Top Black and White British Films

[DaveCinzano]

The "Titfield Thunderbolt" with Liverpool and Manchester 0-4-2 "lion" in steam and running under its own power

In glorious Technicolor

 

[hash tag]

Ah, technicolour it may be, but what a great film.

 

[Reno]

It Always Rains on Sunday is one of my favourite British movies. It was way ahead of it's time, like an early kitchen sink drama mixed with film noir and it stars the wonderful Googie Withers. Great poster too.

 

[danny la rouge]

It Always Rains on Sunday is one of my favourite British movies. It was way ahead of it's time, like an early kitchen sink drama mixed with film noir and it stars the wonderful Googie Withers. Great poster too.

View attachment 144644

It's a great film.

 

[a_chap]

... and it stars the wonderful Googie Withers

Sadly she was a very under-rated actress. Made it look too easy I guess.

Still a great name though. Have yet to come across another Googie.

 

[Grump]

Excellent film, similar to The 39 Steps. I originally found out about it from my dad in law who watched the docks scenes being filmed in the 50s.


The Clouded Yellow (1950)
U | 1h 35min | Crime, Drama, Mystery | 25 December 1950 (UK)

A former British agent is employed at the Fenton country estate where he aids Fenton's niece elude the police when she's unjustly accused of murdering a local gamekeeper.
Director:
Ralph Thomas
Writers:
Janet Green (original story by), Janet Green (screenplay by)
Stars:
Jean Simmons, Trevor Howard, Sonia Dresdel |See full cast & crew »

 

[Grump]

One of my favourites, brilliant study of mental disintegration in a military environment.

After WW2, a Highland Regiment's acting Commanding Officer, who rose from the ranks, is replaced by a peace-time Oxford-educated Commanding Officer, leading to a dramatic conflict between the two.
Director:
Ronald Neame
Writers:
James Kennaway (screenplay), James Kennaway (based on his novel)
Stars:
Alec Guinness, John Mills, Susannah York |See full cast & crew »
Reviews
59 user | 28 critic

 

[Lurdan]

I've never come across Talking Pictures - I've never heard of anything on their schedule but some of it looks good - worthwhile keeping an eye on?

When my film nerd mania was at it's height I'd have been arranging my life around it's schedule - it shows some very rare stuff. The other week there was Nicol Williamson in 'The Reckoning' followed by Richard Burton in 'Villain'. Great evenings viewing. (It's also very useful at 4.00am when all the 'sensible' channels have switched to infomercials).

Looking at the rest of this weeks schedule I can see quite a few things I'd sit and watch and a couple that I'll try to make a point of seeing. Of the latter Rowland V. Lee's 1937 'Love from a Stranger' is an early example of the 'I think my husband is a murderer/is trying to kill me/is trying to drive me mad' films which became a fully fledged sub-genre a couple of years later. 'Chase a Crooked Shadow' is a stylishly shot psychological thriller directed by Michael Anderson. 'The Night Caller' is a mid-60s B&W British Sci-Fi film about aliens after our women which is great fun IMO.

A lot of the stuff that Talking Pictures shows is the very opposite of 'top' films - the company which runs it owns the Renown Films catalogue of British B films. And it's not all British films - the best film it's showing this week (IMO) is Robert Siodmak's wonderful 'The Spiral Staircase'. Worth looking through the schedule.

There's an interesting pair of wartime films over the weekend which both have as leading characters 'tormented artists' who had fought in Spain and have retreated into both literal and figurative isolationism. John Boulting's 'Thunder Rock' with Michael Redgrave is a more explicit anti-fascist allegorical drama (think Powell & Pressburger's 'A Matter of Life and Death' or some of the J B Priestley adaptations), 'The Night Has Eyes' is a more straightforward old dark house thriller with James Mason. (The former IMO is more 'interesting' whereas the latter is more fun).

