One of several features pairing British screen sweetheart Anna Neagle with the ever-popular Michael Wilding, this jaunty 'upstairs-downstairs' romantic comedy could hardly have failed to triumph at the box-office, and Spring in Park Lane would indeed prove the most successful British film of 1948 - its fairytale scenes and witty reversal of social roles offering cinemagoers a welcome antidote to post-war austerity. The film, which also marked another major success for Neagle's husband, direct.
Directed by Charles Crichton, who would much later direct John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda (1988), 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob is the most ruefully thrilling of the Ealing Comedies. Alec Guinness plays a bowler-hatted escort of bullion to the refineries. His seeming timidity, weak 'r's and punctiliousness mask a typically Guinness-like patient cunning. "I was aware I was widiculed but that was pwecisely the effect I was stwiving to achieve". He's actually plotting a heist. With more conventionally cockney villains Sid James and Alfie Bass in tow, as well as the respectable but ruined Stanley Holloway, Guinness' perfect criminal plan works in exquisite detail, then unravels just as exquisitely, culminating in a nail-biting police car chase in which you can't help rooting for the villains. The Lavender Hill Mob depicts a London still up to its knees in rubble from World War II, a world of new hope but continued austerity, a budding new order in which everything seems up for grabs; as such it could be regarded as a lighter hearted cinematic cousin to Carol Reed's 1949 masterpiece The Third Man. The Lavender Hill Mob also sees the first, fleeting on-screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn in the opening sequence. --David Stubbs
Four of the British film industry's best-loved comedies in one box set makes The Ealing Comedy Collection absolutely essential for anyone who has any passion at all for movies. The set contains Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955). Ealing's greatest comedies captured the essence of post-war Britain, both in their evocation of a land once blighted by war but now rising doggedly and optimistically again from the ashes, and in their mordant yet graceful humour. They portray a country with an antiquated class system whose crumbling conventions are being undermined by a new spirit of individual opportunism. In the delightfully wicked Kind Hearts and Coronets, a serial killer politely murders his way into the peerage; in The Lavender Hill Mob a put-upon bank clerk schemes to rob his employers; The Man in the White Suit is a harshly satirical depiction of idealism crushed by the status quo; while The Ladykillers mocks both the criminals and the authorities with its unlikely octogenarian heroine Mrs "lop-sided" Wilberforce. Many factors contribute to the success of these films--including fine music scores from composers such as Benjamin Frankel (Man in the White Suit) and Tristram Cary (The Ladykillers); positively symphonic sound effects (White Suit); marvellously evocative locations (the environs of King's Cross in Ladykillers, for example); and writing that always displays Ealing's unique perspective on British social mores ("All the exuberance of Chaucer without, happily, any of the concomitant crudities of his period")--yet arguably their greatest asset is Alec Guinness, whose multifaceted performances are the keystone upon which Ealing built its biting, often macabre, yet always elegant comedy. On the DVD: The Ealing Comedy Collection presents the four discs in a fold-out package with postcards of the original poster artwork for each. Aside from theatrical trailers on each disc there are no extra features, which is a pity given the importance of these films. The Ladykillers is in muted Technicolor and presented in 1.66:1 ratio, the three earlier films are all black and white 1.33:1. Sound is perfectly adequate mono throughout. --Mark Walker
An invitation to a country retreat unleashes hidden passions in this witty adaptation of Esther McCracken's famous wartime stage comedy. Billed The Film of the Play that beat the Blitz! , Quiet Weekend reunites Silent Dust's Derek Farr with Marjorie Fielding and Frank Cellier, reprising their roles from the 1941 hit Quiet Wedding; released in 1946, it is featured here in a brand-new digital transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Arthur and Mildred Royd invite some friends for a quiet weekend in the country. Among the guests is a middle-aged magistrate too shy to propose to the woman he loves, and young Miranda not too shy at all to show her affections for distant cousin Denys Royd, ten years her senior. The arrival of an abrasive London sophisticate puts the cat among the pigeons, but worse is to come when Arthur and the magistrate find their fishing trip turning into a salmon-poaching spree...
Mandy Garland was born deaf and has been mute for all of her life. Her parents believe she is able to speak if she can only be taught and enroll her with a special teacher.
The touching story of a young girl who was born deaf and the tussle between her parents over how she should be educated.
