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Before he became known across the galaxy as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Alex Guinness had already made a name for himself as one of British cinema's most respected actors. Best known for his work in Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Kind Hearts and Coronets, Guinness had a knack for slipping into roles that mixed dignity with absurdity. Guinness was also a regular face in the Ealing comedies, a run of post-war British films that used humor to unpick everything from class to identity.

One of those films was The Man in the White Suit, in which Guinness plays Sidney Stratton, a mild-mannered scientist who accidentally creates an ever-lasting fabric that never gets dirty. It’s part sci-fi, part satire, and completely Ealing: a small, strange story that manages to ask big questions about progress, power, and who really benefits when society moves forward.

The Man in the White...

To celebrate the release of The Lavender Hill Mob out on 4K Uhd Collector’s Edition and on Digital from 22 April – we have a 4K Uhd Collector’s Edition to give away to one lucky winner!

Studiocanal are proud to announce the release of a spectacular 4K restoration of one of the most-loved British comedies from Ealing Studios, The Lavender Hill Mob, written by T.E.B. Clarke (winner of the Best Original Screenplay Oscar), directed by Charles Crichton (A Fish Called Wanda) and starring Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway (My Fair Lady), Sid James (Carry On films) and Alfie Bass (Alfie). The enduringly funny story of a nobody bank employee’s ingenious plan to rob the Bank of England and the motley crew that he assembles to carry out the raid, will be released in UK cinemas on 29 March and as a 4K Uhd Collector’s Edition and on Digital from 22 April.

From Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Hollywood has churned out the biggest supply of sci-fi masterpieces over the past few decades. However, the British film industry’s contributions to the genre cannot be overlooked.

Even though most of the talent from the UK gets exported to America, the country has still been able to produce groundbreaking films in multiple genres, including science fiction. With a focus strictly set on movies made by British production companies and placed in the country, there are many all-time sci-fi greats to consider.

Related: 10 Worst Sci-Fi Shows With The Best Villains

The Man In The White Suit (1951) Rent on Apple TV+

The Man in the White Suit examines capitalism and “commoner versus establishment” themes through the story of Sidney Stratton, a young chemist who invents a suit that cannot catch dirt or wear out.

As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.***"Like watching Shirley Temple pull the wings off a fly," was one critic's evocative summary of A High Wind in Jamaica (1965), Alexander Mackendrick's disturbingly faithful rendition of Richard Hughes' striking novel.The book had been a passion project of Mackendrick for years, and he'd tried unsuccessfully to set it up at Ealing, the little British studio which had launched his career, but the story, in which a crew of anachronistic Victorian pirates find themselves inadvertent abductors of a family of schoolchildren, was much too strange and upsetting for producer Michael Balcon. You see, the children utterly destroy the pirates. It was a variation on the theme of "lethal innocence...

In 1961, a daring daylight robbery was committed in London, when Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington (1812-14), recently auctioned for a massive £140,000, was stolen from its new home in the capital’s National Gallery.

The story was big news – so big, in fact, that the painting was referenced in 1963’s “Dr. No,” in a scene where Sean Connery’s James Bond spots it lying about in Dr. No’s lair, as if 007’s notorious adversary were the brains behind the theft. In real life, however, the mastermind behind this grand piece of larceny was Kempton Bunton, a retired bus driver who returned the painting in 1965, claiming to have stolen it in protest at the rising cost of the TV license for old age pensioners.

These days, surprisingly little is known of Bunton and his plot, which later took even more twists and turns in the 1970s. All that is likely to change,...

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“Ealing Goes Scottish”

By Raymond Benson

The famous British studio, Ealing, made many kinds of pictures and became a major force in the U.K.’s film industry, especially after producer Michael Balcon took it over. While the studio had already made a few comedies, for some reason in the late 1940s it started producing more of them. The natures of these comedies shifted and became more intelligent, dry, and focused on underdog characters who valiantly attempt to overcome a series of obstacles. Sometimes the protagonists are successful—and sometimes not. Along the way, though, a series of misadventures occur. They range from “amusing” to “riotously funny.” It all worked, and the Ealing Comedies became a sub-genre unto themselves, especially when they starred the likes of Alec Guinness, Alastair Sim, or Stanley Holloway.