At the other end of the quality scale 'What’s Good For The Goose' is an unusual vehicle scripted by and starring Norman Wisdom. Sometimes described as a British sex comedy it certainly fulfils the criteria of containing neither sex nor comedy. It does have the sort of older man much younger woman plot which is rightly out of favour today. (I can't tell if they are showing the 'continental' version in which Sally Geeson takes more of her clothes off thus enabling one to fully appreciate exactly how disgraceful this all is). However alongside all this unpleasantness the score is by the Pretty Things who also appear in it, so Top Group at least :

 

[Brainaddict]

I think the diamond wedding anniversary scene in I Know Where I'm Going is one of the most magical scenes ever. The term "heart warming" is often double talk for sentimental mush in films, but this scene genuinely is.

It's the type of film I watch and think nothing like it could be made any more - culture, and the personalities it produces, have changed too much. And I'm referring to the writers and directors as much as the people depicted in the films.

 

[a_chap]

One of my favourites, brilliant study of mental disintegration in a military environment.

After WW2, a Highland Regiment's acting Commanding Officer, who rose from the ranks, is replaced by a peace-time Oxford-educated Commanding Officer, leading to a dramatic conflict between the two.

Have just bought this DVD on the strength of your post.

I better be impressed else you owe me £2.99 ....

 

[Indeliblelink]

Have just bought this DVD on the strength of your post.

I better be impressed else you owe me £2.99 ....

It's a fantastic film with great performances from Guinness & Mills, you won't be disappointed.
However it's not in Black & White so shouldn't really be on this thread.

 

[MrSki]

Have had a quick read through this thread & can't believe there is no mention of Will Hay. Used to love watching these when well stoned in the 80's.

Probably my favourite is The Ghost Train.


Followed by Where's that fire.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Have had a quick read through this thread & can't believe there is no mention of Will Hay. Used to love watching these when well stoned in the 80's.

Probably my favourite is The Ghost Train.

I was about to indignantly say that I had, but then I realised I'd posted it to the train movie thread

Oh, Mr Porter! is the Will Hay one, though; The Ghost Train was Arthur Askey.

Films with trains

 

[MrSki]

I was about to indignantly say that I had, but then I realised I'd posted it to the train movie thread

Oh, Mr Porter! is the Will Hay one, though; The Ghost Train was Arthur Askey.

Films with trains

 

[DaveCinzano]

No harm no foul

 

[spitfire]

Hell Drivers. How the hell did I forget that one???

Incredible list of actors:

Stanley Baker
Herbert Lom
Peggy Cummins
Patrick McGoohan
William Hartnell
Wilfrid Lawson
Sidney James
Jill Ireland
Alfie Bass
Gordon Jackson
David McCallum
Sean Connery

Ice cold in Alex.

How the fuck did I overlook that gem?

the hill

How about The Hill?

View attachment 93471 View attachment 93472 View attachment 93473 View attachment 93474 View attachment 93475 View attachment 93476

Flicking through the channels earlier and dropped on Sea of Sand, classic war film about the Long Range Desert Group, with Richard Attenborough, John Gregson and a young Ray McNally!
Made in 1958.

The Long and the Short and the Tall.

From 1961, I think. A platoon in Burma during the war come to a bad end.

Based on a play, and maybe not fully cinematic. But the tension builds effectively.

Angels one five

And whiskey galore

From 1965- The War Game. Almost as terrifying as Threads.
View attachment 98404

What a tremendous film this was - had forgotton it was B&W.

Some great films here and a couple I haven't seen yet.

Also Overlord, not very well known. I did skim read the thread but didn't see it mentioned.

Overlord (1975 film) - Wikipedia

 

[MrSki]

What was the film set in a soon to be ex-empire African country where the British army are still present & there is a female British MP visiting the camp whilst a coup is taking place?

 

[DaveCinzano]

What was the film set in a soon to be ex-empire African country where the British army are still present & there is a female British MP visiting the camp whilst a coup is taking place?

Guns At Batasi?

 

[MrSki]

Guns At Batasi?

That's the one. A bloody good film for its time.

