Russell Napier
Also Known As: Russell Gordon Napier
Biography: Russell Napier was born in Perth, Western Australia. Originally a lawyer, Napier was active as an actor on the stage as early as 1936; on the screen, from 1947 to 1974, playing both comedic and dramatic roles in both cinema and television. Notably, he starred in a liveBBC television production of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine in 1949; still photographs of this production exist, but no actual footage.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Birthday: November 28, 1910
Deathday: August 19, 1974
Adult: No
Gender: Male
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Known For:
Tread Softly Stranger
Overview: Unable to pay his bookie, a man returns to his hometown where his embezzler brother and girlfriend plot a robbery that ends in tragedy.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-08-15
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Little Red Monkey
Overview: Several murders of nuclear scientists, that baffles Scotland Yard, occur in London about the same time that Bill Locklin, a special officer from the United States State Department, arrives to oversee the transfer of Professor Leon Dushenko, a Russian scientist who as fled the U.S.S.R. An attempt is made on Dushenko's life with a monkey's paw-print found at the scene.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-06-03
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The Blue Peter
Overview: A Merchant Navy hero of the Korean War returns to England after three years of captivity in Communist hands, his mind confused by brain-washing and indoctrination at the hands of his captors, and accepts a post as an instructor at the Outward Bound Sea School.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-11-01
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A Time to Kill
Overview: A man and a woman are poisoned. The woman dies, but the man survives. The finger of blame begins to point at the man. A policeman and a newspaper journalist pursue the truth.
Genres: Thriller Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-11-01
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Nobody Runs Forever
Overview: Detective Scobie Malone accepts a mission to fly to London to arrest Sir James Quentin, a high-level commissioner wanted down under for murder. But when Malone arrives, he finds that the amiable Quentin is not only the key in groundbreaking peace negotiations, but also the target of an assassin himself.
Genres: Action Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-08-22
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The Mark
Overview: A man who served prison time for intent to molest a child tries to build a new life with the help of a sympathetic psychiatrist.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-01-26
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The Angry Silence
Overview: When the union in his factory walks out on strike, a family man refuses to participate, risking the wrath — and retaliation — of his fellow workers.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-03-10
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The Blood Beast Terror
Overview: A Scotland Yard Detective must investigate a series of murders perpetrated by a giant blood-sucking moth that can take human form.
Genres: Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-02-01
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H.M.S. Defiant
Overview: Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.
Genres: Adventure History War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-04-15
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The Brain Machine
Overview: A British psychiatrist reads an amnesiac's (Maxwell Reed) brain waves and sees the mind of a killer.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-01-01
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Francis of Assisi
Overview: In 13th century Italy, Francis Bernardone, the son of an Assisi merchant, renounces a promising army career in favor of a monastic life and starts his own religious order, sanctioned by the Pope.
Genres: History Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-07-12
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The Stranger Came Home
Overview: Someone knocked out a man and left him for dead during a fishing trip in Portugal. That someone is either his fetching wife, or two business partners, all sporting guilty faces after his unexpected return. Two more murders and a frame-up befall the quartet before an inspector closes the case.
Genres: Mystery Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-09-24
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The Man in the Road
Overview: A brilliant scientist who has lost his memory is hunted by Communist agents out to obtain a secret formula.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-03-01
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The Dark Stairway
Overview: A blind man, George Benson, witnesses the murder of Harry Carpenter by Joe Lloyd, but finds himself accused of the murder
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-03-01
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Blind Man's Bluff
Overview: Young Anthony Pendrell plays the precocious son of Scotland Yard inspector Norman Shelley. Pendrell's efforts to emulate his father usually results in nothing but irritation for his elders. But when a boarding house becomes the headquarters for a criminal gang, it is Pendrell who cracks the case.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-01-01
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Robbery Under Arms
Overview: During the mid 1860s, brothers Dick and Jim Marston are drawn into a life of crime by their ex-convict father Ben and his friend, infamous cattlethief Captain Starlight. Making their way to Melbourne with the proceeds of a recent raid, the brothers meet and romance the Morrison sisters, Kate and Jean, whom they eventually marry; but just as they are poised to start a new life in America, Captain Starlight and his gang arrive in town, planning a raid at the local bank.
Genres: Drama Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-01-10
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Son of Robin Hood
Overview: Ten years after the death of Robin Hood, the bandit of Sherwood Forest and defender of the Crown, the power-mad Duke Simon Des Roches plots to seize the British kingdom from its rightful heir, the boy prince, and only Robin's men stand in his way.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-11-01
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Deep Dig
Overview: Pit sinkers prepare the coal mines of tomorrow. An account of shaft sinking techniques.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-01-01
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Death of an Angel
Overview: The angel of the title is Jane Baxter, the wife of country physician Patrick Barr. Everybody in the small British village where she lives thinks the world of Baxter; thus, when she is murdered, the authorities are out for blood. Dr. Barr seems above suspicion, at least until he begins behaving eccentrically. As time passes, most everyone learns that Baxter wasn't quite as angelic as she seemed-and that quite a few people might have wanted her dead.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-01-01
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The Time Machine
Overview:
Genres: Drama Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-01-24
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Black Orchid
Overview: Caught in a loveless marriage, Dr. John Winnington (Ronald Howard) can't stop himself from falling for his wife's (Mary Laura Wood) younger sister, Christine (Olga Edwardes). But when he suddenly becomes the prime suspect in his wife's tragic murder, John relies on his friend Eric (John Bentley) to clear his name. This classic murder mystery encourages viewers to evaluate all of the clues and guess the killer's identity.