The year 1949 is generally considered the beginning of the run,...

“Testubular Bells”

By Raymond Benson

In 1951, Ealing Studios in Britain were on a roll. The so-called “Ealing Comedies,” which became a sub-genre all their own, had become a sensation, especially when the pictures starred the versatile and charismatic Alec Guinness. Earlier that same year, The Lavender Hill Mob was one of the most popular films ever released in the U.K., and it was proving to be a hit in America as well.

Following hot on the heels of Lavender Hill was The Man in the White Suit, which featured Guinness as Sidney Stratton, a brilliant but over-zealous scientist who will stop at nothing to realize his dream of creating an impervious textile.

As discussed in the supplemental documentary, “Revisiting ‘The Man in the White Suit,’” the picture was made at a time when Britain was on the precipice of “the future” in terms of technological advancements, but there was...

Alexander Mackendrick’s exhilarating pirate adventure mixes accurate history with a fine story of innocence corrupting the corrupt: Anthony Quinn’s pirate goes soft for a 12 year-old girl, and jeopardizes his highly insecure professional standing. James Coburn is superb as the first mate trying to keep the skullduggery on course with a passel of interfering kids on board. And young Deborah Baxter offers an un-sentimentalized portrait of the ordinary magic of childhood. No Summer Magic this! Region-Free German disc.

A High Wind in Jamaica

Blu-ray Caution This May be Region B only see below

Explosive Media GmbH

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date July 20, 2018 / Sturm über Jamaika / Available at Amazon.de

11.99 Euros Starring: Anthony Quinn, James Coburn, Deborah Baxter, Dennis Price, Lila Kedrova, Nigel Davenport, Isabel Dean, Kenneth J. Warren, Gert Fröbe, Vivienne Ventura

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Art Director: John Hoesli

Film Editor: Derek York

Original Music: Larry Adler

Written by Stanley Mann,...

File this great comedy under social science fiction, subheading ‘H’ for hilarious. Alec Guinness’s comic boffin hero is both a bringer of miracles and one of the most dangerous men alive. The story of Sidney Stratton, brilliant chemist and inadvertent industrial terrorist, is a consistent laugh riot. Call the jokes droll, understated, dry, and reserved, but they certainly aren’t stupid — Ealing’s high-class comedy is slapstick heaven, yet hides a lesson about modern economics that most people still haven’t learned. And Guinness’s romantic foil is the woman with the velvet-gravel voice, Joan Greenwood.

The Man in the White Suit

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 85 min. / Street Date September 3, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger, Howard Marion-Crawford, Henry Mollison, Vida Hope.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Art Direction: Jim Morahan

Film Editor: Bernard Gribble

Original Music:...

Kind Hearts & Coronets, the jewel in the crown of the legendary Ealing Studios and arguably one of the finest British films ever made, has been gloriously restored in 4K to celebrate the film’s 70th anniversary since its original release. The film returns to cinemas on June 7th and will be available in a stunning Collector’s Edition from June 24th.

To celebrate the film’s cinema release, we are offering one lucky winner the chance to take home the ultimate comedy bundle, consisting of three British comedy classics from Studiocanal’s Vintage Classics range: The Ladykillers, The Man In The White Suit, and The Happiest Days Of Your Life. The winner will also take home a brand-new Kind Hearts & Coronets poster (by illustrator Ignatius Fitzpatrick).

Kind Hearts & Coronets is a wonderfully entertaining combination of biting class satire, hilarious farce and pitch-black comedy. The film stars Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood,...

Alec Guinness would’ve celebrated his 105th birthday on April 2, 2019. The Oscar-winning performer excelled in comedy, drama, and most famously, science fiction, starring in dozens of movies before his death in 2000 at age 86. But how many of those titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1914, Guinness got his start in theater, winning a Tony for his performance in the Broadway play “Dylan.” He adapted and starred in a stage version of Charles Dickens‘ “Great Expectations,” playing the role of Herbert Pocket. Among the audience members was David Lean, who brought the book to the screen in 1946 and cast Guinness in his first movie.

