Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41730 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-02
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 346 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Four of the British film industry's best-loved comedies in one box set makes The Ealing Comedy Collection absolutely essential for anyone who has any passion at all for movies. The set contains Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955).

Ealing's greatest comedies captured the essence of post-war Britain, both in their evocation of a land once blighted by war but now rising doggedly and optimistically again from the ashes, and in their mordant yet graceful humour. They portray a country with an antiquated class system whose crumbling conventions are being undermined by a new spirit of individual opportunism. In the delightfully wicked Kind Hearts and Coronets, a serial killer politely murders his way into the peerage; in The Lavender Hill Mob a put-upon bank clerk schemes to rob his employers; The Man in the White Suit is a harshly satirical depiction of idealism crushed by the status quo; while The Ladykillers mocks both the criminals and the authorities with its unlikely octogenarian heroine Mrs "lop-sided" Wilberforce.

Many factors contribute to the success of these films--including fine music scores from composers such as Benjamin Frankel (Man in the White Suit) and Tristram Cary (The Ladykillers); positively symphonic sound effects (White Suit); marvellously evocative locations (the environs of King's Cross in Ladykillers, for example); and writing that always displays Ealing's unique perspective on British social mores ("All the exuberance of Chaucer without, happily, any of the concomitant crudities of his period")--yet arguably their greatest asset is Alec Guinness, whose multifaceted performances are the keystone upon which Ealing built its biting, often macabre, yet always elegant comedy.

On the DVD: The Ealing Comedy Collection presents the four discs in a fold-out package with postcards of the original poster artwork for each. Aside from theatrical trailers on each disc there are no extra features, which is a pity given the importance of these films. The Ladykillers is in muted Technicolor and presented in 1.66:1 ratio, the three earlier films are all black and white 1.33:1. Sound is perfectly adequate mono throughout. --Mark Walker

DVD Description
Featured titles:
The Ladykillers (1955)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Special Features:
Four artcards Theatrical trailers The Ladykillers -- ratio: 1.66:1; mono
Kind Hearts and Coronets -- ratio: 1.33:1; mono
The Man in the White Suit -- ratio: 1.33:1; mono
The Lavender Hill Mob -- ratio: 1.33:1; mono

Synopsis
The amazing talents of Sir Alec Guinness are on full display in this four-comedy collection that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Ealing Studios. The classic films included are THE LADYKILLERS, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, and THE LAVENDER HILL MOB.
THE LADYKILLERS, director Alexander Mackendrick's third Ealing farce, is the final comedy produced by the famous studio and one of its most celebrated. Alec Guinness stars as the superbly shifty, toothily threatening Professor Marcus, the leader of a crime ring planning a heist. Marcus rents rooms from a sweet, eccentric old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), in her crooked London house. The professor and his co-conspirators, blowhard Major Courtney (Cecil Parker), creepily suave Louis (Herbert Lom), chubby Harry (Peter Sellers), and muscleman One-Round (Danny Green), pose as an unlikely string quartet using the rooms for rehearsal. Dodging Mrs. Wilberforce's constant interruptions, the hoods hit upon the idea to use her in the daring daylight robbery (filmed in and around London's King's Cross station). When the old girl discovers the truth, Marcus and company cannot persuade her to stay buttoned up about it and thus decide to do her in.
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS is a deft and dark comedy with Guinness in superb form as he plays eight different members of the D'Ascoyne clan. Louis (Dennis Price), the black sheep of the wealthy family, must murder all the heirs in order to inherit the D'Ascoyne fortune. Watch as the brilliant Guinness disappears into his various eccentric roles.
Based on the play by Roger MacDougall, Alexander Mackendrick's THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (the director's second film) is a winning comedy about the battles between labor, capitalists, and scientific dreamers. Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) works quietly at the textile mill of Michael Corland (Michael Gough) until his mysterious, costly lab experiment is discovered. Fired by Corland, Stratton takes a menial job at Alan Birnley's (Cecil Parker) mill in order to continue his work on the sly. When Daphne (Joan Greenwood), Corland's fiancee and Birnley's daughter, discovers his secret, she threatens to expose Stratton. The desperate scientist reveals to Daphne that he has invented an indestructible cloth that never gets dirty. Close to realizing his vision, Stratton celebrates by having a white suit made of the fabric (because it repels dye). The trouble, however, is just beginning.
In THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, Mr. Holland (Alec Guinness) is a fussy and unnecessarily overprotective bank supervisor. However, unbeknowst to his employers, he is also Dutch, the leader of the titular crime organisation. So, on the day the bullion truck is robbed, Holland is the last person to be suspected. Guinness revels in his scheming character in this Ealing delight.

