Cinema Essentials

Wing Commander Roy Grant (Cliff Robertson) is the commander of 633 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, flying de Havilland Mosquitoes on raids against the German forces in occupied Europe during WWII.

In the run up to D-Day in 1944, 633 Squadron is given a highly dangerous mission to bomb a German rocket fuel factory in Norway. Just to complicate things, their target is not the factory itself but a rock face overhanging it that will collapse onto the factory and destroy it. To do that they need to fly at extremely low level along the length of a Norwegian fjord and under the guns of the German defenders.

To increase their chances slightly, the Norwegian resistance, led by Lieutenant Erik Bergman (George Chakiris), will attack the German anti-aircraft guns along the fjord just before the attack takes place.

Grant isn't that enthusiastic about the plan, but while the squadron trains for the mission, he at least has the distractions of Bergman's attractive sister Hilde (Maria Persc…

This sequel to 1973's The Three Musketeers picks up the story after a brief recap of the events of the first film. The story starts with the Musketeers joining the fighting at La Rochelle, as the King's army battles Protestant rebels. The Musketeers are sent to rescue their old foe Rochefort (Christopher Lee), who is working as a spy for the King's forces and has been captured by the rebels.

After his release, Rochefort rewards the Musketeers' efforts by kidnapping Constance (Raquel Welch), with the assistance of Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway). Constance's lover, d'Artagnan (Michael York), initially finds compensations in the attentions of Milady and her obliging maid Kitty (Nicole Calfan). But he soon discovers that Milady is an agent of Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) and that his seduction and the kidnapping of Constance are part of Milady's revenge plot against him.

The other Musketeers, Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay) and Aramis (Ric…

In the early 1930s, an assorted group of wealthy passengers are travelling west from Istanbul to Paris on the luxury train the Orient Express. A late addition to the passengers is the world-renowned detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney). Poirot is accompanied by his friend Bianchi (Martin Balsam), a director of Wagon Lits, the company that runs the Orient Express train. As the train travels through Yugoslavia it runs into heavy snow, and is eventually halted completely by a snow drift. More dramatically, at the same time a shocking murder takes place, of a mysterious American “businessman”, Mr Ratchett (Richard Widmark), who previously told Poirot that he had made enemies and was in fear of his life.
With the train halted by the snow, Bianchi asks Poirot to investigate the murder before the local police arrive. Poirot is furnished with a range of suspects, including Ratchett's nervy secretary (Anthony Perkins), an imperious Russian princess (Wendy Hiller), a simple Swedish nan…

Times are hard, money in short supply, and jobs hard to come by in Italy in the years immediately after WWII. Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) struggles to feed himself, his wife (Lianella Carell) and his young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola), and leaves home every day looking for work. One day Antonio is lucky, finding a job putting up posters. But to do the job he needs his own bicycle, to enable him to travel around Rome putting the posters up in different locations. He had a bike already, but pawned it because he needed the money, so his wife encourages him to sell the family linen to raise the money to redeem it. With his bicycle reclaimed, Antonio is able to start work in his new job. But disaster strikes when the bicycle is stolen in a distraction robbery, and although Antonio gives chase to the thieves, he loses them in the crowded streets. He then conducts an increasingly desperate search around the city, together with his son Bruno, in the hope of finding the bike. Without it, Antoni…

Although often associated in the public imagination with his later widescreen epics, the work of film director David Lean spanned numerous genres, from war films and domestic dramas to comedy, romance and literary adaptations. Despite the acclaim his films have received, and the multiple awards they won, Lean has not always been a critical favourite and his career was not without controversy.

Country boy d'Artagnan (Michael York) has left his home in rural Gascony, and is newly arrived in 17th century Paris, intent on joining the elite royal guards, the Musketeers. But the eager d'Artagnan soon finds himself in trouble, barging into three different Musketeers on his travels and agreeing to a separate duel with each one the same afternoon. The three men are, of course, the Three Musketeers, Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay) and Aramis (Richard Chamberlain). The duelling is cancelled when the Musketeers' rivals, the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, arrive. After seeing off the Cardinal's men, the Musketeers take young d'Artagnan under their wing. He finds himself some decent clothes, a servant, Planchet (Roy Kinnear), and falls for Constance (Raquel Welch) the beautiful young wife of his eccentric new landlord (Spike Milligan).

But there's also intrigue afoot in the city. The Machiavellian Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) is plotting to ex…