Philip Leacock

Directing

Philip Leacock

Born — Died

1917-10-08 — 1990-07-14

Place of birth

London, United Kingdom

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

Philip David Charles Leacock (8 October 1917 – 14 July 1990) was an English television and film director and producer. His brother was documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock. Born in London, England, Leacock spent his childhood in the Canary Islands. He began his career directing documentaries and later turned to fiction films. He was known for his films about children, particularly The Kidnappers (US: The Little Kidnappers, 1953), which gained Honorary Juvenile Acting Oscars for two of its performers, and The Spanish Gardener (1956) starring Dirk Bogarde. He also directed Innocent Sinners (1958) with Flora Robson, The Rabbit Trap (1959) with Ernest Borgnine, and The War Lover (1962) with S…

Known for

Firecreek poster
6.2

A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.

Firecreek

1968

The War Lover poster
6.0

Buzz Rickson is a dare-devil World War II bomber pilot with a death wish. Failing at everything not involving flying, Rickson lives for the most dangerous missions. His crew lives with this aspect of his personality only because they know he always brings them back alive.

The War Lover

1962

Take a Giant Step poster
5.2

After African-American teenager Spence Scott gets expelled from his private school for arguing with a teacher, he turns to his grandmother for advice. Spence, who lives in a genteel white area and has mostly white friends, feels like an outsider. He visits a bar in a black neighborhood, where he meets a few prostitutes, which doesn't help. Eventually, Spence starts a friendship with the housekeeper, Christine, who tells him her own difficult story.

Take a Giant Step

1959

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb poster
4.8

Egyptologist Robin Ellis and American reporter Eva Marie Saint uncover King Tut's burial site but wealthy profiteer Raymond Burr tries to make sure that the valuable artifacts in its chambers never leave the country.

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb

1980

Tamahine poster
5.0

The headmaster of a stuffy British boys' school receives a surprise visit from the now-grown, and very voluptuous, daughter he fathered years earlier in the Pacific islands.

Tamahine

1963

13 West Street poster
6.1

Walt Sherill is attacked and beat down by a group of juvenile delinquents on his way home from work one night. The boys who attacked him are not previously known by the police and are therefore hard to track down. As Sherill starts getting impatient he begins his own investigation. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Koleski does his best to track down the culprits.

13 West Street

1962

Behind the camera

Firecreek poster
6.2

A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.

Firecreek

1968

The War Lover poster
6.0

Buzz Rickson is a dare-devil World War II bomber pilot with a death wish. Failing at everything not involving flying, Rickson lives for the most dangerous missions. His crew lives with this aspect of his personality only because they know he always brings them back alive.

The War Lover

1962

Take a Giant Step poster
5.2

After African-American teenager Spence Scott gets expelled from his private school for arguing with a teacher, he turns to his grandmother for advice. Spence, who lives in a genteel white area and has mostly white friends, feels like an outsider. He visits a bar in a black neighborhood, where he meets a few prostitutes, which doesn't help. Eventually, Spence starts a friendship with the housekeeper, Christine, who tells him her own difficult story.

Take a Giant Step

1959

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb poster
4.8

Egyptologist Robin Ellis and American reporter Eva Marie Saint uncover King Tut's burial site but wealthy profiteer Raymond Burr tries to make sure that the valuable artifacts in its chambers never leave the country.

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb

1980

Tamahine poster
5.0

The headmaster of a stuffy British boys' school receives a surprise visit from the now-grown, and very voluptuous, daughter he fathered years earlier in the Pacific islands.

Tamahine

1963

13 West Street poster
6.1

Walt Sherill is attacked and beat down by a group of juvenile delinquents on his way home from work one night. The boys who attacked him are not previously known by the police and are therefore hard to track down. As Sherill starts getting impatient he begins his own investigation. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Koleski does his best to track down the culprits.

13 West Street

1962

Hand in Hand poster
7.2

Seven-year-olds Michael and Rachel are best friends who do everything together and who have vowed to remain friends "forever and ever and can't be parted for never and never". Unfortunately, the society that Michael and Rachel live in is one of religious intolerance. The fact that Michael is Irish Catholic and Rachel is Jewish is a point of conflict for just about everyone in the community.

Hand in Hand

1961

Key West poster
8.0

A former CIA agent and his friend, operating a charter boat service in Florida, find themselves the target of an eccentric millionaire with a score to settle.

