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A Call on Kuprin: Part 1 (1961)
Character: Kuprin
Russia's Space Race success is mainly due to a brilliant rocket scientist, Kuprin. But a journalist and a politician in London remember him as a fervent Anglophile who had to leave Britain under duress. Can he be persuaded to return?.
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The Crossfire (1967)
Character: Dr. David Sorel
Tension increases among French settlers in Algeria. A secret ultranationalist group decides to take action against a doctor who treats Muslim patients.
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Painter and Poet No. 2 (1951)
Character: Narrator
A trip into a surreal winter garden, a voyage on a stormy sea, a grisly homecoming – there is something for everyone in this “experiment in words, music and paintings”. Four films were made in this series for the BFI’s Telekinema at the Festival of Britain, combining some of the best contemporary illustrators and artists with a diverse range of verse. The readers are also of some pedigree, with Michael Redgrave, Stanley Holloway and Eric Portman adding their names to the bill.
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Men of Two Worlds (1946)
Character: District Commissioner Randall
An African music student returns home and has to defeat the witch doctor who dominates his tribe and attempt to take them to healthier land away from disease-infestation.
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Child in the House (1956)
Character: Henry Acheson
A lonely child must stay with her uncaring aunt and uncle after her mother is hospitalized. Her estranged father is a fugitive. For love and companionship, the eleven-year old girl becomes friends with the housemaid. When at long last, she meets her dad, she must vow to never reveal his location to the police.
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Uncensored (1942)
Character: Andre Delage
During the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War II, a Belgian resistance group revives the newspaper "La Libre Belgique" to expose and counter Nazi propaganda efforts to deceive the people. They are so effective that the Nazis offer a reward for the capture of the paper's staff, although they don't know their identities. One of them is a well-known entertainer, and when his jealous partner hears of the reward, he turns him in. The paper's publishers escape capture, but their staff doesn't. The paper's founders must find not only a way to keep from getting captured by the Nazis but keep their newspaper going and get their staff released.
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Old Roses (1935)
Character: Lou
An elderly man assists the police in solving a murder, but accidentally reveals his own criminal past in the process.
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Escape to Danger (1943)
Character: Arthur Lawrence
During the Second World War a British schoolteacher working in Denmark is caught up when the Germans invade.
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Moonlight Sonata (1937)
Character: Mario de la Costa
In this romantic tale Paderewski, the famed pianist, and two other plane crash survivors are guests of a Swedish baroness. Interwoven throughout this gentle and charming story are exquisite piano solos performed superbly by the elderly pianist, Paderewski.
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The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936)
Character: Matthew Trimble
The film begins in a BBC studio with the 100th edition of "In Town Tonight". Flotsam and Jetsom open with a "topical number". Then there is an interview with a distinguished actor, which dissolves into a performance of one of his famous melodramas about a wicked moneylender etc.
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Hyde Park Corner (1935)
Character: Edward Chester
A dead man's curse on a London party house seems to echo from 1780 to 1936.
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The Cardinal (1936)
Character: Giuliano de Medici
Set in 15th-century Italy, The Cardinal stars Matheson Lang as one Cardinal de Medici. Bound by the rules of the confessional, the cardinal is unable to disclose the multitude of sins revealed to him by one of his most influential parishioners. De Medici's dilemma is compounded by the fact that the confessor has committed a murder for which the Cardinal's brother has been arrested. The basic plot gimmick was good for another go-round in the 1953 Hitchcock flick I Confess. This 7-reel British film was based on a play by Louis N. Parker.
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The Air Plan (1945)
Character: Himself - Commentator
Eric Portman narrates this 1945 retrospective account from the RAF Film Production Unit, celebrating the RAF's role in the Normandy campaign, with outstanding footage of RAF Typhoons's blitzing targets with salvos of rockets and cannon fire.
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The Good Companions (1957)
Character: Jess Oakroyd
The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth.
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Assignment to Kill (1968)
Character: Notary
A private eye is hired by an insurance company to investigate a shipping magnate suspected of deliberately sinking his own ships for the insurance money. He finds himself involved in a web of deception, double-crossing and murder.
