James Robertson Justice

Simone Signoret

Gordon Jackson

Jack Warner

Against the Wind

Against the Wind (1948)

Ronald Lewis

John Le Mesurier

Marianne Stone

A woman's dismembered body is found in a trunk in the garage of a rented house in Saltdean, a coastal resort about 5 miles from the large seaside town of Brighton, which is in the county of Sussex in England. The discovery is made by police after the lettings agent for the property reports a break-in at his premises and the theft of the lease for it. The tenancy was for one month, taken out by a man called John Campbell, which turns out to be a false name. Identifying the man who took out the lease is therefore one strand of the police inquiry. It eventually leads to a vacuum cleaner salesman who is believed to be posing as John Campbell but this turns out to be a red herring. Identifying the woman is another strand, beginning with the trunk, which bears a label indicating it was sent from Lewes (an inland town in Sussex) to Brighton by rail, with the initials of the owner, J.S., written on it. The inquiries lead to a woman whose initials are J.S. and who lives in Greenwich, London. Her house is adjacent to the mooring of the original Cutty Sark. Her address was discovered through an impression on a notepad in the rented house; the writing became legible by heating iodine in a metal spoon and holding the paper over the vapor. The police believed this J.S. to be the murdered woman but she is very much alive and just happens to have the same initials. What seems at first to be another red herring turns out to have substance; although she at first denies it, when she learns that there has been a murder, she confesses that she did meet the man who rented the holiday home and called himself John Campbell - they got talking on a train to Brighton and she ended up spending the night with him at the house in Saltdean. She tells D I Fellows that one of the rooms was locked - the one where it is believed the dead woman's body was before being transferred to the trunk. The dead woman's identity is eventually established through investigation into dental records. D I Fellows arrives at the identity of the killer through a process of elimination, although he keeps this knowledge to himself; instead, he arranges for key witnesses and the unwitting suspect to be brought together, to prove his theory. Proving that the death was murder rather than the accident the murderer claims it to have been is down to D S Wilks and hinges on the fact that events unfolded over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

Jigsaw

Jigsaw (1962)

Googie Withers

Hermione Baddeley

Frederick Piper

Slice of life drama following the lives of various people in London's East End on a wet Sunday. (Is this film why people think it always rains in England ?) Rose was engaged to local wild boy Tommy Swann but he got imprisoned on Dartmoor. After he was locked up she got married to sedate but dull George. Tommy's now broken out of jail and comes to see Rose to get help to flee the country.—Steve Crook

It Always Rains on Sunday

It Always Rains on Sunday (1947)

Peter Sellers

Alec Guinness

Herbert Lom

A gang planning a 'job' find themselves living with a little old lady, who thinks they are musicians. When the gang set out to kill Mrs Wilberforce, they run into one problem after another, and they get what they deserve.—Rob Hartill

The Ladykillers

The Ladykillers (1955)

Joan Collins

Kay Kendall

Boxing drama following the lives of five different fighters and their reasons for becoming boxers.

The Square Ring

The Square Ring (1953)

Melvyn Hayes

Jennifer Jayne

Dirk Bogarde

We follow the daily activities of two London bobbies, veteran Police Constable George Dixon (Jack Warner) and rookie Police Constable Andy Mitchell (Jimmy Hanley). Meanwhile, young hoods Tom (Sir Dirk Bogarde) and Spud (Patric Doonan) plan a series of robberies with Tom's girl Diana (Peggy Evans), a discontented beauty, as an inside worker. But in their second crime, one of our heroes is shot, setting off a citywide manhunt. The killer is clever, but will he outsmart himself?—Rod Crawford

The Blue Lamp

The Blue Lamp (1950)

Mervyn Johns

Michael Redgrave

After the evacuation at Dunkirk, June 1940, some thousands of British prisoners are sent to German P.O.W. camps. One such group includes Capt. Geoffrey Mitchell, a concentration camp escapee who assumed the identity of a dead British officer. To avoid exposure, Mitchell must correspond with the dead man's estranged wife Celia. But eventual exposure seems certain, and the men must find a way to get him out. If he reaches England, though, what will his reception be?—Rod Crawford

The Captive Heart

The Captive Heart (1946)

Alastair Sim

Andrew Sachs

Fred Wood

A 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

Hue and Cry (1947)

Brian Donlevy

Jane Asher

In the English countryside, a rocket crashes on a farm and Professor Bernard Quatermass and Scotland Yard Inspector Lomax arrive in the spot. The rocket was launched by Prof. Quatermass with the astronauts Victor Carroon, Greene and Reichebheim; however only Carroon is found very sick in the cabin. He is transported to a private clinic to stay under observation despite the protests of his wife Mrs. Judith Carroon. She bribes a nurse to bring Carroon to her and she finds that he is transforming into a monster. Carroon escapes, killing people and animals during his metamorphosis while the Scotland Yard is hunting him down and Dr. Quatermass discovers that his process is an alien invasion.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

6.3 / 10

Action
Drama

7.2 / 10

Action
Crime

7.1 / 10

Action
Crime

7.6 / 10

Action
Comedy

6.5 / 10

Action
Drama

6.8 / 10

Action
Crime

7 / 10

Action
Drama

6.7 / 10

Action
Adventure

6.6 / 10

Action
Horror

7.2 / 10

Biography
Drama