There are real consequences for both villagers and troops, and the deaths aren't underplayed. @Max: I don’t think many films reach the level of The Third Man but I would say if you are a fan of that film Odd Man Out is definitely worth seeing, as are all of these films. British Horror films - in year order Thanks to Darrell Buxton (an expert), I now present you with an official, accurate, and exhaustive guide to every British horror film made. Today, most epics flop at the box office . Before Guy Hamilton directed four of the best James Bond movies ("Goldfinger," "Diamonds Are Forever," "Live and Let Die" and "The Man With the Golden Gun"), he made his bones with this based-on-real-life drama about Allied troops trying to escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp housed in the medieval Colditz Castle. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ( 1943 ) Where to Watch? Fantasia - (1940, James Algar) (Disney Animated film, Deems Taylor - Narrator (1940 original) 22. Most of them are also available for purchase or rent via digital stores like iTunes, Amazon, VUDU or FandangoNOW. Using real firemen playing fictional roles, Fires Were Started follows the men of a fire station during intense German bombing raids. If we're being honest with ourselves, Great Britain knew more about the war in Europe and North Africa than Americans ever would. I’ve seen and own 1,2, and 4. Martita Hunt was never finer, No-one can ever match the brilliant work of David Lean with such memorable movies like GREAT EXPECTATIONS, TIS HAPPY BREED, PASSAGE TO INDIA and OLIVER TWIST, Your email address will not be published. Recently, the film found its way into our Top 10 films to watch before going to film school. Richard Collins III was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army shortly before his death. Agree with almost all inclusions – but the order is entirely wrong! Gaze in wonder at just how bloody many of them there have been. I miss the old golden age of Hollywood with dramatic and luxurious epics. Does it matter that fear of German invasion in Britain had almost totally receded by 1942? Best Foreign Films. It is BAD that I haven’t seen any of these isn’t it? tells a fictional story about German paratroopers who land in England, impersonate British troops and take over a remote village. Top 10 films to watch before going to film school. Hollywood didn't quite corner the market on great World War II movies. On this occasion, Veidt plays a hero, something he did not do very often, and there is also an early (uncredited) performance by Leo Genn. Because there are very good noir films that come out of the fifties, we’ve included some. One of the memorable classics! However Goodbye Mr Chips, How Green was my Valley and Mrs Miniver are American films. The Marine Corps hit a milestone when three women completed drill instructor school at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. Michael Redgrave plays the visionary engineer who conceives and designs the devices, and Richard Todd is the RAF pilot who leads the raid. Visually mesmerising, the film paints a bleak picture of post-World War II Europe as the story’s setting becomes a character in itself. This movie revealed the previously classified story behind Britain's "bouncing bombs," which the RAF's 617 Squadron used to destroy German dams in 1943. The Magnificent Ambersons - (1942, Orson Welles) (Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello) 23. All rights reserved. They're accompanied by a South African officer (Anthony Quayle), who may not be what he seems. The British film industry was very active in the 1940s, and not only with comedies such as those featured in my recent Ealing Comedies game. British WW2 films by Edna Sweetlove. The Time of Their Lives 1946, 82 min. Film Movement is a small distributor that's doing amazing work in making available a wide variety of lesser-known films from around the world. During the previous decade, films had helped audiences cope with the privations of the Great Depression and the loss of two kings. 2. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. There's probably a good reason for that inspiration, since the special effects shots were overseen by Gilbert Taylor, whose long career included a job as cinematographer on "Star Wars.". Larry Rendall Brock Jr., an Air Force veteran seen brandishing zip tie handcuffs during the pro-Trump siege at the U.S... Capt. The box set is still worth the investment because most of the movies come with outstanding documentary extras. Explore the archive Christopher Nolan's classic 2017 "Dunkirk" plunges viewers into three different perspectives (land, sea, air) and three different timelines (week, day, hour) to give a sense of the chaos of war from the battlefield perspective. Best Portrait of Life in the 1940s. God, I’m ashamed to say I’ve barely seen any of these (The Third Man and Black Narcissus aside)…. The Third Man 1949, 93 min. If you think you saw it back in the day, the version released theatrically in the United States cut out half the movie. Deciding instead to create separate lists for the best British and American films of the decade, the following are some of the greatest works to come out of Britain during the 1940s. This brilliant political thriller takes place over one night. The first of the films made available here are of the “film noir” genre (or style, if you prefer). He would do the same for Oliver Twist two years later. "The Colditz Story" is also available to stream or buy online. . Is the US Losing the Fight for Arctic Dominance? Your email address will not be published. He is the third of four U.S. service members — two SEALs and two Marines — to face a court martial for the death of Melgar. 