Noel Purcell
Also Known As: Ноэль Пёрселл, Patrick Joseph Noel Purcell
Biography: Patrick Joseph Noel Purcell (23 December 1900 – 3 March 1985) was a distinguished Irish actor on stage, screen, and television. He appeared in the 1956 film Moby Dick and the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. Patrick Joseph Noel Purcell was the son of Dublin auctioneer Pierce Purcell and his second wife Catherine (née Hoban), an antique dealer. He was born at 11a, Lower Mercer Street, one of two houses owned by his mother's family. Purcell was educated at Synge Street CBS. He lost the tip of his right index finger while making cigarette vending machines, and was also missing his entire left index finger due to a different accident while he was an apprentice carpenter, a feature which he exploited for dramatic effect in the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Purcell began his show business career at the age of 12 in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. Later, he toured Ireland in a vaudeville act with Jimmy O'Dea. Stage-trained in the classics in Dublin, Purcell moved into films in 1934. He appeared in Captain Boycott (1947) and as the elderly sailor whose death marooned the lovers-to-be in the first sound film version of The Blue Lagoon (1949). He played a member of Captain Ahab's crew in Moby Dick (1956), Dan O'Flaherty in episode one, The Majesty of the Law, of The Rising of the Moon (1957), a gamekeeper in The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), and a barman in The Mackintosh Man (1973); the last two films were directed by John Huston. In 1955, he was an off-and-on regular on the British filmed TV series The Buccaneers (released to American TV in 1956). He narrated a Hibernian documentary, Seven Wonders of Ireland (1959). In 1962, he portrayed the lusty William McCoy in Lewis Milestone's Mutiny on the Bounty. He played a taciturn Irish in-law to Lebanese American entertainer Danny Thomas's character Danny Williams in a 1963 episode of The Danny Thomas Show. In 1971, he played the caring rabbi in the children's musical drama Flight of the Doves. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre. Purcell also gained some recognition as a singer. Shortly after the Second World War, songwriter Leo Maguire composed "The Dublin Saunter" for him. He performed the song live for many years and later recorded it for the Glenside label. However, the recording was not a hit. As Purcell recalled many years later, "I don't think one person in the world bought it." However, over time it became one of the most favorite songs about Dublin, receiving countless air plays on radio programs. In his later years, Purcell was asked by RTÉ journalist Colm Connolly whether he had received many royalties down the years. Purcell replied: "Not a penny. I recorded it as a favor for a pal, Leo Maguire, who'd written it. No contract or anything, so I never got a fee or any payments." In 1981 (on YouTube it's 1974) he recorded a spoken word version of Pete St. John's "Dublin in the Rare Old Times". In June 1984, Purcell was given the Freedom of the City of Dublin. Nine months later, he died in his native city at the age of 84. On 7 July 1941, Purcell married former child actress Eileen Marmion. They had four sons.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland
Birthday: December 23, 1900
Deathday: March 03, 1985
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
The Millionairess
Overview: When her father dies, Epifania Parerga, an Italian in London, becomes the world's richest woman. She feels incomplete without a husband and falls in love with a humble, Indian physician, Ahmed el Kabir, much loved by his indigent English patients.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-10-18
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Svengali
Overview: A man hypnotizes a young woman into being an opera singer.
Genres: Romance Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-09-01
Popularity:
Mutiny on the Bounty
Overview: The Bounty leaves Portsmouth in 1787. Its destination: to sail to Tahiti and load bread-fruit. Captain Bligh will do anything to get there as fast as possible, using any means to keep up a strict discipline. When they arrive at Tahiti, it is like a paradise for the crew, something completely different than the living hell aboard the ship. On the way back to England, officer Fletcher Christian becomes the leader of a mutiny.
Genres: Adventure Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-11-08
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The Crimson Pirate
Overview: Burt Lancaster plays a pirate with a taste for intrigue and acrobatics who involves himself in the goings on of a revolution in the Caribbean in the late 1700s. A light hearted adventure involving prison breaks, an oddball scientist, sailing ships, naval fights and tons of swordplay.
Genres: Adventure Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-09-27
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Lust for Life
Overview: An intense and imaginative artist, revered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh possesses undeniable talent, but he is plagued by mental problems and frustrations with failure. Supported by his brother, Theo, the tormented Van Gogh eventually leaves Holland for France, where he meets volatile fellow painter Paul Gauguin and struggles to find greater inspiration.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-09-15
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Doctor at Sea
Overview: The second of the seven "Doctor" films, based on Richard Gordon's novels and released between 1954 and 1970. A bachelor doctor goes to sea to escape the boredom of shore practice, but studies the nurses more than medicine, and Brigitte Bardot is around.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-07-12
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Flight of the Doves
Overview: While fleeing across the Irish countryside, two orphans are pursued by their villainous uncle, a master of disguises.
