Ronald Fraser
Also Known As: Ronald Gordon Fraser
Biography: Ronald Gordon Fraser (11 April 1930 – 13 March 1997) was a British character actor, who appeared in numerous British plays, films and television shows from the 1950s to the 1990s. Fraser was a familiar figure in West End clubs during the 1960s, having had a long-standing reputation as a heavy drinker. His credits include The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961), ‘’The Best of Enemies (1961)’’Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Avengers (1965), The Killing of Sister George (1968), The Misfit (1970–1971), Pygmalion (1973), Swallows and Amazons (1974), Come Play With Me (1977), The Wild Geese (1978), Spooner's Patch (1979), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), Tangiers (1982), Absolute Beginners (1986), Minder (1985–1989), Scandal (1989), Let Him Have It (1991), Taggart (1992), and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1993) Ronald Fraser was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, the son of an interior decorator and builder from Scotland. He attended Ashton-under-Lyne Grammar School. He was further educated in Scotland and did national service as a lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders. Whilst serving in Benghazi, North Africa, he appeared in the Terence Rattigan comic play French Without Tears. He trained as an actor at RADA, graduating in 1953. He appeared at Glasgow's Citizens' Theatre, and joined the Old Vic repertory company in 1954, making his first London appearance in The Good Sailor, a stage adaptation of Herman Melville's novel, Billy Budd. In the West End, he appeared in The Long and the Short and the Tall (1959), The Ginger Man, The Singular Man, Androcles and the Lion (1961), The Showing Up of Blanco Posnet (1961), Purple Dust by Seán O'Casey, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Joseph Papp's production of The Pirates of Penzance and High Society. He also played Falstaff in a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. His only Broadway show was the flop La Grosse Valise by Robert Dhéry, Gérard Calvi and Harold Rome. He appeared in numerous television roles from 1954, and in nearly 50 films from 1957, mostly in comedies. He was notable as Basil "Badger" Allenby-Johnson in the 1970s television series The Misfit (1970–1971). In 1996 Fraser voiced the chief judge in The Willows in Winter.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, UK
Adult: No
Birthday: April 11, 1930
Age: 95 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: March 13, 1997
Popularity:
Known For:
The Flight of the Phoenix
Overview: A cargo aircraft crashes in a sandstorm in the Sahara with less than a dozen men on board. One of the passengers is an airplane designer who comes up with the idea of ripping off the undamaged wing and using it as the basis for a replacement aircraft they need to build before their food and water run out.
Genres: Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-12-15
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The Wild Geese
Overview: A British multinational company seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when the team has performed a perfect rescue, the multinational does a deal with the vicious dictator leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge.
Genres: Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-06-28
Popularity:
In Search of the Castaways
Overview: Two teenagers, Mary (Hayley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere) are lead by Professor Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) on a search expedition for the children's shipwrecked sea captain father. This Disney film was based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.
Genres: Adventure Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-12-01
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Swallows and Amazons
Overview: On holiday with their mother in the Lake District in 1929 four children are allowed to sail over to the nearby island in their boat Swallow and set up camp for a few days. They soon realise this has been the territory of two other girls who sail the Amazon, and the scene is set for serious rivalry.
Genres: Adventure Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-06-01
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The Willows in Winter
Overview: Hailed as the "rightful heir" to "The Wind in the Willows", William Horwood's critically acclaimed sequel comes to magical life in this beautifully animated feature-length classic. Join four of the best-loved characters in children's literature for their heart-warming and hilarious new adventure along the Riverbank, narrated by Academy Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave.
Genres: Animation Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-12-26
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The V.I.P.s
Overview: Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-09-01
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Fathom
Overview: While touring abroad in Europe, beautiful American skydiver Fathom Harvill gets wrapped up in international intrigue when Scottish spy Douglas Campbell recruits her to help him on a secret mission. Before long, Fathom realizes that no one around her, including the mysterious Peter Merriweather, can easily be trusted, leading to various adventures that involve bull fighting, beaches and, of course, romance.