1939. David Lean’s film was ahead of its time. If you're looking for ways to support businesses likely to be hardest hit but the current crisis, buying this title directly from Film Movement would be a good option to consider. How could I forget?! Brits really do see Dunkirk as the defeat that won the war, and this movie, made less than a generation after the 1940 evacuation, is a document of that operation made by people with direct connections to the war. Watch these free Classic Mysteries Thru Opera TV, which is on many devices including TiVo. Search our collection of Top 10 lists sorted by type: That these charming British character types are required to react with such sudden ferocity gives the movie a sense of real consequence missing from most homefront films. Great Expectations is widely considered the finest literary adaptation ever filmed. Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley, a 33-year-old Navy veteran, refused to take the anthrax vaccine while in the Navy. There's one unintentionally shocking thing about this movie: Richard Todd's character, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, has a magnificent black labrador retriever as a pet. The movie takes a few liberties with the actual details as to which prisoners tried to escape at which time, but the movie's thrilling central escape really happened in much the same way it's portrayed in the film. James Mason delivers a fine performance as an Irish republican who plans a robbery to fund his anti-British gang’s cause but ends up shot and on the run. A popular British classic, this is the sort of movie often found nestling in afternoon schedules on BBC2, its status as cosy nostalgic treat signalled by the casting of John Mills as leading man – the proverbial plucky Tommy personified, the underdog everyman. WWII, May 1940, Dunkirk, France Evacuation across English Channel This uncompromising Ealing Studio film, one of the last B/W British films about WWII in the 1950s, combined Elleston Trevor's novel The Big Pickup with a factual account named Dunkirk by Ewan Butler and J.S. Emond O’Brien is the astute lawyer, Ella Raines a flirtatious working girl, Vincent Price the glowering businessman hiding behind his charisma, and William Bendix a straight-laced cop. Never heard of ‘Odd Man Out’. Bradford. This is a deliciously dark comic tale that has lost none of its sly sophistication. These movies were made for a British audience, starring actors who were huge movie stars in their home country but never necessarily made it in Hollywood. One of the most popular movies of the 1940s Cinema, a timeless classic, and Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite of all of his films. In my opinion Required fields are marked *. Cast John Mills, Valerie … Probably trumped by the Powell and Pressburger comic fantasies during World War II, Humphrey Jennings’ film is a more sombre look at British life in the face of conflict. See the A – Z of films featured on Top 10 Films, Review: “25th Hour” Sees New York City Exposed, Vulnerable & Licking Its Wounds, Top 10 Johnny Depp Performances In The 1990s, Review: “Night Of The Running Man” Reminds Me Why I Can’t Stand Andrew McCarthy, 10 Unforgettable Films About Troubled Adolescents, Review: “Tremors” Finds A Lovable Harmony Between Comedy & Horror, Review: “The Fifth Element” Is A Flawed But Weirdly Attractive Acid Space Dream, Review: “Blinded By The Light” Will Leave You Grinning From Ear To Ear, Review: Jeff Goldblum Experiences An Unconventional Existential Journey “Into The Night”, Review: “Logan Lucky” – Street Savvy & High-Spirited, Review: “A Severed Head” Cuts Off The Sympathy Gene. Not really. Anson, dreams of enjoying an ice-cold lager in his favorite bar once they arrive in Alexandria (hence the title), and it's that beer (with dew forming on the glass) that keeps him motivated through all the crises the group encounters along the way. One left-field choice: John Eldridge’s Waverley Steps, which is a 30-minute ‘city symphony’ through the streets of Edinburgh. While that does describe the plot, it doesn't suggest the violence and brutality the movie depicts. I haven’t seen all of these, but glad to see Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes included. The dog is quite popular on the base, and everyone seems determined to greet the creature with his racist name. What are your favourite British films from the 1940s? A list of 354 films compiled on Letterboxd, including 21 Days (1940), Band Waggon (1940), Busman's Honeymoon (1940), The Case of the Frightened Lady (1940) and Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940). Great Expectations (1946) Film Action and adventure. The sheer quality of the films featured below highlights the strength of the British film industry during the 1940s, a decade that perhaps has never been matched before or since. This includes movies made in the 1940s as well as movies that were made in the 1950s. Have you ever seen a psychological drama about a group of nuns in an isolated Himalayan convent before? North Korea displayed new submarine-launched ballistic missiles under development and other military hardware. 