Key West

1973

Let No Man Write My Epitaph poster
5.9

Nick Romano lives in a poor tenement building on the south side of Chicago with his well-meaning but drug-addicted mother, Nellie. She encourages him to pursue his piano-playing talent in hopes that it will bring him a better life. Nellie's neighbors, like the alcoholic ex-lawyer who secretly loves her, help her in keeping Nick away from Louie, the resident drug dealer. But a chance meeting between Nick and Louie could change things forever.

Let No Man Write My Epitaph

1960

The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch poster
3.0

It's quiet in Chastity Gulch, a small town in the Wild West. The men of the village are all in the army and fight their battles far away. The women are getting very bored! At once a bunch of robbers drops into the saloon. They love the beer but are also looking for beautiful women. Will the town whores keep these delightful men for themselves or will the doctor's wife and the mayor's wife also get a part of the fun?

The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch

1982

The Daughters of Joshua Cabe poster
5.5

Due to a home-steading law, a fur trapper schemes to keep his land by hiring a hooker, a pickpocket and a thief to pose as his family.

The Daughters of Joshua Cabe

1972

The Great Man's Whiskers poster
8.0

A young girl writes to President Abraham Lincoln to advise him to grow a beard.

The Great Man's Whiskers

1972

The Rabbit Trap poster
6.6

A man must choose between work or his family after he is called back to work during a family vacation. He and his son have set a harmless rabbit trap in the woods near the cabin they are vacationing in. When the family returns home they realize that they forget to retrieve the trap and the son fears that a rabbit will be captured and die a slow death from starvation. The man is in line for a promotion, yet feels that he is under appreciated by his boss. He must choose whether or not to follow his instincts and do the right thing or possibly lose the promotion he has worked long and hard for.

The Rabbit Trap

1959

Innocent Sinners poster
7.5

A neglected girl in post-World War II London befriends street urchins who help her build a tiny garden in a bombed-out church.

Innocent Sinners

1958

Three Sovereigns for Sarah poster
NR

Nineteen people were hanged and one man pressed to death, while hundreds went to jail during the "witch hysteria" of 1692. THREE SOVEREIGNS FOR SARAH offers an accurate portrayal of the Salem witch trials, with real characters and original transcripts woven into the dialogue. The film is a powerful, moving story about three loving sisters accused of witchcraft.

Three Sovereigns for Sarah

1985

Dying Room Only poster
6.6

A married couple are traveling on a deserted desert road at night. They stop at a diner and the husband goes to the men's room. He never returns and the wife begins to suspect serious foul play.

Dying Room Only

1973

Killer on Board poster
5.9

The passengers on a cruise ship are seized by panic when a deadly virus begins killing off passengers and crew.

Killer on Board

1977

Escapade poster
5.6

An English pacifist's (John Mills) sons run away from school and hijack a plane to Vienna to petition for peace.

Escapade

1955

The Waltons: A Decade of the Waltons poster
7.8

A docudrama of the classic series. Almost like another episode of the series as a photo album presented to Grandma as a present spurs memories, presented via flashbacks from the series' first eight seasons. Waltons creator Earl Hamner recounts bringing his life to television.

The Waltons: A Decade of the Waltons

1980

Angel City poster
6.0

Jared Teeter has to work in a forced labor camp in Florida to make ends meet. "Angel City" is no place for the faint of heart.

Angel City

1980

Reach for Glory poster
5.7

During World War II, teenage boys in a small English town are consumed with jingoism and brutal war games, hoping dearly that the war won't end before they can fight in it.

Reach for Glory

1962

The Birdmen poster
7.7

During WWII an American soldier sent to Norway to help with the escape of a scientist working on the atomic bomb for the Germans. Before they can escape they are captured and sent to a POW prison camp in an alpine castle. Cook must find a way to escape with the scientist before the Gestapo discover the Norwegian's true identity and convinces the other prisoners to build a two person glider in which they plan to escape.

The Birdmen

1973

Adam's Woman poster
6.9

Adam is a young American wrongly accused of being an accomplice to murder while on shore leave in Liverpool. He is sentenced to death by hanging but the sentence is commuted to twenty years in a convict settlement in Australia.

Adam's Woman

1970

Life in Her Hands poster
7.0

A woman blames herself for her husband's death. To overcome her grief and her guilt she becomes a nurse but then a patient dies while under her care.

