All those British crime films once deemed undesirable for the National Image are beginning to get the attention they deserve. This story of a single day in a working class section of London has plenty of criminal activity but blends it in with the everyday crimes of desperation and boredom. The Sandigate girls are flirting with trouble but Googie Withers’ Rose Sandigate has gone much further: she’s hiding an escaped fugitive who was once her lover in the vain hope of recapturing her lost youth. Director Robert Hamer examines a dozen distinctive characters on the edge of respectability, in one of the most original ‘Brit noirs’ we’ve seen to date.
It Always Rains on Sunday
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1947 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 92 min. / Street Date November 5, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Googie Withers, John McCallum, Jack Warner, Edward Chapman, Susan Shaw, Patricia Plunkett, Nigel Stock, David Lines, Sydney Tafler,...
It Always Rains on Sunday
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1947 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 92 min. / Street Date November 5, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Googie Withers, John McCallum, Jack Warner, Edward Chapman, Susan Shaw, Patricia Plunkett, Nigel Stock, David Lines, Sydney Tafler,...
- 12/10/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Much of Ealing Studios’ core appeal begins right here, with T.E.B. Clarke’s astute look at the character of pragmatic, energetic Londoners, who in this fantasy face an outrageous situation with spirit, pluck, and a determination not to be cheated. What happens when a few square blocks of London discover that they’re no longer even part of the British Empire? A classic of wartime ‘adjustments,’ the ensemble comedy even begins with a Tex Avery- like ode to rationing.
Passport to Pimlico
Blu-ray
Film Movement Classics
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / Street Date December 20, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Margaret Rutherford, Sydney Tafler, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Raymond Huntley, Philip Stainton, Roy Carr, Nancy Gabrielle, Malcolm Knight, Roy Gladdish, Frederick Piper, Charles Hawtrey, Stuart Lindsell, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Gilbert Davis, Michael Hordern, Arthur Howard, Bill Shine, Harry Locke, Sam Kydd.
Cinematography: Lionel...
Passport to Pimlico
Blu-ray
Film Movement Classics
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / Street Date December 20, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Stanley Holloway, Hermione Baddeley, Margaret Rutherford, Sydney Tafler, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray, Paul Dupuis, John Slater, Jane Hylton, Raymond Huntley, Philip Stainton, Roy Carr, Nancy Gabrielle, Malcolm Knight, Roy Gladdish, Frederick Piper, Charles Hawtrey, Stuart Lindsell, Naunton Wayne, Basil Radford, Gilbert Davis, Michael Hordern, Arthur Howard, Bill Shine, Harry Locke, Sam Kydd.
Cinematography: Lionel...
- 12/31/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
(See previous post: “Gay Pride Movie Series Comes to a Close: From Heterosexual Angst to Indonesian Coup.”) Ken Russell's Valentino (1977) is notable for starring ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as silent era icon Rudolph Valentino, whose sexual orientation, despite countless gay rumors, seems to have been, according to the available evidence, heterosexual. (Valentino's supposed affair with fellow “Latin Lover” Ramon Novarro has no basis in reality.) The female cast is also impressive: Veteran Leslie Caron (Lili, Gigi) as stage and screen star Alla Nazimova, ex-The Mamas & the Papas singer Michelle Phillips as Valentino wife and Nazimova protégée Natacha Rambova, Felicity Kendal as screenwriter/producer June Mathis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), and Carol Kane – lately of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame. Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972) is notable as one of the greatest musicals ever made. As a 1930s Cabaret presenter – and the Spirit of Germany – Joel Grey was the year's Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner. Liza Minnelli...
- 6/30/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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,...
- 10/12/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
At first exposure, we are likely to wonder what it is about Jacques Becker’s films that make them feel distinctive.Antoine et Antoinette, his fourth completed feature, expresses his sensibility as fully as any of his films; yet Becker is clearly playing by a great many of the rules of entertainment cinema. His visual ideas are not radical: he relies on conventional patterns of decoupage, often uses gentle camera moves when introducing locations, favors a moderate expressionism of lighting that enhances the pictorial qualities of his sets. His manipulation of narrative is likewise familiar: the complicated plot is handled deftly and light-heartedly to convey the basically comic nature of the enterprise; there is a stock villain, the lecherous businessman Roland (Noël Roquevert), whose offenses are accompanied by comical music cues that limit his threat; the story line is designed in broad movements of joy and despondency, with events within...