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Launder and Gilliat jointly made the propagandist Millions Like Us before alternating directing chores on a series of wittily scripted, beautifully crafted entertainments including Two Thousand Women (1944), The Rake's Progress (1945), I See A Dark Stranger (1946), Captain Boycott (1947) and London Belongs To Me … I would be very interested in seeing the rest especially the David Lean movies. Argued by many as the greatest film ever made, Carol Reed’s The Third Man follows an American searching for the killer of his best friend in war-torn Vienna. Here are some of the serious movies made in British studios during the 1940s. We’re lucky to be able to revisit this British version of the stage play at all. Does it come any where close to achieving the greatness of ‘The Third Man’? One of my personal faves is “Goodbye Mr Chips”! I’d also replace Black Narcissus with A Matter of Life and Death and include a second Humphrey Jennings: Listen to Britain, which is just magnificent. Director David Lean. These are my favorites and I’ll categorize them in three ways: 1. is also available to stream or buy online. "Ice Cold in Alex" is also available to stream or buy online. It tells the story of Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), a housewife who meets a gentleman one day whose company she enjoys. Originally part of a shortlist for the best films of the 1940s, I struggled to cut the group to just ten. If they hadn't held the line in the days before Pearl Harbor, our greatest generation would've never had the chance to prove itself. Henry V (Olivier, 1944) Laurence Olivier, whilst serving with the British Fleet Air Arm … Directed by: Andrew HaighStarring: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay Two giants of British screen acting, surprisingly working together for the first time, make a combustible double-act in this Norfolk-set two-hander. Emily Rainey is scheduled to leave the Army in April after resigning her commission over earlier incidents. Contraband (1940) is a wartime spy film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which reunited stars Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson after their earlier appearance in The Spy in Black the previous year. Probably not. It really does deserve to be better known. It quickly becomes apparent when looking at the films released during the decade that many of cinema’s most memorable, timeless and influential works appeared during the ten years between 1940 and 1949. 1940s (3) 20th Century Literature On Screen (3) Bar (3) Bare Chested Male (3) British Humoristic Literature On Screen (3) British Literature On Screen (3) Car Crash (3) Cemetery (3) Class Differences (3) Deception (3) England (3) European Literature On Screen (3) Explosion (3) Gun (3) Hotel (3) Humoristic Literature On Screen (3) Literature On Screen (3) Pistol (3) Police (3) The film is based on Noel Coward’s one-act play from 1936. The Great Dictator - (1940, Charles Chaplin) (Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie) 21. There have been many great British crime movies, from Get Carter to Sexy Beast and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Even if that version kept in the action sequences so effective here, it's the dread created in quieter scenes that make the film so effective. "Went the Day Well?" The dog is black, and Gibson has given him a truly unfortunate name, one that inspired a pre-title card at the movie's beginning warning audiences that the film reflects cultural attitudes of the era that may no longer be acceptable. It is also memorable for Orson Welles’ fleeting appearance. Charles Barton • Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie … Journeyman director J. Lee Thompson warmed up for his early 1960s career peak (the consecutive one-two punch of "The Guns of Navarone" and "Cape Fear") with this North Africa adventure tale that's every bit as good as those two better-known films. One of the most popular films Gainsborough Studios ever released, this costume melodrama, for which British cinema became renowned for during the middle part of the century, follows the lives of two women (Phyllis Calvert, Margaret Lockwood) who pursue fateful relationships with two unscrupulous men (James Mason, Stewart Granger). © Copyright 2021 Military.com. Mrs Miniver, just to name a few. Charlotte Rampling scored her first Oscar nod as Kate Mercer, one half of a long-married couple nearing a key milestone. …and The Thief of Bagdad. David Lean masterfully adapts Charles Dickens’ novel for the screen. The 1940s saw the rise of Technicolor but also of film noir … Free Classic Movies from the 1920's,1930's, 1940's and 1950's of the Crime,Detective or Film-Noir Genre all in the Public Domain, edited to reduce video noise. If you like old movies, I hope you'll enjoy this quiz. Nice work! Carol Reed • Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles. Written, directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes is based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale and follows the story of a ballerina who must choose between her life on the stage and true love. The film is best remembered for its wonderful stylisation, Olivier’s powerhouse performance, and score by William Walton. And though the best British films will arguably always be those led b posh accents, grand English country estates, and Colin Firth, the movies on this list prove there's so … The paces seem standard and unadorned. Here are the best. Films 188 Comments 12 ... Any additional suggestions are welcome, however. Navy Secretary Braithwaite apologized that it took more than 75 years since World War II ended to honor the fallen chaplain. Cinema proved crucial to national survival in the 1940s. It's a movie that deserves a wider audience and, if that requires dubbing in an innocuous name for the dog, let's hope someone gets around to that soon. The final bombing sequence is shot in a way that should look familiar to fans of the Death Star destruction sequence in the original 1977 "Star Wars" movie. Powell and Pressburger’s film, based on the novel by Rumer Godden, features a wonderful performance from Deborah Kerr and an even better one from Kathleen Byron as the directors cook up an emotional tale of ambition, faith and eroticism. Alec Guinness is superb. Odd Man Out is