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Alec Guinness and mob (including Peter Sellers, with violin) in THE LADYKILLERS
“Projected for the world an image of post-war, post-Empire Britain as lovable and cozy as marmalade, cricket and the Queen Mum.”– Michael Jeck
NOVEMBER 15 – 26 (12 DAYS) AT FILM FORUM
“ONCE MORE WITH EALING”FESTIVAL OF CLASSIC COMEDIES, FILM NOIR AND HORRORFROM LONDON’S FAMED EALING STUDIOS
Including THE LADYKILLERS, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, DEAD OF THE NIGHT, PASSPORT TO PIMLICO, IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, and many more
“ONCE MORE WITH EALING,” a twelve-day, 16-film festival of classics made at London’s Ealing Studios, most famous for its run of quirky comedies in the 1940s and 50s, many of them starring Alec Guinness, will run at Film Forum from Friday, November 15 to Tuesday, November 26.
In his time as powerful a British mogul as J. Arthur Rank and Alexander Korda, producer Michael Balcon (discoverer of Hitchcock and grandfather of Daniel Day-Lewis) created, through the family atmosphere he fostered at his suburban London Ealing Studios, a body of work as distinctive as any classic genre: The Ealing Comedy, featuring the farcically ingenious plots of writer T.E.B. Clark, the wry direction of Charles Crichton, Robert Hamer, and Alexander Mackendrick (who’d go on to make the rather un-Ealing SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS), and a world-renowned stock company of eccentrics including Margaret Rutherford, Stanley Holloway, Alastair Sim, Joan Greenwood, and especially Alec Guinness, who stars in five films (in twelve different roles) in the series. But comedy was only a small part of an output that spanned everything from Dickens adaptations and war movies to classic horror and Film Noir.
The festival includes 4K restorations from Studiocanal of the comedy classics KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (cited by Time Out as “Ealing’s blackest comedy”), THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, PASSPORT TO PIMLICO, THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, and THE LADYKILLERS. Non-comedies in the festival include the highly regarded police procedurals THE BLUE LAMP and POOL OF LONDON; THE PROUD VALLEY, starring the legendary American actor and singer Paul Robeson; Ealing’s superb adaptation of Dickens’ NICHOLAS NICKLEBY; Robert Hamer’s IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, starring Googie Withers, considered the greatest of all British Noirs; and WENT THE DAY WELL?, a little-seen wartime thriller, based on a Graham Greene story, imagining the German occupation of a small English village; and DEAD OF NIGHT, recently named by Variety as one of the greatest horror movies of all time.
Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, who began his career at Ealing photographing some of their best-known films, including many in the series, would later photograph the first STAR WARS (which featured Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi) and the early Indiana Jones movies.
Author and historian Paul Cronin, editor of a volume of Alexander Mackendrick’s writers, will introduce the Sunday, November 24 screening of THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT at 4:30.
“ONCE MORE WITH EALING” has been programmed by Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Repertory Artistic Director.
Public Screening Schedule
Subject to change; check web for latest
THE LAVENDER HILL MOB
U.K., 1951
Directed by Charles Crichton
With Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Audrey Hepburn
Screenplay by T.E.B. Clarke (Academy Award, Best Screenplay)
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Approx. 81 min. 4K restoration.
Friday, November 15 at 12:30
Wednesday, November 20 at 4:45
Friday, November 22 at 6:00
Sunday, November 24 at 2:40
Tuesday, November 26 at 6:00
THE LADYKILLERS
U.K., 1955
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
With Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Cecil Parker, Katie Johnson (BAFTA, Best Actress)
Approx. 97 min. 4K restoration.
Friday, November 15 at 2:20
Monday, November 18 at 8:20
Sunday, November 24 at 8:40
Tuesday, November 26 at 7:50
THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT
U.K., 1951
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
With Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Ernest Thesiger
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Approx. 85 min. 4K restoration.
Friday, November 15 at 4:30
Wednesday, November 20 at 12:20
Thursday, November 21 at 7:25
Friday, November 22 at 2:45
Saturday, November 23 at 12:30
Sunday, November 24 at 4:30*
*Introduced by Paul Cronin, editor of On Filmmaking: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director by Alexander Mackendrick
PASSPORT TO PIMLICO
U.K., 1949
Directed by Henry Cornelius
With Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, Barbara Murray
Written by T.E.B Clarke
Approx. 84 min. DCP.
