Top Black and White British Films

[rubbershoes]

In which we serve

 

[ska invita]

Just came across this...looks really great! Paul Robeson hanging out with welsh miners and having a sing song + politics...from 1940...

Is weird though because I once saw a film called Pool of London (1951) Pool of London (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and that film is known as the first time there was a black actor in a leading role in a UK film (even says it in the wiki)...its a great London film IIRC

Double checked if Proud Valley is a UK film and its filmed in Ealing studios and has a British producer, so seems so...

Earl Cameron, CBE (born 8 August 1917) is a Bermudian actor. Along with Cy Grant, he is known as one of the first black actors to break the "colour bar" in the United Kingdom. According to Screenonline, "Earl Cameron brought a breath of fresh air to the British film industry's stuffy depictions of race relations. Often cast as a sensitive outsider, Cameron gave his characters a grace and moral authority that often surpassed the films' compromised liberal agendas."[1] He also had repeated appearances on many British science fiction programmes of the 1960s, including Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and The Andromeda Breakthrough.

 

[DaveCinzano]

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

Great little thriller

I nominate Green For Danger, which despite the title is entirely monochrome Sort of a wartime British Columbo.

 

[Lurdan]

Just came across this...looks really great! Paul Robeson hanging out with welsh miners and having a sing song + politics...from 1940...

Is weird though because I once saw a film called Pool of London (1951) Pool of London (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and that film is known as the first time there was a black actor in a leading role in a UK film (even says it in the wiki)...its a great London film IIRC

Double checked if Proud Valley is a UK film and its filmed in Ealing studios and has a British producer, so seems so...

Robson actually made a few other films in the UK in the 30s starting with the imperialist adventure Sanders of the River. (He was already a star in the UK following his West End performance in Show Boat). He was unhappy with how Sanders turned out and on Song of Freedom (made for the original Hammer films) and Big Fella (based rather distantly on a novel by Claude McKay) he insisted on more control. In both films Elisabeth Welch played the female lead - equally unusual casting for the period.

 

[Indeliblelink]

Robeson was also in Borderline from 1930, an interesting silent British film about an interracial relationship.
The Proud Valley is a great watch.

No mention of any Anthony Asquith films on this thread, Michael Redgrave in The Browning Version is utterly fantastic. Pygmalion and Escape From Dartmoor also great and of course The Importance Of Being Earnest (although that's not B&W)

 

[redsquirrel]

Great little thriller

I nominate Green For Danger, which despite the title is entirely monochrome Sort of a wartime British Columbo.

Green for Danger is great, last series of Father Brown pinched it's plot completely for one episode.

The OP is far too wide to make sense really but I'll mention Frieda and The Clouded Yellow

 

[Indeliblelink]

Seance On A Wet Afternoon (1964)

You haven't seen this then you really should, brilliant performances from Kim Stanley & Richard Attenborough

 

[DaveCinzano]

Now that's a lovely looking poster

 

[SikhWarrioR]

Day of the Triffids and HG Wells The Shape Of Things To Come were pretty good I thought

 

[not-bono-ever]

b Liar
Room at the top
Kind of loving
Saturday night/ Sunday morning
Ice cold in alex
This sporting life

theres tons

 

[not-bono-ever]

and anything with gordon jackson in. But he always dies soon after showing everyone a picture of his lassie back home

 

[a_chap]

...
Ice cold in alex
...

Ice cold in Alex.

How the fuck did I overlook that gem?

 

[not-bono-ever]

the hill

 

[DaveCinzano]

How about The Hill?

 

[Nanker Phelge]

League of Gentlemen

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Bunny Lake is Missing

Whistle Down the Wind

 

[Ho Chi Ming]

How about The Hill?

An absolute cracker.

 

[hash tag]

Think great British Black and white films, think Ealing, think Michael Balcon, so many great films, some of which recently shown on London Live.
A great exhibition, which I wont be able to make Sir Michael Balcon honoured in Birmingham film exhibition - BBC News
Parkside Gallery : What's on

39 steps. went the day well. dead of night. champagne charlie. whiskey galore. kind hearts......the list goes on.

 

[hammerntongues]

have to watch this every time its on the box , my wife`s Great Uncle Bill has a talking part as a one legged bookie at White City dog track " he went that way ".

 

[blossie33]

Think great British Black and white films, think Ealing, think Michael Balcon, so many great films, some of which recently shown on London Live.
A great exhibition, which I wont be able to make Sir Michael Balcon honoured in Birmingham film exhibition - BBC News
Parkside Gallery : What's on

39 steps. went the day well. dead of night. champagne charlie. whiskey galore. kind hearts......the list goes on.

That looks a really interesting exhibition - shame it finishes today and I won't be in Brum for a few weeks.

 

[tim]

The Ipcress File : 1965 with Michael Caine
Seen it quite a few times and still love it.

An excellent film but not monochrome.

 

[blossie33]

An excellent film but not monochrome.

.....oops, isn't it?

 

[Lurdan]

.....oops, isn't it?

Depends - when it was first broadcast on the BBC in 1972 the vast majority of TV sets were still black and white....

 

[Sprocket.]

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.

 

[D'wards]

Always had a soft spot for Norman Wisdom films

 

[boohoo]

ska invita have you popped to the Croydon museum to see some of the early silent films they have there? Worth a visit just for those.

 

[boohoo]

Some of the St Trinians films

 

[Sirena]

Always had a soft spot for Norman Wisdom films

Not since I was a child, sorry....

On the positive side, though, I would watch Norman Wisdom films long before I would watch George Formby films.....

And Norman Wisdom, in his later years, played a very good TV drama about a couple of men dying from cancer ("BBC2 Playhouse" Going Gently (TV Episode 1981) - IMDb)

 

[Orang Utan]

Some of the St Trinians films

it's Arthur Daley!

 

[Sirena]

it's Arthur Daley!

George Cole's first ever film was 'Cottage To Let', a 1941 propaganda film about a young lad who exposes German fifth-columnists.

It's a brilliant performance from a young actor, though the film itself is not totally excellent. It does have Alastair Sim, though.