SEEDavid Lean movies: All 16 films ranked worst to best

He would go on to make five more films with Lean, including the Oscar-winning “The Bridge on the River Kwai...

Alec Guinness would’ve celebrated his 105th birthday on April 2, 2019. The Oscar-winning performer excelled in comedy, drama, and most famously, science fiction, starring in dozens of movies before his death in 2000 at age 86. But how many of those titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1914, Guinness got his start in theater, winning a Tony for his performance in the Broadway play “Dylan.” He adapted and starred in a stage version of Charles Dickens‘ “Great Expectations,” playing the role of Herbert Pocket. Among the audience members was David Lean, who brought the book to the screen in 1946 and cast Guinness in his first movie.

He would go on to make five more films with Lean, including the Oscar-winning “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957) for which he won Best Actor playing the crazed British military officer Col.

Richard Brooks' exciting Humphrey Bogart picture is one of the best newspaper sagas ever. An editor deals with a gangster threat and a domestic crisis even as greedy heirs are selling his paper out from under him. Commentator Eddie Muller drives home the film's essential civics lesson about what we've lost -- a functioning free press. Deadline - U.S.A. Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 87 min. / Street Date July 26, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore, Kim Hunter, Ed Begley, Warren Stevens, Paul Stewart, Martin Gabel, Joe De Santis, Audrey Christie, Jim Backus, Willis Bouchey, Joseph Crehan, Lawrence Dobkin, John Doucette, Paul Dubov, William Forrest, Dabbs Greer, Thomas Browne Henry, Paul Maxey, Ann McCrea, Kasia Orzazewski, Tom Powers, Joe Sawyer, William Self, Phillip Terry, Carleton Young. Cinematography Milton Krasner Film Editor William B.Murphy Original Music Cyril J. Mockridge Produced by Sol C. Siegel...

Film directors trying to express themselves in East Germany had a tough row to hoe, yet quite a few of them dared to stray beyond the confines of social realism. The Defa Film Library has two new releases from 1966 that were banned and shelved before they could be finished -- and weren't seen until they were patched together in 1990. When You're Older, Dear Adam DVD Defa Film Library 1966-1990 / Color / 2:35 / 74 min. / Wenn du groß bist, lieber Adam / Street Date April, 2016 / Available from the Defa Umass Film Library / 29.95 (separate release) Starring: Stephan Jahnke, Gerry Wolff, Manfred Krug, Daisy Granados, Rolf Römer, Hanns Anselm Perten, Wolfgang Greese, Günther Simon. Cinematography Helmut Grewald Film Editor Monika Schindler Original Music Kurt Zander Written by Egon Günther, Helga Schütz Produced by Defa Directed by Egon Günther Berlin Around the Corner DVD Defa Film Library 1966-90 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / Berlin um die ecke / Street Date April,...

Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.NEWSThai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose brilliant Cemetery of Splendor will be released in the Us this spring, has revealed a new installation work, Home Movie, made for Sydney's 2016 Biennale. According to his website, "an exhibition space hosts a cave-like ritual where people gather to simply take in the light": "In this home-cave, the heat is both comfortable and threatening. A fireball is an organic-like machine with phantom fans to blow away the heat and, at the same time, rouse the fire, which is impossible to put out even in dreams."This season seems to be one of cinema masters passing. In addition to the directors who've died over the last month, we've lost two great cinematographers this week. First, Douglas Slocombe, who shot the first three Indian Jones films,...

Douglas Slocombe, the cinematographer for “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” has died. He was 103. According to Afp, his daughter Georgina confirmed his death. Slocombe received Oscar nominations for “Travels With My Aunt” in 1973, “Julia” in 1978 and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in 1982. He also shot “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “The Great Gatsby,” “The Maids” and “Rollerball,” as well as Ealing comedies including “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” “The Lavender Hill Mob” and “The Man in The White Suit.” Also Read: Harper Lee, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Author, Dies at 89 “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989) as the last film he worked on.