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The Last Reunion (1955)
Character: N/A
While holding their annual reunion, the former members of a Royal Air Force bomber crew begin to sense the supernatural presence of their old squadron commander, the only member of the group not to return from their last mission of the war.
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South of Algiers (1953)
Character: Doctor Burnet
Archaeologists Van Heflin and Eric Portman undertake an expedition in Tunisia in search of an ancient mask.
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Deadfall (1968)
Character: Moreau
Cat burglar Henry Clarke and his accomplices the Moreaus attempt to steal diamonds from the chateau of millionaire Salinas.
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The Prince and the Pauper (1937)
Character: First Lord
Two boys – the prince Edward and the pauper Tom – are born on the same day. Years later, when young teenage Tom sneaks into the palace garden, he meets the prince. They change clothes with one another before the guards discover them and throw out the prince thinking he's the urchin. No one believes them when they try to tell the truth about which is which. Soon after, the old king dies and the prince will inherit the throne.
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The Spider and the Fly (1949)
Character: Fernand Maubert
"The Spider and the Fly is set in Paris during the cloud-cuckoo days before WW I. The storyline intertwines the destinies of three people. Guy Rolfe plays Phillipe de Ledocq, a resourceful safecracker who always manages to elude arrest. Eric Portman is cast as police-chief Maubert, who will not rest until Ledocq is behind bars. And Nadia Gray is Madeleine, the woman beloved by both Ledocq and Maubert. Just as Maubert has managed to capture his man, Ledocq is released at the behest of the government, who wants him to steal secrets from the German embassy revealing the whereabouts of the Kaiser's secret agents. And just how does Madeleine figure into all of this? Spider and the Fly is a diverting precursor to the 1960s TV series It Takes a Thief." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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Freud: The Secret Passion (1962)
Character: Dr. Theodore Meynert
An examination of Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud's career when he began to treat patients diagnosed with hysteria, using the radical technique of hypnosis.
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The Deep Blue Sea (1955)
Character: Miller
A woman is unhappy in her marriage to a boring, stiff judge, so she takes up with a wild-living RAF pilot, who ends up being more than she can handle.
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The Bedford Incident (1965)
Character: Commodore Wolfgang Schrepke, Deutsche Marine
During a routine patrol, a reporter is given permission to interview a hardened cold-war warrior and captain of the American destroyer USS Bedford. The reporter gets more than he bargained for when the Bedford discovers a Soviet sub and the captain begins a relentless pursuit, pushing his crew to breaking point.
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The Colditz Story (1955)
Character: Colonel Richmond
The Germans believed that no man could escape from Colditz Castle, set as it was in the heart of the Reich, 400 miles from any neutral frontier. This film, based on Pat Reid's epic novel, tells the story of how the British, French, Dutch and Polish prisoners of war who were incarcerated in Colditz set out to prove their captors wrong.
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The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966)
Character: British Ambassador
A dog with a spying device under its skin is sent to the Russian government as a present. When the Russians send the dog to a veterinary, British intelligence must get to the dog first and retrieve the spying device.
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The Blind Goddess (1948)
Character: Sir John Dearing KC
Justice, the poets have it, is a blind goddess. Eric Portman stars as the lawyer defending a lord, Hugh Williams, accused by his secretary Michael Dennison of having diverted public funds for his own use.
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Wanted for Murder (1946)
Character: Victor James Colebrooke
The son of a notorious hangman is gradually becoming insane and he finds himself unable to resist the urge to strangle women to death.
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The Man Who Finally Died (1963)
Character: Inspector Hofmeister
Joe Newman, a naturalised Briton, is telephoned by his German father, whom he believed long dead, at the same time as a funeral is taking place in Bavaria - with his father's name on the coffin. His investigation in Bavaria reveals startling facts and the obstruction he meets makes him suspect foul play.
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Great Day (1945)
Character: Capt. John Ellis
An impending V.I.P. visit causes bustle in an English village, while the Ellis family struggles with private problems.
