The Ealing Comedies - Making Light of Crime?

When the studio was sold in 1955, [Michael] Balcon wrote the inscription for a organisation erected there: here during a quarter of a century legion(predicate) films were made projecting Britain and the British character.

The Ealing comedies have, by critics, been accused of idyll narrow-mindedness, snobbery, sexual repression, verbosity, archness and sentimental nationalism. Sarah Street identifies the key films in the Ealing funniness cycle as Hue and Cry (Charles Crichton, 1947), mountain pass to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius, 1949), Whisky Galore! (Alexander Mackendrick, 1949), Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949), The Lavender heap Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951), The Man in the White Suit (Alexander Mackendrick, 1951), The Titfield deadbolt (Charles Crichton, 1953) and The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955). It is on these films that this essay will focus, with reference to whether the Ealing Britain is a square(a) reflection of our post-war national identity or an imagined land of tearaway(a) complacency, making too light of serious subjects such as sex and crime, which later British films would address to critical acclaim.

An Ealing comedy is easily characterised. We see working class heroism, revolution against the establishment, the predominate of the old over the new, the provincial over the national, the national over the global.



Referring to Cheer Boys Cheer (Walter Forde, 1939), Charles Barr delightfully highlights the archetypal characteristics of the Ealing comedy:

To doctor a film really Ealing, lay on the contrasts. The brewery name calling: Ironside against Greenleaf. Grim offices and black limousines against country lanes, ivy covered cottages, horses, bicycles. unequivocal rule against the benevolent paternalism of a grey-haired old opus who collects Toby Jugs. The beer itself: quantity against quality, machines against craftsmanship. The people and their manners: actually harsh, very gentle. Small is beautiful.

In Cheer Boys Cheer, the family brewing firm Greenleaf becomes a show for...

If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



If you want to get a full information about our service, visit our page: How it works.