Last month you had your chance to list your Top Ten British Films. You could choose from the whole of cinema history and for any reason. The contributors to the survey are in alphabetical order. Any comment in red has been added by me. The results are at the bottom of the page
Thanks to the magic of alphabetical order I go first. It's not been easy and I've chosen films I find both fascinating and entertaining, so they may not be the greatest ones ever made.
A Canterbury Tale
I have no idea what it's about - but I keep going back to find out
First a Girl
Jessie Matthews most magical musical
Green for Danger
The best comedy whodunit ever made
A Hard Day's Night
So 60s it hurts
Hindle Wakes (1931) (The oldest film chosen)
Gritty realism before it was invented
My Learned Friend
There's no Moffat and Marriott, but I've a soft spot of Claude Hulbert so this has to be Will Hay's finest hour
Passport to Pimlico
The spirit of Austerity Britain captured for all time
The 39 Steps
Just a classic
Two Thousand Women
A dozen of the country's best character actresses given fun things to do for once
Yellow Canary
I suppose this is the one I have to justify. Okay, it plays like a bad test run for Notorious, but there's something about seeing Anna Neagle as a (possible) Nazi sympathiser that makes this compulsive viewing. It's meant to be patriotic but starts from the premise that "our betters" were quite likely to be fans of Hitler. Plus it's got Margaret Rutherford and, bizarrely for those of us brought up on That's Life, Cyril Fletcher.
1. The 39 Steps
The blend of comedy, tension and Robert Donat's tash.
2. Whisky Galore!
The best of all Ealing comedies with the fantastically bemused Basil Radford.
3. The Dam Busters
Well it's local to me and I feel a great affection for it especially when the Lancaster banks around Lincoln Cathedral!
4. The Lady Vanishes
Basil Radford again is exceptional playing off the cricket mad Naunton Wayne!
5. I Know Where I'm Going
In my opinion the finest of Powell & Pressburger films.
6. Angels One Five
Where else would you find the nicknames Septic, Tiger, Bonzo and Batchy?!
7. A Canterbury Tale
For the opening sequence if nothing else.
8. The Lavender Hill Mob
Guinness' finest film.
9. Stage Fright
The genius of Alistair Sim and Sybil Thorndike gives way to the tension of Dietrich. Oh and "lovely ducks"!
10. Genevieve
Suppose it's just a lovely, funny, Sunday afternoon film!
A nice mix of high and low culture, but in my opinion the Best of British! I never realised how much I liked John Gregson films.
The Dam Busters
Great Expectations
Brief Encounter
The Third Man
The African Queen
The 39 Steps (first version, Hitchcock of course)
The Lady Vanishes
Odd Man Out
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Leslie Howard version)
Lolita (Stanley Kubrick)
The Maggie
The 39 Steps
The Belles of St Trinians
The Dam Busters
Brief Encounter
Too Many Crooks
The League of Gentlemen
Ice Cold in Alex
Battle of Britain
The End of the Affair (Deborah Kerr version not Julianne Moore)
In alphabetical order:
1) Great Expectations (1946)
2) Hamlet (1948)
3) Hue And Cry (1946)
4) I Know Where I'm Going (1945)
5) Kes (1969)
6) Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949)
7) The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (1962)
8) Oh! Mr Porter (1937)
9) The Third Man (1949)
10) The 39 Steps (1935)
I Know Where I'm Going
The 39 Steps
The Maggie
Young & Innocent
The Battle of Britain
Gone to Earth
Brief Encounter
Kind Hearts & Coronets
The Titfield Thunderbolt
A Canterbury Tale
Brief Encounter
Black Narcissus
The Third Man
The Red Shoes
Peeping Tom
The African Queen
My all-time favourite. Bogart and Hepburn were superb.
The Way to the Stars
Terrific cast, with a lovely central performance from Rosamund John.
Great Expectations
The perfect way to bring Dickens to the screen.
Black Narcissus
Jack Cardiff's photography, exotic atmosphere, and Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Flora Robson etc.