Genres: Action Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-08-25
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In the Secret State
Overview: A Government Department with data on us all in its computers is not functioning quite as its ex-Head intended. Frank Strange sets out to clear his own name and finds he is investigating a murder.
Genres: Drama Thriller TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-03-10
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Obituaries
Overview: Two old men in a nursing home engage in an ongoing competition. When the home is due to receive a visit from a member of the royal family, only one of them will be able to be represented.
Genres: Comedy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-08-16
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The Whisperers
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-07-18
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The Killing of Sister George
Overview: When June Buckridge arrives at her London flat and announces 'They are going to murder me', her long-time lover and doll-cuddling flat mate Alice 'Childie' McNaught realizes that things are going to change. For June is referring to her character 'Sister George', a lovable nurse she portrays in a popular daytime serial. To make matters worse, the widowed executive at the BBC responsible for the decision to kill off Sister George - Mercy Croft is also a predatory lesbian who is after Childie and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-09-01
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Girl in the Headlines
Overview: Called in to investigate the murder of a model, Chief Inspector Birkett and Sergeant Saunders soon discover that the victim had been leading somewhat of an immoral life.
Genres: Crime Drama Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-11-15
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Percy's Progress
Overview: Percy, the man with the world's first penis transplant, discovers that there is a chemical in the world's water that makes men impotent.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-08-01
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The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer
Overview: Fresh-faced young Michael Rimmer worms his way into an opinion poll company and is soon running the place. He uses this as a springboard to get into politics and in the mini-skirted flared-trousered world of 1970 Britain starts to rise through the Tory ranks.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-11-12
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Come Play with Me
Overview: Two alluring young ladies live with their beautiful widowed aunt on a secluded wooded estate. The women have earned themselves quite a reputation in the surrounding towns and men from all over the region are frequent visitors to the small countryside home, hoping to encounter one, or preferably both, of the seductive nieces. Of course, the aunt has equally strong desires and refuses to be outdone. Soon all three are offering the many courters the chance to Come Play with Me!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-04-28
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There Was a Crooked Man
Overview: When a law-abiding demolition expert is duped by a gang of criminals into helping them he is caught and jailed. When he is released he goes straight and then notices a leading citizen in his town is cheating his neighbours.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-08-31
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Black Ice
Overview: British B-movie adventure.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-12-12
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Code 7, Victim 5
Overview: The first victim is the butler of South African millionaire Wexler, who hires hard-hitting private eye Steve Martin for protection. Once at Wexler’s palatial Cape Town estate, Martin meets the patriarch’s family, close associates – and possible suspects. When it’s discovered that the key to the killing may lie in an old war photograph, Martin sets out on a mission to unravel the identities of the men in the picture before they become target two through VICTIM 5.
Genres: Action Adventure Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-07-10
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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
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Ooh...You Are Awful
Overview: Charlie Tully and womanising Reggie Peek con two rich Italians out of £500,000, but during their flight out, Charlie is arrested for scamming an American and a dog. Reggie stores the money in a Swiss bank and after Charlie is released, is about to tell him where...when he is suddenly killed by Sid Sabbath's gang, whose girlfriend was dating the (now) deceased! The only leads are four tattoos on the girls Reggie had affairs with while Charlie was in jail, but Sabbath is on Charlie's trail, and the tricked Italians have contracted the mob - to find the money, and then kill him...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-12-01
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Crooks in Cloisters
Overview: Having pulled off the smallest ever train robbery, Little Walter and his crew decide to get out of London. The six of them set up business in a disused monastery off the Cornish coast, despite the fact that none of them really qualifies as a monk - least of all Walter's moll Bikini. Bit by bit, the quiet way of life starts becoming a habit.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-01-01
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The Wood Demon
Overview: A luncheon party gathers to celebrate a wealthy unmarried man's birthday; his sister hopes he'll marry Sonya, the daughter of a selfish gout-ridden old professor who makes life Hell for his son George and his young wife, Helen. At the luncheon is Khrushchov, a passionate environmentalist, called "the Wood Demon" by all, in love with Sonya and she with him, but neither will say it. Two weeks later there's a family meeting at the professor's estate; two weeks after that, a supper at the cabin of Dyadin, who's cheerful to all. George, Helen, Sonya, and Khrushchov are each suffocating. Can any of them take action?
