Celebrated for the macabre tour-de-force plots and sublime twist endings that would come to define the very genre of suspense Alfred Hitchcock is one of cinema's greatest auteurs his career spanning six decades and over sixty films. One of Hitchcock's most significant pre-war thrillers – a series of films that would help pave the way to even greater success in Hollywood – Young and Innocent stars Derrick de Marney as Robert Tisdall a man who turns fugitive after he finds the body of a young woman washed up on a beach and is promptly accused of her murder; Nova Pilbeam is the beautiful young lady whose help he enlists and George Curzon features in one of his best-known British film roles as the jealous ex-husband who harbours a terrible secret...
With a remarkable cast headlined by Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price and Terry Thomas, WWII army comedy Private's Progress was one of the major British hits of 1956. Carmichael is Stanley Windrush, a naïve young soldier who during training falls in with the streetwise Private Cox (Attenborough). Windrush's uncle is the even more ambitiously corrupt Colonel Tracepurcel (Price), who plans to divert the war effort to liberate art treasures already looted by the Germans. The first half of the film is quite pedestrian, though the pace picks up considerably once the heist gets underway, and the cheery tone masks a really rather dark and cynical heart. Carmichael's innocent abroad quickly wears thin, but Attenborough and Price steal the film, as well as the paintings, with typically excellent turns. With a nod in the direction of Ealing's The Ladykillers (1955) the film also anticipates the attitudes of both The League of Gentlemen (1959) and Joseph Heller's novel Catch 22 (1961), though lacks the latter's greater sophistication. The cast also contains such British stalwarts as William Hartnell, Peter Jones, Ian Bannen, John Le Mesurier, Christopher Lee and David Lodge, and was sufficiently popular to reunite all the major players for the superior sequel, I'm Alright Jack (1959). On the DVD: Private's Progress is presented in black and white at 4:3 Academy ratio, though the film appears to have been shot full frame and then unmasked for home viewing so there is more top and bottom to the images than at the cinema. The print used shows constant minor damage and is quite grainy, though no more than expected for a low-budget film of the time. The mono sound is average and unremarkable, and there are no special features. --Gary S Dalkin
When a woman's body is discovered on the beach by one of her former lovers he races off to call the police. But two witnesses see him run and think he is the escaping killer. After being arrested he manages to escape in the confusion at the courthouse. With the assistance of the Police Constable's daughter he tries to prove his innocence while avoiding the police...
Stefan Radetzky a Polish pilot and famous concert pianist is hospitalised in England from injuries sustained while in combat and having lost his memory. As Radetzky plays the piano in a trance-like state the story moves back in time to war-torn Warsaw. During an air-raid Radetzky meets American journalist Carole and there is a mutual attraction. Following the fall of Poland Radetzky and Irish pilot Mike escape to Rumania and then on to America. Radetzky continues his musical career in America and meets up again with Carole...
Set in Paris in the late 1940's 'Sleeping Car to Trieste' is a tense Cold War thriller brilliantly directed by John Paddy Carstairs. Post war Europe is in turmoil. Agent Zurta (Albert Lieven) and his beautiful accomplice Valya (Jean Kent) steal a diary with vital Cold War secrets from an embassy in Paris. During the theft Zurta murders a servant and to throw the authorities off his trail enlists the help of Karl (Alan Wheatley). But Karl double crosses Zurta and attempts to makes his escape on the Orient Express. As the train pulls out of the Gare de Lyon in Paris there are some very contrasting characters on board. Zurta and Valya are on Karl's trail but he is tucked away in a hidden compartment. As the train hurtles through southern Europe the eclectic bunch of passengers which includes an adulterous couple and their idiot friend (David Tomlinson) a wealthy autocratic writer (Finley Currie) and a French police inspector seem determined to foil Zurta in his quest for the diary. As the film reaches its climax will Zurta and Valya recover the diary and make their escape or will they be captured before they reach the Iron Curtain?
