Ealing Comedies

Whilst on holiday this year (as every year) I always do a round of the local charity shops. If you are prepared to look through the goods on offer you can usually find some bargains which you have wanted.

In one of the shops I came across a 4 DVD Set of Ealing Comedies priced at £2.00! Even on Amazon (which is usually the cheapest priced) the set would have cost £5.78!)

The Set consisted of Hue and Cry, Passport to  Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt and a bonus 50 minute disc called Forever Ealing, which tells the Ealing Studios Story.

I have always enjoyed the Ealing Studios Comedies. They are full of gentle humour and fun - none the anarchic type of comedy we have on television today. They are usually set around the late 40's early 50's and somewhere within the plot, the ordinary fellow manages to triumph over the big important powerful persons.

Ealing Comedies were produced between 1947 and 1957, and despite their association with the studios, the comedies made up only a tenth of their output!

Three well know actors spring to mind when thinking of the Ealing actors. They are Stanley Holloway, Alec Guinness and Alastair Sim, who all went on to even greater roles (Stanley Holloway as Alfred P Doolittle in "My Fair Lady", Alec Guinness in "Bridge on the River Kwai, and Alastair Sim in the St Trinian's Series)

Various people have compiled lists of the names of the Ealing Comedies, and they differ from person to person. The phrase the Golden Age of Ealing Comedies is often bandied about, but nobody has defined which films  are included in The Golden Age of Ealing Comedies, so at the risk of being shot down in flames, here is my very own list.........

Hue and Cry (1947)
Passport to Pimlico (1949)
Whisky Galore! (1949)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953)
The Maggie (1954)
The Ladykillers (1955)