Old Britsh films

[Bluesofa]

There isn't a specific area for films, so I'll add my comment here.

If you're old and black & white like me, perhaps you'll like old and black & white British comedy films.
There are two here that are both on youtube, dead easy to find.

The Runaway Bus (1954) with Frankie Howerd, Margaret Rutherford, Petula Clark, Terence Alexander,

Where there's A Will (1955) with Kathleen Harrison, George Cole, Leslie Dwyer, Dandy Nichols, Edward Woodward, Sam Kydd,

Go on, give it a go!

Edited July 2, 2021 by Mike-Hunt
error

[MikeB]

Dinner for one with Freddie Frinton and May Warden 

This can be seen on every German tv channel on new years eve every year 

 

[Andrew Reeve]

Cheers @MikeBand adding that film to my watch list.

[Andrew Reeve]

Top of my list is the "Ladykillers", I watch this film yearly and its a very smart story-line.

[MikeB]

Here is another great B&W movie but it is a new one 

Dead Man 

a Jim Jarmusch film staring Johnny Depp

 

[Andrew Reeve]

Quote

 

Here is another great B&W movie but it is a new one 

Dead Man 

a Jim Jarmusch film staring Johnny Depp

 

A western and looks interesting and was unaware that Johnny Depp had starred in it.

[Pongo]

For me it has to be "The Hill" with Sean Connery and Harry Andrews. I've watched it about 5 times now, quite a depressing film, but very well made all the same.

[NCC1701A]

Doctor Strangelove of course. One of my all time favorite films. "There's no fighting in the war room!" 

The Caretaker with Clive Donner, Donald Pleasence, Alan Bates, Robert Shaw, Harold Pinter.  I worked in Hollywood for forty years just in case you are wondering what is wrong with me. I tell bar girls that because I like blank looks on their faces. 

Donald Pleasence was Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice and I will speak in his voice from time to time.  

Edited August 1, 2021 by NCC1701A

[Guest]

Stupid question but have they gotta be Black and White films I can think off a couple off classic British film from the 70s and 80's but there colour.

[Bluesofa]

1 hour ago, 23RD said:

Stupid question but have they gotta be Black and White films I can think off a couple off classic British film from the 70s and 80's but there colour.

No problem. Here, or on here: 
https://thethaiger.com/talk/topic/2208-film-tv-recommendations/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-24433

 

[Bluesofa]

1 hour ago, NCC1701A said:

Doctor Strangelove of course. One of my all time favorite films. "There's no fighting in the war room!"

That had a really long title that's hardly ever quoted: Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.  

[vlad]

 " Kes " classic specially the Football Scene, and " Rita, Sue and Bob Too ",  great lines from the Drunken father and the old guy shouting off a balcony, and worth a watch " The Amazing Mr Blunden about 2 Children going back to the 18th Century to write a wrong.

[Metaluna]

Interested in films about the region? There are movies about the Malayan Emergency, including The Planter's Wife (1952), Windom's Way (1957) and an American-British production, The 7th Dawn (1964), the latter based on the Australian novelist Michael Keon's The Durian Tree.

[Bluesofa]

1 hour ago, Metaluna said:

Interested in films about the region? There are movies about the Malayan Emergency, including The Planter's Wife (1952), Windom's Way (1957) and an American-British production, The 7th Dawn (1964), the latter based on the Australian novelist Michael Keon's The Durian Tree.

There's another film, a comedy that just happens to be set in Malaya:
Privates On Parade (1983)  1hr 47mins    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084538/   
A British film starring John Cleese. One of my all-time favourites.

[JohninDublin]

On 7/3/2021 at 2:58 PM, Andrew Reeve said:

Top of my list is the "Ladykillers", I watch this film yearly and its a very smart story-line.

What a tragic remake Tom Hanks made of this. I think it ranks with Maddona's "American Pie" in the category of, "You had to go and spoil it".

[JohninDublin]

29 minutes ago, Transam said:

Fabulous actor, Charles Laughton, two great films, in my opinion.

Mutiny on the Bounty & The Hunchback of Notre Dame....

Both were Hollywood produced. But in fairness, of the three major productions to date of Hunchback, Laughton's portrayal was the best.

[JohninDublin]

After much deliberation, I have chosen "Zulu" as my favourite Old British Film. I think 1964 is old enough.

I am sure most of us know the story, so my synopsis with the benefit of being a bit wiser on the true history of these events is, "What the British Empire did best! Invading other countries and massacring the natives"! However, I've probably seen it a dozen times, and it is a rousing story.

