Word: finlay
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Walk East on Beacon (Louis de Rochemont; Columbia) presents some typically melodramatic movie doings in semi-documentary style: a Communist spy ring attempts to worm some mysterious top-secret plans from a refugee scientist (Finlay Currie) through threats against his son, who is being held prisoner in Germany's Soviet zone. While the scientist feeds the spies false information, an FBI man (George Murphy) and his helpers close in on the gang after a series of chases on foot, by automobile and by boat...
...Roman satirist, whose dry wit enables him to needle Nero even while flattering him. As Nero, Britain's Actor-Playwright-Director Peter Ustinov is allowed to hog too much screen time, but he does some expert hamming to create the deliciously malign figure of a spoiled, sensual madman. Finlay (Great Expectations) Currie plays St. Peter with eloquent dignity, though his long speeches are marred by the camera's digressions to tasteless religious tableaux, e.g., The Last Supper. In the role of the lascivious Empress Poppaea, Patricia Laffan has nothing much to do but hold a pair of cheetahs...
...orchestra, play with model trains and fall in love with Jeanne Grain, a young student whose antisocial acts and attitudes include unmarried pregnancy, attempted suicide, and a tendency to faint at the sight of a cadaver. For good measure, Grant's constant companion is a dull-witted giant (Finlay Currie), who not only looks like a murderer...
...about anyone's opinion but his own. In the difficult role of a girl who keeps falling in & out of love (and bed), Jeanne Grain displays both intelligence and charm. Hume Cronyn's crabbed and envious pedant is relieved by flashes of grade A academic humor, while Finlay Currie, who threw a chill into moviegoers as the convict in Great Expectations, manages to be very funny in his set piece explaining how he became a murderer...
Andrew Ray plays the little boy from the mudbanks, and can only be described as "winsome." However, Finlay Currie, as the Queen's physician, and Alee Guinness, as Prime Minister Disraeli, both turn in excellent performances. Currie's portrayal of the frequently "sozzled". John Brown is reminiscent of W. C. Fields, though his humour is more often bellowed than muttered. Guinness brings an easy-going dignity to the role of Disraeli, and makes a stirring speech in the one brief House of Commons scene. In the part of Queen Victoria, Irene Dunne seems rather awkward and is inclined to sputter...