
Production
Michael Balcon
Born 1896-05-19 · Birmingham, England, UK
Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer, known for his work with Ealing Studios. Balcon had earlier worked for Gainsborough Pictures, Gaumont British and MGM-British.
Acting credits
7.0A film biography with a difference, Sir John Mills' Moving Memories charts the life of one of Britain's most distinguished actors. Compiled from interviews with the man himself and with his family and friends, it traces his career from humble beginnings to all-time great of British cinema. The many film clips reveal an electric screen presence and a willingness to undertake a range of difficult, challenging roles.
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
2000
NRThe story of the men and women who produced a series of film comedies that were so original and funny that they put Ealing on the map.
The Ealing Comedies
1970
NRAmerican documentary film-maker George C. Stoney visits the Aran Islands to try and unravel some of the myths surrounding a film that had engrossed him as a youngster - Robert Flaherty's famous documentary "Man of Aran" released in 1934.
How the Myth Was Made: A Study of Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran
1978
Behind the camera
7.3Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.
The 39 Steps
1935
6.5While vacationing in St. Moritz, a British couple receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
1934
7.3Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
The Ladykillers
1955
7.2London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
1927
7.2An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread.
Dead of Night
1945
7.6Three sailors get drunk while on shore leave and end up on the wrong ship. When they realise their mistake they scramble off it and onto their warship, HMS Ferocious. However, they soon realise that the vessel they have boarded is not the Ferocious but a German battleship.
Sailors Three
1940
7.6When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
1949
6.9The unassuming, nebbishy inventor Sidney Stratton creates a miraculous fabric that will never be dirty or worn out. Clearly he can make a fortune selling clothes made of the material, but may cause a crisis in the process. After all, once someone buys one of his suits they won't ever have to fix them or buy another one, and the clothing industry will collapse overnight. Nevertheless, Sidney is determined to put his invention on the market, forcing the clothing factory bigwigs to resort to more desperate measures...
The Man in the White Suit
1951
6.8An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.
The Scapegoat
1959
6.9Scotland Yard detectives attempt to solve a spate of safe robberies across England beginning with clues found at the latest burglary in London. The film is notable for using a police procedural style made popular by Ealing in their 1950 film The Blue Lamp. It is known in the US as The Third Key.
The Long Arm
1956
6.3Forever England gives John Mills his first leading role as Brown. Born after a brief affair between his mother and a naval officer, he joins the Royal Navy during the First World War. There his bravery and marksmanship keeps a German ship in port so a British ship can sink it. He becomes a hero, but at what cost?
Brown on Resolution
1935
6.8A family buy land set around a water hole in a remote location, that is occupied by native Australians. The two groups clash.
Bitter Springs
1950
6.8A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing.
Dunkirk
1958
6.6A seasick sea captain commands an amusement pier despite local opposition. Released in the U.S. as 'All at Sea'
Barnacle Bill
1957
7.0In this modest drama, set during World War II, two rival boat families battle it out for supremacy.
Painted Boats
1945
7.2A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country.
The Lavender Hill Mob
1951
6.7Karl Anton Verloc and his wife own a small cinema in a quiet London suburb where they live seemingly happily. But Mrs. Verloc does not know that her husband has a secret that will affect their relationship and threaten her teenage brother's life.
Sabotage
1937
6.1During World War I, a novelist declared dead is recruited by British intelligence and sent to Switzerland under a new identity to assassinate a German spy. Teamed with a fellow agent posing as his wife and an eccentric assassin known as “the General,” the trio close in on their target — until two of them grow ambivalent when their duty to the mission clashes with their consciences.
Secret Agent
1936
5.6A tale of life on board a Royal Navy cruiser assigned to protect the vital convoys between America and England during WWII.
Convoy
1940
6.8A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.
A Yank at Oxford
1938
4.8In this opera-oriented musical, Riccardo Gatti, an Italian young tenor in Venice, meets a young woman who sneaks into the opera house to try and get her fiancé hired as the orchestra's pianist.
My Song for You
1934
6.0A young couple live under a café in Paris that, unknown to them, is owned by a brutal blackmailer. When he is murdered, they fall under suspicion. However, the husband's father, an amateur detective, believes in their innocence and sets out to find who really killed the blackmailer.
A Night in Montmartre
1931
6.9British Air Marshal Hardie is attending a party in Hong Kong when he hears of a dream, told by a pilot, in which Hardie's flight to Tokyo on a small Dakota propeller plane crashes on a Japanese beach. Hardie dismisses the dream as pure fantasy, but while he is flying to Tokyo the next day, circumstances start changing to align with the pilot's vivid vision, and it looks like the dream disaster may become a reality.
The Night My Number Came Up
1955
5.6British Egyptologist Professor Morlant seeks immortality through a jewel buried in the tomb of an Oriental idol. Upon his death, Morlant returns to Earth to seek vengeance upon those who removed the jewel from his grave.
The Ghoul
1933