
Directing
Charles Crichton
Born 1910-08-06 · Merseyside, England, UK
Charles Ainslie Crichton was an English film director and film editor. He became best known for directing comedies produced at Ealing Studios. Crichton enjoyed an extremely long career, editing and directing many films and television programmes over a period exceeding forty years.
Acting credits
NRThis 1986 documentary features interviews with director Alexander Mackendrick, actor Burt Lancaster, producer James Hill, and others.
Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away
1986
5.0Documentary about the British film studio. First appeared on the BBC television programme Omnibus.
Made In Ealing: The Story of Ealing Studios
1986
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
Behind the camera
7.2While a diamond advocate attempts to steal a collection of diamonds, troubles arise when he realises he’s not the only one after the collection.
A Fish Called Wanda
1988
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
7.0In 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
7.0When British Railways announce the closure of the Titfield to Mallingford branch line a group of local residents make a bid to run it themselves, backed by a monied member of the community who is attracted by the complete lack of licensing hours on trains. Unfortunately the local bus company starts to use methods that can hardly be seen as fair competition.
The Titfield Thunderbolt
1953
6.6Angela Barrows is a man-eating business woman sent by her American employer to investigate their export opportunities in Edinburgh. En route she meets Robert MacPherson, a businessman who asks for her help to bring his company into the 20th Century. The staff, led by Mr Martin, has other ideas—and a battle between the old and new business methods soon breaks out.
The Battle of the Sexes
1960
6.2A prominent London psychologist seems to have taken his own life, causing stunned disbelief amongst his colleagues and patients. His teenage daughter refuses to believe it was suicide as this would go against all of the principles her father stood for, therefore she is convinced it was murder. She enlists the help of a former patient to try to get to the truth. However, the truth turns out to be both surprising and disturbing.
The Third Secret
1964
6.5Earth's Moon is the site of Moonbase Alpha, a scientific research colony nestled in the crater Plato. Staffed by over 300 men and women from Earth, it is the operations center for several space expeditions. It is also a watchdog for vast amounts of atomic waste from Earth stored in silos on the Moon's far side. Magnetic radiation builds up and causes the wastes to explode with such force that the Earth's centripetal pull on the Moon is overcome, and the Moon is broken free of Earth's orbit to drift at incredible speed out of the Solar System off the plane of the ecliptic. The survivors on Moonbase Alpha are unable to return to Earth and must survive in unknown space on their wandering Moon. They encounter a planet whose advanced people project an illusion of a devastating attack on Moonbase. This TV movie was edited from scenes of two episodes ("Breakaway" and "War Games") of "Space: 1999" (1975).
Alien Attack
1980
5.1Rex Allerton is a top Hollywood star and an idol of the female population. To get away from the pressure of the fans who won't leave him alone, he relocates to a remote Italian village where unanticipated trouble arises when unwittingly he becomes the prize for an international lottery.
The Love Lottery
1954
6.4When Percy Brand, a habitual confidence trickster, keeps being sent down, he goes to great lengths to ensure that his son Colin, does not find out about his criminal past. But when Colin becomes an assistant to the Judge, who is about to try Percy for his latest escapade, Percy and his gang have to come up with a plan, to stop them meeting in court.
Law and Disorder
1958
6.3A train disaster is told in four short stories to give character studies of the people involved, how it will affect them and how they deal with it.
Train of Events
1949
6.9An unexpected bond develops between a fugitive killer and a runaway orphan on an odyssey across England.
Hunted
1952
5.4An alien princess aids people stranded on out-of-orbit Moonbase Alpha.
Cosmic Princess
1982
6.8During World War II, a German woman, Inga, goes missing and is presumed dead. Her infant son is placed in an orphanage where, years later, he's adopted by a childless couple. The adoptive parents' happiness is shattered when Inga reappears and insists on custody of her son.
The Divided Heart
1954
7.5The efforts of test pilot John Mitchell to make a better life for his wife Mary and their two children seem doomed to failure and he blames himself. At the Conway Aero-Manufacturing Company of Wolverhampton, Mitchell is to take the company's new rocket-propulsion transport plane up for tests, fully loaded and carrying two important passengers - Ministry official Crabtree and buyer's representative Ashmore. Mitchell learns from his boss, Reg Conway, that if Ashmore does not recommend the plane, the company will be out of business and Mitchell out of a job, since the plane is not even insured as the firm's entire capital is tied up in the plane. Aloft, an engine catches fire and the passengers and other crew bail out, but Mitchell refuses to obey orders to jettison the plane in the Irish Sea.
The Man in the Sky
1957
6.5A gang of street boys foil a master crook who sends commands for robberies by cunningly altering a comic strip's wording each week, unknown to writer and printer. The first of the Ealing comedies.
Hue and Cry
1947
6.4A disparate group of volunteers are trained as saboteurs and parachuted into Belgium to blow up an office containing important Nazi records and to rescue a prominent S.O.E. agent, who is being interrogated by the Germans for vital information.
Against the Wind
1948
6.1Episodic tale of four factory girls and their various romances at the local dance hall in Chiswick, London. Unusual at the time, the film tells its story from a feminine perspective. Today, it is mainly recognised for its post-war London atmosphere, with bomb sites, trolleybuses and rationing.
Dance Hall
1950
4.6The spaceship Altares, with a photon drive capable of accelerating it to the speed of light, leaves an Earth-orbiting space station. The Altares crew, two families of scientific specialists, journeys at light speed with time-dilation to Alpha Centauri, where they launch several satellites to transmit information on the Centauri star system back to Earth and guide future manned vessels in exploring.
The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity
1975
6.0A boy gets involved in a bank robbery
The Boy Who Stole a Million
1960
6.0A boy gets involved in a bank robbery
The Boy Who Stole a Million
1960
5.7A young Irishman comes up with an unusual plan to get the money to emigrate to Tahiti. One of the Ealing comedies.
Another Shore
1948
Deals with the training of Fleet Air Arm pilots and crew during World War II.
Find, Fix and Strike
1942
6.9A man framed for murder escapes from prison during a flood and helps a young woman in distress.
Floods of Fear
1958