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-11-17
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The Hellions
Overview: Luke Billings (Lionel Jeffries) and his family have a problem with the new police sergeant Sam Hargis (Richard Todd) so they take over a small Transvaal town with the attention of drawing Hargis into a showdown. Hargis tries to get back up from the townsfolk who do not want to know, so is forced to lay low. As things get out of hand one of the Billings boys takes an interest in the storekeeper's wife, Priss Dobbs (Anne Aubrey). Having had enough her husband, Ernie (Jamie Uys) takes up the gun and heads down the main street alone. An act that prompts Hargis to join him. Slowly, the townsfolk turn up to back them up.
Genres: Adventure Drama Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-11-27
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The Punch and Judy Man
Overview: Walter Pinner is the titular Punch And Judy Man plying his trade in the seaside town of Piltdown. Unhappily married to his social climbing wife, who gets him to perform at the 60th Anniversary celebrations of the town in front of all the local dignitaries, his hatred of snobbery comes to a hilarious head.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-04-08
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Ghosts
Overview: Adaptation of Ibsen’s play. Mrs Alving’s son is ill - but what with?
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-11-11
Popularity:
Hardcore
Overview: Aka Hardcore, aka Frankly Fiona. The heavily fictionalised fantastical autobiography of the fantastic 70s sex superstar Fiona Richmond, played by Fiona herself!
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-03-17
Popularity:
Rentadick
Overview: Armitage runs a chemical company that is on the verge of producing a gas that causes temporary disability. Clearly the military want it but it is also sought by a group of Japanese. Both Armitage and Madam Greenfly hire different people in the same detective agency to guard the gas and steal it respectively... confusion, double crosses and hilarity ensue...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-12-31
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The Ginger Man
Overview: The often racy misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American living in Dublin with his English wife and infant daughter and studying law at Trinity College.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-01-01
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The Beauty Jungle
Overview: A Bristol typist joins the world of beauty contests.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-08-25
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Sebastian
Overview: Sebastian is an undisciplined mathematics genius who works in the "cipher bureau" of the British Intelligence. While cracking enemy codes, Sebastian finds time to romance co-worker Rebecca Howard.
Genres: Drama Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-01-24
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The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Overview: An opium-addicted choirmaster develops an obsession for a beautiful young girl and will not stop short of murder in order to have her.
Genres: Drama Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-04-23
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The Sundowners
Overview: In the Australian Outback, the Carmody family--Paddy, Ida, and their teenage son Sean--are sheep drovers, always on the move. Ida and Sean want to settle down and buy a farm. Paddy wants to keep moving. A sheep-shearing contest, the birth of a child, drinking, gambling, and a racehorse will all have a part in the final decision.