Customer Reviews

'It shouldn't have done that... '
The phrase 'Ealing Comedy' is so well known, there's a danger of taking these four fine examples for granted. They may have appeared on T.V. many times before, but now with DVD we get the chance to see them in excellent picture quality and without the interminable commercial breaks of television. It's stating the obvious, but these are (relatively) short films which were meant to be seen at one sitting, without breaks disrupting continuity.

Of the four, Kind Hearts and Coronets is probably the most famous, as Alec Guinness famously plays the parts of eight characters. But there is an equally wonderful performance from Dennis Price, as an aggrieved member of the D'Ascoyne family who sets about killing off the eight others who stand in his way to the top of the family tree. It's Price's cool, dispassionate manner that adds the edge to the story. The parts played by Guinness vary considerably in character (and sex!), and Guinness is chameleon-like in the way he fits each part. The story itself is a cracker, with a couple of twists along the way.

The Ladykillers was, most unusually for a 1950's British film, shot in colour. It was also largely filmed on location close to King's Cross Station, so providing some fascinating glimpses of the area in the post-war period. Guinness plays 'The Professor', the mastermind of a robbery at the station, and Katie Johnson-then 77!- plays the landlady whose house Guinness and his gang use as their base. When she discovers who they are, they decide to kill her, and that's when the fun begins... The location (Ealing built the set above the entrance to Copenhagen railway tunnel, just north of Kings's Cross Station), really adds to the atmosphere; the little house is often shrouded in steam and smoke, and the clanking of trains is a constant backcloth. Oh, and a railway signal (the old semaphore type) performs a function unique in cinema, in my experience.

The Lavender Hill Mob is perhaps more conventional Ealing; a timid bank clerk (Guinness..) teams up with the amiable and extrovert Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway) to rob his employers of bullion. Getting rid of the bullion is solved neatly by using Holloway's foundry. But then of course something goes wrong...

The outright masterpiece in this collection, though, is The Man in the White Suit. If you just read a plot summary, say 'a scientist invents a fabric which never wears out-workers and management are horrified..', it doesn't remotely do justice to what follows. Guinness (yet again) plays the misunderstood inventor, but the film is peppered with so many interesting characters-nervy laboratory assistants, an elderly washerwoman trying to make ends meet, a small girl who helps Guinness along the way, sinister industry mogul summoned from London (Ernest Thesiger)...the total really is far more than the sum of its parts. It's all filmed against a backcloth of a Lancashire mill town (I've always wondered-which one?) and the director Alexander Mackendrick keeps the film moving with a pace not quite matched in any of the other three. Not a single shot is wasted.

Above all, these are films about characters;there are many humorous, and some hilarious, moments, but it's the huge variety of people in these movies that makes you want to watch them again. They are the perfect antidote to 'special-effects' films.

Here, the people count.

Delightful!
A delightful collection, and evidence if evidence were needed of the brilliance of Sir Alec Guinness. These four films (along with Whisky Galore) are arguably the best known and certainly among the finest of the 110 fictional and documentary films produced by the Ealing Studios under the inspired leadership of Michael Balcon.

Although Balcon oversaw productions between 1938 and 1957, the golden years of Ealing Comedies started in 1947. These films represent a cross section, starting with the 1949 Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man in the White Suit both from 1951, and The Ladykillers from 1955. Although classic comedies, all four of these films possess a streak of inky darkness, and are much the better for that. The Man in the White Suit is by far the most satirical, and its arguments about the British suspicion of innovation are debatably still as true today as in 1951. These are simple stories, told with refreshing clarity, played as an ensemble and are still as fresh and witty as you'll find (just see the Hollywood remake of The Ladykillers to realise which ingredients have been lost!)

Ealing was a proving ground for British actors, young and old, many of whom cut their teeth in these films. Witness here Stanley Holloway, Cecil Parker, Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Sid James, Alfie Bass, Jack Warner, Katie Johnson, Herbert Lom (OK - born in Prague, but an honorary Brit!), Peter Sellers and Frankie Howerd, among many others.

These films belong in any DVD collection. Warmly recommended for the whole family.

The port is with you sir!
And may the port be with you! In a word magnificent and I am not concerned by the lack of so-called extras. Good films are like good books, do you really need to get in touch with the author to establish what kind of word processor or pen nib he prefers? then why so often in reviews is there all this fuss about behind the scenes drivel and extras ( let face it often best not to know & retain all of the magic ) Here we have four little Ealing gems safely tucked away in sensible packaging. All remind me of happy Sunday afternoons after the roast beef has been consumed and the good old BBC have laid on the entertainment. Most regular folks will be delighted by the selection, the prints are crisp (yes I am bothered about the image) It's a cliché, but they don't make them like this anymore.