The Third Man
Carol Reed's direction and Orson Welles as Harry Lime plus that zither music.
The Man in Grey
Completely over the top, but it made stars of Mason, Calvert, Lockwood and Granger. Made us forget the War.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
I would have to include this if only for Guinness' extraordinary performances. However, Dennis Price gave one of his best performances alongside Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood.
Odd Man Out
Unforgettable James Mason, surrounded by a host of great characters, directed by Carol Reed .
Hobson's Choice
A modest film that gave Charles Laughton one of the best parts in his later career, John Mills a chance to lose that stiff upper lip, and Brenda de Banzie her big break.
Whistle Down the Wind
Mary Hayley Bell's charming story is brought to life by a fine cast, headed by Alan Bates and Bernard Lee, but it is the three children who make this film memorable -so different to the usual "precious" English child actors up to that time.
The 39 Steps (1935)
Young and Innocent
This Happy Breed
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Ladykillers
Oliver Twist
Great Expectations
A Kid for Two Farthings
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
Tiger BayNot necessarily excellent films but ones I always enjoy! I have many more!
Cone of Silence
The Night My Number Came Up
Night Mail
Dream of Dolwyn (either While I Live or The Last Days of Dolwyn)
Ice Cold in Alex
For King & Country
Too Many Crooks
The Ladykillers
The Naked Truth
1984 (Richard Burton)
no order
In Which We Serve
Blithe Spirit
Brief Encounter
Henry V
Happiest Days of Your Life
Kind Hearts + Coronets
Passport to Pimlico
School for Scoundrels
The 39 Steps
The Lady Vanishes
Oh, Mr Porter! (Will Hay)
Genevieve
The Thief of Bagdad (Korda)
Ask a Policeman (Will Hay),
London Town (for the Sid Fields sketches)
Over she goes (Stanley Lupino)
Passport to Pimlico (Ealing)
Whisky Galore (Ealing)(This one's missing a couple which may be an error this end - sorry)
The Blue Lamp
Dead of Night
Genevieve
Green for Danger
The Green Man
Hue & Cry
It Always Rains on Sunday
My Learned Friend
Oh Mr Porter
Room at the Top.Chosen for pleasure rather than artistic merit.
Zulu
Tunes of Glory
The Cruel Sea
I Know Where I'm Going
Accident
Genevieve
The Winslow Boy (Nigel Hawthorne) (I think this is technically a US production)
Don't Look Now
Hell Drivers
Ryan's Daughter
only ten it's not cricket old boy still done my best to stop at ten
[1] The 39 Steps [Hitchcock]
[2] Genevieve
[3] Brief Encounter
[4] Kind Hearts & coronets
[5] Hobson's Choice
[6] Oliver Twist [Guinness]
[7] Reach for the sky
[8] Oh, Mr Porter!
[9] Hell Drivers
[10] Billy Liarvery hard choice can't wait to see the final top ten
Billy Liar
Brief Encounter
The Dam Busters (rousing music)
Henry V (Olivier not Branagh, as above)
In Which We Serve
The Ladykillers
Rebecca (U.S. production)
The Third Man
Too Many Crooks
Whisky Galore!
(Even alphabetical!)
Went the Day Well?
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The League of Gentlemen
Whisky Galore
Brief Encounteras a war baby, practically brought up in the local cinema, these are the ones that immediately spring to mind.
In alphabetical order, the British films I find most magical:
The Amazing Mr Blunden
Carry On Don't Lose Your Head
The Draughtsman's Contract
I Know Where I'm Going
Jason and the Argonauts
London Town
The Queen of Spades
The Tomb of Ligeia
The Way to the Stars
Whisky Galore
(Calderbonkers.hall@btinternet.co.uk)
In no particular order...
The Fallen Idol
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Third Man
Blow-Up
Get Carter
The Last Resort (The most recent film chosen)
Went the Day Well?