Adapting a novel by Edgar Wallace, one of the twentieth century's most successful and prolific thriller writers, Flying 55 sets an exciting tale of double-crossing and blackmail amid the glamour of the horse-racing world. Featured here in a brand-new transfer from original film elements, Flying 55 is showcased in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Bill Urquhart, a young wastrel disinherited by his father, tries to get a job as a jockey - just about the only thing he's really good at. ...
Road To Bali: Bob Hope Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour team up in their sixth ""Road"" picture Road To Bali which was the only film in the series to be shot in color. Hope and Crosby star as two out-of-work vaudeville performers who are on the lam. The two are hired by a South Seas prince as deep-sea divers in order to recover a buried treasure. They meet beautiful Princess Lala (Lamour) and vie for her affections. Of course the boys run into the usual perils such as cannibals
Boxset of four classic films from the 1940s. 'Sleeping Car to Trieste' (1948) stars Jean Kent and Albert Lieven. Set on board the Orient Express the film follows the story of a man named Charles Poole (Alan Wheatley) who has stolen an important political diary and is being pursued by two different people who want it back. 'It's Not Cricket' (1949) stars Basil Radford as Major Bright and Naunton Wayne as Captain Early - detectives who have recently been thrown out of the army for their failure to capture a notoriously evil Nazi Otto Fisch (Maurice Denham). The detectives are invited to a weekend of cricket by their old friend Gerald Lawson (Nigel Buchanan) but what Gerald doesn't realise is that the ball he has purchased for the match contains the famous Rothstein diamond, stolen by Fisch, who will stop at nothing to get it back. 'All Over the Town' (1949) is a British comedy drama starring Norman Wooland as a Royal Air Force pilot who returns to work as a newspaper reporter. After fighting in the Second World War, Nat Hearn (Wooland) resumes his former position at the Tormouth Clarion and finds himself working with Sally Thorpe (Sarah Churchill), the woman who was given his job when he left. When Nat is promoted to editor of the paper, he decides to use his new status to make changes within the publication that will benefit the town but in the process he angers powerful figures within the community. 'Once a Jolly Swagman' (1949) is a British drama about speedway racer Bill Fox (Dirk Bogarde). Factory worker Fox is bored of his daily life and decides to quit his job to become a motorbike racer. Success goes to his head as he leaves his wife (Sandra Dorne) for socialite Pat (Renee Asherson), but when tragedy strikes on the track he returns to his wife and joins a union to fight for riders' rights.
Cynthis (Harriette Johns) hires private eye Slim Callaghan (Derrick de Marney) when her uncle changes his will in her favour...she says. When slim finds out her uncle is already dead he switches his suspicions from the former three beneficiaries to Cynthis herself - but finally tags Cynthis''s fianc'' (Rober Adair) as the killer...
Three Silent MenAn inventor of a deadly weapon to be used against the allies is injured in a crash. Surgeon Sir James (Sebastian Shaw) saves his life but learns of the inventors plot. The next day the inventor is found dead. Could it be the surgeon? A 1940 Butchers production stars Derrick De Marney and Patricia Roc. InquestDirected by Roy Boulting this Charter production was made in 1939. It was Boultings second film on the way to; Twisted Nerve The Family Way and Seagulls Over Sorrento. Inquest is a whodunit played out through the coroners inquest. Filmed at Highbury Studios and starring Elizabeth Allan and Herbert Lomas.
This classic 1942 war movie tells the true story of how two of the most remarkable men in aviation history - Spitfire designer R.J. Mitchell and his test pilot Jeffrey Quill - developed the aeroplane whose technological superiority helped Britain to win the vital battle of the skies. It features two of Britain's best-loved stars: Leslie Howard (who also directs and who tragically went missing in action shortly after the film was made) as Mitchell and David Niven as Quill. Scripted by two other great names from British cinema Miles Malleson and Anatole de Grunwald The First Of The Few also features a stirring score by William Walton.