Friday, November 15 at 6:30
Saturday, November 16 at 2:20
Monday, November 18 at 4:40
Saturday, November 23 at 4:10
Monday, November 25 at 12:30
DEAD OF NIGHT
U.K., 1945
Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer
With Michael Redgrave, Mervyn Johns, Roland Culver, Sally Ann Howes, Googie Withers
Written by John Baines, Angus MacPhail, T.E.B Clarke
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Approx. 77 min. 4K restoration.
Friday, November 15 at 8:30
Saturday, November 16 at 8:15
Saturday, November 23 at 2:20
Tuesday, November 19 at 2:30
Tuesday, November 26 at 12:30
HUE AND CRY
U.K., 1947
Directed by Charles Crichton
With Alastair Sim, Frederick Piper, Harry Fowler
Written by T.E.B. Clarke
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
First of the “Ealing comedies”
Approx. 82 min. DCP.
Saturday, November 16 at 12:30
Tuesday, November 19 at 6:20
Thursday, November 21 at 2:30
WENT THE DAY WELL?
U.K., 1942
Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti
With Leslie Banks, C.V. France, Valerie Taylor
Based on a story by Graham Greene
Approx. 92 min. 35mm. Restored by the British Film Institute.
Saturday, November 16 at 4:15
Friday, November 22 at 7:50
IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY
U.K., 1947
Directed by Robert Hamer
With Googie Withers, John McCallum, Jack Warner
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Approx. 92 min. 35mm.
Saturday, November 16 at 6:30
Sunday, November 17 at 5:20
Saturday, November 23 at 8:15
WHISKY GALORE!
U.K., 1949
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
With Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, Catherine Lacey
Approx. 82 min. 4K restoration.
Sunday, November 17 at 1:10
Thursday, November 21 at 4:20
THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKELBY
U.K., 1947
Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti
With Derek Bond, Cedric Hardwicke, Sally Ann Howes
Approx. 108 min. 16mm print courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Sunday, November 17 at 3:00
Tuesday, November 19 at 8:10
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS
U.K., 1949
Directed by Robert Hamer
With Dennis Price, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, Alec Guinness (in eight different roles)
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Approx. 106 min. 4K DCP.
Sunday, November 17 at 7:20
Wednesday, November 20 at 2:30
Friday, November 22 at 12:30
Saturday, November 23 at 6:00
Sunday, November 24 at 6:25
THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT
U.K., 1953
Directed by Charles Crichton
With Stanley Holloway, George Relph, Naunton Wayne, Hugh Griffith, Sid James
Written by T.E.B Clarke
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Approx. 84 min. Restored DCP.
Tuesday, November 19 at 12:30
Wednesday, November 20 at 6:35
Monday, November 25 at 4:15
THE BLUE LAMP
U.K., 1950
Directed by Basil Dearden
With Jack Warner, Dirk Bogarde, Jimmy Hanley
Written by Jan Read, Ted Willis, T.E.B Clarke
Approx. 85 min. DCP.
Tuesday, November 19 at 4:20
Wednesday, November 20 at 8:30
Thursday, November 21 at 12:30
THE PROUD VALLEY
U.K., 1940
Directed by Pen Tennyson
With Paul Robeson, Edward Chapman, Rachel Thomas
Approx. 76 min. DCP.
Thursday, November 21 at 6:10
Friday, November 22 at 4:40
A RUN FOR YOUR MONEY
U.K., 1949
Directed by Charles Frend
With Donald Houston, Alec Guinness, Meredith Edwards, Moira Lister
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Approx. 85 min. 35mm.
Sunday, November 24 at 12:45
Monday, November 18 at 12:30
POOL OF LONDON
U.K., 1951
Directed by Basil Dearden
With Bonar Colleano, Earl Cameron, Susan Shaw
Approx. 86 min. 4K restoration.
Tuesday, November 26 at 4:20
Monday, November 25 at 8:30
THE FILMS OF EALING STUDIOS ARE RELEASED BY RIALTO PICTURES.
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