All Groups / Melodrama

Charaters: 2 male, 4 female

Scenery: Interior

From the story by Henry James

In a once grand Venetian palazzo an old woman and her niece live in seclusion. An American publisher asks to leases some rooms, his purpose to unearth the mystery of a brilliant author who once loved the aunt. The old woman curtly rejects all inquiries. When she finds him going through the some papers he's discovered, she has a stroke and dies. The lonely niece pathetically proposes to him, but he rejects her when she says she's burned the papers. She locks herself up in the palazzo and then destroys the papers.

"Bewitching, tantalizing, exciting.... A work of uncommon suspense and exceptional literary merit." - N.Y. Daily News.

During the Second World War, Air Commodore Waltby is flying to Allied Command Headquarters with an attaché case packed with information that could stave off an invasion by Germany. Unfortunately, his plane is shot down and he and three colleagues are left drifting in a lifeboat in the North Sea - with the vital intelligence reports still not in the hands of Allied Command. As the Allied authorities direct the search, the four men are edging closer to death and the Germans are planning their assault.

1960s British drama which centres on Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay), a cynical working class youth, who finds himself in a boys' reformatory for robbing a bakery. The governor in charge of the reform school (Michael Redgrave) preaches to his inmates that exercise and physical challenge can permanently destroy a boy's rebellious streak. But Colin is fortunate enough to be on the boss's good side due to his natural running prowess and is offered the chance to train for a race against the local public school. Tensions build as the big day approaches and after a lot of time spent thinking on his lonely runs, Colin might just reconsider his naturally rebellious instincts.

Collection of documentary shorts from British film-maker Humphrey Jennings. The films in this volume comprise: 'The True Story of Lili Marlene' (1944), 'The Eighty Days' (1944), 'Myra Hess' (1945), 'A Diary for Timothy' (1945), 'A Defeated People' (1946), 'The Cumberland Story' (1947), 'The Dim Little Island' (1949) and 'Family Portrait' (1950).

Six classic movies starring Margaret Lockwood. 'The Wicked Lady' (1945) is set during the reign of King Charles II. Lockwood stars as Lady Skelton, an aristocrat who attempts to relieve the tedium of her day-to-day life by secretly acting as a highway robber. Lady Skelton soon finds herself caught up in a tangled web of romance, danger, and jealousy. In 'Love Story' (1944), Lissa (Lockwood) discovers she only has a short time to live, so travels to Cornwall for a final fling. While there, she falls in love with young mineral prospector, Kit (Stewart Granger). However, the course of true love does not run smoothly. In 'Bank Holiday' (1938), a group of people set off on an August bank holiday, including a raucous Cockney family, a would-be beauty queen, and two young lovers - whose relationship starts to come apart when one has to deal with a bereavement at the hospital where she works. In 'Give Us the Moon' (1944), a young man, Sascha (Vic Oliver), joins a group called 'The Elephants' whose principle is to abide by a complete disregard for work. However chaos ensues when the group decides to help run the hotel owned by Sascha's father. In 'Highly Dangerous' (1950), when British Intelligence discovers that an Iron Curtain country is developing insects as weapons, they dispatch entomologist Frances Gray (Lockwood) to get into the country and collect specimens. However her cover is almost immediately blown on her arrival and her contact is murdered. Finally, in 'The Lady Vanishes' (1938), when the elderly Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) goes missing on a train bound for England, her friend Iris Henderson (Lockwood) sets out to find her. However, Iris' attempts are immediately frustrated by her fellow passengers, who question whether Miss Froy ever even existed. Only music scholar Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave) is prepared to believe Iris, and together they set about getting to the bottom of the mystery.

Published on the tenth anniversary of his death, a new edition of Michael Redgrave's famous book on acting -- with a new introduction by his daughter Vanessa.
Written when Michael Redgrave was at the height of his power and acclaim, "The Actor's Ways and Means" is a spirited and knowledgeable account of the most influential ideas about the art and craft of acting. Drawing on his own direct experience, Redgrave evaluates the influence of famous actors and directors, from Copeau to Stanislavski, from Meyerhold to Edward Gordon Craig.
This new edition is supplemented with sixteen pages of photos from the Redgrave family collection.

WWII drama about a Czech captain who impersonates a dead British officer, only to be thrown into a German P.O.W. camp reserved for the English.

1960s British drama which centres on Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay), a cynical working class youth, who finds himself in a boys' reformatory for robbing a bakery. The governor in charge of the reform school (Michael Redgrave) preaches to his inmates that exercise and physical challenge can permanently destroy a boy's rebellious streak. But Colin is fortunate enough to be on the boss's good side due to his natural running prowess and is offered the chance to train for a race against the local public school. Tensions build as the big day approaches and after a lot of time spent thinking on his lonely runs, Colin might just reconsider his naturally rebellious instincts.

Horror anthology. Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) arrives at country house Pilgrim Farm thinking that he has been hired to remodel it. He finds the building strangely familiar, and upon entering discovers that he recognizes all of the house's occupants from a recurring nightmare he has experienced. One by one, everyone present relates their own horrific nightmare: Grainger (Anthony Baird) dreams that he is a racing driver recuperating from an accident; teenager Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes) dreams of a Christmas party where she discovers a lone crying child; Joan Courtland (Googie Withers) relates a story of an antique mirror linked to an ancient murder; the next story concerns two golfers who vie murderously for the attention of a young lady; and the final story features a ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) whose dummy comes to life.

A collection of four classic films starring Julie Christie. In 'Billy Liar' (1963), undertaker's clerk Billy (Tom Courtenay) escapes his dreary small town existence in a 1950s Northern town by living in a fantasy world where he realises his ambitions. When his job, unsympathetic working class family and two fiancees threaten to become too much, he meets the fashionable Liz (Christie), who offers him his one chance for real escape. Christie won an Oscar for her role in 'Darling' (1965). In the film she plays Diana Scott, an ambitious model determined to make it to the top. Using her sexuality, she manipulates powerful men, but in so doing becomes a prisoner of the jet-setting lifestyle she once yearned for. Dirk Bogarde co-stars as Diana's long-suffering boyfriend. 'Far From The Madding Crowd' (1967) is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 19th-century story of a woman's passion. Bathsheba (Christie) is in love with three very different men who are also in love with her: her first love is a handsome and wayward soldier; the second is the local noble Lord, and the third is an ever-patient farmer. 'The Go-Between' (1970) is an adaptation of the classic novel by L.P. Hartley. A young teenage boy, Leo (Dominic Guard), is invited to a wealthy school friend's rich family estate and is drawn into a love affair between his friend's twenty-something sister, Marian (Christie), and the family neighbour, even though she is engaged to be married. She uses Leo as a go-between, sending messages to her lover. Despite feeling he is betraying her fiance Hugh (Edward Fox), Leo carries on being the messager boy and discovers more about the attraction between men and women along the way.