Double bill from legendary Director Alfred Hitchcock. Contains: 'Rich and Strange' and 'Young and Innocent'.
Among Alfred Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood movies, 1938's Young and Innocent is a most unfairly overlooked classic. It's full of themes and stylistic touches that became permanent fixtures in his career. Based on Josephine Tey's novel A Shilling for Candles, the film title refers to the characters' outlook. However Hitchcock characteristically chips away at that innocence with flourishes of macabre humour, such as scenes of a dead rat at the lunch table and a hopeless conference with a defence lawyer, while suspense is heightened in a game of blindman's buff at a children 's party. The story concerns a typically Hitchcockian innocent man (Derrick de Marney) on the run, with a trivial object to find (a raincoat) that will prove his innocence. He's helped by a fiery young girl (Nova Pilbeam) who's unfortunately the daughter of the chief constable, but has some handy first aid skills. There's also an oppressive mother figure in the shape of an overbearing aunt (Mary Clare). Aside from these thematic traits, what remains impressive for viewers new or old is Hitchcock's technical set-pieces: a car sinks into a mineshaft, a railway station is recreated in miniature, and the twitchy-eyed murderer is finally located via an extended aerial tracking shot across a ballroom (pre-empting many similar shots, eg: Notorious). This sequence took two days to accomplish, and demonstrates the director was more than ready to move to the older and less innocent American industry . --Paul Tonks
Former child star Nova Pilbeam - the kidnapping victim in 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' reappears in this light hearted and unpretentious mystery shot on location in Cornwall. Playing the daughter of a local constable Pilbeam shelters a suspected murderer (Derrick DeMarney) and a charming romance develops. The highlight of this rare Hitchcock film is a stunningly intricate camera crane shot of the twitching eyes of the guilt-ridden killer: a jazz drummer in blackface. It took two days to shoot and is one of a continuous move lasting one minute and ten seconds focusing down from 145 feet to 4 inches.
Among Alfred Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood movies, 1938's Young and Innocent is a most unfairly overlooked classic. It's full of themes and stylistic touches that became permanent fixtures in his career. Based on Josephine Tey's novel A Shilling for Candles, the film title refers to the characters' outlook. However Hitchcock characteristically chips away at that innocence with flourishes of macabre humour, such as scenes of a dead rat at the lunch table and a hopeless conference with a defence lawyer, while suspense is heightened in a game of blindman's buff at a children 's party. The story concerns a typically Hitchcockian innocent man (Derrick de Marney) on the run, with a trivial object to find (a raincoat) that will prove his innocence. He's helped by a fiery young girl (Nova Pilbeam) who's unfortunately the daughter of the chief constable, but has some handy first aid skills. There's also an oppressive mother figure in the shape of an overbearing aunt (Mary Clare). Aside from these thematic traits, what remains impressive for viewers new or old is Hitchcock's technical set-pieces: a car sinks into a mineshaft, a railway station is recreated in miniature, and the twitchy-eyed murderer is finally located via an extended aerial tracking shot across a ballroom (pre-empting many similar shots, eg: Notorious). This sequence took two days to accomplish, and demonstrates the director was more than ready to move to the older and less innocent American industry . --Paul Tonks
The Woman In Green: Based on the Conan Doyle short stories 'Adventures of the Empty House' and 'The Final Problem' this film marks the last screen appearance of Professor Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone series. Holmes and Watson must solve the greatest crime wave since Jack the Ripper. A sequence of strange murders baffles the police. Holmes is called onto the scene and discovers the existence of a blackmail ring that uses a female hypnotist to further their skulduggery. Young And Innocent: Hitchcock's favourite film from his 'British period' is a spine-chilling melodrama centring around the murder of a young actress strangled with a raincoat belt - a clue which sets off a chain of life-threatening events. With its superb visual effects black humour and suspense. This is truly vintage Hitchcock. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934: A husband and wife's holiday in Switzerland goes horribly wrong when their daughter is kidnapped leading them into a web of mystery and intrigue...
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