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Abdul the Damned (1935)
Character: Conspirastor
In 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid rules the Turkish Empire, but he is faced with the threat of revolt by the Young Turk party. He allows Hilmi Pasha, the leader of the Young Turks, to return from exile and form the country's first constitutional government. With tensions still growing, chief of police Kadar Pasha assassinates Hassan Bey, the leader of the Old Turk party, and makes it look as if a Young Turk committed the crime, in order to give Abdul an excuse for arresting the Young Turk leaders. Meanwhile, Abdul becomes infatuated with a visiting Austrian singer. When she rejects his advances, she endangers both herself and her fiancé, a Turkish officer who also knows who really shot Hassan Bey.
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A Canterbury Tale (1944)
Character: Thomas Colpeper, JP
Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.
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49th Parallel (1941)
Character: Lieutenant Hirth
In the early days of World War II, a German U-boat is sunk in Canada's Hudson Bay. Hoping to evade capture, a small band of German soldiers led by commanding officer Lieutenant Hirth attempts to cross the border into the United States, which has not yet entered the war and is officially neutral. Along the way, the German soldiers encounter brave men such as a French-Canadian fur trapper, Johnnie, a leader of a Hutterite farming community, Peter, an author, Philip and a soldier, Andy Brock.
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Daybreak (1948)
Character: Eddie Tribe
A mysterious barber hides a secret identity that eventually leads to tragedy.
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His Excellency (1952)
Character: George Harrison
A trade union official becomes governor of a British island colony.
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The Naked Edge (1961)
Character: Jeremy Clay
Five years after George Radcliffe was the chief witness in a high profile murder case, his wife receives a blackmailing letter accusing him of the crime.
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The Whisperers (1967)
Character: Archie Ross
Margaret Ross is an impoverished old woman who lives alone in a seedy apartment and enjoys a rich fantasy life as an heiress. One day she discovers stolen money hidden by her son and believes her fantasy has come true.
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One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)
Character: Tom Earnshaw, Copilot in B for Bertie
During a raid on Germany, a British bomber crew is forced to bail out after their plane is damaged. They land in Holland, where they're aided by Dutch civilians.
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Corridor of Mirrors (1948)
Character: Paul Mangin
A man falls in love with a beautiful young woman and begins to suspect that he may have also loved her in a previous life.
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Millions Like Us (1943)
Character: Charlie Forbes
When Celia Crowson is called up for war service, she hopes for a glamorous job in one of the services, but as a single girl, she is directed into a factory making aircraft parts. Here she meets other girls from all different walks of life and begins a relationship with a young airman.
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The Magic Box (1952)
Character: Arthur Collings
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to include his first wife's so that it sounded more impressive for the photographic portrait work he was so good at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.
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Squadron Leader X (1943)
Character: Erich Kohler
Equipped with an RAF uniform, an English accent, a photograph of his "wife" and a packet of Players (cigarettes), a German agent is parachuted into occupied Belgium to create anti-British propaganda. Unfortunately for him he chooses a night when the Belgian resistance are smuggling the crew of a British bomber home across the channel. Before he knows it he is landing on the south coast of England. With MI5 hot on his trail, the fugitive tries to contact his old German émigré friends in London. But they have all been interned on the Isle of Man. How will he escape back to Germany ?
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Cairo Road (1950)
Character: Col. Youssef Bey
In colonial Egypt, a British police officer sets out on a daring hunt for drug smuggling gangs operating along the notorious Cairo Road.
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We Dive at Dawn (1943)
Character: L/S Hobson
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. In the ensuing battle the British submarine is damaged by a German destroyer. The submarine is leaking fuel so badly that the crew won't be able to make it back to Britain before running out somewhere along the Danish coast. When it seems that their only option may be to blow up the submarine and try to escape to Denmark, seaman James Hobson hatches a plan...
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West 11 (1963)
Character: Richard Dyce
In Notting Hill's jazz club, coffee bar and bedsit land of the early 1960s, Joe Beckett is a young unemployed misfit and drifter whose life takes a turn for the worse when he encounters Richard Dyce, an ex-army officer.
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The Mark of Cain (1947)
Character: Richard Howard
An attractive young French girl instigates rivalry between two brothers when she becomes the bride of the younger one. As the situation festers it leads to murder…
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Dear Murderer (1947)
Character: Lee Warren
When a man discovers his wife is having an affair, he commits the perfect crime.
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