Alec Guinness: In the Frame

Six films starring Alec Guinness. 'Our Man in Havana' (1959) is a spy spoof based on the novel by Graham Greene. Guinness stars as Jim Wormold, an English expatriate who sells vacuum cleaners in Havana. His life is irrevocably changed as he is recruited by Hawthorne (Noel Coward), and pressed into service as an operative of MI6, which he reluctantly agrees to so he can earn extra money for his 17-year-old daughter. 'HMS The Defiant' (1962) is a naval drama set aboard a British warship during the years of the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Crawford (Guinness) is respected by his crew as a fair and just leader of men, but his second-in-command, Lt. Scott-Padget (Dirk Bogarde), is known as a bitter sadist who likes to see the sailors suffer. When Scott-Padget is killed in a mutiny, Crawford knows that he must punish the men responsible, but when they acquit themselves well during combat, he begins to have second thoughts, and soon finds himself in the midst of a full-blown crisis of conscience. 'Cromwell' (1970) is a period drama set during the English Civil War of the 17th century, seen through the eyes of Roundhead leader Oliver Cromwell (Richard Harris). Cromwell had planned to take his family to the New World (North America), when a succession of religious and political problems draw him into the fold which resulted in the British Civil War. David Lean's classic British war film 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' (1957) is based on the novel by Pierre Boulle. A group of British POWs are forced to build a bridge in Burma for the Japanese. Led by Colonel Nicholson (Guinness) they not only build the bridge but organise the whole building programme and are proud of the final result. However, unbeknownst to the POWs, a British commando team has been given a mission to destroy it. 'Murder By Death' (1976) is a spoof 'whodunnit' featuring a host of stars playing variations on well-known fictional detectives. Reclusive millionaire Lionel Twain (Truman Capote) invites a selection of famous sleuths to his mansion and subjects them all to a number of perilous and puzzling scenarios. The guests include Chinese crimefighter Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers), hardboiled detective Sam Diamond (Peter Falk), high society sleuths Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith), and for Agatha Christie fans, the Marple and Poirot clones Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) and Milo Perrier (James Coco). 'The Prisoner' (1955) is a modern classic based on a true story. Guinness stars as a Cardinal prisoner ordered to issue a false statement which will effectively end Catholicism in his country. Jack Hawkins is the interrogator who almost convinces The Cardinal that his statement will have a beneficial effect.

Director: Carol Reed
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Director: Ken Hughes
Director: David Lean
Director: Robert Moore
Director: Peter Glenville
Producer: John Brabourne
Producer: Irving Allen
Producer: Sam Spiegel
Producer: Ray Stark
Producer: Vivian Cox
Writer: Graham Greene
Writer: Nigel Kneale
Writer: Edmund H. North
Writer: Carl Foreman
Writer: Michael Wilson
Writer: Neil Simon
Writer: Bridget Boland
Music: Clifton Parker
Music: Frank Cordell
Music: Malcolm Arnold
Music: Dave Grusin
Music: Benjamin Frankel
Actor: Alec Guinness
Actor: Burt Ives
Actor: Eileen Brennan
Actor: Maureen O'Hara
Actor: Truman Capote
Actor: Ernie Kovacs
Actor: James Coco
Actor: Mark Dignam
Actor: Noël Coward
Actor: Dirk Bogarde
Actor: Jack Hawkins
Actor: Peter Falk
Actor: Kenneth Griffith
Actor: Ralph Richardson
Actor: Maurice Denham
Actor: Sessue Hayakawa
Actor: Gerard Heinz
Actor: Jo Morrow
Actor: Anthony Quayle
Actor: William Holden
Actor: Elsa Lanchester
Actor: Grégoire Aslan
Actor: Nigel Stock
Actor: Richard Harris
Actor: James Donald
Actor: David Niven
Actor: Wilfrid Lawson
Actor: Paul Rogers
Actor: Peter Sellers
Actor: Ronald Lewis
Actor: Raymond Huntley
Actor: Peter Gill
Actor: Robert Morley
Actor: André Morell
Actor: Maggie Smith
Actor: Jeanette Sterke
Actor: Ray Brooks
Actor: Dorothy Tutin
Actor: Geoffrey Horne
Actor: Ann Sears
Actor: Nancy Walker
Actor: Richard Leech
Actor: Peter Greenspan
Actor: Frank Finlay
Actor: Percy Herbert
Actor: Estelle Winwood
Actor: Tom Bell
Actor: Timothy Dalton
Actor: John Boxer
Actor: James Cromwell
Actor: Richard Carpenter
Actor: Patrick Wymark
Actor: Patrick Magee
Actor: Charles Gray
Actor: Michael Jayston
Actor: Patrick Holt
Actor: Stratford Johns
Actor: Zena Walker
Writer: Graham Greene