 

[Reno]

What a tremendous film this was - had forgotton it was B&W.

Beautifully shot by Freddy Francis who I mentioned in my recommendation of The Innocents. The Elephant Man, while taking place in London, is an American film though, directed by David Lynch and produced by Mel Brooks.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Also Overlord, not very well known. I did skim read the thread but didn't see it mentioned.

Overlord (1975 film) - Wikipedia

Spoiler

a young man's journey from call up to coffin

Well, that sounds uplifting

 

[spitfire]

Spoiler

a young man's journey from call up to coffin

Well, that sounds uplifting

If anyone wants to watch the film, don't click on the spoiler tag.

 

[DaveCinzano]

If anyone wants to watch the film, don't click on the spoiler tag.

That is the point of spoiler tags! And it is from the link you provided!

 

[spitfire]

That is the point of spoiler tags! And it is from the link you provided!

I know but, but, but, but.....

.....don't click on my link either!

just watch the film.

 

[Grump]

Have just bought this DVD on the strength of your post.

I better be impressed else you owe me £2.99 ....

Worth it just to see the actor who played Shewie McFee in Crossroads selling doughnuts.

 

[Indeliblelink]

Another film with a great performance from Alec Guinness, that I seldom see mentioned, is The Prisoner (1955), from a play by Bridget Boland and based on the post WWII arrests and show trials of cardinals Aloysius Stepinac in Croatia and József Mindszenty in Hungary.
A brilliant psychological thriller with a battle of the wits between Alec Guinness as the cardinal & Jack Hawkins as the interogator. The play was partially the inspiration for Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner TV series and especially the No. 6 vs No. 2 interactions, [McGoohan played the interrogator in a 1963 TV version of the play].

 

[Sprocket.]

That's the one. A bloody good film for its time.

Attenborough won the Bafta for his portrayal of Sgt Major Lauderdale.
Brilliant film.

 

[ska invita]

Some suggestion in the comments his wife Beryl was instrumental. Don't think I've ever watched a Formby film from start to finish...nor a Norman wisdom. Mainly know through clips....I think im ready

Wisdom accidently gets caught up in WW2 fighting flick The Square Peg was on Talking Pictures a few days ago...some gags very dated, but some genuinely laugh out loud moments. This bit where he doesnt want to take a medical was a highlight!

The disdain for the officer class and the military more generally was nice to see. The idea that joining the war effort against Hitler was something to be avoided at all cost and the army held up pretty much in contempt wasnt what I expected....suggests that matched the way people thought about it in the country on the whole. I was reading a George Orwell essay the Lion and the Unicorn recently and came across this bit which kind of fleshes that out. written in 1941:

....the English hatred of war and militarism. It is rooted deep in history, and it is strong in the lower-middle class as well as the working class. Successive wars have shaken it but not destroyed it. Well within living memory it was common for “the redcoats” to be booed at in the streets and for the landlords of respectable public-houses to refuse to allow soldiers on the premises.

In peace-time, even when there are two million unemployed, it is difficult to fill the ranks of the tiny standing army, which is officered by the country gentry and a specialized stratum of the middle class, and manned by farm labourers and slum proletarians. The mass of the people are without military knowledge or tradition, and their attitude towards war is invariably defensive. No politician could rise to power by promising them conquests or military “glory”, no Hymn of Hate has ever made any appeal to them. In the last war the songs which the soldiers made up and sang of their own accord were not vengeful but humorous and mock-defeatist.[1] The only enemy they ever named was the sergeant-major.

In England all the boasting and flag-wagging, the “Rule Britannia” stuff, is done by small minorities. The patriotism of the common people is not vocal or even conscious. They do not retain among their historical memories the name of a single military victory. English literature, like other literatures, is full of battle-poems, but it is worth noticing that the ones that have won for themselves a kind of popularity are always a tale of disasters and retreats. There is no popular poem about Trafalgar or Waterloo, for instance. Sir John Moore’s army at Corunna, fighting a desperate rear-guard action before escaping overseas (just like Dunkirk!) has more appeal than a brilliant victory. The most stirring battle-poem in English is about a brigade of cavalry which charged in the wrong direction. And of the last war, the four names which have really engraved themselves on the popular memory are Mons, Ypres, Gallipoli and Passchendaele, every time a disaster. The names of the great battles that finally broke the German armies are simply unknown to the general public.