The Long Good Friday
The Lavender Hill Mob
The Ladykillers
(The Powell and Pressburger Appreciation Society Steve@Brainstorm.co.uk)
[Number 1 without any hesitation]
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) [of course]
[The rest are in no particular order]
The Spy in Black (1939)
Contraband (1940)
Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941)
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
A Canterbury Tale (1944)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Black Narcissus (1947)
The Red Shoes (1948)
The Small Back Room (1949)[The trouble is there are too many good films
even by Powell and Pressburger]
...in no particular order...my 10 Films...
Oh Mr Porter
Ask a Policeman
Hay+Marriott+Moffatt get two inclusions as they set an example to Virgin Trains, and put Buggleskelly on the map, with help from One-eyed Joe, the miller, and Gladstone and then reduce the crime figures in Turnbottom Round hotly pursued by the Phantom Hearse....as the tide runs low in the smugglers cove..
Kind Hearts and Coronets
A black comedy that will be not eliminated from anyone's ten favourites, unlike the assorted Alec Guinness's that stood in the way of Dennis Price.
The Way to the Stars
By far the best war-in-the-air film, and made just after it, and with a view of the home front.
The Happiest Days of your Life
Riotous confusion with Alistair Sim, and Miss Gossage's name is still written in that dust I shouldn't wonder?
The 39 Steps (Donat)
Hitchcock's wonderful spy adventure "Am I Correct? Sir" You Bet Mr Memory!
The Lady Vanishes
..I wonder how the Test match is going ? as Miss Froy tangles with those nasty nazis, trans-euro train yarn that un-ravels with suspense.
Ice Cold in Alex
The long journey to find probably the best lager in the world and it's cold! and you get to sit next to Sylvia Syms under the sun, on sand!
Henry V
Mediaeval Warfare as instructed by the Bard, "cry God for Larry and fill up your top ten with this colourful Gem"!
The Third Man
After Zithering around in the sewers of Vienna one needs a shot of Penicillin! It's Harry's Game to include this intrigue.
Mike Edwards's 10 selections, 'the few' out of so many that owe such great entertainment to so many, and as caused much human conflict in its achievement.
My top 10 British films in no particular order:
The Magic Box
The Way To The Stars
The 39 Steps
The Lady Vanishes
Bridge On The River Kwai
Ice Cold In Alex
Brief Encounter
In Which We Serve
Lawrence Of Arabia
The Ladykillers
There are so many others I could have listed, but these are the ones that I enjoyed the most, that I can remember. All truly great films!
Thanks Jo.
jmbee34@hotmail.com
The 39 Steps
The Third Man
The Red Shoes
The Wicker Man
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
The Devils
Oh Mr Porter
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
(Ian.Payn@DGA.co.uk)
In no particular order:
The Ladykillers
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Third Man
Victim
The Blue Lamp
Brighton Rock
Seven Days to Noon
I'm All Right, Jack
The Dam Busters
The Clouded Yellow
...all done in a hurry, I'm afraid, and the list might be different next week, but a bit of food for thought there.
I'll try to get around to some proper number crunching this week, but here are the films that got more than one vote:
11 votes - The 39 Steps
10 votes - Kind Hearts and Coronets
9 votes - The Third Man
7 votes - Brief Encounter
6 votes - I Know Where I'm Going / Oh, Mr Porter!
5 votes - Genevieve / The Dam Busters / The Lady Killers
4 votes - A Canterbury Tale / Great Expectations / The Lady Vanishes / Whisky Galore
3 votes - Black Narcissus / Henry V / Ice Cold in Alex / Passport to Pimlico / The Red Shoes / The Way to the Stars / Too Many Crooks
2 votes - Ask a Policeman / Billy Liar / Green for Danger / Hobson's Choice / Hue and Cry / In Which We Serve / London Town / My Learned Friend / Odd Man Out / Oliver Twist / The African Queen / The Battle of Britain / The Blue Lamp / The Happiest Days of Your Life / The Lavender Hill Mob / The Maggie / Young and Innocent
Why not take part in the current survey? Results of last year's survey's here.