- 10/3/2013
- by Dan Sallitt
- MUBI
Julie Harris: Best Actress Oscar nominee, multiple Tony winner dead at 87 (photo: James Dean and Julie Harris in ‘East of Eden’) Film, stage, and television actress Julie Harris, a Best Actress Academy Award nominee for the psychological drama The Member of the Wedding and James Dean’s leading lady in East of Eden, died of congestive heart failure at her home in West Chatham, Massachusetts, on August 24, 2013. Harris, born in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, on December 2, 1925, was 87. Throughout her career, Julie Harris collected ten Tony Award nominations, more than any other performer. She won five times — a record matched only by that of Angela Lansbury. Harris’ Tony Award wins were for I Am a Camera (1952), The Lark (1956), Forty Carats (1969), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973), and The Belle of Amherst (1977). Harris’ tenth and final Tony nomination was for The Gin Game (1997). In 2002, she was honored with a Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.
- 8/25/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
ill Manors (18)
(Ben Drew, 2012, UK) Riz Ahmed, Ed Skrein, Natalie Press, Anouska Mond. 121 mins
The coalition government has repeatedly denied his existence, but Plan B proves he's for real with this intense, provocative survey of British urban decay in all its forms. A few too many forms, perhaps, as this crams in so many tales of hardship, exploitation, drugs and violence, and seeks to render them in so many ways (hip-hop numbers, tricksy visuals, flashbacks), it gets a bit carried away. Still, top marks for at least trying to tell it like it is.
Red Tails (12A)
(Anthony Hemingway, 2012, Us) Cuba Gooding Jr, Terrence Howard. 125 mins
George Lucas co-produces this story of the African-American Tuskegee Airmen and their role in the second world war, fighting both Nazis and racism. There's more of an eye for aerial action than grown-up drama, though.
A Fantastic Fear Of Everything (15)
(Crispian Mills, Chris Hopewell,...
(Ben Drew, 2012, UK) Riz Ahmed, Ed Skrein, Natalie Press, Anouska Mond. 121 mins
The coalition government has repeatedly denied his existence, but Plan B proves he's for real with this intense, provocative survey of British urban decay in all its forms. A few too many forms, perhaps, as this crams in so many tales of hardship, exploitation, drugs and violence, and seeks to render them in so many ways (hip-hop numbers, tricksy visuals, flashbacks), it gets a bit carried away. Still, top marks for at least trying to tell it like it is.
Red Tails (12A)
(Anthony Hemingway, 2012, Us) Cuba Gooding Jr, Terrence Howard. 125 mins
George Lucas co-produces this story of the African-American Tuskegee Airmen and their role in the second world war, fighting both Nazis and racism. There's more of an eye for aerial action than grown-up drama, though.
A Fantastic Fear Of Everything (15)
(Crispian Mills, Chris Hopewell,...
- 6/8/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ Newly restored 1949 comedy classic Passport to Pimlico is a fine example of a post-war comedy produced by the renowned Ealing Studios. Written by the highly talented T.E.B Clarke, (who was responsible for another comedy classic, 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob) and directed by Henry Cornelius, Passport to Pimlico shows a great understanding of the mechanics of not only great writing but also of comedy.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 6/7/2012
- by CineVue
- CineVue
A typically quaint and light-hearted comedy from the masterly Ealing Studios, Passport to Pimlico has endured as one of their best loved capers.
The film is set in post-war London in 1949, an era of British history that arguably tends to be ignored slightly by the movies. Obviously the great triumphs and struggles of the war years are well known to modern day audiences, as of course are the swinging sixties a fair few years later. 1949 however is a relatively uncommon time period to set a film in. Life was still tough for your regular Brit as while the spectre of war may have dissipated there were still plenty of everyday reminders of its impact on the general public. Rationing was still in place, goods were in short supply and bombed out buildings still stood along the city streets. In Passport To Pimlico, scriptwriter T.E.D. Clarke and director Henry Cornelius...