Life in Her Hands

1951

The Two Lives of Carol Letner poster
9.0

A former call-girl who has left the profession behind to pursue a college career is recruited by the police to turn one more trick in order to trap the person laundering syndicate money.

The Two Lives of Carol Letner

1981

Wild and Wooly poster
7.0

A Western adventure — a "Charlie's Angels" on horseback — involving three comely females who meet in a territorial prison, engineer a daring escape, and find themselves in a race against time to prevent the assassination of Teddy Roosevelt.

Wild and Wooly

1978

Baffled! poster
5.6

Tom Kovack is a hard-nosed racecar driver until a sudden supernatural vision causes a near-fatal crash while he's hurtling down the backstretch at 140 miles per hour. Michele Brent is the woman who convinces Kovack that his visions are significant. She leads him to the manor house that appeared in his vision, which in turn leads him into a world of revenge and murder from beyond the grave. Kovack must tap into his newfound power to conquer the evil forces at work.

Baffled!

1973

Baffled! poster
5.6

Tom Kovack is a hard-nosed racecar driver until a sudden supernatural vision causes a near-fatal crash while he's hurtling down the backstretch at 140 miles per hour. Michele Brent is the woman who convinces Kovack that his visions are significant. She leads him to the manor house that appeared in his vision, which in turn leads him into a world of revenge and murder from beyond the grave. Kovack must tap into his newfound power to conquer the evil forces at work.

Baffled!

1973

When Michael Calls poster
5.7

A woman begins to receive ominous phone calls from her nephew, who died 15 years earlier. With each phone call, a family member dies. Will she be the next in line?

When Michael Calls

1972

The Brave Don't Cry poster
6.0

At Balloch Moss mine in Scotland, water comes through a seam bringing a torrent of mud into the mine and flooding the pit shaft, resulting in 118 men being trapped, with nine missing. The only means by which the rescue team can bring the men out is through some old abandoned workings which are now full of gas and thus will cause delays in any rescue attempt.

The Brave Don't Cry

1952

The Spanish Gardener poster
6.3

Harrington Brande, a British diplomat who recently broke up with his wife, is stationed in a small coastal town in Spain with his son, Nicholas. Harrington is unreasonably possessive of Nicholas and becomes jealous when he begins to form a close friendship with Jose, their gentle gardener.

The Spanish Gardener

1956

High Tide at Noon poster
6.2

After returning home to a rugged island near Nova Scotia, Joanna, daughter of the local bigwig, struggles to choose between three eligible bachelors -- the rebel, the steadfast friend and the poetry-quoting newcomer. As the local lobster supply dwindles due to overfishing, the island's inhabitants encounter economic difficulties.

High Tide at Noon

1957

The Kidnappers poster
6.7

After losing their father in the Boer War, orphaned brothers Harry and Davy must leave their home in Scotland to live with their grandmother and cantankerous grandfather in Nova Scotia. The boys want nothing more than a pet dog, but their grandfather refuses to get them one. Then, when the brothers find an abandoned baby, they decide to keep it – but the foundling may not have been abandoned after all.

The Kidnappers

1953

Riders of the New Forest poster
7.0

Two children attempt to tame a wild New forest pony in this jolly kids' adventure. When they befriend local farm hand, Davy, the children begin to suspect he may be a horse thief.

Riders of the New Forest

1948

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Summer Holiday

1973

Appointment in London poster
6.5

Wing-commander Tim Mason leads a squadron of Lancaster bombers on almost nightly raids from England. Having flown eighty-seven missions he will shortly be retiring from flying, but the strain is showing. He tries to make sure his men concentrate only on their job and so keeps women away from the base, but then he himself meets naval officer Eve Canyon.

Appointment in London

1953

No artwork available
NR

A short documentary charting the course of the seasons and the ongoing work at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew Gardens, London.

Secrets of Kew Gardens

1937

No artwork available
2.0

This one-reel film was produced during the middle of the Second World War. It purports to offer a portrait of the British people, in broad and in fine. It shows them as hard-working, serious people five and a half days a week; on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, they pursue their private interests, whether they be following a football team, spending time with the family or chatting amiably at the pub while the pretty barmaid draws a fresh beer.

Island People

1940

Out of True poster
6.0

A BAFTA award nominated fictional drama about young Molly Slade who awakens one morning in a depressed state that gradually leads to a complete nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt. It was made as an educational film.

Out of True

1951

No artwork available
NR

A documentary short on The Festival in London.

The Festival in London

1951