The best Virginia McKenna’s drama movies
We present our ranking of the best Virginia McKenna’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about Virginia McKenna.
Sliding Doors
6.7/10
London publicist Helen, effortlessly slides between parallel storylines that show what happens when she does or does not catch a train back to her apartment. Love. Romantic entanglements. Deception. Trust. Friendship. Comedy. All come into focus as the two stories shift back and forth, overlap and surprisingly converge.
Ethel & Ernest
7.7/10
This hand drawn animated film, based on the award winning graphic novel by Raymond Briggs, is an intimate and affectionate depiction of the life and times of his parents, two ordinary Londoners living through extraordinary events.
Waterloo
7.3/10
After defeating France and imprisoning Napoleon on Elba, ending two decades of war, Europe is shocked to find Napoleon has escaped and has caused the French Army to defect from the King back to him. The best of the British generals, the Duke of Wellington, beat Napolean's best generals in Spain and Portugal, but now must beat Napoleon himself with an Anglo Allied army.
Julius Caesar
7.4/10
The assassination of the would be ruler of Rome at the hands of Brutus and company has tragic consequences for Brutus and the republic.
The Disappearance
5.7/10
Thriller about a contract killer whose wife has disappeared. When he is hired by an international organisation to carry out a "shy" or hit, he suspects they are connected with her disappearance.
Carve Her Name With Pride
7.2/10
London, England, during World War II. After living a tragic life experience, young Violette Szabo joins the Special Operations Executive and crosses the German enemy lines as a secret agent to aid a French Resistance group.
The Cruel Sea
7.4/10
At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer
Holocaust 2000
5.5/10
An executive in charge of a nuclear power plant in the Mid-East must stop his son-- who turns out to be the Anti Christ -- from blowing it up.
The Wreck of the Mary Deare
6.7/10
A disgraced merchant marine officer elects to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship in order to prove the vessel was deliberately scuttled and, as a result, vindicate his good name.
The Ship That Died of Shame
6.7/10
After World War II the crew of a motor gunboat join together to buy their old vessel and go into business for themselves. This may sound like a laudable scheme, but the business they choose to go into is smuggling.
Ring of Bright Water
7.1/10
Whoever said dog is man's best friend never met Mij! Mij is a cute, cuddly pet shop otter who captures the heart of Graham Merill (Bill Travers). It doesn't take Graham long to realize that London is no place to raise a slippery otter. So he takes Mij to live in a ramshackle cottage on the coast of Scotland. Together they set out to explore the curious and magnificent natural wonders that surround their seaside home--from orphaned geese to tooth-less sharks. While Mij spends his days frolicking in the icy cold sea, Graham finds himself falling in love with the beautiful town doctor, Mary (Virginia McKenna). Before long, the three become inseparable friends.
Puccini
5.4/10
In Torre del Lago, by Lake Massaciuccoli, Puccini is writing "The Girl of the Golden West" when his wife Elvira accuses him of a dalliance with their maid, Doria Manfredi, a young women from town. Although the maestro is frequently unfaithful, he denies the affair; Elvira insists she's right and publicly hounds Doria. Between scenes in this domestic drama that turns tragic, we watch a Scottish company rehearse and stage "Turandot," Puccini's last opera. The film finds parallels between the two stories and suggests that in the opera, Puccini expresses love for his wife and guilt in Doria's fate. Three local gentlemen provide a spoken chorus as Puccini's score plays throughout.
Simba
6.1/10
White farmers in Kenya come under siege from the Mau Maus. Some natives try to help them and it's later discovered that the father of a native doctor is the secret leader of the Mau Maus. The film capitalizes on the political upheaval taking place at the time of its filming in Kenya, which was anxious to attain its independence from British colonial rule.
A Town Like Alice
7.2/10
In 1941, The advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps, but they have no plan on what to do with the women and children of the British.
September
5.8/10
Verena Steynton is holding a party for her daughter. All the aristocratic families of Strathcroy in the Scottish Highlands are attending, with all their guilty secrets... Lord Archie Balmerino, a crippled war veteran, and his long-suffering wife will be there. Edmund Aird, a wealthy entrepreneur, and his beautiful American wife have been invited. And Pandora, Archie's exotic and mysterious sister, who disappeared from the village 20 years ago, is returning, under a cloud of suspicion. Only Edmund and her brother know the secret of her flight from home. But the rumors are flying and the local families feel that Pandora's return can only bring bad luck. When a lifeless body is found in the loch, the tension rises. Why has Pandora come back after so long? What are her motives? And has her return already had deadly consequences?
The Gathering Storm
7.4/10
Winston Churchill's life in the years leading up to World War II.
Duel of Hearts
6.4/10
Lady Caroline Faye meets Lord Vane Brecon and is attracted to him. When she finds out that he is being accused of a murder he did not commit, she sets out to prove him innocent
The Whistle-Blower
7.5/10
A bank employee, Laura Tracey, places herself and her family in mortal danger after reporting irregularities in the firm's overseas accounts to the National Criminal Intelligence Service. She learns that the money belongs to South American drug cartels, and her family are immediately taken into the Witness Protection Program and relocated.
The Case of the Frightened Lady
6.7/10
A woman tries to protect her family's name when one relative becomes a murderer.
Leona Calderon
Leona Calderon is a retiring altruistic music lover earning her living cleaning establishments and private homes. Having a fun loving nature she is fancied by her landlord who dreams of dancing with her to her favorite tune. Another admirer is a homeless man who gets endears by her jolly disposition and not by her loose pennies for a can of lager. She befriends an isolated elderly English lady, a migrant worker with no visa and a charitable middle age woman. As a breadwinner she looks forward to her much awaited retirement which is now doomed following a diagnoses of cancer. The island where she comes from where she plans to spend her life with her family becomes just a dream. She now faces a dilemma between losing her hard earned savings to medical expenses or losing the time with her family if she spends her retirement in a country where her treatment is free. Leona's wit and fun nature will make you smile, laugh and cry. What happens to this happy lady in this funny world?
