Carol Reed followed the success of Odd Man Out (1947) with this adaptation of Graham Greene’s short story, The Basement Room. Young Felipe (a revelatory Bobby Henrey) is a son of a diplomat who is never around, who instead forms a friendship with his butler Baines (Ralph Richardson). Baines impresses the young child with tales of his heroic past in Africa and ongoing adventures – when, in fact, he leads a mundane life in a loveless marriage. After believing he witnesses Baines committing a violent act, Felipe does his best to protect his older friend from danger, in Reed’s emotional drama about the loss of childhood innocence.
Henry Jekyll (Michael Caine) is a melancholy man. His wife died of pneumonia, and he seeks the comfort of his sister-in-law, despite her father's refusal. Jekyll throws himself into his work, developing a personality-splitting drug that allows him to wreak brutish havoc as his alter-ego, Hyde. Ho...
David Bowie cemented his unearthly persona in Nicolas Roeg’s startling cult film; playing an alien stranded on Earth while on a mission to find water for his own world, he initiates a plan to amass a fortune to help save his home planet.