Directed by Charles Crichton, who would much later direct John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda (1988), 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob is the most ruefully thrilling of the Ealing Comedies. Alec Guinness plays a bowler-hatted escort of bullion to the refineries. His seeming timidity, weak 'r's and punctiliousness mask a typically Guinness-like patient cunning. "I was aware I was widiculed but that was pwecisely the effect I was stwiving to achieve". He's actually plotting a heist. With more conventionally cockney villains Sid James and Alfie Bass in tow, as well as the respectable but ruined Stanley Holloway, Guinness' perfect criminal plan works in exquisite detail, then unravels just as exquisitely, culminating in a nail-biting police car chase in which you can't help rooting for the villains. The Lavender Hill Mob depicts a London still up to its knees in rubble from World War II, a world of new hope but continued austerity, a budding new order in which everything seems up for grabs; as such it could be regarded as a lighter hearted cinematic cousin to Carol Reed's 1949 masterpiece The Third Man. The Lavender Hill Mob also sees the first, fleeting on-screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn in the opening sequence. --David Stubbs
Michael Denison and Dulcie Grey formed one of postwar Britain’s most popular screen pairings and they lead an impressive cast in this adaptation of Josephine Tey’s novel of 1958 – named among the ‘Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time’ by the British Crime Writers’ Association. A mystery based on real-life events The Franchise Affair has been adapted several times for film radio and television; this 1950 adaptation is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Young lawyer Robert Blair is called on in desperation by two women mother and daughter who live in a large isolated house known as The Franchise and have been questioned by the police in connection with a peculiar accusation. As feelings in the local village run high the police build up a case on a formidable amount of circumstantial evidence – against which Blair can put only the improbability of the charge and some unsuccessful amateur detection… Special Features: Image Gallery Original Promotional Materials PDFs
Directed by Charles Crichton, who would much later direct John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda (1988), 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob is the most ruefully thrilling of the Ealing Comedies. Alec Guinness plays a bowler-hatted escort of bullion to the refineries. His seeming timidity, weak 'r's and punctiliousness mask a typically Guinness-like patient cunning. "I was aware I was widiculed but that was pwecisely the effect I was stwiving to achieve". He's actually plotting a heist. With more conventionally cockney villains Sid James and Alfie Bass in tow, as well as the respectable but ruined Stanley Holloway, Guinness' perfect criminal plan works in exquisite detail, then unravels just as exquisitely, culminating in a nail-biting police car chase in which you can't help rooting for the villains. The Lavender Hill Mob depicts a London still up to its knees in rubble from World War II, a world of new hope but continued austerity, a budding new order in which everything seems up for grabs; as such it could be regarded as a lighter hearted cinematic cousin to Carol Reed's 1949 masterpiece The Third Man. The Lavender Hill Mob also sees the first, fleeting on-screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn in the opening sequence. --David Stubbs
Few actors could be better suited than David Tomlinson for the role of a doltish viscount unintentionally entangled in politics and this brisk 1949 satire was a huge success both for the accomplished character player and his similarly gifted co-stars Cecil Parker and eighty-year-old film veteran A.E. Matthews. The Chiltern Hundreds is directed by John Paddy Carstairs - whose later career encompassed a string of box-office hits with the likes of Frankie Howerd Norman Wisdom and Tommy Steele - and is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements. Young Viscount Tony Pym wangles National Service leave on the pretext of standing as a Tory candidate for a local seat held by his family for generations. The request is a ruse to enable Pym to marry his wealthy American fiancée while she's still in England but his masterplan backfires when he finds himself swept into an election campaign and beaten by Labour's Mr Cleghorn - who is then made a peer. In an attempt to save face Pym decides to stand again - as a socialist. It all proves too much for the Pyms' loyal true-blue butler Mr Beecham... Special Features: Image Gallery
Mandy Garland was born deaf and has been mute for all of her life. Her parents believe she is able to speak if she can only be taught and enroll her with a special teacher.
Mr. Holland (Alec Guinness) has supervised the bank's bullion run for years. He is fussy and unnecessarily overprotective but everyone knows he is absolutely trustworthy. And so on the day the bullion truck is robbed he is the last person to be suspected. But there is another side to Mr. Holland; he is also Dutch the leader of the Lavender Hill Mob. Prolific Ealing writer T.E.B. Clarke won an Oscar for his deft script but he was helped greatly by the precise direction and impeccable timing of director Charles Crichton and by the brilliance of Alec Guinness's performance. When he tries to recruit Mr. Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway) as Pendlebury chips away at one of his sculptures Guinness circles Holloway playfully seducing him into the idea of robbery and as Holloway finally understands the proposition Guinness looks back over his shoulder like some elfin Lucifer. When the mob goes over its robbery plans Guinness insists on a detail and Shorty (Alfie Bass) acknowledges that Guinness is the boss. Guinness concentrating agrees. Then as he relaxes and eases back in his chair Guinness sheds his years of servitude to the bank - Dutch Holland is indeed the boss...
The story of three successive marriages, told in flashback, Portrait of Clare features a memorably engaging central performance from Sydney-born actress Margaret Johnston, with Richard Todd, Robin Bailey and Ronald Howard as the men with whom she has shared joy, sorrow and bitterness. Directed by Lance Comfort, an under-appreciated British talent whose work is receiving a long-overdue critical reappraisal, the film is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. At the age of sixty-eight, Clare is helping her son Steven, now Lord Wolverbury, arrange her granddaughter's engagement party even though Steven and Clare believe the young girl to be marrying on the rebound. Clare questions her and, finding she is not really in love, begins to tell the story of her own life and loves...SPECIAL FEATURES:Image galleryOriginal pressbook PDF
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