Genres: Family Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-04-02
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Merry Andrew
Overview: When eccentric English teacher Andrew Larabee needs a raise in order for his fiancée to marry him, his interest in archaeology leads him to an ancient statue's burial site. But when he finds a traveling circus directly above the statue's location, he accidentally becomes part of the act. With a newfound passion for performance and an attraction to the beautiful acrobat Selena, Andrew must decide what is truly important to him.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-03-20
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The Violent Enemy
Overview: During the troubles in Ireland an IRA bomb plot is hatched to blow up a British power station. Sean Rogan (Tom Bell) is an IRA bomb expert and escapes from prison to try and stop the destruction.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-05-01
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Man in the Moon
Overview: William is an unsuccessful guinea pig for a medical group interested in researching the common cold. He is soon fired and offered a job by the nearby National Atomic Research Center where they figure anyone who could fail at being a guinea pig is just what they need. They con William into thinking he will continue his guinea pig career by testing out some equipment for them before they send a group of astronauts to the moon.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-10-31
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No Kidding
Overview: A young couple, David and Catherine Robinson, has to turn their large country house into a money-making proposition. Their solution is to invite the kids of the rich and famous to spend a summer enjoying all the loving care and attention they miss at home. After the youngsters arrive, David quickly realizes what the offensive little punks need is some real discipline, and so the summer begins.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-11-01
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Ferry to Hong Kong
Overview: Mark Conrad, a habitual drunk and troublemaker with a shady past, is expelled by Hong Kong police after one too many bar fights. He's sent to Macao on the Fa Tsan, a ferry owned by Captain Hart. Conrad's papers are out of order and Macao refuses him entry. Unable to go ashore, Conrad is a permanent passenger on the ferry with Hart, who detests him. It's all one long, lazy voyage for Conrad until one fateful trip when an encounter with a typhoon and pirates forces Conrad to choose between an aimless drifter's life and becoming a man again.
Genres: Adventure Drama Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-10-29
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Watch Your Stern
Overview: When the details of a secret torpedo are destroyed by an incompetent seaman, the crew of the ship rally round, when the Admiral needs the plans to show to a visiting scientist.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-10-14
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Grand National Night
Overview: The story of a husband's implication in his wife's death, his stupid disposal of her body and the police enquiry which almost embroils him in a murder charge.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-04-15
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Tommy the Toreador
Overview: Tommy is a happy sailor, travelling the world, singing his favourite songs. When he visits Spain, he gets mistaken for a famous bullfighter. Tommy finishes up in the bull-ring facing a VERY angry bull and cheered on by the crowd. What will he do now?
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-12-21
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Appointment with Venus
Overview: At the outbreak of WWII the British realise they can't prevent the invasion of the Channel Islands. However, someone realises that a prize cow is on the islands and the Nazis mustn't get hold of her. This is the intrepid story of the cow-napping from under the noses of the Nazis.
Genres: Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-10-08
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The Iron Maiden
Overview: The film follows Jack Hopkins, an aircraft designer with a passion for traction engines. His boss is eager to sell a new supersonic jet plane that Jack has designed to American millionaire Paul Fisher. The first encounter between Fisher and Jack goes badly, and tensions only heighten after Fisher's daughter Kathy damages Jack's prize traction engine "The Iron Maiden", rendering it impossible to drive solo. Jack is desperate to enter the annual Woburn Abbey steam rally with the machine, but his fireman is injured and unable to participate. When all seems lost the millionaire himself is won over by Jack's plight and joins him in driving the engine; the two soon become firm friends.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-06-07
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The Seekers
Overview: A western set in New Zealand during the 1820s following a group of British pioneers seeking a new life Down Under.
Genres: Adventure Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-06-22
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Ireland's Border Line
Overview: Billy Brannigan, a mechanic, has some difficulties and problems when he gets mixed up with the police looking for a jewel thief. An identical suitcase used by Billy and the thief cause most of the troubles.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-04-28
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Rockets Galore
Overview: The inhabitants of Todday are content to live their lives in peace and quiet, until, that is, the government decides their little corner of the world would be the perfect place for a rocket launch site.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-10-19
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Mad About Men
Overview: Flirtatious mermaid Miranda swaps places with a schoolteacher who has gone on holiday. All is well until she falls in love with a human.
