20 Great Little-Known British Films of the 1940s-1960s

The great film studios of England ( Rank Pictures, London Films, Gainsborough Pictures, Ealing Studios, Janus Films ) made so many wonderful pictures that have fallen into obscurity over the years - not so much in England, but certainly here in the States. So to help remedy that situation and expose classic film lovers to some of these hidden gems, here is our selection of twenty great little-known British films of the 1940s-1960s. Most of these films are available on DVD or through streaming services such as Amazon Prime. 

Plot descriptions courtesy of imdb.com, Network DVD, and Renown Pictures. Our comments about the film then follow. 

An Ideal Husband ( 1947 )

A prominent politician is preparing to expose a financial scandal. But then a woman who has invested heavily in the shady venture threatens to uncover a damaging secret in the politician's past if he exposes the speculation as a fraud. His problem is compounded by his wife's intolerance of the slightest character flaws.

"If we men married the women we deserved....we should have a very bad time of it."

Oscar Wilde's sparkling comedy comes alive in this delightful film adaption from Alexander Korda. Paulette Goddard is especially charming as the high-society snake-in-the-grass and the color photography is beautiful. 

While I Live ( 1947 ) 

A young composer and pianist Olwen Trevelyan, troubled and sleepless over her inability to finish the final notes of her composition, falls to her death from the cliffs of Cornwall. As the years pass, Olwen’s sister Julia obsessively keeps her memory alive. The young composer gains posthumous fame because of her tragic death and her haunting, unfinished composition, “The Dream of Olwen.” 25 years later, still mourning the death of her composer sister Julia believes she has returned, reincarnated, in an amnesiac woman who chances upon her house seeking help… Contains the haunting music “The Dream of Olwen” composed by Charles Williams.

This one is indeed haunting, primarily because of its beautiful theme song and its spiritual plot. Sonja Dresdel, who stars as Julia, was a very talented actress who had a great career in films, television, and in theatre in England. 

The Glass Mountain ( 1949 ) 

Featuring the peerless voice of legendary baritone Tito Gobbi, The Glass Mountain is a classic British film romance enriched with the sublime music of Italian opera.

Shot down and badly injured over the Italian alps during the second world war, RAF pilot Richard Wilder (Michael Dennison) is rescued and nursed back to health by Alida (Valentina Cortese), a beautiful young Italian girl. As she shares with him the local fables of the Glass Mountain, they begin to fall in love.

This is another film that benefits greatly from its musical score. This one is written by Nino Rota who is most famous today for his love theme for Romeo and Juliet ( 1968 ). Michael Dennison ( The Importance of Being Earnest ) plays an earnest lover here and the setting of the picture is ideal. 

The Passionate Friends ( 1949 ) 

The Passionate Friends were in love when young but then separated. Mary Justin ( Ann Todd ) later married an older man. Then Mary meets Steven Stratton ( Trevor Howard ) again and they have one last fling together in the Alps.

This is your classic British melodrama weepie. It plays out a lot like Brief Encounter ( 1946 ) only with the added presence of Claude Rains as a jealous/suspicious husband. In this case, he has every right to be suspicious as Mary really is carrying on an affair with her old lover. 

Beautiful cinematography and location filming are an additional plus to this lesser-known classic. 

The Small Back Room ( 1949 ) 

The best bomb disposal officer during World War II was badly injured and is in frequent pain. He finds solace and relief from his pain in the whiskey bottle & the pills that are never far away. A new type of booby-trapped Nazi bomb pushes his nerves & resolution to the limit.

The directing/screenwriting team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are famous on both sides of the pond but this little gem seems to elude most critics. David Farrar and Kathleen Byron both give excellent performances. You can read our full review of this classic here. 

Ha'Penny Breeze ( 1950 ) 

At the end of the Second World War, David and his Australian friend Johnny return to David's Suffolk village to find the community spent and demoralized. Gradually, however, they gather support for David's scheme to enter a yachting race with a converted fishing smack. Winning it could prove to be a lifeline for the village...

Associated British Pathe made some excellent minor "B" films in the late 1940s-1950s and Ha'Penny Breeze is one of them. This was only the second film that Edwin Richfield had starred in at the time, but he would go on to become a popular character actor in British television appearing in numerous episodes of The Avengers, The Champions, and Doctor Who. 
Philip Green composed a lovely theme for this film which you can hear by clicking on this link.

