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Ealing Comedies Poll

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Comedies produced by Ealing Studios

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) 11
The Ladykillers (1955) 6
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) 3
The Maggie (1954) 2
Passport to Pimlico (1949) 2
Whisky Galore! (1949) 2
The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953) 1
The Man in the White Suit (1951) 1
The Man in the White Suit (1951) 1
Let George Do It (1940) 1
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) 0
A Run for Your Money (1949) 0
Hue and Cry (1947) 0
My Learned Friend (1943) 0
Barnacle Bill (1957)0


― Ed, Monday, 21 July 2008 11:25 (eighteen years ago)

Between "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Ladykillers" but lots of good films there

― Tom D., Monday, 21 July 2008 11:27 (eighteen years ago)

Bit of vote splitting for Lavender Hill Mob and Man in the White Suit.

― Billy Dods, Monday, 21 July 2008 11:43 (eighteen years ago)

It's a very hard choice, but I think it comes down to a toss up between the ones Tom highlights. I do like walkign round kings cross and seeing occasional locations from the film still relatively untouched even now.

I watch The Titfield Thunderbolt at the weekend (one of my favourite films as a child) and it feels very fresh even now, possibly due to the amount of location shooting.

― Ed, Monday, 21 July 2008 12:23 (eighteen years ago)

Kind of odd to think of "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Ladykillers" as comedies mind you

― Tom D., Monday, 21 July 2008 12:24 (eighteen years ago)

Rather dark themes for the time although not nearly as Dark as Arsenic and old lace (which I think they draw on slightly), which must be up there for one of the most sinister comedies of all time.

― Ed, Monday, 21 July 2008 12:26 (eighteen years ago)

Dark themes for any time!

― Tom D., Monday, 21 July 2008 12:27 (eighteen years ago)

I always chortle at people who think of Alec Guinness solely as That Guy From Star Wars, when for me his most memorable role is as the guy with the smile in The Ladykillers.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Monday, 21 July 2008 13:46 (eighteen years ago)

Went with Ladykillers, but also sorely tempted by Kind Hearts and Lavender Hill.

Hmmm...Alec Guinness poll?

― Oilyrags, Monday, 21 July 2008 13:52 (eighteen years ago)

I think so.

― Ed, Monday, 21 July 2008 13:54 (eighteen years ago)

Don't forget "The Horse's Mouth"

― Oilyrags, Monday, 21 July 2008 13:54 (eighteen years ago)

I think I might have to plump for "Kind Hearts" if only for:

"...and I always say that my west window has all the exuberance of Chaucer without, happily, any of the more concomitant crudities of his period."

― Tom D., Monday, 21 July 2008 13:58 (eighteen years ago)

"well, it wouldn't, would it? It's a window, durr!"

― Mark G, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:00 (eighteen years ago)

The line that always jumps out of memory at me, although not the best is:

'I shot an arrow in the air, she came to earth in Berkley Square'

― Ed, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:04 (eighteen years ago)

Yes, that's the other one

― Tom D., Monday, 21 July 2008 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

for its clear-eyed view of capitalism, The Man in the White Suit

― Dr Morbius, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:19 (eighteen years ago)

I've gone for the Lavendar Hill Mob (the first one).

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:26 (eighteen years ago)

Rats, I didn't notice the duplicate.

― Ed, Monday, 21 July 2008 14:27 (eighteen years ago)

I remember reading that bit in 'Shepperton Babylon' about the way the BBC had plans to play Ealing comedies on an automatic loop once the nuclear bombs dropped. Very odd.

― James Morrison, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 00:29 (eighteen years ago)

The Maggie for its shifting points of identification.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:22 (eighteen years ago)

I worry that today's BBC would, nowadays, choose Last of the Summer Wine for our descent into oblivion.

― Ed, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 06:52 (eighteen years ago)

Morbs OTM re MitWS but I voted for my man George Formby because he's George Formby.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 07:23 (eighteen years ago)

xpost yeah, but other TV stations would be looping "Pimp my crib" with Paris Hilton..

― Mark G, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 08:12 (eighteen years ago)

As if ITV could afford secret underground broadcasting bunkers.

― Ed, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 09:38 (eighteen years ago)

They'll be still running "Quiz Line" though

― Mark G, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 09:50 (eighteen years ago)

And Ant and Dec will be still be around, they're like the cockroach, they can survive anything

― Tom D., Tuesday, 22 July 2008 09:52 (eighteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― ILX System, Saturday, 2 August 2008 23:01 (eighteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― ILX System, Sunday, 3 August 2008 23:01 (eighteen years ago)

five years pass...

I saw A Run for Your Money last night, wherein a couple Welsh miners win a newspaper-sponsored singing prize and head to London to collect it; zaniness ensues. The gradening columnist who is their unenthused escort is Guinness ("How I prefer vegetables to human beings"), and there's an early showy role for Hugh Griffith as a lush/harpist. Some interesting locations shooting of Fleet Street and environs in the late '40s.

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 June 2014 15:59 (twelve years ago)

*gardening columnist, judas priest

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 June 2014 16:00 (twelve years ago)


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