David Lean Centenary Collection DVD – Nigel Patrick, Anne Todd

Collection of ten classic films from the award-winning British director. In ‘The Sound Barrier’ (1952), Ralph Richardson stars as an aircraft manufacturer whose all-consuming passion with making the ultimate supersonic jet kills both his son and son-in-law and almost destroys him and the rest of his family. In ‘Hobson’s Choice’ (1953), Lancashire bootmaker Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) keeps a tight rein on his three daughters until his eldest, Maggie (Brenda De Banzie), marries his assistant, Willie Mossop (John Mills), and sets him up in his own bootmaking firm. To Hobson’s consternation, Willie has soon become his father-in-law’s main business rival. In ‘Blithe Spirit’ (1945), cynical writer, Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison), asks a medium (Margaret Rutherford) to hold a seance in his house so he can collect material for his latest book. No one is more surprised than the medium when she inadvertently conjures up the ghost of Condomine’s first wife (Kay Hammond). The ghost refuses to go away, preferring to taunt her less sophisticated replacement (Constance Cummings). In ‘Brief Encounter’ (1945), a respectable, happily married doctor (Trevor Howard) comes to the aid of an equally upstanding housewife (Celia Johnson) when a passing train blows cinder into her eye. Thus begins a tentative romance, conducted in the tearooms and railway cafe of a small English town. In ‘Great Expectations’ (1946), orphan, Pip (Anthony Wager), befriends an escaped convict before being elevated to higher circles as the companion of Miss Havisham and her niece, Estella (Jean Simmons), with whom the boy quickly falls in love. When the adult Pip (Mills) discovers a mysterious benefactor has paved the way for him to become a gentleman, he assumes Miss Havisham is responsible. In ‘Oliver Twist’ (1948), Oliver (John Howard Davis) is a young orphan boy who is expelled from the workhouse run by Mr Bumbel (Francis L. Sullivan). After becoming an apprentice to an undertaker, Oliver decides to run away to London, only to meet the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) and fall amongst his gang of thieves, led by the scheming Fagin (Alec Guinness). In ‘Madeleine’ (1949), Madeleine (Ann Todd) is the eldest daughter in a respectable Victorian Glasgow family. She begins an affair with Frenchman, Emile L’Anglier (Ivan Desny), without her father’s knowledge. Meanwhile, Madeleine’s father insists on her seeing various suitors. When Madeleine becomes engaged to William Minnoch (Norman Wooland), Emile threatens to reveal their relationship. ‘The Passionate Friends’ (1944) is an episodic tale of an average working class family in the interwar years. The story traces the melodrama caused by illicit affairs, family bereavement, the first ripples of women’s liberation and political instability in the country during the General Strike. It highlights the fact that these internal wranglings are all happening in one house in an average street, and that each average house has its own dramatic stories to tell. Finally, ‘In Which We Serve’ (1942) is a World War II drama about a destroyer, told through flashbacks and the reminiscences of the surviving crew after their beloved ship is torpedoed.

Contains a selection of films by the director David Lean. Includes THE SOUND BARRIER, HOBSON’S CHOICE, BLITHE SPIRIT, BRIEF ENCOUNTER, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OLIVER TWIST, MADELEINE, THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS, THIS HAPPY BREED, and IN WHICH WE SERVE.

This Box Set includes: The Sound Barrier (1952): A tale of male courage and an adventure into the unknown but also the story of the women who wait at home. A self-made aircraft manufacturer is determined that his company will be the first to build a plane which flies faster than sound. Hobson’s Choice (1954): The eldest daughter of an alcoholic self-important Lancashire bootmaker marries his boot-hand and sets up a rival business. Blithe Spirit (1945): A happily married author writing a novel on mediums invites one to supper one evening. After holding a seance the husband’s deceased first wife appears and begins to cause chaos! Brief Encounter (1946): Noel Coward’s sensitive portrayal of what happens when two happily married strangers played by Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson meet and their acquaintance deepens into affection and eventually into love. It is the story of two people thrown together by the chance meeting of the title helpless in the face of their emotions but redeemed by their moral courage. Over the years few films have equalled the compassion and the realism of Brief Encounter. Great Expectations (1946): A stylish film presentation of Charles Dickens’ heart warming story of a young man befriending an escaped convict who becomes his unknown benefactor and of the consequences for the young man as he establishes himself in the world. Oliver Twist (1948): Oliver Twist orphaned at birth and raised in the workhouse is expelled for daring to ask the Beadle for more food. Unhappily apprenticed to an Undertaker Oliver escaped to London where he meets the cheeky Artful Dodger the villainous Fagin the aggressive Bill Sykesand the kindly but doomed Nancy. Torn constantly between the forces of good and evil Oliver eventually seals his fate by picking the pocket of a rich gentleman. Madeleine (1950) Lean’s accomplished film of the famous Scottish Madeleine Smith case in which a woman from a wealthy family is accused of the murder of her lover. The Passionate Friends (1949): Through her marriage to a wealthy financier Mary Justin has the freedom and comfort she has always yearned for but her life is one that lacks emotional fulfilment. On a visit to Switzerland she runs into an old friend Steven Stratton with whom she once had a passionate love affair many years before her marriage. Her meeting with Steven rekindles old memories of a friendship of the most beautiful kind. If only they could begin again… This Happy Breed (1944): A splendidly acted classic portraying how an ordinary British family lived between the wars. Just after WWI the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. The inhabitants of 17 Sycamore Road are ordinary people with their irritable in-laws their just-plain-folks camaraderie and their unshakeable belief that no matter how hard the times are Mother England is forged of good stock and common sense