Genres: Fantasy Drama Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-11-16
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Three Spare Wives
Overview: A man inherits a harem of three wives from his late uncle, which he brings home to his real wife in England. British comedy from 1962.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-01-01
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Father's Doing Fine
Overview: Lady Buckering, an English widow, has four daughters; Doreen, married to Dougall and about to give birth at home, and Gerda, Bicky and Catherine. The story revolves around the impending birth and the love affairs of the other three daughters; Bicky, with eccentric student Roly; Gerda, married to artist Wilfred; and Catherine, in love with the landlord's son, Clifford Magill. In addition, the impoverished Lady Buckering is being courted by Dr. Drew. Written by Les Adams
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-08-15
Popularity:
The Rising of the Moon
Overview: Three vignettes of old Irish country life, based on a series of short stories. In "The Majesty of the Law," a police officer must arrest an old-fashioned, traditional fellow for assault. The man's principles have the policeman and the whole village, including the man he slugged, sympathizing with him. "One Minute's Wait" is about a little train station and glimpses into the lives of the passengers, with a series of comic setups. The third piece, "1921," is about a condemned Irish nationalist and his daring escape.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-08-10
Popularity:
The Blue Lagoon
Overview: In the Victorian period, two British children survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific. After days afloat, they are marooned on a lush tropical island in the company of kindly old sailor. Together they survive solely on their resourcefulness and the bounty of their remote paradise.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-03-01
Popularity:
Captain Boycott
Overview: Based on real events, this historical drama is set in 19th-century Ireland, when poverty-stricken tenants dispossessed by greedy landowner Capt. Boycott (Cecil Parker) band together to assert their rights. Patriotic farmer Hugh Davin (Stewart Granger) leads the rebels. Choosing nonviolent resistance, the villagers ostracize their nemesis, who squanders his fortune to repair his ruined reputation and wagers what's left on a horse race.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-08-26
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Shake Hands with the Devil
Overview: In 1921 Dublin, the IRA battles the "Black & Tans," special British forces given to harsh measures. Irish-American medical student Kerry O'Shea hopes to stay aloof, but saving a wounded friend gets him outlawed, and inexorably drawn into the rebel organization...under his former professor Sean Lenihan, who has "shaken hands with the devil" and begun to think of fighting as an end in itself. Complications arise when Kerry falls for a beautiful English hostage, and the British offer a peace treaty that is not enough to satisfy Lenihan.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-06-24
Popularity:
Sinful Davey
Overview: A young man, convinced of his paternity, aims to emulate his notorious father by committing daring crimes. However, his childhood friend is equally determined to track him down and save him from his rogue ways.
Genres: Crime Adventure Comedy
Original Language: es
Release Date: 1969-02-10
Popularity:
Lord Jim
Overview: After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.
Genres: Adventure Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-02-15
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Jacqueline
Overview: Jacqueline is the daughter of Belfast shipyard worker Mike McNeil. The worker's worth is compromised by his crippling fear of heights. Dismissed from his job, he finds solace in the bottle. All seems hopeless until Jacqueline breaks through her father's self-imposed gloom and helps him to regenerate. An adaptation of the novel 'A Grand Man', by Catherine Cookson.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-06-04
Popularity:
The Key
Overview: In wartime England, circa 1941, poorly-armed tugs are sent into "U-Boat Alley" to rescue damaged Allied ships. An American named David Ross arrives to captain one of these tugs. He's given a key by a fellow tugboat-man -- a key to an apartment and its pretty female resident. Should something happen to the friend, Ross can use the key.
Genres: Drama Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-05-28
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Double Bunk
Overview: When newly weds Jack and Peggy face eviction, they are tricked into buying a run down houseboat. After rebuilding the engine, they take their friends Sid and Sandra, on a local trip down the river to Folkestone, but somehow they end up in France, and with no fuel and supplies, they resort to desperate actions to get back home.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-05-06
Popularity:
Arrivederci, Baby!
Overview: Nick tries to kill his wife to get her money, but when learning of this, she plans the same for him!
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-12-28
Popularity:
Talk of a Million
Overview: A family reduced to imminent poverty by the father's disinclination to work; an American lawyer looking for the heir to half a million pounds; the scene is set for a hilarious tale of creative deception!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-03-12
Popularity:
Nurse on Wheels
Overview: Quietly competent young Joanna moves with her scatterbrain mother to a country village to take up her first job as District Nurse. She soon overcomes the suspicion of her patients used to someone rather older, while becoming romantically involved with a local farmer - at least until he tries to evict a newly-arrived expectant couple who park their caravan on his land.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-01-03
Popularity:
Doctor in Clover
Overview: Doctor in Clover is another 'Doctor' movie, but this time Leslie Phillips is the main doctor in the story, looking for love and romance from the hospital nurses, much to the annoyance of the main Administrator (James Robertson Justice) who wants his doctors to be 100% focussed on the job. Numerous antics follow, with Phillips getting Justice fixed up with the new prim-and-proper Matron (Joan Sims) and his attempted failures to lure the hospital's beauty, the physiotherapist.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-03-08
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The Running Man
Overview: An Englishman with a grudge against an insurance company for a disallowed claim fakes his own death and escapes to Spain, but is soon pursued by an insurance investigator.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-10-01
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Doctor in the House
Overview: The first of the seven "Doctor" films, based on Richard Gordon's novels and released between 1954 and 1970. Simon Sparrow is a newly arrived medical student at St Swithin's hospital in London. Falling in with three longer-serving hopefuls he is soon immersed in the wooing, imbibing and fast sports-car driving that constitute 1950s medical training. There is, however, always the looming and formidable figure of chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt to remind them of their real purpose.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-03-23
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Doctor at Large
Overview: Losing out to Dr. Bingham (Michael Medwin) in a competition for house surgeon when he offends a member of the board, young Dr. Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) finds himself going from post to post, filling in for other physicians. At one distant country post, he is taken aback when he works with a patient whose husband died after Simon treated the man years before. In another hospital, Simon examines a surprisingly mature teen and also tries courting devoted nurse Nan McPherson (Shirley Eaton).
