ActionAdventure

The Moonraker

After the battle of Worcester at the end of the Civil War, the main aim of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth is to capture Charles Stuart. The future king's escape depends on the intrepid Earl of Dawlish, who as the Moonraker has already spirited away many Royalists. Dawlish travels to the Windwhistle Inn on the south coast to prepare the escape, where he meets Anne Wyndham, the fiancée of a top Roundhead colonel.

Release Date : 1958-08-02

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Associated British Picture Corporation

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Anthony, Earl of Dawlish/The Moonraker

Original Name : George Baker

Gender : Male

Character Name : Anne Wyndham

Original Name : Sylvia Syms

Gender : Female

Character Name : Colonel John Beaumont

Original Name : Marius Goring

Gender : Male

Character Name : Major Gregg/Edmund Tyler

Original Name : Peter Arne

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lord Harcourt

Original Name : Clive Morton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Charles Stuart

Original Name : Gary Raymond

Gender : Male

Character Name : Henry Strangeways

Original Name : Richard Leech

Gender : Male

Character Name : Judith Strangeways

Original Name : Iris Russell

Gender : Female

Character Name : Martin Strangeways

Original Name : Michael Anderson Jr.

Gender : Male

Character Name : Parfitt

Original Name : Paul Whitsun-Jones

Gender : Male

Character Name : Cromwell

Original Name : John Le Mesurier

Gender : Male

Character Name : Captain Wilcox

Original Name : Patrick Troughton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Captain Foster

Original Name : Julian Somers

Gender : Male

Character Name : Meg

Original Name : Sylvia Bidmead

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lord Dorset

Original Name : Patrick Waddington

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lady Dorset

Original Name : Fanny Rowe

Gender : Female

Character Name : Captain Lowry

Original Name : George Woodbridge

Gender : Male

Character Name : Trooper Bell

Original Name : Leslie Linder

Gender : Male

Reviews

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2025-04-15

I always enjoyed this adventure yarn when I was a kid, and despite George Baker being about as wooden as a picket fence, I think it’s still an entertaining Cavalier/Roundhead story. With King Charles I now dead, the forces of the Commonwealth are focussing on catching his heir, the new King Charles II who is being helped by a few loyal royalists to make it to the safety of France. Hot on his heels, though, are the tenacious “Col. Beaumont” (Marius Goring) and the master of disguises “Maj, Greig”. We know all along who the mysterious “Moonraker” is, and for the next eighty minutes we follow his escapades as he tries to smuggle his very valuable cargo out of harms way. It all comes to an head in a seaside inn where a coach party are gathered and where you just know the swords are going to be flourishing. Sylvia Syms, whose “Anne” just happens to be the fiancée of the pursuing Colonel is also amongst their number, though her role is reduced to one of a rather simpering character and there is a great deal of script for us to wade through here but Paul Whitsun-Jones raises his game as the amiably pompous “Parfitt” who manages to make “nincompoop” sound a great deal nastier than we are used to. It moves along nicely with plenty happening until an exciting cliff top denouement that might have come from Daphné du Maurier, and if you like your derring-do done Hammer style, then you ought to like this. I did.