This adaptation of Joe Orton’s extraordinarily funny cross between a farce and a detective story breaks endless taboos. A corpse is bundled into a cupboard and the coffin is filled with money stolen by two likely lads – one of whom dreams of opening a brothel.

Joe Orton’s delicious tale of suburban perversity, in which a lascivious landlady and her gay brother attempt to seduce the titular tenant, who happens to be a psychopath, was first staged in 1964 and adapted for the BBC in 1968. Two years later Douglas Hickox directed this feature film version, ...

Based on Jacques Offenbach's opera, The Tales of Hoffmann takes viewers through three fantastical stories, regaled to us by narrator E.T.A. Hoffman who revisits the tales of his three loves; Olympia, an animated doll, Giuletta the Venetian courtesan, and Antonia, a singer's daughter hidden away f...

Exemplary adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play, ostensibly about a naval cadet accused of stealing a postal order but predominantly concerned with the liberty of the individual. Savouring every word of Rattigan's immaculate dialogue, Robert Donat excels as defense counsel Sir Robert Morton, ou...

The era of the British New Wave came of age with John Schlesinger’s comedy, one of the enduring films from the movement that crucially combines humour and literary pedigree with its ‘kitchen sink’ realism.

With his reign coming to an end, a dying Henry VIII looks back on his life and the six marriages that would go on to define him. The film looks back with the King, following his life from his marriage to a Spanish princess to the foundation of Protestantism, to the beheadings and divorces that wo...

Peter Sellers gives a rare - and remarkable - dramatic performance as Benjamin Hoffman, a lonely middle-aged businessman who blackmails a beautiful young secretary (Sinead Cusack) into spending a week with him. But what begins as a seemingly sinister ordeal will slowly reveal itself to be an unco...

It is 1912, and the shadow of war looms over a wealthy family. As they celebrate their eldest daughter's engagement in their lavish Yorkshire manor, they're interrupted by an ominous police detective who is investigating a young woman's suicide, and what role each of them played in her death.

Christmas 1183. An elderly King Henry the Second (Peter O'Toole) is torn over naming his successor. He wants the young Prince John (Nigel Terry), one of his three sons, to take over, however, his wife Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katherine Hepburn) wants another of his sons, Prince Richard the Lio...

Two worlds collide in this melodrama set in Victorian Brighton: a repressive household, run by a tyrannical chemist, and a sleazy tavern, presided over by a passionate landlady. The chemist's son (Gordon Jackson) finds himself, understandably enough, in thrall to the landlady (Googie Withers). Hi...

Bizarre comedy of a working class artist who alienates his wife when he acts out his emotional affinities with gorillas.

A disparate group ñ a couple whose marriage is breaking down, a terminally ill conductor, grief-stricken parents ñ arrive at a Welsh country inn and discover that they have a year's grace to resolve their difficulties. WW2 witnessed the birth of the fantasy mini-genre where the supernatural admin...

In the searing Sahara heat tensions are on the rise between the five men at the station. Petty squabbles have started between the refined Captain Macey and the coarse Fletcher, and the generals base-enforced card game surfaces the competitive nature of the crew. Once a beautiful blonde is thrown ...

Long before Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy, there was this lavish sprint through the lives and comic operas of the creators of The Mikado. Not all Gilliat's hopes were realised - he wanted more social history, and an easier flow between music and drama. But there's plenty still to feast on: winning per...

Ernst Lubitsch’s 1925 Hollywood version of Lady Windermere’s Fan is often misquoted as the first screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s enduringly popular 1892 play. In fact, the British got there first, with this early silent feature made nearly a decade before Lubitsch’s film. While the lack of act...

By the end of the silent era around 300 films of Shakespeare’s work had been produced. This celebration from the BFI National Archive draws together a delightful selection of thrilling, iconic and humorous scenes from 24 titles (many unseen for decades), newly digitised and brought to life with a...