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Four Movies
Box Set
Superb Collection
Every film buff must see these at least twice
Ideal viewing for a wet Sunday afternoon
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| Four of the film industry's best-loved Ealing comedies in
one box set |
This makes The Ealing Comedy Collection absolutely essential
for anyone who has any passion at all for movies. The set contains:
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Kind
Hearts and Coronets (1949)
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The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
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The Man in the White Suit (1951)
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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 these movies' success - 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 DVDs: 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 movies.
The Ladykillers is in muted Technicolor and presented in 1.66:1
ratio, the three earlier movies are all black and white 1.33:1. Sound is
perfectly adequate mono throughout.
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