Genres: Drama Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-12-08
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Oxford
Overview: When American comic actor Steve 'Zoo Zoo Zoo Off Come My Pants' Wild arrives in Oxford to make a comedy film, his girlfriend Caroline goes behind his back to enroll in a poetry course. Meanwhile, Hannah Van Hosenstratt comes from New Orleans for the course and is tricked into believing she has a place by the dean, but the professor has other ideas.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-02-22
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The Blackheath Poisonings
Overview: The investigation of Paul Vandervent into the mysterious death of his father brings further discord among two feuding families tied together in business and marriage, living under the same roof.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-12-07
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The Brahmin Widow
Overview: A British soldier returns to India to find the woman he fell in love wit
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-04-08
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Murder on the Bluebell Line
Overview: Murder on the Bluebell Line features Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigating the mystery of the Piltdown Man, once thought to be the 'missing link' in the evolution of man, but revealed in the 1950s to be a fraud. - a QED film for the BBC, made in 1987
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-01-01
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Too Late the Hero
Overview: A WWII film set on a Pacific island. Japanese and allied forces occupy different parts of the island. When a group of British soldiers are sent on a mission behind enemy lines, things don't go exactly to plan. This film differs in that some of the 'heroes' are very reluctant, but they come good when they are pursued by the Japanese who are determined to prevent them returning to base.
Genres: Drama Action War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-05-20
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The Bass Player and the Blonde
Overview: George Mangham is a former composer and bass player in a band struggling for money. Stuck in an engagement with Mrs Merino, a wealthy older woman, while on the run and owing money to gangsters who are after him for debts he owes them, life is not great for George. But it gets even more complicated when he literally bumps into Terry Weston, daughter of gangster Charlie Weston, who has run away from home with her marriage to the rich but nerdy Nigel only a few days away. Little do either realize just what trouble and turmoil lays ahead for both of them...
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-06-14
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Trail of the Pink Panther
Overview: The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief Inspector Clouseau from France. His plane disappears en-route. This time, famous French TV reporter Marie Jouvet sets out to solve the mystery and starts to interview everybody connected to Clouseau.
Genres: Comedy Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-12-03
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Don't Bother to Knock
Overview: An Edinburgh travel agent loses his keys and his fiancé in one night. A friend finds the keys and makes loads of copies with his address attached as a joke. She gives them to him as he leaves for a holiday. He gives the keys to several women he romances across the continent. He gets engaged again by phone and arranges to meet his fiancé at his flat, but the flat isn't empty...
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-05-28
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The Counterfeit Constable
Overview: An extremely funny film about a group of French rugby supporters who go to see a match at Twickenham and one of them inadvertently receives a blow in the mouth from someone else's elbow. In the process he loses some front teeth and needs to see a dentist urgently ... this is only the beginning of a long series of adventures befalling our poor friend who doesn't speak a word of English and who nevertheless needs to return urgently to France to get married in the following days sporting a decent mouth !
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1964-10-10
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The Pot Carriers
Overview: New inmate Rainbow has just been imprisoned for a year for his part in a fight over his girlfriend Wendy. After being assigned to kitchen duty, he becomes involved in a food-trading racket. When the scheme is betrayed to the prison's governor, its prime mover is threatened with an extended sentence - unless Rainbow can come up with a way to save him.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-03-10
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The Fifty-Seventh Saturday
Overview: Mavie cannot declare her love, because the object of her affections is a very busy man.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-07-03
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Daylight Robbery
Overview: Three children are locked in a store by accident. They help catch a gang who break into the store the same day in order to get to the bank next door.
Genres: Family Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-12-01
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Luther
Overview: An epic drama of the 16th Century Catholic monk Martin Luther who started the Reformation.
Genres: History Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-01-29
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Absolute Beginners
Overview: A musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes' novel about life in late 1950s London. Nineteen-year-old photographer Colin is hopelessly in love with model Crepe Suzette, but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world. So Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time. Meanwhile, racial tension is brewing in Colin's Notting Hill housing estate...
Genres: Drama Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-04-04
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Scandal
Overview: An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young exotic dancer and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his contacts and parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. Eventually a scandal occurs when her affair with the Minister of War goes public, threatening their lifestyles and their freedom.
Genres: Drama History Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-03-03
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Heavy Weather
Overview: At Blandings Castle, the Earl of Emsworth only cares about his prize pig 'The Empress' and is wilfully ignorant of the fact that his brother is planning to publish a book which might ruin the family name forever. Moreover, the Earl's nephew might cause the family some major damage by getting married to a terribly unsuitable chorus girl. An adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's novel of the same name.
