Top Ten Oliver Reed Movies Review

Without a doubt, my favorite actor of all time is the late, great Oliver Reed. The self-proclaimed "Mr. England" was better known as a drinker, lover, and all-around hellraiser, but he delivered some epic performances in a career that spanned 40 years and nearly 100 films. He once said, "My only regret is that I didn't drink every pub dry and sleep with every woman on the planet."

I only regret that more of these films aren't currently available on DVD.

1. I'll Never Forget What's 'Isname (1967): Director Michael Winner and writer Peter Draper conceived this as sort of a sequel to 1964's The System. Reed plays Andrew Quint, a successful director of TV commercials who rebels by quitting his job, breaking up with his mistresses, and taking a editorial position at a failing literary magazine. Mayhem ensues. With Harry Andrews, Carol White, and the great Orson Welles as Jonathan Lute, Quint's Machiavellian boss. One of my favorite films of all time. Anchor Bay Home Entertainment.

2. The Devils (1971): Reed is mesmerizing as Father Urbain Grandier, a lusty priest who tries to protect his city from an unholy union of church and state fomented by the evil Cardinal Richelieu (see also The Three Muskeeters). Naked nuns, bearing false witness, lead to Ollie being burned at the stake. Ken Russell's masterpiece, unjustly hacked up by the censors. With Vanessa Redgrave as the hunchbacked Mother Superior. Film Media DVD.

3. The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers(1974): Swashbuckling epic with an all-star cast, including Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay and Michael York as the Musketeers, plus Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Spike Milligan, and Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu. The best sword fights ever captured on film, even if Ollie did nearly kill Christopher Lee, several stuntmen, and himself in the process. "Oliver Reed is f***ing God in this movie" -- Quentin Tarantino. Anchor Bay Home Entertainment.

4. Castaway (1986): Ollie is brilliant in his last great starring performance as Gerald Kingsley, the self-proclaimed "Sex Pest of the South Seas." Based on Lucy Irving's book. Irving (Amanda Donohoe) responds to an ad in the classifieds placed by Kingsley, who seeks a companion to live on a deserted island with him. They spend a turbulent year roughing it, walking around naked, and fighting a lot. Funny and touching.

5. Women in Love(1969): Ken Russell brilliantly adapts DH Lawrence's novel about two sisters and their ill-starred loves, starring Reed as brooding industrialist Gerald Crich. Glenda Jackson emotes for the ages as Gudrun while Alan Bates and Ollie have a nude wrestling match. With Jennie Linden and Eleanor Bron. MGM Home Video.

6. Oliver! (1968): Reed sports epic mutton chops as the villainous Bill Sykes, and is great in the role, even if his death scene is eerily similar to the one he did in Curse of the Werewolf. Directed by his uncle, Sir Carol. Sony Home Entertainment.

7. Sitting Target (1972): Brutal but underrated crime drama a la Get Carter, with Reed as a prison escapee who deviates from his escape plan so that he may kill his cheating wife, played by Jill St. John. With Ian McShane. Can you say "Mayhem ensues"?

8. Tommy(1975): When I first saw this movie as a 13 year old with a Who fixation, I hated Ollie for not being able to carry a tune in a bucket. Seeing it again 30 years later, I realized that he's the best thing in it, whether he's leering at Ann-Margaret, blowing smoke in Jack Nicholson's face, or kicking Sally Simpson upside the head. Reed's part got bigger and bigger as Keith Moon's got smaller and smaller, probably due to Ken Russell's familiarity with Oliver, and the fact that he could drink himself into oblivian at night and show up on time and in top form the next morning, while Moonie remained stuporous. Nonetheless, Reed and Moon became bosom buddies, their carousing continuing after both relocated to Beverly Hills. Sony Home Entertainment.

9. The System a/k/a The Girl-Getters (1964) and The Jokers (1966): The first two of Reed's collaborations with director Michael Winner. In The System, Ollie plays Stephen "Tinker" Taylor, a womanizing photographer in a seaside resort, who gets his comeuppance when he falls for an upper-class fashion model named Nicola. Great theme song by the Searchers. In The Jokers, two brothers plot to steal the Crown Jewels, but just for kicks. Co-starring Michael Crawford as Reed's ne'er-do-well younger brother. The System has recently been released on DVD in the UK by Odeon Entertainment. In the US, it's only available on VHS from Kino Video.

10. Gladiator (2000): "We are but shadows and dust." Triumphant swan song from Mr. England, as the gladiator pimp daddy Prospero. Reed's death in a Maltese pub, mid-production, led to a hastily written death scene using a CGI simulacrum of Ollie, at an additional cost to the production of over three million dollars. A fitting end to a checkered career. With Russell Crowe. Dreamworks Video.

Honorable Mention:

Curse of the Werewolf (1961): A young nobleman begins to realize that he may be the bastard son of Lon Chaney Jr. Lycanthropic mayhem ensues. The film that led indirectly to Ollie getting his face slashed with a broken bottle in a bar fight in 1964. With Yvonne Romain.

Paranoiac (1963): Sub-Hitchcock hoo-hah with Reed as a creepy rich kid out to make sure he collects on his inheritance -- even if it means murder! My favorite (and most prophetic) line of dialogue: "I've been drinking. Now I'm going to drink some more."

The Damned a/k/a These Are the Damned (1964): Not to be confused with Luchino Visconti's 1970 epic, this is a sort-of sequel to Village of the Damned and Children of the Damned with Reed playing a nasty biker who inevitably meets a bad end. An interesting combo of horror, sci-fi, juvenile delinquent and nuclear holocaust-type flicks.

The Party's Over (1965): Reed plays "Moise," the leader of a pack of layabout no-goodniks called, appropriately enough, "The Pack." A wealthy young American girl falls into their orbit, and tragedy ensues. Ollie is mesmerizing as the charismatic, nihilistic would-be beatnik whose idea of a miracle is a girl who won't go to bed with him. Director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger) tried to have his name removed from the credits after the British censors made heavy cuts. With Eddie Albert.

The Debussy Film (1965): Reed's first collaboration with director Ken Russell has him playing a dual role as the composer Claude Debussy and the actor playing him in the film-within-a-film. Russell and Reed developed a shorthand for Ollie's acting range: "Moody One," Moody Two," and "Moody Three," ranging from quiet menace to bellowing rage.

The Trap (1966): Surprisingly tender adventure tale about a French-Canadian fur trapper who buys a deaf mute (Rita Tushingham) to be his bride. Ollie's accent varies wildly, at times spot-on, other times sounding more like a brain-damaged Belgian.

Dante's Inferno (1967): Early Ken Russell effort made for British Television with Oliver as Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Creepy opening scene has him exhuming his wife's buried remains so that he can retrieve a book of his poems for his publisher from her coffin. Good stuff.

Hannibal Brooks (1969): An English soldier in a German P.O.W. camp is used as forced labor at the local zoo, and befriends an elephant named Lucy. It's STALAG 17 meets DUMBO. One of Ollie's most likeable performances. Co-starring Michael J. Pollard.

The Assassination Bureau (1969): Reed stars as Ivan Dragamilov, head of the titular organization. Diana Rigg, at her loveliest, plays a crusading journalist who hires said organization to kill Dragamilov. Romance and mayhem ensue. With Telly Savalas.

Take a Girl Like You(1970): A young schoolteacher (Hayley Mills) comes to a small town in the South of England and before you can say Eric Robinson, a local cad -- Ollie, of course -- gets into her knickers. But then competition, in the form of Noel Harrison, rears its ugly head. From the novel by Kingsley Amis.

The Hunting Party (1971): Ultra-violent western about a famous outlaw (Reed) who kidnaps the wife (Candice Bergen) of a wealthy rancher (Gene Hackman), so that she can teach him to read. She discovers that she likes the outlaw better than her husband, while her husband forms the titular hunting party to track down and kill the outlaw, his gang, and the wife, most bloodily. A metaphor for the Viet Nam war, believe it or not.

The Triple Echo(1972): During World War II, a pretty boy private (Brian Deacon) goes AWOL to live with his lover (Glenda Jackson), who decides that he should pose as her sister to avoid detection. While in drag, he becomes the object of desire of a brutish cockney sergeant, played with suitable menace by Ollie. Tragedy ensues. Directed by Michael Apted.

Z.P.G. a/k/a Zero Population Growth (1972): In a totalitarian state of the not-too-distant future, childbearing has been outlawed, but Reed and his wife (Geraldine Chaplin) fight the power by having a baby. Word gets out and Ollie is forced to do violence to the police, his friends and neighbors, in order to protect the child. Inspired 2006's Children of Men.

Revolver a/k/a Blood in the Streets (1973): Italian-made revenge drama directed by Sergio Sollima, with Reed as a cop trying to get his kidnapped wife back from some nasty mobsters. One of his best attempts at an American accent. If you like your Ollie in-your-face, yelling a lot and killing people, this one's for you. With Fabio Testi.

Crossed Swords a/k/a The Prince and the Pauper(1975): Fine adaptation of the Mark Twain tale with Ollie playing swashbuckling hero Miles Hendon, a role originated by his idol, Errol Flynn. Co-starring Mark Lester (Oliver!), Raquel Welch, and four different Oscar winners for Best Actor: George C. Scott, Ernest Borgnine, Rex Harrison, and Charlton Heston.

Royal Flash (1975): Malcolm McDowell plays Harry Flashman, rogue hero of George McDonald Frasier's novels, but Ollie steals the show as Otto Von Bismark. Directed by Richard Lester.

The Sell-Out (1976): Israeli-made spy flick with Reed again cast as an American. It's a tense little tale full of double-crosses and sudden violence. Which is probably why they cast Ollie. "Sudden violence? Get me Oliver Reed!" With Richard Widmark and Gayle Hunnicut.

The Brood (1979): Ollie went to Canada to make this shocker with director David Cronenberg, who wrote the film following a bitter divorce and custody battle with his ex-wife. It's all about a crazy bitch, played by Samanth Eggar, whose rage manifests itself by giving birth to malevolent dwarves who kill anyone she perceives to be a threat to her happiness. The reveal of her exo-womb is still mighty disturbing. Reed is great, though aging fast, as her psychotherapist, Dr. Raglan, who inevitably dies badly at the hands of the title characters. With Art Hindle.

Lion of the Desert (1981): Mommar Khadafi helped finance this epic story of guerilla leader Omar Muhkta (Anthony Quinn), who fought ferociously against Mussolini's occupation of Libya during the Second World War. Reed plays Italian general Rodolpho Graziani. One of Ollie's favorites. With Rod Steiger, Sir John Gielgud, and Sky Dumont.

The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen (1986): As his career waned, Ollie's legend grew. He began appearing on British chat shows and making a drunken spectacle of himself, culminating in his 1991 appearance on Channel Four's After Dark in which he sparred verbally with feminist author Kate Millet, telling her "I've had more fights in pubs than you've had hot dinners," then kissing her full on the lips. And though he was brilliant in Castaway, Reed's days as a leading man were over. And so it was that he filled out the remainder of his screen career with supporting roles, such as his brief-but-memorable turn as Vulcan in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Funny Bones (1995): In another small part, Reed is nonetheless a memorably menacing presence as the heavy of the piece, gay gangster Dolly Hopkins. But, like they say, there are no small parts, only small actors. With Oliver Platt and Jerry Lewis.