The film is set in post-war London in 1949, an era of British history that arguably tends to be ignored slightly by the movies. Obviously the great triumphs and struggles of the war years are well known to modern day audiences, as of course are the swinging sixties a fair few years later. 1949 however is a relatively uncommon time period to set a film in. Life was still tough for your regular Brit as while the spectre of war may have dissipated there were still plenty of everyday reminders of its impact on the general public. Rationing was still in place, goods were in short supply and bombed out buildings still stood along the city streets. In Passport To Pimlico, scriptwriter T.E.D. Clarke and director Henry Cornelius...
- 6/7/2012
- by Rob Keeling
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The British comedy, made by Ealing studios and directed by Henry Cornelius, in which a group of London residents discover an undeground treasure trove from Burgundy and declare a state of independence in the heart of London, is being screened around the country on 5 June to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee. Take a look at some of the photographs from the set of this charming 1949 classic and uncover a twist about the filming …...
- 5/29/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
A classic 1960s working-class drama translates beautifully into a comedy of contemporary British Asian family life
All in Good Time is a touching, likable comedy of life in Lancashire's Hindu community. Though this aspect is little publicised, it's closely based on Bill Naughton's 1965 play of the same title.
Born in Ireland and raised in Bolton, Naughton emerged as a novelist and playwright in the late 50s in the wave of northern working-class writers like Shelagh Delaney, Keith Waterhouse, Alan Sillitoe, David Storey and Stan Barstow. But having been born in 1910 and worked for years as a coal-bagger, cotton-loom operator and lorry driver, Naughton belonged to an earlier generation and was altogether less chippy, aggressive, and self-consciously political about his background.
He enjoyed considerable success in the theatre and had three of his plays filmed, though his most enduringly popular work, the film version of Alfie, completely misrepresented Naughton's radio play,...
All in Good Time is a touching, likable comedy of life in Lancashire's Hindu community. Though this aspect is little publicised, it's closely based on Bill Naughton's 1965 play of the same title.
Born in Ireland and raised in Bolton, Naughton emerged as a novelist and playwright in the late 50s in the wave of northern working-class writers like Shelagh Delaney, Keith Waterhouse, Alan Sillitoe, David Storey and Stan Barstow. But having been born in 1910 and worked for years as a coal-bagger, cotton-loom operator and lorry driver, Naughton belonged to an earlier generation and was altogether less chippy, aggressive, and self-consciously political about his background.
He enjoyed considerable success in the theatre and had three of his plays filmed, though his most enduringly popular work, the film version of Alfie, completely misrepresented Naughton's radio play,...
- 5/12/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
As Contessa Teresa ‘Tracy’ Di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Diana Rigg embodied a complex and charming, if sadly terminal ‘Bond girl’. Decked in glamorous, era-specific trends by Marjory Cornelius, Rigg’s costumes were subtly symbolic of her tomboyish nature, culminating in a memorably daring wedding ensemble.
Glamour and symbolism were director Peter Hunt’s idea; he intended a return to the more distinguished Bondian elements of dress and production design as established in Goldfinger (1964). Acknowledged for his dapper style on set, Hunt even sent new 007 George Lazenby to his own tailor. Lazenby’s Bond is one of the sharpest attired in the series, principally because he reflects the flourishing youth movement of the time without betraying the character’s traditional Savile Row sensibilities.
Throughout the film, Tracy wears a variety of dramatic outfits ranging from a scalloped dress in sea green silk and sequins with huge...
Glamour and symbolism were director Peter Hunt’s idea; he intended a return to the more distinguished Bondian elements of dress and production design as established in Goldfinger (1964). Acknowledged for his dapper style on set, Hunt even sent new 007 George Lazenby to his own tailor. Lazenby’s Bond is one of the sharpest attired in the series, principally because he reflects the flourishing youth movement of the time without betraying the character’s traditional Savile Row sensibilities.
Throughout the film, Tracy wears a variety of dramatic outfits ranging from a scalloped dress in sea green silk and sequins with huge...
- 6/24/2011
- by Chris Laverty
- Clothes on Film
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.