The reason why the English anti-militarism disgusts foreign observers is that it ignores the existence of the British Empire. It looks like sheer hypocrisy. After all, the English have absorbed a quarter of the earth and held on to it by means of a huge navy. How dare they then turn round and say that war is wicked?

It is quite true that the English are hypocritical about their Empire. In the working class this hypocrisy takes the form of not knowing that the Empire exists. But their dislike of standing armies is a perfectly sound instinct.

i wonder how much thats changed and how much sympathy that line of comedy would get nowadays.


Also Iplayer has got the 6 part tv version of Quatermass and the Pit on it at the moment...heard a lot about it (best tv lists), holds up....quite well
Definitely has its moments...anti-war spirit and also a very subtle anti race-riots message (alluded to in the first minute and the last minute of a 3 hour run time)
BBC iPlayer - Quatermass and the Pit
The British army (officer class) are pretty much the enemy in that too.

The writer Nigel Kneale looks to have written some interesting socially conscious bits, such as The Year of the Sex Olympics - Wikipedia which seems to have predicted modern tv output down to a tee.

 

[Lurdan]

Wisdom accidently gets caught up in WW2 fighting flick The Square Peg was on Talking Pictures a few days ago...some gags very dated, but some genuinely laugh out loud moments.

Saw that at the cinema when I was quite young. One of his better ones. There were a few b&w films with satirical takes on the army some of which were set during the war. Privates Progress for example. I remember a piss take of The Guns of Navarone with Spike Milligan called Invasion Quartet which I also saw as child and have meant to track down. (The Goons were very much products of their wartime experiences and of service humour).

The writer Nigel Kneale looks to have written some interesting socially conscious bits, such as The Year of the Sex Olympics - Wikipedia which seems to have predicted modern tv output down to a tee.

Kneale is a very interesting writer but his 'social consciousness' comes from a pretty reactionary perspective. He was on the fringes of the Angry Young Men current in the 50s. He did the screen adaptations of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer both of them interesting b&w films. I dislike the former intensely but it's a key text in understanding that kind of mid-50s lower middle class cuntish masculinism. Kneales own attitudes to society were in much the same discontented tory vein as people like Kingsley Amis.

The Quatermass serials, and the 1953 BBC adaptation of 1984 he scripted, had enormous impact as cultural events (even though the number of people with TV sets when they were broadcast was a fraction of those who saw the Dalek Invasion of Earth, influenced by his work, ten years later). But he truly resented being regarded, unlike the people he saw as his contemporaries, as a writer of genre fiction.

I watched Year of the Sex Olympics when it was broadcast (well judged title for attracting an audience of teenage boys). Like a lot of science fiction it was actually his commentary on contemporary society. A world as he saw it of sheeple dressed similarly and kept in line through passively consuming the same TV channel. A somewhat 'Fordist' conception of totalitarianism. Well it wasn't that great as prediction. Society is arguably even more totalitarian than he (or for that matter Orwell) foresaw but the conformity at its heart is expressed through people 'exercising their choice' from multiple channels and lifestyles, and consuming them actively not passively. And if it wasn't great prediction it also wasn't much of a picture of the late 60s. Sex Olympics was tied in with the fact that 1968 was an Olympic Year. But the lasting image from the Mexico Olympics that summer was this

 

[hash tag]

Sadly she was a very under-rated actress. Made it look too easy I guess.

Still a great name though. Have yet to come across another Googie.

Was she under rated? I recall people of earlier generations speaking highly of her. Was she always in dark films? I think I've seen two and both quite grim.