa during the second world war. The leader of the team dreams of his ice cold beer when he reaches Alexandria
Dunkirk
A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches.
Town on Trial
When an attractive young girl is murdered, suspicion falls on several members of the local tennis club. It falls to Police Inspector Halloran to sort out all the red herrings, and finally after a confrontation at the top of the local church spire, arrest the culprit. Another fascinating look at what life was like in Britain during the 50's.
The Vicious Circle
After Dr. Howard Latimer finds the German actress that he had just met at London Airport murdered in his flat, it leads him into a world of murder, blackmail and a fake passport scam.
War and Peace
Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia, including his disastrous 1812 invasion, serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.
The Baby and the Battleship
After a quayside mix-up with the Italian family of his fiancée, Able Seaman Knocker White finds himself literally left holding the baby. Unable to return it before his ship sails he enlists the help of best mate Puncher Roberts to smuggle the child aboard.
Around the World in 80 Days
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.
The Colditz Story
Allied prisoners - British, Dutch, French and Polish - pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from the "escape-proof" German P.O.W. camp housed in a Medieval castle known as "Colditz".
Above Us the Waves
The attack by British submarines on the German battleship "Tirpitz" in a Norwegian fjord during World War II.
Hobson's Choice
Widower Henry Hobson refuses to let his three daughters get married because he doesn't want to pay settlements, so they'll just have to outsmart him.
The Long Memory
An innocent man is released from prison after 12 years and tracks down the witnesses who lied about him in court.
The Gentle Gunman
In 1941, in wartime U.K., two Irish brothers working for the I.R.A. come against their local leader's ruthless methods.
Mr. Denning Drives North
A British aircraft engineer accidentally kills his daughter's nasty foreign boyfriend, then tries to cover up his deed.
Morning Departure
The crew of a submarine is trapped on the sea floor when it sinks. How can they be rescued before they run out of air?
The Rocking Horse Winner
A young boy receives a rocking horse for Christmas and soon learns that he is able to pick the winning horse at the races.
The History of Mr. Polly
With an inheritance after his father's death, Alfred Polly finds love in the arms of a schoolgirl but marries an unattractive cousin and opens a shop, which leads him to unhappiness, arson, suicide attempts, and escape.
Scott of the Antarctic
The true story of the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his ill-fated expedition to try to be the first man to discover the South Pole - only to find that the murderously cold weather and a rival team of Norwegian explorers conspire against him
The October Man
Jim Ackland, who suffers from a head injury sustained in a bus crash, is the chief suspect in a murder hunt, when a girl that he has just met is found dead on the local common, and he has no alibi for the time she was killed.
Great Expectations
A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.
Waterloo Road
A drama set during World War II. A tale of adultery and desertion.
The Way to the Stars
Life on a British bomber base, and the surrounding towns, from the opening days of the Battle of Britain, to the arrival of the Americans, who join in the bomber offensive. The film centres around Pilot Officer Peter Penrose, fresh out of a training unit, who joins the squadron, and quickly discovers about life during war time.
This Happy Breed
A middle-class family faces personal triumphs and tragedies when they move to a new home in the suburbs.
We Dive at Dawn
A gripping tale of WWII naval warfare in the Baltics, starring John Mills as Lt. Freddie Taylor, a British submarine Captain. The crew of the Sea Tiger are summoned from leave on shore with their families, and sent on a secret mission to intercept the Nazi battleship Brandenburg.
The Big Blockade
Wartime propaganda piece reporting on the success of the economic blockade of Germany in the early years of the war.
In Which We Serve
This "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.
Old Bill and Son
World War I veteran Bill is inspired to re-enlist in 1939, and ends up serving with his son.
Cottage to Let
Cottage to Let is a 1941 spy film starring Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim and John Mills. Set in World War II Scotland, its plot concerns Nazi spies trying to kidnap an inventor.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Throughout the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, Mr Arthur Chipping rises from a shy, nervous teacher to the beloved, revered headmaster of Brookfield School, with his life and career shaped by his love for his wife and his unwavering dedication to his students.
The Green Cockatoo
A young girl is travelling to London to find work. Arriving at the station, she meets a man who has been stabbed by a member of a gang of crooks involved with greyhound racing. She becomes a suspect, but flees the scene in order to deliver a message to the dead man's brother.
O.H.M.S
American racketeer Jimmie Dean travels to England, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian whom he has been falsely accused of murdering. Jimmie is then forced to join the British army in the dead man's place.
Doctor's Orders
Bill Blake, a jovial con man is known to friends and his son as a travelling salesman, but in reality, operates a phony medicine show, complete with singing, a monkey, and audience shills. His son Ronnie has studied to become a doctor and internes at a nearby hospital.
A Political Party
A north-country chimney sweep standing for Parliament is opposed by a local bigwig. His campaign is imperiled when his artist son, Tony, falls in love with a girl who has reason to hope that the bigwig will be elected.