Drawing from a uniquely rich background of literature and theatre, from Shakespeare to Dickens and Peter Pan to Lord of the Rings. Britain has produced some of the most enduring films in cinema history, from directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Powell & Pressburger, David Lean and Laurence Olivier to name but a few that feature in this authoritative box set
A CANTERBURY TALE
A 'Land Girl', an American GI, and a British soldier find themselves together in a small Kent town on the road to Canterbury. The town is being plagued by a mysterious glue-man , who pours glue on the hair of girls dating soldiers after dark. The three attempt to track him down, and begin to have suspicions of the local magistrate, an eccentric figure with a strange, mystical vision of the history of England in general and Canterbury in particular.
PEEPING TOM
Mark Lewis, works as a focus puller in a British film studio. On his off hours, he supplies a local porno shop with cheesecake photos and also dabbles in filmmaking. A lonely, unfriendly, sexually repressed fellow, Mark is obsessed with the effects of fear and how they are registered on the face and behavior of the frightened. This obsession dates from the time when, as a child, he served as the subject of some cold-blooded experiments in the psychology of terror conducted by his own scientist father. As a grown man, Mark becomes a compulsive murderer who kills women and records their contorted features and dying gasps on film. His ongoing project is a documentary on fear. With 16mm camera in hand, he accompanies a prostitute to her room and stabs her with a blade concealed in his tripod, all the while photographing her contorted face in the throes of terror and death. Alone in his room...
BLACK NARCISSUS
Sister Clodah is dispatched with four other nuns to establish a new convent far in the Himalayas. It's a difficult journey and their new house is a ramshackle old building on the edge of a cliff that had been abandoned by a religious Brotherhood many years before. They soon establish a school and an infirmary though the local General's agent, Mr. Dean, warns them against treating the deathly ill as they would no doubt be blamed if the patient doesn't recover. The location, the culture and the mountain air all begin to have a strange effect on the Sisters. Sister Clodagh, who is also on her first assignment as Sister Superior, begins to remember a romance she had as a young woman before entering the sisterhood. Another however, becomes obsessed with Mr. Dean, which leads to tragedy.
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS
Louis Mazzini's mother belongs to the aristocratic family D'Ascoyne, but she ran away with an opera singer. Therefore, she and Louis were rejected by the D'Ascoynes. Once adult, Louis decides to avenges his mother and him, by becoming the next Duke of the family. Murdering every potential successor is clearly the safest way to achieve his goal
MURDER!
The police find the actress, Diana Baring, near the body of her friend. All the circumstantial proofs seems to point to her and, at the end of the trial, she is condemned. Sir John Menier, a jury member, suspects Diana's boyfriend, who works as an acrobat wearing a dresses.
OLIVER TWIST
Based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Oliver is taken in by the pickpocket and he joins a household of young boys who are trained to steal for their master. This version of Oliver Twist is topped by Alec Guinness's masterly performance of arch-thug Fagin.
BRIEF ENCOUNTER
In this classic British drama, Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) is a housewife whose marriage is not everything she desires it to be. When she meets Dr. Alec (Harvey) in a cafe at the railway station, their chance meeting turns into a full-blown love affair. He also has a wife and family and is leaving the country, so their affair, while potent, is indeed, brief.
The Director : David Lean (25 March 1908 - 16 April 1991) was an English filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for mammoth big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on The River kwai, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter, and A Passage To India. Hailed by great filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick as 'great', he is a case-study in the art of filmmaking.
HAMLET
HAMLET IS A 1948 BRITISH FILM ADAPTATION OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S PLAY HAMLET, DIRECTED BY AND STARRING SIR LAURENCE OLIVER . HAMLET WAS OLIVER'S SECOND FILM AS DIRECTOR, AND ALSO THE SECOND OF HIS THREE SHAKESPEARE FILMS. OLIVER'S HAMLET IS THE SHAKESPEARE FILM THAT HAS RECEIVED THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS ACCOLADES. WINNING THE ACADEMY AWARDS FOR THE BEST PICTURES AND BEST ACTOR. HOWEVER, IT PROVED CONTROVERSIAL AMONG SHAKESPEARE PURISTS. WHO FELT THAT OLIVER HAD MADE TOO MANY ALTERATION AND EXCISIONS TO THE FOUR-HOUR PLAY BY CUTTING NEARLY TWO HOURS WORTH OF CONTENT.
LAURENCE KARR OLIVIER WAS AN ENGLISH ACTOR, DIRECTOR, AND PRODUCER. HE IS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS AND REVERED ACTORS OF THE 20THCENTURY, ALONG WITH HIS CONTEMPORARIES JOHN GIELGUD, PEGGY ASHCROFT AND RALPH RICHARDSON. OLIVER PLAYED A WIDE VARIETY ON THE STAGE AND SCREEN FROM GREEK TRAGEDY, SHAKESPEARE AND RESTORATION COMEDY TO MODERN AMERICAN AND BRITISH DRAMA. HE WAS THE FIRST ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL THEATRE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND ITS MAIN STAGE IS NAMED IN HIS HONOUR. HE IS GENERALLY REGARDED TO BE THE GREATEST ACTOR OF THE 20TH CENTURY, IN THE SAME CATEGOTY AS DAVID GARRICK, RICHARD BURBAGE, EDMUND KEAN AND HENRY IRVING IN THEIR OWN CENTURIES. OLIVER'S AMPAS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ARE CONSIDERABLE - FOURTEEN OSCAR NOMINATIONS, WITH TWO
HENRY V
In the inspired Olivier concept, Shakespeare's play begins as a performance in the Globe Theatre, shifting in broad cinematic terms to an epic narrative of Henry V, who had developed from a dissolute youth to a purposeful monarch. Proving his ability as a soldier and skillful leader, he unites the dissident factions in the English army and goes on to crush the French, against enormous odds, at Agincourt. Arranging a treaty with the French court, he woos Princess Katharine to whom he is formally betrothed as part of the peace agreement.
BLACKMAIL
This Innovative film, which is generally acknowledged as Britain's first-full-length talking picture and Hitchcock's first use of sound, stars Anny Ondra as Alice White, the daughter of a London shopkeeper. Although her boyfriend, Frank Webber (John Longden), is a Scotland Yard detective, the demanding Alice finds him dull. When Frank is late for their date at a restaurant, Alice attempts to ignite a spark in the detective by flirting with a handsome artist (Cyril Ritchard). The plan backfires and after an argument with Frank, the naive girl leaves with the other man. Enticed into visiting his studio, Alice is forced to defend herself from the man's unwanted advances, and stobs him to death with a nearby knife. She flees the scene, unwittingly leaving evidence behind. Frank is assigned to the case and does his best to protect Alice from being identified as the murderer, but a shady witness to the crime begins to blackmail the haunted girl.