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-03-26
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The List of Adrian Messenger
Overview: Adrian Messenger, a famous writer, asks his friend Anthony Gethryn, a former British agent, to help him investigate the whereabouts of the people who appear on a list, without asking him the reason why he should do so.
Genres: Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-05-23
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Where's Jack?
Overview: Based on the adventures of Jack Sheppard, the thief and jail-breaker who became a folk hero in 1720s London.
Genres: Adventure Crime History Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-04-01
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The McKenzie Break
Overview: A German U-Boat commander plans a daring escape from a PoW camp in Scotland.
Genres: Action War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-10-28
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Decameron Nights
Overview: Italian poet Boccaccio (Louis Jourdan) hides in the court of Fiammetta (Joan Fontaine) and tells three tales of love and lust.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-01-13
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The Ceremony
Overview: A man has an affair with his condemned brother's girlfriend while plotting his escape in Tangier.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-12-18
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Johnny Nobody
Overview: When the atheistic ranting of Irish-American author James Mulcahy upsets the inhabitants of the Irish village to which he has retired, a mob threatens him. But moments after he has dared God to strike him dead, a stranger appears and does so. The man, dubbed "Johnny Nobody" by the press, claims no knowledge of Mulcahy or even of himself. He asks the help of the village priest, Father Carey, in his upcoming trial for Mulcahy's murder. While the amnesiac Johnny goes to trial, Father Carey mulls questions of belief raised by the case. And then, the good father learns a little more about Johnny Nobody...
Genres: Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-10-01
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Encore
Overview: Encore is a 1951 anthology film composed of adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Ant and the Grasshopper", directed by Pat Jackson and adapted by T. E. B. Clarke; "Winter Cruise", helmed by Anthony Pelissier, screenplay by Arthur Macrae; "Gigolo and Gigolette", directed by Harold French, written by Eric Ambler. It is the last film in a Maugham trilogy, preceded by Quartet and Trio.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-06-11
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Rooney
Overview: The life of James Ignatius Rooney, a Dublin rubbish collector during the week and a Gaelic sportsman at the weekends.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-03-24
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The Pickwick Papers
Overview: The Pickwick Club sends Mr. Pickwick and a group of friends to travel across England and to report back on the interesting things they find...
Genres: Comedy Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-11-14
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Moby Dick
Overview: In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service aboard the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.
Genres: Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-06-27
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Saints and Sinners
Overview: What happens to the saints and sinners of a small Irish village on the day the world is supposed to end.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-08-15
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Make Mine Mink
Overview: In a mansion block in Knightsbridge, a gang of middle-aged biddies decide to brighten up "the dullness of the tea time of life" by staging a series of robberies on furriers, then donating the proceeds to charitable concerns. Terry Thomas as a retired army officer leads the gang, which includes Athene Seyler and Hattie Jacques, on a series of capers that nearly go awry when their maid, Billie Whitelaw, an ex-con and also a resident of the block, falls for a police officer.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-08-09
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The MacKintosh Man
Overview: A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor; only, someone finds him out and exposes him to the gang...
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-11-08
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No Resting Place
Overview: The brilliant British documentary filmmaker Paul Rotha made his feature-film debut with 1950's No Resting Place. Filmed on location in Ireland, the film is a lightly fictionalized study of that country's itinerant workmen. Michael Gough plays tinker Alec Kyle, whose life is thrown into turmoil when he accidentally kills a man. Kyle spends the rest of the film evading Guard Mannigan (Noel Purcell), a civil servant who relies on instinct rather than scientific deduction to get his man. Without ever trying to elicit sympathy for his characters, director Rotha manages to compellingly detail the miserable living and working conditions of Ireland's nomad artisans.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-01-12
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Odd Man Out
Overview: Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-01-30
Popularity: