Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4323 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-16
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 16
• Running time: 1420 minutes

DVD Description
Ealing Studio's output from the 1940s and 1950s helped define what was arguably the golden age for British cinema, fostering great directors such as Alexander Mackendrick and Rober Hamer and giving stars such as Alex Guiness and Peter Sellers a chance to shine.

The films (16 discs); Kind Hearts and Coronets The Ladykillers The Lavender Hill Mob The Man in the White Suit The Magnet Passport to Pimlico The Titfield Thunderbolt Whisky Galore Champagne Charlie Dead of Night The Maggie Scott of the Antarctic Nicholas Nickleby Went The Day Well It Always Rains on Sunday

Special Features
Original trailers Photo galleries Introductions from Ealing expert George Perry Documentary - 'Forever Ealing' Artcards

Synopsis
This exhaustive collection celebrates one of Britain’s greatest filmic institutions; Ealing Studios. While world famous for creating classic comedies, Ealing was also home to a raft of other films form all kinds of genres. This box set features CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE, DEAD OF NIGHT, HUE AND CRY, IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, THE LADYKILLERS, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, THE MAGIE, THE MAGNET, THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, NICHOLAS NICKELBY, PASSPORT TO PIMLICO, SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC, THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT, WENT THE DAY WELL and WHISKY GALORE.

Customer Reviews

Great Collection - Poor Presentation
Most film lovers are aware of the legacy Ealing Studios left to the nation and indeed the film world - and here is a small snapshot of some of their more famous films from over 100 in their history. The comedies are naturally the ones that are more instantly recognisable and enough has been said elsewhere about their lasting memory of class, quality and humour. Ealings output tho covered many other genres and it was a rare year that there wasn't a classic film made out of Ealing Studios that has stood the test of time today.

Unfortunately - as much as I would love to fully recommend this collection I must warn would be purchasers that for the most part the films are shoddily presented by Canal/Optimum and have been given little or no remastering or restoration.

Most of the transfers were done in the 80's and early 90's onto old 1" C format open reel tapes and used to duplicate onto the original VHS releases for Warner Home Video. These were done using pretty much the first print that came to hand - often an original (i.e. from the 40's/50's) In those days before HD, plasma, LCD, and indeed the infancy of surround "Dolby Digital" sound the transfers were adequate and served their purpose.

Many of the comedies 1" masters suffered heavy "rotation" at the duplication factory. It was general practice to review and to often commission a new transfer once the masters went above 50 rotations (each rotation meant loss of oxide on the tape and a weaker signal:noise ratio). However for most old films it was never considered value for money to strike a new duplication master.

When DVD came about it was decided again not to strike new masters for most of the films but to simply re-record the 1" onto Digibeta with no intermediary remastering. Sadly these releases are still using those old old transfers with all the inherent problems of the original film plain to see and hear. (the sound is probably the worst thing about all these releases)

What makes this particularly sad is that many of the films had brand new prints struck from the original negatives in the early 90's for a season at the Barbican. New transfers from these prints would have elicited a superb presentation.

wonderful films - awful discs. shame.

But where are the rest ?
Ealing made around a 100 films but the same 20 or so get continually trotted out in various repackaged box sets. As good as these films are what we want to see are all the other Ealing films on DVD , even if they are only limited runs. There are enough Ealing film fans Worldwide to justify their issue so what`s the problem ?

Not a review,just a query about content
I am writing this as a review since it doesn't seem possible to write this as a product update. This is listed as 16 discs or 16 movies. But you have listed only 15. Please check the package carefully. I have a feeling that you have not listed "Hue and Cry".