Apart from starring in the film, Stanley Baker also produced it. It was very much a  labour of love for Baker because it was about a detachment of heroic mainly Welsh soldiers, and Baker was a Taffy.

[Hamosity]

British B&W comedy?  The great Alistair Sim (in drag as Millicent and also playing her brother Clarence, Fritton) in The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954). I think the rest of the “franchise” were in colour.  
 

But it’s a tie with School for Scoundrels (1960) Sim with Terry-Thomas and Ian Carmichael.   If memory serves it is in B&W.  
 

As has been mentioned the Ladykiilers is a bit of a wheeze and Alec Guinness in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) is also a stand out.

My two bobs worth.  

[Bluesofa]

3 hours ago, Hamosity said:

British B&W comedy?  The great Alistair Sim (in drag as Millicent and also playing her brother Clarence, Fritton) in The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954). I think the rest of the “franchise” were in colour.  
 

But it’s a tie with School for Scoundrels (1960) Sim with Terry-Thomas and Ian Carmichael.   If memory serves it is in B&W.  
 

As has been mentioned the Ladykiilers is a bit of a wheeze and Alec Guinness in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) is also a stand out.

My two bobs worth.  

All classics! Great films.

Yes, School for Scoundrels was B&W.
(I've just noticed there's another film with the same name made in 2006. Not a remake, but an American comedy)

 

Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957) was B&W

If you're a George Cole fan, his film debut was Cottage To Let (1941) with Alistair Sim. A WW2 drama in the UK, concerning German spies. It's hard to find the film.
George was aged 15. Alistair Sim became George's 'adopted family', and George stayed at his house for over ten years.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cole_(actor)  

 

[Faraday]

Full movie is on YouTube

 

 

[Hamosity]

2 hours ago, Bluesofa said:

All classics! Great films.

Yes, School for Scoundrels was B&W.
(I've just noticed there's another film with the same name made in 2006. Not a remake, but an American comedy)

Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957) was B&W

If you're a George Cole fan, his film debut was Cottage To Let (1941) with Alistair Sim. A WW2 drama in the UK, concerning German spies. It's hard to find the film.
George was aged 15. Alistair Sim became George's 'adopted family', and George stayed at his house for over ten years.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cole_(actor)  

 

Don’t know that one.

I thought Cole was in Brighton Rock (1948), but Wikipedia informs that I was thinking of a young Richard  Attenborough  (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_Rock_(1948_film)  
 

 

[Hamosity]

3 minutes ago, Hamosity said:

Don’t know that one.

I thought Cole was in Brighton Rock (1948), but Wikipedia informs that I was thinking of a young Richard  Attenborough  (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_Rock_(1948_film)  
 

Further browsing on Wikipedia informs me that the Brighton Rock director John Boulting also directed I’m All Right Jack (1959), that also starred Peter Sellers as a Shop Steward. Another classic British film. 

There was another with a similar story line except a drama and it has the communist rebel rouser coming in by train and right at the end leaving by train.  Can’t recall the title. 

[Bluesofa]

5 minutes ago, Hamosity said:

Don’t know that one.

I thought Cole was in Brighton Rock (1948), but Wikipedia informs that I was thinking of a young Richard  Attenborough  (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_Rock_(1948_film)  
 

I see William Hartnell was in that too.
Apart from playing the first Doctor Who, I also associate him with Carry On Sergeant (1958). He played the Sergeant in the first ever Carry On film.

That was where the name of the epic number of films originated (30 I think?) - the phrase 'carry on' as an instruction in the army.

[Bluesofa]

1 hour ago, Hamosity said:

Further browsing on Wikipedia informs me that the Brighton Rock director John Boulting also directed I’m All Right Jack (1959), that also starred Peter Sellers as a Shop Steward. Another classic British film. 

There was another with a similar story line except a drama and it has the communist rebel rouser coming in by train and right at the end leaving by train.  Can’t recall the title. 

I remember I'm All Right Jack.
Did the Boulting Brothers produce this other film you're struggling with?
Perhaps it's in the list of their films in the link below? I hadn't realised they were identical twins.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulting_brothers  

[Hamosity]

2 hours ago, Bluesofa said:

I remember I'm All Right Jack.
Did the Boulting Brothers produce this other film you're struggling with?
Perhaps it's in the list of their films in the link below? I hadn't realised they were identical twins.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulting_brothers  

After a bit of digging I think the movie is The Angry Silence (1960) 
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/494933/synopsis.html

From Wikipedia The Angry Silence is a 1960 black-and-white British drama film directed by Guy Green and starring Richard Attenborough, Pier Angeli, Michael Craig and Bernard Lee.

Alfred Burke played the rebel rouser  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Burke