one of my favourite films starring James Mason. "Dunkirk" is also available to stream or buy online. Put a group of French, British and Polish men determined to escape in one place, and they're going to come up with a series of ingenious plans. The brilliant Alec Guinness plays multiple roles in this early Ealing comedy about the cunning Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) who decides to kill all members of the D’Ascoyne family who stand in his way of his dukedom and the family fortune. It is given further resonance thanks to a thoughtful script that intelligently looks at morality and social existence. On its face, the movie looks like it's going to be a heartwarming story about plucky civilians who foil an enemy plot to establish a beachhead for a coming invasion. Search Suspended for Boat that Left Bahamas with 20 on Board, 7 Things to Know About Being a Military Veterinarian, How a Suburban Housewife Became a Pioneer of Military Intelligence. THEME | ACTOR | DIRECTOR | TIME PERIOD | GENRE | COUNTRY | SPECIAL INTEREST | FUNNY When you look at the variety and scope of films made in the 1940s, it really is one of the greatest decades for film. 5 Classic (But Relatively Unknown) British World War II Movies it was much better than the Peter O’Toole version in ’69. 1940s (22) Doctor (22) Marriage (22) Father Daughter Relationship (21) Police (21) Dancing (19) Femme Fatale (19) Friendship (19) Kiss (19) Death (18) Father Son Relationship (18) Psychotronic Film (18) Telephone Call (18) Bar (17) Chase (17) Hotel (17) Love Triangle (17) Maid (17) Photograph (17) Song (17) Escape (16) Face Slap (16) Flashback (16) Jealousy (16) Marriage Proposal (16) They celebrate Great Britain's role in the conflict by focusing exclusively on that country's perspective. The Pentagon is reviewing how best to crack down on extremist views in the ranks. Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock were doing some of their best work. The Web (1947) – source: Universal Pictures. As DoD officials look into reports of military participants, legal experts weigh in on what charges they might face. Many of the biggest titles for 2021 are movies that we expected to see in 2020. Nominate Them For A $1,000 Prize From AARP, Here's What It Was Like to Be a Marine Turned Journalist Capturing the US Capitol Assault, You Can Find These Surprising Artifacts at the Coast Guard's Museum. 1940: 21 Days: Basil Dean: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Leslie Banks: Drama: Filmed in 1937 All at Sea: Herbert Smith: Sandy Powell, Kay Walsh: Comedy: At the Villa Rose: Walter Summers: Judy Kelly, Keneth Kent, Clifford Evans: Mystery: Band Waggon: Marcel Varnel: Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch: Comedy: Blind Folly: Reginald Denham: Clifford Mollison, Lilli Palmer: Comedy Just Great Movies. The ultimate in non-lethal riot control devices was a total lie. Mills' character, Capt. Colditz was supposed to be escape-proof and was used to house prisoners who made repeated escape attempts from other camps. Laurence Olivier, whilst serving with the British Fleet Air Arm during the second world war, starred in and directed this wholly patriotic film from the play from William Shakespeare. At times it feels like we have four actors playing their ever-handy archetypes. Arranging to meet again, the pair soon find their relationship developing into love. The action scenes are riveting, and much of the movie was shot on location in Libya. British Council film archive Take a trip down memory lane with this rights-free collection of over 100 short documentaries about wartime Britain, made by us during the 1940s. In 1944 … What we get is movies made with all the craftsmanship we're used to with Hollywood war films from the era but that don't follow the Hollywood rules about plot and character we've seen in a hundred other (often great) WWII movies. 3. Film Movement has collected five of these classic films in "Their Finest Hour," a new Blu-ray box that makes high-definition versions available in the U.S. for the first time. Based on a short story by Graham Greene, "Went the Day Well?" This was a movie made for an audience who knew just how close they had come to fighting the enemy on their home turf. British … He's so beloved that the flight crews use his name as one of their code words for the mission. Director Leslie Norman's 1958 film takes the opposite and more traditional approach, giving context every step of the way and telling a series of parallel stories of men on the ground in France and citizens back home in Britain that eventually meet up and intertwine on the beaches at Dunkirk. But, as they are both married, they find that the relationship cannot go on if they are to avoid hurting their families. Biden will arrive at the White House with the smallest military presence in Afghanistan in nearly two decades. See the A – Z of films featured on Top 10 Films / Check out our film review database, HENRY V is the only one I watched from this list, but you know epics and historical films are my absolute favourite! A British medical field unit (John Mills, Sylvia Syms and Harry Andrews) tries to cross the desert to Alexandria, Egypt, in a breaking-down jeep. Discover More on Top10Films.co.uk: Great Expectations, for me, is the finest piece of cinema these shores ever produced, with Fires Were Started coming a very close second. All fine films. Undoutedly, Great Expectations must be high on the list. A list of 354 films compiled on Letterboxd, including 21 Days Together (1940), Band Waggon (1940), Busman's Honeymoon (1940), The Case of the Frightened Lady (1940) and Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940). Gaslight (1940)
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