Three credited directors, another three uncredited and production shifted to Hollywood to avoid the blitz - it should have been a recipe for disaster. Somehow it worked - and worked brilliantly. This is largely due to William Cameron Menzies' imaginative production design, a witty script from Lajos Biro and Miles Malleson and near perfect casting. Was there ever a vizier as wicked as Conrad Veidt or a princess as beautiful as June Duprez? Several generations of children have come out of the cinema pretending to be Sabu. Altogether now: "I want to be a sailor, sailing out to sea . . .".
George Baker is the 17th century toff whose eponymous alter ego is helping Royalists escape in true Scarlet Pimpernel fashion. Despite being busy he still finds the time to romance Sylvia Syms in one of the best British swashbucklers.
You'll know, if you've read My site that I make an exception for the Carry On films when it comes to chronology. It makes up for all the po-faced serious dramas from the fifties I now have to watch thanks to starting this site. This is an okay entry in the series. It's the last with Sid James, and the last watchable one. Sid is a vicar by day and Dick Turpin by night. Most of the regulars are here (Williams, Windsor, Jacques, Sims, Connor, Bresslaw) and there's even an appearance by former Miss World Eva Reuber-Staier.
This is the one that started it all. Based on a story by R.F. Delderfield, it actually owes a lot to the popular sitcom The Army Game and includes several of its regulars (Norman Rossington, Charles Hawtrey, William Hartnell). No Sid James yet, but it does have Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques. Highlights include Hawtrey's bayonet practice: "Have at you, varlet!".
The Archers' bit of Scots whimsy is a delight even though it doesn't completely hang together. The last scene in the tower pushes the film just a bit too far but who cares as long as Wendy Hiller gets Roger Livesey at the end.
"Frying tonight!", "Do you mind if I smoke?" and many other rotten gags fill this glorious spoof of the Hammer films by the Carry On team.
Sid and Hattie are the bickering couple who run a computer dating agency. More sexually harping than any other Carry On this still has its moments though none are particularly memorable.
Missionary Gladys Aylward heads for China and finds herself having to smuggle a group of children over the border to safety.
Great afternoon movie with an impressive performance from Ingrid Bergman and a final farewell from Robert Donat.
Classic Powell & Pressburger fantasy which impresses more with every viewing. David Niven is the pilot who should have died in a crash but the angel sent for him got lost in the fog. By the time he's found, he's fallen in love and heaven holds a trial to see if he should live or die.
Unforgettable Dickens adaptation with John Howard Davies in the title role. Alec Guinness plays Fagin as a total Jewish stereotype but still manages to get the sympathy of the audience. Robert Newton was born to play Bill Sykes. One of the all-time classics.
The classic ballet film. A young ballerina is torn between her dancing career and her love for a young composer. Okay, since the composer is Marius Goring at his least gorgeous, where's the conflict for anyone sane? But this is a film about ballet folk so you don't expect rational behaviour from anyone. Moira Shearer is the ballet dancer and Anton Walbrook is the impresario. It looks great and the central ballet is one of the best ever filmed.