Constance Cummings: Stage and film actress ca. early 1940s. Constance Cummings on stage: From Sacha Guitry to Clifford Odets (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Flawless 'Blithe Spirit,' Supporter of Political Refugees.”) In the post-World War II years, Constance Cummings' stage reputation continued to grow on the English stage, in plays as diverse as: Stephen Powys (pseudonym for P.G. Wodehouse) and Guy Bolton's English-language adaptation of Sacha Guitry's Don't Listen, Ladies! (1948), with Cummings as one of shop clerk Denholm Elliott's mistresses (the other one was Betty Marsden). “Miss Cummings and Miss Marsden act as fetchingly as they look,” commented The Spectator. Rodney Ackland's Before the Party (1949), delivering “a superb performance of controlled hysteria” according to theater director and Michael Redgrave biographer Alan Strachan, writing for The Independent at the time of Cummings' death. Clifford Odets' Winter Journey / The Country Girl (1952), as...

Best British movies of all time? (Image: a young Michael Caine in 'Get Carter') Ten years ago, Get Carter, starring Michael Caine as a dangerous-looking London gangster (see photo above), was selected as the United Kingdom's very best movie of all time according to 25 British film critics polled by Total Film magazine. To say that Mike Hodges' 1971 thriller was a surprising choice would be an understatement. I mean, not a David Lean epic or an early Alfred Hitchcock thriller? What a difference ten years make. On Total Film's 2014 list, published last May, Get Carter was no. 44 among the magazine's Top 50 best British movies of all time. How could that be? Well, first of all, people would be very naive if they took such lists seriously, whether we're talking Total Film, the British Film Institute, or, to keep things British, Sight & Sound magazine. Second, whereas Total Film's 2004 list was the result of a 25-critic consensus,...

Oldest person in movies? (Photo: Manoel de Oliveira) Following the recent passing of 1931 Dracula actress Carla Laemmle at age 104, there is one less movie centenarian still around. So, in mid-June 2014, who is the oldest person in movies? Manoel de Oliveira Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira will turn 106 next December 11; he’s surely the oldest person — at least the oldest well-known person — in movies today. De Oliveira’s film credits include the autobiographical docudrama Memories and Confessions / Visita ou Memórias e Confissões (1982), with de Oliveira as himself, and reportedly to be screened publicly only after his death; The Cannibals / Os Canibais (1988); The Convent / O Convento (1995); Porto of My Childhood / Porto da Minha Infância (2001); The Fifth Empire / O Quinto Império - Ontem Como Hoje (2004); and, currently in production, O Velho do Restelo ("The Old Man of Restelo"). Among the international stars who have been directed by de Oliveira are Catherine Deneuve, Pilar López de Ayala,...

This week on Trailers from Hell, the articulate Brian Trenchard-Smith revisits Jack Arnold's 1959 comedy "The Mouse That Roared," starring Peter Sellers, in three roles, and Jean Seberg. The nearly bankrupt country of Grand Fenwick declares war on the United States in order to receive the financial aid that would be awarded the tiny country after their inevitable defeat. Unfortunately, they win. Peter Sellers stars (in three different roles) alongside Jean Seberg in this 1959 British cold-war farce written by Roger MacDougall (The Man In The White Suit) and directed by sojourning American Jack Arnold (Arnold went on to shoot an unsold TV pilot based on Mouse with Sid Caesar inheriting the roles played by Sellers). Grand Fenwick and its hapless citizenry returned in 1963's The Mouse On The Moon, directed by Richard Lester.

The nearly bankrupt country of Grand Fenwick declares war on the United States in order to receive the financial aid that would be awarded the tiny country after their inevitable defeat. Unfortunately, they win. Peter Sellers stars (in three different roles) alongside Jean Seberg in this 1959 British cold-war farce written by Roger MacDougall (The Man In The White Suit) and directed by sojourning American Jack Arnold (Arnold went on to shoot an unsold TV pilot based on Mouse with Sid Caesar inheriting the roles played by Sellers). Grand Fenwick and its hapless citizenry returned in 1963′s The Mouse On The Moon, directed by Richard Lester.

