#ealing comedies

[luvnotpercival]

Watched Dead of Night for the first time again in years. This film is so mind boggling and its plot has intruiged me so much over the years. So here is a study of Maxwell and Hugo the puppet...

[ravens-cove]

When @xerohourcheese first told me about the Ealing Comedies I was intrigued. We bought the boxset of four of them: Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Man in the White Suit, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers. These four films feature the excellently talented Sir Alec Guinness. These are four very different films, but each one is perfect, with Kind Hearts and Coronets being my favourite. There have been remakes of at least one of them, but I don't actually want to watch any remakes, because you can't remake perfection!

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[nine-frames]

“Oh, how I loathe adventurous-minded boys.”

Hue and Cry, 1947,

Dir. Charles Chrichton | Writ. T. E. B. Clarke | DOP Douglas Slocombe

[jingle-bones]

FATHER BROWN aka THE DETECTIVE (Dir: Robert Hamer, 1954).

The second big screen outing for G K Chesterton's fictional detective Father Brown, adapted from his 1910 short story The Blue Cross.


Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective Father Brown (Alec Guinness) pits his wits against elusive master criminal Flambeau (Peter Finch), intent on stealing a priceless cross from the clergyman.


Originally exhibited in the UK as Father Brown, the movie is now more widely available in prints bearing its US title The Detective. A glance at Father Brown’ s cast and crew and one would be forgiven for thinking this Columbia Pictures release was an Ealing Studios production. Director Hamer is reunited with his Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) stars Alec Guinness and Joan Greenwood, whilst Ealing alumni Peter Finch, Bernard Lee, Sidney James and Cecil Parker all feature. However, any similarity between this lightly humorous detective story and an Ealing comedy ends here.


Languishing part way between comedy and mystery, the movie straddles both genres without a firm footing in either. Never reaching the witty heights of Kind Hearts and Coronets and not quite exciting enough to convince as a thriller. It ambles along nicely enough but lacks the narrative twists and turns that would have elevated the story above the mundane. Thelma Schnee and Hamer's screenplay never quite manages to over come the source material's inherent quaintness and at times threatens to become unbearably twee.


Alec Guinness is excellent as ever here, once again immersing himself chameleon like in the role of Brown. He is matched by the equally impressive Finch in a rare comedic performance for the actor, albeit not one especially played for big laughs. The rest of cast are, unfortunately, somewhat underused in what is largely a two-hander between Guinness and Finch.


Father Brown is good movie, but can't help but feel a little bit of a disappointment considering the talent involved. It is still worth a watch, if only for the excellent performances from its leading men. Not quite a classic, but a high quality time passer nonetheless.

Check out my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME for a longer review of Father Brown. Link below.

Jingle Bones Movie Time

[jingle-bones]

Movie number 68: Who Done It? (Basil Deardon, 1956).

Who Done It? is a late period Ealing comedy starring popular TV comic Benny Hill, directed and written by Ealing stalwarts Basil Deardon and TEB 'Tibby' Clarke, respectively.

Hill stars as Hugo Dill, a disillusioned ice show sweeper with an obsession for pulp detective fiction. After winning £100 in a detective magazine competition Dill sets himself up as a private investigator. He duly becomes entangled with political saboteurs whom he unwittingly aides in an assassination attempt. Meanwhile becoming romantically involved with aspiring showgirl and strongwoman Belinda Lee.

Yes, the plot is ridiculous. But, more importantly, it is funny. It is certainly slapstick of the broadest kind, but those expecting Hill's brand of saucy (some would argue sexist) seaside postcard humour will be disappointed; this is purely innocent stuff and the better for it. Even the burgeoning romance between Hill and Lee is a rather chaste affair.

Basil Dearden was one of the most prolific Ealing directors, although perhaps not the obvious choice for Who Done It? Helmer of the acclaimed dramas The Captive Heart (1946) and The Blue Lamp (1950), he rarely turned his hand to comedy and one would assume it was not his forte but for the excellent League of Gentleman (1960), produced by Ealing head Michael Balcon a year after the studio's demise. 'Tibby' Clarke on the other hand had proved himself an excellent comedy writer as scenarist of the bone fide Ealing classics Hue and Cry (Charles Crichton, 1947) Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius, 1949) and The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951). Who Done It? doesn't rank among Clarke's best work but is nonetheless highly acceptable second tier work from a screenwriter who rarely wrote a bad script.

Who Done It? in no way represents the best of the Ealing Studios, yet neither is it the failure that its relative obscurity would suggest. It is well worth seeking out, especially for fans of vintage British cinema. Read an unedited version of this review and reviews of other classic Ealing Studios films on my new blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

[harrycosmo]

Joan Greenwood in Whisky Galore! (1949).

Joan Greenwood in The Man in the White Suit (1951).

[beautyarchive]

Imagine doing a ceilidh dance with Joan Greenwood and she looks at you like this.

[viviqueen]

Ealing Comedy #4: Whisky Galore! (Alexander Mackendrick, 1949)

The journey across the Ealing comedies continues today with Whisky Galore!, a 1949 film that introduced two critical figures to these films: director Alexander Mackendrick and actress Joan Gre…

The Ealing Comedies Blog Series continues with Whisky Galore! Enjoy your reading!