Description

The Danziger Collection Volume One

3-DVD BOX SET WITH OPTIONAL SUBTITLES

RUNNING TIME: OVER TEN HOURS. 

 SO EVIL, SO YOUNG | A WOMAN’S TEMPTATION | MAN ACCUSED | A TASTE OF MONEY | OPERATION STOGIE | THE COURT MARTIAL OF MAJOR KELLER  | THE SILENT INVASION | WEB OF SUSPICION | THREE CROOKED MEN | MOMENT OF INDISCRETION

Ten British cinema rarities from the archive of legendary producers, The Danzigers, most unseen for decades. Comedies, thrillers and courtroom dramas, starring some of Britain’s finest actors, including Ronald Howard, Lana Morris, Gordon Jackson, Dick Emery, Pete Murray and Warren Mitchell.

DISC ONE

SO EVIL, SO YOUNG (1961)
Director: Godfrey Grayson. This highly unusual thriller takes a unique look at life in a girls’ reform school. Jill Ireland stars as a young woman wrongly convicted of robbery. Once inside, she becomes a target for fellow inmates as well as the monstrous warden, played brilliantly by Ellen Pollock. John Charlesworth, Joan Haythorne and Sheila Whittingham co-star. (74 mins)

THE COURT MARTIAL OF MAJOR KELLER (1961)
Director: Ernest Morris. The legendary Brian Clemens (The Professionals, The New Avengers) scripted this taut courtroom drama in which a decorated army officer is court-martialled for murder. Laurence Payne, himself also a crime writer in real life, plays the eponymous Major Keller. With so much at stake, why is the Major refusing to speak up and defend himself? A superb supporting cast includes former Ealing Studios’ star, Ralph Michael and Austin Trevor. (68 mins)

A TASTE OF MONEY (1961)
Director: Max Varnel. Jean Cadell was 76 years old when she played her first starring role in A Taste of Money. This beloved actress, known for films such as Whisky Galore! plays an elderly insurance clerk who plots the perfect crime – against her employer! Dick Emery, on the cusp of TV stardom, takes on a rare film role is this hilarious comedy. Look out too for the multi-talented Pete Murray – radio and TV presenter, as well as successful actor. (68 mins)

DISC TWO

THE SILENT INVASION (1962)
Director: Max Varnel. A wartime drama, both moving and thrilling. In a French village, what begins as an act of sabotage, ends with a local girl falling in love with a Nazi. Petra Davis, who plays Maria, had a busy TV career in Z-Cars, Crown Court and many more. Co-star, Eric Flynn, the Nazi Captain, later starred in TV’s Freewheelers. The film provides early roles for future TV stars Warren Mitchell and Melvyn Hayes. (67 mins)

OPERATION STOGIE (1959)
Director: Ernest Morris. John Hewer and a young Anton Rodgers star in this raucous comedy in which two cadets are set an outrageous and wacky initiation test to prove their suitability for officer training. What they don’t know is that they are expected to fail. There are laughs a-plenty as they do their best to come out on top. John Hewer is best known as Captain Birdseye in the long-running adverts. Co-stars Susan Stephen of Carry On, Nurse fame. (56 mins)

MAN ACCUSED (1959)
Director: Montgomery Tully. Ronald Howard (TV’s Sherlock Holmes) stars as a man wrongly imprisoned for robbery and murder in this pacy Hitchcock-style thriller. He escapes in order to track down the real criminals. With Carol Marsh (Brighton Rock, Dracula) and well-known character actor, Ian Fleming (Q Planes, We Dive at Dawn). (56 mins) 

A WOMAN’S TEMPTATION (1959)
Director: Godfrey Grayson. Patricia Driscoll, (Maid Marian in TV’s Adventures of Robin Hood), stars as a widow struggling with life as a single mother.  Her money worries could be over after she comes across some stolen money. But danger lurks as the thieves return to claim their loot. Co-stars Robert Ayres and John Pike. (58 mins) 

DISC THREE

WEB OF SUSPICION (1959)
Directed by Max Varnel. A lynch mob in a quiet rural English town? When a teacher is wrongly accused of murdering a female pupil, the whole town turns on him. Philip Friend stars as the teacher in a race to find the real killer and save the school from another tragedy. With Susan Beaumont as the girl who stands by him and Robert Raglan as the investigating officer. (67 mins)

THREE CROOKED MEN (1959)
Director: Ernest Morris. Gordon Jackson stars as a bitter ex-boxer in this first-class thriller from the pen of Brian Clemens, who began his prolific writing career at the Danziger studios.  His only friend is a cashier at the local bank, played by Warren Mitchell. Their lives are upended when three criminals hold a shopkeeper hostage whilst breaking into the bank. With Sarah Lawson. (68 mins)

MOMENT OF INDISCRETION (1958)
Director: Max Varnel. British film and TV legend, Lana Morris, stars as an innocent woman who finds herself the prime suspect in a murder case. She knows the truth but has good reason to conceal it from her barrister husband, played by Ronald Howard. Plenty of twists and turns in this great murder mystery which also stars John van Eyssen as a man who may know more than he is telling. (69 mins)