Thank you to all who gave me suggestions here! I have only seen 'The Ladykillers' and 'The Man in the White Suit' a very long time ago. The OTHER titles are completely unknown to me and I will seek them out at Netflix. Thanks again.
Almost anything with Alastair Sim is at least worth a look. Must See: THE BELLES OF ST. TRINIAN'S, (Double-role, one in drag, for Sim; outrageous girls' school from cartoonist Ronald Searle). GREEN FOR DANGER, (Murder mystery but w/many droll touches). THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES, (With Margaret Rutherford as Sim's worthy adversary.) LAUGHTER IN PARADISE, (Ensemble piece w/clever plot).
And don't forget Guinness's THE HORSE'S MOUTH, script by the star from Romain Gary novel about eccentric artist.
THE WRONG ARM OF THE LAW, little-known but delightful Peter Sellers comedy with Lionel Jeffries.
Jeffries also figures prominently in an American comedy in the British Ealing spirit: THE NOTORIOUS LANDLADY with Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak and Fred Astaire. Larry Gelbart/Blake Edwards script.
....And don't forget Guinness's THE HORSE'S MOUTH, script by the star from Romain Gary novel about eccentric artist.
Um, yes, I hadn't forgotten this one, Preston, which is why I mentioned it in my first post.
And by the way it's from a novel by Joyce Cary not Romain Gary, but I see what you did there, that's the kind of thing I might do. The movie's more fun.
SEAN & PRESTON: I took your advice on 'THE HORSES MOUTH', which I'd never heard of before. Netflix has it, so I put it in my queue. I was reading the comments by members there, and also in the Tech Credits on the right side of the film's description. Members loved it, but I also learned that Alec Guinness who stars in it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay. I always considered him strictly as an Actor, but here he's nominated for Writing the thing, the year AFTER he'd won the Best Actor Oscar for 'Bridge on the River Kwai'. Impressive.
I love Too Many Crooks, quite brilliant, also, so many great Peter Sellers films, I think all his best films were in b/w, The Naked Truth, Only Two Can Play, Two Way Stretch & The Wrong Arm Of The Law. So many great fifties & early sixties b/w British films, comedies, melodrama, war & kitchen sink, a lot of them are being left behind in this Blu-ray boom.
I have never heard of this film before. But now I will seek it out. I've enjoyed Celia Johnson in 'BRIEF ENCOUNTER' and 'THIS HAPPY BREED', (A favorite film). It's almost impossible to imagine both Yvonne DeCarlo and Celia Johnson in the same film together as they're so seemingly complete opposites. I found that this film had Celia Johnson up for a BAFTA and that it's screenplay was nominated for an Oscar. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
It's almost impossible to imagine both Yvonne DeCarlo and Celia Johnson in the same film together as they're so seemingly complete opposites.
That's the wonderful plot of the film. CONSCIOUSLY they are opposites, but they hanker underneath each for the other's lifestyle. When that bubbles to the surface, old Alec is in a fix.
Malcolm Arnold scored it and as a little joke he gave Celia's character Alfred Newman's theme from 'Song of Bernadette', in a cheeky variation. Although it's just a fun comedy, it's actually got a serious exploration of women's roles and male fantasies.
David Wishart said that the Ealing anthology album he produced for Silva Screen was his proudest achievement. Perhaps it was the hardest one to get off the ground.
The Ladykillers: Music from Those Glorious Ealing Films. Silva SSD 1080
And thanks for being so gentle with me, Sean. One of these days I'll learn to re-read and review threads before I contribute to them, and to fact check myself to boot. (Are you sure it wasn't Cary Grant who wrote that novel?)
And thanks, Montana, when I wrote "script by the star" I did not know that he had been Oscar-nominaed for it.
Incidentally, FWIW, my cornerstone triad would drop THE LADYKILLERS -- which, I'm sorry, I've never found very funny, just amusing at best -- and replace it with yet another Guinness picture, THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT.
