Keeping Mum

Maggie Smith, Rowan Atkinson, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Patrick Swayze come together for this dark British comedy.

"...remains a particularly English phenomenon (there was only one Alec Guinness, ever). In Keeping Mum (with an original screenplay..."

Oct. 13, 2006 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Last Holiday

After being diagnosed with an incurable brain disease, a woman (who is played delightfully by Queen Latifah) discovers her moxie.

"...J. B. Priestley’s 1950 screenplay for Last Holiday starring Alec Guinness, the film is shameless – shameless, I tell..."

Jan. 13, 2006 Movie Review by Marrit Ingman

Warlock: The Armageddon

"...to blow up trees and zoom baseballs around. Alas, Alec Guinness is nowhere to be found, and the heroic..."

Oct. 1, 1993 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Beware 'The Visitor'

Drafthouse Films brings space oddity to screens tonight

"...Sam Peckinpah. Demon kids doing gymnastics. And it's probably Alec Guinness' fault...."

Nov. 1, 2013 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Solider of Fortune

Thin Lizzy's “Still Dangerous,” just ask its anchoring guitarist Scott Gorham.

"...now nestles in a crystal shot glass from the Guinness Storehouse on my music mantle, Gorham’s current Lizzymobile previously..."

April 23, 2009 Music Post by Raoul Hernandez

Kind Hearts and Coronets

If comedy is a dish best served black, Kind Hearts and Coronets is beluga caviar marinated in its own ink.

"...of them weep with laughter and humble gratitude for Alec Guinness' divine grace. In one of two supplements on..."

Feb. 24, 2006 Screens Review by Raoul Hernandez

Letters at 3AM: Musicians of Behavior

Actors are musicians of behavior

"...So did Alec Guinness, and he did it uncannily. Alec Guinness shows..."

May 2, 2014 Column by Michael Ventura

Scanlines

Star Wars

"...with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, voice of James Earl..."

May 14, 1999 Screens Feature

The Ladykillers

The Coen brothers remake a British comedy classic starring Tom Hanks in a flamboyantly love-him-or-hate-him performance.

"...a cast that still makes you tremble with anticipation: Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom, and Peter Sellers, the latter fresh..."

March 26, 2004 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

After Words

Marcia Gay Harden stars as a lonely woman on vacation in an exotic locale

"...in which a sad and lonely salesman (a sublime Alec Guinness) spends his life’s savings to stay at an..."

Aug. 21, 2015 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Gary Oldman is John le Carré's unflappable spy, George Smiley, in this dandy espionage tale.

"...of bestselling Cold War-era espionage novels around Smiley, and Alec Guinness eternalized the character in two BBC miniseries, Tinker,..."

Dec. 23, 2011 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

The Tailor of Panama

"...a direct lineage to Ernie Kovacs, who played opposite Alec Guinness in Reed's 1960 film) and, in a roundabout..."

April 20, 2001 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Snatch

Ritchie's second feature is part broad comic farce and part grisly charnel house humor.

"...Charles Crichton's celebrated The Lavender Hill Mob -- no Alec Guinness, of course, but we do get ex-soccer bad..."

Jan. 19, 2001 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Paramount Announces Summer Classic Film Series Lineup

See the whole schedule and get some tickets to escape the heat

"...(1988, 113min/color, DCP) Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffith, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, and Kevin Spacey. Directed by Mike..."

May 16, 2017 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Chronicle Recommends: Star Wars Actors in Non-Star Wars Films

Celebrate May the Fourth away from a galaxy far, far away

"...If The Bridge on the River Kwai is Alec Guinness' most famous depiction of mental meltdown in war,..."

May 3, 2018 Screens Post by Chronicle Film Staff

Scanlines

Pee-wee's Christmas Special

"...Hearts and Coronets D: Robert Hamer; with Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, Miles Malleson, Arthur Lowe...."

Dec. 20, 1996 Screens Feature

DVDanger: Horror Roundup

The best and the rest of the month's home releases

"...and the increasingly desperate dedication to duty shown by Alec Guinness in Tunes of Glory...."

July 3, 2015 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

DVD Watch: 'Freaked'

Alex Winter talks cult classics and the Butthole Surfers

"...Gary Oldman played him in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alec Guinness gave the definitional take on John Le Carre's..."

Aug. 6, 2013 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

FF2011: 'No Rest for the Wicked' (or for Ryan Schifrin)

How to build a short into a franchise

"...do. I have this theory that if you got Alec Guinness or Ian McKellan or any of those guys..."

Oct. 2, 2011 Screens Post by Richard Whittaker

Letters at 3am

Holden died a good death: just whiskey and a fall, no melodrama or fakery

"...like Bogart, tortured like Monty Clift, or philosophical like Alec Guinness. Holden is none of those things. A Holden..."

Nov. 7, 2008 Column by Michael Ventura

Summer Palace

This Chinese film dramatizing the Tiananmen Square massacre earned the director a five-year ban from making movies

"...the Roman Empire: Limited Collector's Edition (Genius Products, $39.92): Alec Guinness, James Mason, and Christopher Plummer prove that not..."

April 4, 2008 Screens Review by Josh Rosenblatt

Two From Truffaut

Criterion's 'Shoot the Piano Player' and 'Jules and Jim'

"...believe I want to.UpcomingKind Hearts and Coronets (Criterion, $39.95): Alec Guinness shines playing eight separate roles, not one of..."

Dec. 9, 2005 Screens Review by Josh Rosenblatt

From Hollywood to Sporting Wood

"...Labia really expecting a cameo appearance from the late Alec Guinness? Has a dad ever actually brought home Pornocchio,..."

Aug. 11, 2000 Screens Review by Ken Lieck

Celebrated for the Least of Reasons

Chronicle reviewer Tom Doyal has took to writin' just like Larry L. King, the playwright behind The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (and much more, Doyal reveals, in his review of King's new book of letters).

"...is similar to that of the great English actor Alec Guinness, who trod the boards of the English stage..."

Oct. 15, 1999 Books Feature by Tom Doyal

Reissues

Los Zafiros

"...and Bloom star within, so too do Edith Evans, Alec Guinness, Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Holm, Richard Burton and Elizabeth..."

Aug. 27, 1999 Music Feature

Lawrence of Arabia

This desert epic won seven Academy Awards and features Peter O'Toole in his first starring role, as the adventurer T.E. Lawrence.

"...Directed by: David Lean. Starring: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn. This desert epic won seven..."

July 8, 1999 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Scanlines

X-Files "Pilot" and "Deep Throat"

"...the highly bureaucratized British textile industry. Ealing Studio stalwart Alec Guinness stars with Joan Greenwood as a fumbling scientist..."

April 25, 1997 Screens Feature

Star Wars: Special Edition

"...Lucas. Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Alec Guinness. No synopsis necessary, I’ll presume. On the eve..."

Jan. 31, 1997 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Doctor Zhivago

Directed by the modern-day king of epics, David Lean, this overlong and over-romantic Oscar-winner should be experienced by everyone at least once in a lifetime.

"...Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay and Alec Guinness. Admittedly, this overlong and over-romantic Oscar-winning epic has..."

June 19, 1995 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Kafka

"...Russell, Joel Grey, Ian Holm, Jeroen Krabbe, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Alec Guinness, Keith Allen and Simon Mcburney. It seems the..."

Feb. 7, 1992 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

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