Genres: Mystery Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-02-01
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The Shiralee
Overview: An Australian "swagman" finds his wife with another man, so he takes the daughter, Buster, with him. On the road together, going from town to town and from farm to farm, father and daughter explore new depths of understanding and bonding.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-07-11
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The Hole In The Ground
Overview: Made at the height of 'cold war' paranoia, this drama-documentary shows the work of the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation, who's duties included the issuing of public warnings of any nuclear missile strike and the subsequent fallout.
Genres: Documentary War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-07-29
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The Narrowing Circle
Overview: A journalist is framed for the murder of a rival and has to prove his innocence, whatever the cost.
Genres: Crime Thriller Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-02-29
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Twisted Nerve
Overview: Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.
Genres: Drama Thriller Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-12-20
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Stolen Face
Overview: A plastic surgeon changes the face of a female convict to match that of the beautiful woman who broke his heart and left him. He marries the convict but trouble starts when his true love returns.
Genres: Drama Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-05-01
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The Last Man to Hang
Overview: A man is tried for the murder of his neurotic wife by means of a sedative overdose.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-08-01
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Sink the Bismarck!
Overview: The story of the breakout of the German battleship Bismarck—accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen—during the early days of World War II. The Bismarck and her sister ship, Tirpitz, were the most powerful battleships in the European theater of World War II. The British Navy must find and destroy Bismarck before it can escape into the convoy lanes to inflict severe damage on the cargo shipping which was the lifeblood of the British Isles. With eight 15 inch guns, it was capable of destroying every ship in a convoy while remaining beyond the range of all Royal Navy warships.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-02-11
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A Night to Remember
Overview: The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller. Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith keeping it going at a steady clip. When the doomed vessel finally hits an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats, and tragedy follows.
Genres: Drama Action History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-07-03
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Hell Is a City
Overview: Set in Manchester, heartland of England's industrial north, Don Starling escapes from jail becoming England's most wanted man. Ruthless villain Starling together with his cronies engineered a robbery that resulted in the violent death of a young girl. Detective Inspector Martineau has been assigned to hunt him down and bring him in. From seedy barrooms, through gambling dens the trail leads to an explosive climax high on the rooftops of the city.
Genres: Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-04-10
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Man in the Middle
Overview: In a remote jungle outpost in the Far Eastern theater of World War II, a hotheaded American soldier murders an allied British sergeant in cold blood. Stalwart American Lt. Colonel Barney Adams (Mitchum) is dispatched to defend him in the ensuing court martial. But when Lt. Adams starts encountering roadblocks in his search for evidence, and his key witnesses start disappearing one after another, he soon realizes he's merely a pawn in a mysterious conspiracy that could extend to the highest levels of military power.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-01-27
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Guilty?
Overview: Convinced that a wartime resistance heroine is innocent of a murder charge, Nap Rumbold, a solicitor / private detective travels to France searching for evidence to clear her name.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-04-10
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The Case of The Smiling Widow
Overview: From the case files of Scotland Yard, detectives investigate the mysterious death of Peter Adams, artist and possible forger.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-01-01
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Conflict of Wings
Overview: In rural Norfolk, villagers are spurred to action when it is announced that the nearby RAF station is taking over the Island of Children, a much-loved and untouched bird sanctuary, for rocket practice.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-03-29
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The Saint's Return
Overview: A private detective goes after the people who murdered his girlfriend.
Genres: Mystery Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-10-12
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A Town Like Alice
Overview: In 1941 Malaysia, the advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps, but they have no plan on what to do with the women and children of the British.
Genres: War Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-03-01
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36 Hours
Overview: When his wife stops writing to him and his letters are returned unanswered, Dan becomes extremely concerned about her welfare. He returns home but is only able to meet with her briefly before she is found murdered. Dan is the obvious suspect but has only 36 hours to find out who murdered her. In so doing he uncovers a shocking catalogue of his wife's past affairs and an identity that he knew nothing about.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-12-04
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The Boy Kumasenu
Overview: It tells the story of a boy Kumasenu who moves to the city of Accra from a small fishing village, encouraged by his cousin Agboh's exaggerated tales of the wonders of city life. Hungry, he steals bread and is caught by police, but is rescued by a doctor and his wife who find him work. Agboh attempts to get Kumasenu to rob the doctor, but Kumasenu foils his cousin's plans.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-01-01
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