The post The Mouse that Roared appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

★★★★★Collated for the first time on Blu-ray are three films from Britain's Ealing Studios, each starring its most renowned star, Alec Guinness. In Kind Hearts and Coronets' (1949), lowly sales assistant Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) reeks terrible revenge on his mother's aristocratic relations the D'Ascoyne family (all played by Guinness), whilst The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) tells the story of Henry Holland (Guinness) an unassuming clerk at the Bank of England who plots to relieve his bosses of a small fortune. Finally in The Man in the White Suit (1951) humble inventor Henry Stratton (Guinness) creates a fibre which never gets dirty or wears out.

Feature James Clayton 7 Feb 2014 - 06:15

With the new RoboCop out now, James considers some sci-fi films that might, just might, benefit from an imaginative remake...

They remade RoboCop. I'm still finding it hard to get my head around that fact, even as I arrive at the moment I get to see the new reboot in cinemas. RoboCop remade. Paul Verhoeven's dystopian masterpiece of 1987 - the ultimate techno-tinged sociopolitical action movie - remade. Really? I mean, really?

I'm pretty sure that in ancient aeons past a divinely-appointed prophet laser-scribed "Thou shalt not remake RoboCop, creep!" on a titanium slab of commandments to be observed by obedient future generations. Nothing is sacred though and, alas, RoboCop is remade, rebooted and upgraded in line with modern filmmaking standards for today's drastically altered multimedia marketplace.

To fill you in on the details you probably already know, the PG-13 rated reboot (really?) is...

Above: 1968 Hans Hillmann poster for Shadows (John Cassavetes, USA, 1959).

There is an exhibition of the great German graphic designer Hans Hillmann currently running at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany. Devoted entirely to Hillmann’s film posters from 1952 to 1974, the show, called The Title is Continued in the Picture, runs through the 1st of September and I’m sorry that I didn’t know about it sooner. But for those of us who can’t make it to the Ruhr in the next three weeks, the website Kunst + Film has posted a wonderful, almost-as-good-as-being-there video of the show.

The revelation of the video for me is the size of that Seven Samurai poster. Where most of Hillmann’s film posters are 33" x 23" (slightly smaller than a Us one-sheet), and the Cassavetes above is only 16.5" x 23", that glorious Seven Samurai is 93" x 132", or 11 feet wide.

While many of Hillmann’s witty,...

As the Academy celebrates 85 years of great films at the Oscars on February 24th, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is set to take movie fans on the ultimate studio tour with the 2013 edition of 31 Days Of Oscar®. Under the theme Oscar by Studio, the network will present a slate of more than 350 movies grouped according to the studios that produced or released them. And as always, every film presented during 31 Days Of Oscar is an Academy Award® nominee or winner, making this annual event one of the most anticipated on any movie lover’s calendar.

As part of the network’s month-long celebration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has graciously provided the original Academy Awards® radio broadcasts from 1930-1952. Specially chosen clips from the radio archives will be featured throughout TCM’s 31 Days Of Oscar website.

Hollywood was built upon the studio system, which saw nearly ever aspect...

(Alexander Mackendrick, 1951, Studiocanal, U)

Last September marked the centenary of the birth of Alexander Mackendrick (1912-93). Born in the States, raised in Scotland, he was, with Richard Hamer, one of the two truly great products of Ealing Studios. Their output was small (each made made five movies under Michael Balcon's aegis), but distinguished and distinctive and always digging beneath Ealing's cosy Little England ethos. Oscar-nominated for its screenplay (by Mackendrick, his brother-in-law the playwright Roger MacDougall and John Dighton, Hamer's collaborator on Kind Hearts and Coronets), The Man in the White Suit is arguably Mackendrick's most trenchant comedy.

It stars Alec Guinness as Sidney Stratton, a dreamily eccentric inventor who develops an artificial fibre that's indestructible and resistant to dirt. Apparently a boon to humanity, this fabric spreads alarm in a Lancashire mill town whose prosperity the invention threatens. Management and workers unite against the starry-eyed idealist Stratton, who...

Jimmy's End | Alexander Mackendrick | Princefest | Barbican Cinemas 2 & 3

Jimmy's End, Nationwide

Alan Moore has been notoriously dismissive about movie adaptations of his comic-book masterpieces, often with good reason. V For Vendetta, Watchmen, From Hell, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: none of them have approached the power of their source material. So now Moore's gone and had a go himself. The prelude, Act Of Faith, and the half-hour Jimmy's End, are the first in what's promised to be a series of films, directed by his regular collaborator Mitch Jenkins and set in the same dreamy, non-linear world. They've generously put it online so you can try and work it out for yourself.

Alexander Mackendrick, Edinburgh

Born in the Us and raised in Scotland, Mackendrick flitted between both during his stilted but eventful career, and the best of his work combines the two national sensibilities. He's best known for his three first-class Ealing comedies: Whisky Galore!

Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) bounces from job to job at a series of textile factories, where he tries to develop a new synthetic fabric that will never wear out or stain. He believes it will change the world for the better, but when he finally succeeds he finds the factory owners against him because they will no longer need to produce or sell clothes and the work force up in arms because they will become redundant, once everyone has bought the last set of clothes they will ever need.

*****

Ealing comedies are a very particular species of film. On the one hand they have a seemingly cosy, inoffensive familiarity about them – very British, very undemanding. Yet virtually to a film we find on closer inspection that they have real bite to them. The Lavender Hill Mob, Passport to Pimlico, The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts & Coronets – all feature dark, subversive elements and this film,...

★★★★☆ In 1951, Ealing Studios headed north with The Man in the White Suit, the story of a scientist, Sidney Stratton (played by Ealing stalwart Alec Guinness), who invents a super-resistant fibre that could revolutionise the textile industry and clothe the world for eternity. We meet our young hero as he slopes around the lab of Corland's textile mill, an anonymous figure working on a seemingly madcap experiment at the vast expense of the mill owner, Michael Corland (Michael Gough). Corland is courting Daphne Birnley (a husky-voiced Joan Greenwood), daughter of neighbouring mill mogul Alan Birnley (Cecil Parker), whose money Corland is also after.

Read more »...

“And, of course, there’s the question of dyeing” —Sidney Stratton

Few candidates could be more obvious for this column than Alexander Mackendrick’s The Man in the White Suit (1951), for the film’s narrative itself is a record of the eponymous material object in time. When wacko scientist Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) invents a super-fabric that could be neither tarnished nor torn, he brings home the wrath of both the board of directors and the laborers of the company he is working for. Taking Stratton’s brainchild to the market would mean people will not buy new clothing for the rest of their lives. For the executives this implies a stock price collapse and for the workers, no more livelihood. So they pursue the only logical course of action: chase Sidney down London streets at night before he gets to the press. As all these folks dressed in black...

Lasse Hallström could have made a satirical, Ealing-style comedy, but instead his new film is simply corny froth

More Field Of Dreams than Field And Stream, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen urges us to dream big, no matter how silly or ridiculous the dream in question may be, and to swim against the current in the fearless and indomitable manner of its titular pink delicacy. In other words, it's just another damn Lasse Hallström movie, with much of the satiric energy of Paul Torday's much wiser and sharper novel drained off and replaced by the kind of corn that you expect from a surging-strings sentimentalist like Hallström.

Not that the elements for success don't abound: there are strong performances from well-cast and likable players such as Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, and Kristin Scott Thomas giving it the Mach 4, sit-up-straight aristocratic routine. Not only that, the source novel definitely...

To mark the release of Go to Blazes on DVD this Monday, 6th February, Studio Canal have given us three copies of the class movie to give away. The movie was originally released in 1962, is directed by Michael Truman and stars Maggie Smith, Dave King, Robert Morley and Daniel Massey.

For anyone who loves British comedy, Go To Blazes features an all-star cast that includes Robert Morley (The African Queen, Topkapi), Daniel Massey (In Which We Serve, The Entertainer), Dennis Price (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Rebel) and Coral Browne (Auntie Mame, Theatre of Blood).  Go To Blazes also features classic British character actors Norman Rossington (The Wrong Box, The Charge of the Light Brigade), Finlay Currie (Around The World in Eighty Days, Ben Hur) and Miles Malleson (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Man In The White Suit). And last but not least, Go To Blazes stars Dame Maggie Smith...

Empire Magazine has issued the a list of what they determine to be the 100 Best British Films of All-Time and as far as how they decided "What was a British film?" it seems sort of arbitrary in some cases as the Terry Gilliam-directed Brazil and Michelangelo Antonioni-directed Blow-Up both make the list despite the helmers being of American and Italian descent. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 appears on the list as well, despite being a big Hollywood production. I'm not sure if you'll be nitpicking on those facts too hard though as I'm sure the overall placement of the films will bother you more in some cases. Personally, looking over the list there are a few films I just plain don't like. I know it's not popular to say it, but I don't like Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now and it's ranked number four...

When given the opportunity to interview John Landis, I had to take it. After all, this is a man whose films I’ve grown up on (The Blues Brothers may very well be my most-watched movie of all time), so the idea of talking to him was pretty thrilling. Thankfully, it turns out that he’s a great conversationalist.

While we started off with his latest project, Burke and Hare, the discussion soon veered toward the creative state of Hollywood, as well as what he has planned next. There are many other places we could have gone, but I think that the ensuing talk was both informative and enlightening.

Without further ado:

How did this material get into your hands?

John Landis: I was visiting my friend, Gurinder Chadha, who is an English director. Do you know Gurinder?

I don’t know if I do.

You know a movie called Bend It Like Beckham?...

(Alexander Mackendrick, 1965, PG, Eureka!)

Alexander Mackendrick made several of Ealing Studios' finest films (Whisky Galore, The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers among them), but only two of his post-Ealing pictures approach greatness. One is the devastating attack on demagogic journalism, Sweet Smell of Success (1957), the other his neglected version of Richard Hughes's 1929 novel, A High Wind in Jamaica, a book that anticipated Lord of the Flies.

Superficially an exciting nautical adventure yarn, the subtle, psychological fable centres on a party of Victorian children, captured by Caribbean pirates on their way to England, who send their accidental captors to the gallows. Its real theme is a continuing preoccupation of Mackendrick's, the idea of innocence as a destructive force rather than a simple virtue, and the children come over as merciless, unaccountable subversives. As the chief pirates, Anthony Quinn and James Coburn head an excellent cast.

Douglas Slocombe...

Throughout the classic comedies produced by Ealing Studios in the ’40s and ’50s run both a lightness of touch and a subtly unsentimental look at human character. Their classics all involve crime and greed: for money and the freedom that comes with it in The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob, for money and social standing in Kinds Hearts and Coronets. But the (amateur) criminals in the latter two are gentlemen; very English and very charming. In The Ladykillers, the gentility is merely a disguise for professional criminals. Often, the apparent civility of polite society helps their characters veil their repressed, anarchic sides.

The first of Ealing’s run of classic comedies – which also includes The Man in the White Suit and Passport to Pimlico – was Whisky Galore!, the first movie directed by Boston-born Scotsman Alexander Mackendrick. It was produced by Ealing’s legendary Michael Balcon and co-edited by Charles Crichton,...

“Time stands still, here in the Valley” - Mr Rhys the Innkeeper.

When we think of the legacy of Ealing Studios, film fans will always remember the classic comedies Passport to Pimlico (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Man in the White Suit (1951). Long considered the Studios' finest cinema achievements, the beauty of an Ealing comedy is its realist style. Whereas The Carry On films and the Boulting Brothers relied on caricature, Ealing always focused on the ordinary man, notably Stanley Holloway and Alec Guinness, being placed in an extraordinary situation.

Such was their comedy success it’s easy to forget that Ealing dabbled in more serious, and at times, much darker stuff. Horror was never a genre associated with the studio, although the black humour of the excellent Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) - with its imaginative murders - pre-dated the ghoulish Theatre of Blood (1973) by nearly 25 years; and yet...

Actor with poise and presence, best known as Alfred the butler in Tim Burton's Batman

The actor Michael Gough, who has died aged 94, was an arresting presence on stage, television and film for the entire postwar period, notably as the butler Alfred Pennyworth in Tim Burton's Batman movies. Eventually he just voiced roles, as with the Dodo Bird in the same director's Alice in Wonderland film last year, but always to striking effect.

Gough started in the Old Vic company in London before the second world war, but it took till 1946 for his career proper to get off to a flying start in the West End, in Frederick Lonsdale's But for the Grace of God. The fistfight-to-the-death scene was done with such startling verisimilitude that nearly all the stage furniture was demolished nightly, and Gough broke three ribs and injured the base of his spine. So copiously...

Michael Gough, whose only important role in his 60-year career — if news reports are to be believed — seems to have been that of Batman's butler in Tim Burton's 1989 film and its sequels, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin, died earlier today. Gough was either 93 or 94, depending on the source. Those whose idea of movie history is restricted to Hollywood blockbusters made in the last three decades would have no idea — and wouldn't care less, really — that among Gough's other film credits, almost invariably in supporting roles, are Julien Duvivier's hauntingly beautiful version of Anna Karenina (1948), starring Vivien Leigh; Alexander Mackendrick's brilliant comedy The Man in the White Suit (1951), with Alec Guinness; Joseph Losey's superb class drama The Go-Between (1971), as Julie Christie's father (a role that earned him a Best Supporting Actor British Academy Award nomination); and a series of cult [...]...

Filed under: Celebrity Interviews

Some say The Stig fell to Earth from a speeding meteorite and landed behind the wheel of a Koenigsegg Ccx before the producers of the successful BBC car show 'Top Gear' chose him to be their mute racing driver.

Others said he was actually a clone combination of seven race car drivers, chemically and genetically designed to drive everything from a fully-tweaked Lamgorgini Murcelagio to a gas-powered snowmobile down a steep ski jump ramp.

But Jeremy Clarkson, the colorful and outspoken 'Top Gear' host, called him a "greedy twat."

Ben Collins, the Formula Three circuit, British Gt Championship and Le Mans Series racing driver, was revealed as The Stig thi ssummer thanks to a British high court ruling. Collins finally got to speak of his time as The Stig in a new book called 'The Man in the White Suit,'...

Review by Dane Marti

Directed by Paul Cotter, this U.K./U.S. co-production is possibly my favorite of the recent films I.ve seen for the festival: Bomber reminds me of the great Ealing films of the postwar 1940′s and 1950′s British films that were done with such skill, such cunning and such undeniable precision to craft that it often made the yank.s Hollywood work of the same period appear gaudy by comparison. Ealing did such quality work as the inspired genius of ‘Kind Heart and Coronets,’ ‘The Lavender Hill Mob’ ‘The Man in the White Suit’ and the original ‘Ladykillers,’ among many other great works.

Like, The End, the Hungarian film that I recently enjoyed, this clever flick also deals with an elderly couple. Is something in the water? Are the elderly the next Big Thing in cinematic entertainment? Move over Justin Timberlake! Yep, that.s correct,...

Frank Skinner's Opinionated, 30 Rock, Charlie Brooker and the UK bow for The Prisoner lead this week's TV highlights. Plus lots of movies too...

Frequenters of the site will be aware that we're friends of the comedians and often voice our appreciation of anything that can give us a giggle. News and current events usually don't. So, we welcome the arrival of Frank Skinner's Opinionated tonight, Friday, April 16th at 10:00pm on BBC2, a show that brings guest comedians to studio audiences around the country to talk about topical stuff. We're of the mind that if you can't laugh, you'd often cry at today's goings on, so any help in that area is promptly ticked on our telly timetables.

On Saturday, April 17th, a show that is perhaps unwise to be shown in pubs will air at 9:30pm on ITV. We say that as it's the reimagining of The Prisoner,...

While his brutal love letter to the English folk tale An American Werewolf in London nears its 30th anniversary John Landis is preparing a similarly gruesome tale to tell, and tonight we’ve learned from Bloody Disgusting that outgoing Doctor Who David Tennant is joining Hollywood’s favourite Brit Simon Pegg in Burke and Hare.

Telling the nefarious narrative of the eponymous duo sounds right up Landis’ dark alley. Taking advantage of the booming anatomy business the pair conspired and murdered seventeen people and kept the medical colleges of Edinburgh stocked with fresh corpses. It should come as no surprise to be told that this will be the darkest of black comedies.

If this isn’t enough to raise a grim smile then the fact that this film will be produced by the historic Ealing studios, home to The Ladykillers, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Man in the White Suit.