Ealing Comedy DVD Collection - Hue and Cry/Passport to Pimlico/The Titfield Thunderbolt [1953]

There are shared themes here, a shared sense of the importance of eccentricity and imagination to a healthy society as well as excellent ensemble acting from casts that include Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford and Sid James. The box is filled out with a television documentary about the history of Ealing Studios. It covers its early silent days, the golden age that produced the classic comedies and such important films as The Cruel Sea, its time as a BBC studio and its possible renaissance under new management.

On the DVD: Ealing Comedy presents the three films and the documentary in 1.33:1 (i.e., 4:3), and has excellent mono sound that does full justice to both dialogue and scores. The extra features include introductions to the four films in the first box set by such luminaries as Terry Gilliam and Martin Scorsese as well as DVD-ROM files of the original brochures for all seven films. --Roz Kaveney

Video Description
Hue & Cry
This film, the first "Ealing Comedy", features a strong cast including Alastair Sim and Jack Warner. The story centres round London’s East End of the 40's and a group of criminals who use a boy’s paper as a means of messages and information. This ploy is discovered by a group of East End boys who take exception to the crooks use of their favourite read! The memorable climax features the criminals being chased by thousands of young boys through the London Docklands.

Audio: Mono, Screen Ratio: 1.33:1 Full Frame

Passport to Pimlico
A whimsical and charming British film, Passport to Pimlico is one of the finest examples of the classic Ealing comedies. An archaic document found in a bombsite reveals that the London district of Pimlico has for centuries technically been part of France. The local residents embrace their new found continental status, seeing it as a way to avoid the drabness, austerity and rationing of post-war England. The authorities do not, however, share their enthusiasm...
Academy Award and BAFTA nominated starring Stanley Holloway and Betty Warren.

Audio: Mono, Screen Ratio: 1.33:1 Full Frame

The Titfield Thunderbolt
Director Charles Crichton and writer Tibby Clarke team up again for the first Ealing comedy to be produced in Technicolor. When an antiquated railway line is threatened with closure, the villagers decide to run it themselves and enter into frenzied competition with the local bus route, with hilarious consequences. The defiance of authority by local inhabitants was a favourite topic in the 40's and 50's and embellishes the characteristic Ealing theme – 'small is beautiful and big is bad'. Stars Stanley Holloway and Sid James.

Audio: Mono, Screen Ratio: 1.33:1 Full Frame

Forever Ealing Bonus Disc:
* Forever Ealing Documentary (50 mins)
* Martin Scorsese introduces The Lavender Hill Mob
* Terry Gilliam introduces The Ladykillers
* Steven Frears introduces The Man In The White Suit
* John Landis introduces Kind Hearts & Coronets
* Theatrical Trailers for Passport to Pimlico & The Titfield Thunderbolt
* Theatrical Trailers for The Ladykillers, Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts & Coronets and The Man In The White Suit

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• DVD & Blu-ray > Classics > Comedy
• DVD & Blu-ray > Comedy
• DVD & Blu-ray > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
• DVD & Blu-ray > Documentary

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