Genres: Comedy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-12-24
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Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol
Overview: The TARDIS arrives on the planet Terra Alpha, where the Seventh Doctor and Ace discover a society in which sadness is against the law - a law enforced zealously by the brightly uniformed Happiness Patrol. The planet is ruled by Helen A with the aid of her companion, Joseph C, and her carnivorous pet Stigorax, Fifi.
Genres: Science Fiction Drama Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-11-16
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Let Him Have It
Overview: In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-10-04
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The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Phantom Train of Doom
Overview: Indy is ordered to locate and destroy a powerful German artillery gun that is mysteriously able to appear and disappear at will, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Assisting him is a colorful group of soldiers nicknamed "The Old and the Bold" because of their old age and reckless courage. Their mission takes them on a dangerous journey across the German-held veldt via wagon train and hot-air balloon. Overcoming all manner of obstacles presented by the enemy, his own side and the harsh African terrain, Indy relentlessly follows the trail of the mega-gun right into the bowels of a secret mountain hideout, where he plans an explosive end for the phantom train of doom.
Genres: Action Adventure Drama TV Movie War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-06-05
Popularity:
A Bit of a Lift
Overview: A man meets a woman at a wedding and manages to sweet talk her, only to end up inadvertently helping out another male.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-09-25
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Private Potter
Overview: A military mission is interrupted when a soldier claims that God had appeared to him in a transcendental vision.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-01-01
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Pygmalion
Overview: Staring Lynn Redgrave as Eliza Dolittle, this charming BBC production captures the complexities of human relationships in a social world. Phonetics professor Henry Higgins tutors the painfully lower class Eliza Dolittle in speech as well as manner. When the end result produces a very ladylike Miss Dolittle, Professor Higgins discovers he may have a few lessons to learn himself.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-12-16
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Tangiers
Overview: A former CIA agent is forced by crooked agents of the government to pose as a notorious smuggler of the Tangier Straits who happens to be a stiff
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-01-01
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The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins
Overview: The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins is a 1971 British comedy film directed and produced by Graham Stark. Its title is a conflation of The Magnificent Seven and the seven deadly sins. It comprises a sequence of seven sketches, each representing a sin and written by an array of British comedy-writing talent. The sketches are linked by animation sequences. The music score is by British jazz musician Roy Budd, cinematography by Harvey Harrison and editing by Rod Nelson-Keys and Roy Piper. It was produced by Tigon Pictures and distributed in the U.K. by Tigon Film Distributors Ltd..
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-11-01
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Pygmalion
Overview: Adaptation of the play by Bernard Shaw.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-12-27
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The Long and the Short and the Tall
Overview: Based on a play by Willis Hall. A troop of British soldiers are out in the jungle to record jungle noises and troop noises in the jungle so that the recordings can be played back by other troops to divert the enemy to their whereabouts. As they progress to what they think is closer to the base camp they find themselves farther and farther from radio range until the only channel they can get clearly is that of a Japanese broadcast. They now realize they are probably only 10 to 15 miles from a Japanese camp! The tension is added to by rowdy and openly admitted "non-hero" Private Bamforth who has nothing good to say about anyone and especially Corporal Johnstone (who holds an equal dislike for Bamforth). When a Japanese soldier is taken as their prisoner, the true colours of each man comes to the surface
Genres: War Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-02-28
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The Best of Enemies
Overview: During World War II, a plane full of RAF fighter crashes in the Ethiopian desert and they are met upon by an enemy Italian patrol that allows them to go free. But, when the Brits are given orders to attack the Italians, lots of problems ensue.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-10-26
Popularity:
Fallen Angels
Overview: Two men go off on a golfing trip, leaving their wives to amuse themselves as best they can. The wives each receive a postcard from Maurice Duclos, a former lover both had before their marriages.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-07-18
Popularity: