Best of British
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Francois Truffaut : Isn't there a certain incompatibility between the terms 'cinema' and 'Britain'? This might sound far-fetched, but I get the feeling that there are national characteristics — among them, the English countryside, the subdued way of life, the stolid routine - that are anti-dramatic in a sense. The weather itself is anti-cinematic. Even British humor - that very understatement on which so many of the good crime comedies are hinged — is somehow a deterrent to strong emotion .
Variety ( reviewing The Lodger 1932 ) : They can make pictures in England - the only point for discussion is why they do not make them oftener .
The old joke used to be that Britain had the best intelligence service in the world... shame it was working for the Russians . Britain has the best film industry in the world , it's just called Hollywood - Chaplin , Stan Laurel , Hitchcock , Charles Laughton , James Whale , Ridley Scott , Christopher Nolan etc etc etc etc .
Too often British films were cheap , or looked cheap , were far too middle class , with too many silly accents ( most of which were assumed - many of the actors weren't actually that posh ! ) , too many stage plays put on film , no working class people . It didn't help having most of the stars poached by Hollywood , either .
Then we had World War Two stiff upper lipped to death for thirty years ( and counting ) .
For years ( the seventies and eighties at least ) the best stuff was on television . Sometimes things were made even worse when they tried to "do Hollywood " , and in more recent years Merchant Ivory and the Jane Austen industry , bloody rom coms , mockney gangsters , and umpteen horror movies .
These are the films that stood out , good enough for Hollywood , or good enough to be French / European films . Plus the better comedies - we made far too many lightweight ones in the fifties , and then too much Carry On - culminating in the absolute nadir of British Cinema - the so called sex comedies of the seventies - both things being completely absent .
best viewed chronologically
Francois Truffaut : Isn't there a certain incompatibility between the terms 'cinema' and 'Britain'? This might sound far-fetched, but I get the feeling that there are national characteristics — among them, the English countryside, the subdued way of life, the stolid routine - that are anti-dramatic in a sense. The weather itself is anti-cinematic. Even British humor - that very understatement on which so many of the good crime comedies are hinged — is somehow a deterrent to strong emotion .
Variety ( reviewing The Lodger 1932 ) : They can make pictures in England - the only point for discussion is why they do not make them oftener .
The old joke used to be that Britain had the best intelligence service in the world... shame it was working for the Russians . Britain has the best film industry in the world , it's just called Hollywood - Chaplin , Stan Laurel , Hitchcock , Charles Laughton , James Whale , Ridley Scott , Christopher Nolan etc etc etc etc .
Too often British films were cheap , or looked cheap , were far too middle class , with too many silly accents ( most of which were assumed - many of the actors weren't actually that posh ! ) , too many stage plays put on film , no working class people . It didn't help having most of the stars poached by Hollywood , either .
Then we had World War Two stiff upper lipped to death for thirty years ( and counting ) .
For years ( the seventies and eighties at least ) the best stuff was on television . Sometimes things were made even worse when they tried to "do Hollywood " , and in more recent years Merchant Ivory and the Jane Austen industry , bloody rom coms , mockney gangsters , and umpteen horror movies .
These are the films that stood out , good enough for Hollywood , or good enough to be French / European films . Plus the better comedies - we made far too many lightweight ones in the fifties , and then too much Carry On - culminating in the absolute nadir of British Cinema - the so called sex comedies of the seventies - both things being completely absent .
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- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsJohn ClementsRalph RichardsonC. Aubrey SmithA British Army officer resigns, burning his last-day summons to war in the Sudan. Accusing him of cowardice, his girlfriend and three friends give him white feathers. To gain redemption, he shadows his friends to save their lives.
- DirectorCy EndfieldStarsStanley BakerJack HawkinsUlla JacobssonOutnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsMargaret LockwoodMichael RedgravePaul LukasWhile travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
- DirectorMichael PowellStarsKarlheinz BöhmAnna MasseyMoira ShearerA young man murders women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror.
- DirectorJohn BoultingStarsRichard AttenboroughHermione BaddeleyWilliam HartnellIn Brighton in 1935, small-time gang leader Pinkie Brown murders a journalist and later desperately tries to cover his tracks but runs into trouble with the police, a few witnesses, and a rival gang.
- DirectorsMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsDavid NivenKim HunterRobert CooteA British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
- DirectorsMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsRoger LiveseyDeborah KerrAnton WalbrookFrom the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsVanessa RedgraveOliver ReedDudley SuttonIn 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier's protection of the city of Loudun from the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu is undermined by a sexually repressed nun's accusation of witchcraft.
- DirectorRobin HardyStarsEdward WoodwardChristopher LeeDiane CilentoA puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
- DirectorWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsRaymond MasseyEdward ChapmanRalph RichardsonThe story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.
- DirectorsLothar MendesAlexander KordaStarsRoland YoungRalph RichardsonEdward ChapmanAn ordinary man suddenly finds that anything he says comes true. Or at least, almost anything.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsSylvia SidneyOscar HomolkaDesmond TesterA Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJohn GielgudMadeleine CarrollRobert YoungAfter three British Agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsNova PilbeamDerrick De MarneyPercy MarmontA man on the run from a murder charge enlists the help of a beautiful stranger who must put herself at risk for his cause.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsLeslie BanksEdna BestPeter LorreAn ordinary British couple vacationing in Switzerland suddenly find themselves embroiled in a case of international intrigue when their daughter is kidnapped by spies plotting a political assassination.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenAlida ValliPulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsJames MasonRobert NewtonCyril CusackA wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsJames MasonClaire BloomHildegard KnefIn post-WW2 Berlin, when travel to the East was still possible, the sister of a British officer from West Berlin is abducted by Communist agents and taken into the Soviet sector where her eventual rescue is arranged by a German smuggler.
- DirectorArthur B. WoodsStarsEmlyn WilliamsAnna KonstamAllan JeayesA convict, just out of prison, is implicated in a murder and goes on the run, hitching a ride with a truck driver.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsMargaret LockwoodRex HarrisonPaul HenreidAfter Germany invades Czechia, the German and the British intelligence services try to capture Czech scientist Dr. Axel Bomasch (James Harcourt), inventor of a new type of armor-plating.
- DirectorWalter FordeStarsMuriel AkedJoan BarryDonald CalthropThe theft of a valuable Van Dyck painting leads to murder, and many suspects are on a plush express train speeding from Paris to Rome.
- DirectorT. Hayes HunterStarsBoris KarloffCedric HardwickeErnest ThesigerAn Egyptologist returns from the dead to take revenge on those who have violated his tomb.
- DirectorVal GuestStarsBrian DonlevyJack WarnerRichard WordsworthProfessor Bernard Quatermass' manned rocket ship returns to Earth, but two of the astronauts are missing and the survivor seems ill and unable to communicate.
- DirectorVal GuestStarsBrian DonlevyJohn LongdenSidney JamesProfessor Quatermass, trying to gather support for his Lunar colonisation project, is intrigued by mysterious traces that have been showing up.
- DirectorRoy Ward BakerStarsJames DonaldAndrew KeirBarbara ShelleyA mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass is called in to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people.
