"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 corporation threatens to take over a small railway line, a group of villagers decide to try and run it for themselves. The final collaboration between director Charles Crichton and writer T.E.B. Clarke, The Titfield Thunderbolt is a stunningly scenic gem in Ealing's repertoire. Anarchic an...
Masquerading as a string quintet, a gang of thieves plot to rob a bank, whilst renting an unknowing old woman's spare room as a hideaway. The Ladykillers features a deliciously devious Alec Guinness as the brains behind the group, alongside Herbert Lom in his first comedic role, and an appearance...
