"The longest unsponsored advertisement ever to reach cinema screens", reckoned producer Monja Danischewski. Maybe so, but Alexander Mackendrick's debut feature is much more than that. This comic account of a real-life event pitches a priggish English army captain against the remorseless guile of an islandful of thirsty Scots defending a cache of shipwrecked whisky, and helped make ‘Ealing Comedy’ one of British cinema’s most enduring brands. It's a film of boundless mischief, and it marked Mackendrick from the start as the most complex and subtle of Ealing's directors.
Most Ealing comedies championed consensus, but Alexander Mackendrick's revelled in conflict. The ‘Maggie’ is a decrepit Clyde 'puffer' boat, whose wily captain dupes a wealthy American businessman to ferry his possessions to his new Scottish island home - then proceeds to delay, hinder and endang...
When a mistake at the Ministry of Education sends the girls of St. Swithin's to board with the boys of Nutbourne College, it causes mayhem for both headmasters. The two must, however, join forces, in order to conceal the mistake from parents and governors. The Happiest Days Of Your Life is a mast...
When Matt (Bill Travers) and Jean Spenser (Virginia McKenna) inherit the Bijou cinema they are thrilled. However, all is not what it seems. Upon arrival, they realise that the movie theatre is a debt-ridden mess, kept going by three eccentric pensioners. In order to try and keep afloat, Matt and ...