Last Holiday ( 1950 )

George Bird's rather lonely, anonymous existence as an underappreciated seller of farm machinery is jarred when his physician informs him that he is suffering from the rare malady Lampington's Disease, and only has a few weeks to live. Believing he has nothing to lose, Bird resigns his position and withdraws his modest life savings in order to spend his remaining time in a "posh" seaside resort. There he keeps his own counsel about his condition and meets people who live in a world he could never have imagined existed. Incredibly, he finds personal and professional opportunities now open to him that that he never dreamed would be his, but unfortunately, he is no position to take advantage of them, until fate lends a hand.

Last Holiday features one of Alec Guinness' best performances. It is such a touching story sprinkled with lessons about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. 

Trio ( 1950 ) 

Three short stories are introduced by author W. Somerset Maugham in the second of his anthology film trilogy. In "The Verger," a church verger of seventeen years is fired by his new straight-laced vicar when it's discovered that he cannot read or write. Forced to make life-altering decisions, the life-long bachelor proposes to his landlady and becomes an entrepreneur. In "Mr. Know-All" an obnoxiously pushy and irrepressibly boorish dealer in jewelry alienates all his fellow passengers on an ocean cruise despite his cheerful nature and generosity, but later is sensitive enough to realize that sacrificing his ego at a key moment is important to a woman's happiness. "The Sanatorium" revolves around the lives of tuberculosis patients at an exclusive Scottish sanatorium including a pair of doomed lovers who choose quality over quantity of life.

William Somerset Maugham's short stories were spotlighted in three entertaining films - Quartet ( 1948 ), this film, and Encore ( 1951 ). Each has their highlights, but we enjoy Trio the best because it features one of our favorite stories, "The Sanatorium", which you can read more about here. 

Street Corner ( 1953 ) 

A pseudo-documentary in style with an emphasis on the daily work and routine of women police built around three different storylines. The first involves 18-year-old Bridget Foster (Peggy Cummins) who is picked up for shoplifting but let off lightly. She has a small child, an often-absent husband and mother-in-law trouble. To compound that she takes up with a petty hoodlum who commits a jewel robbery. The second story tells of a young girl who deserts the Army to marry a boy who needs her and commits bigamy in the process, but it all works out. The third story is about a baby who is mistreated by its father and step-mother, but is reunited, through police work, with its real mother.

Police dramas are always interesting but this one is rare because it focuses on policewomen. Back in the 1950s, they were more popular in England than they were in the United States. Anne Crawford gives a very good performance....as usual. She was an excellent actress. 

Turn the Key Softly ( 1953 ) 

Three women are released from Holloway prison on the same morning into the bustle of post-war London with its trolleybuses and rationing. They meet for a meal in the West End in the evening after a day trying to pick up their lives, and with at least two of them needing to decide whether it is time to start afresh.

From the good ones ( the policewomen of Street Corner ) we turn to the "baddies" - three women who have just been let out of prison. None of them are really bad and all of them have intriguing stories. British cinema featured a number of films with the "tableau" style story plot. You can read our full review of this gem by clicking here. 

The Divided Heart ( 1954 ) 

The Divided Heart engages in a different and movingly direct way with the aftermath of the war, tracing the struggle between two mothers for custody of a boy. Smuggled out of Yugoslavia for safety, and adopted by a German couple, he is reclaimed years later by his birth mother, a survivor of Auschwitz. The play of emotion is delicately handled so that it’s hard not to sympathize equally with the ‘good German’ adoptive parents and with the Yugoslav mother – and indeed with the trio of judges who have to decide. Both Michael Balcon and his wife had a special commitment to this project, and regretted its relative failure at the time, despite good reviews. Sixty years on, it is one of the Ealing films that comes up very fresh and prompts a reassessment of its director Charles Crichton, best known for comedy ( The Lavender Hill Mob, The Titfield Thunderbolt ) but here doing admirable work of a different kind. 

Lease of Life ( 1954 ) 

The parson of a small rural community knows he is dying and this makes him reconsider his life so far and what he can still do to help the community. Lease of Life is among the least dramatic of film titles, and the film itself is one of the most modest of Ealing productions; in his index to ‘British Sound Films’ David Quinlan calls it a ‘sincere, quiet, close-to-dull drama.’ But it is far from dull, if you give it a chance. 

Lease of Life is indeed a very engaging film to watch and Robert Donat gives an excellent performance as the rural parson. It also features a wonderful supporting cast with Kay Walsh and Adrienne Corri. 

The Admirable Crichton ( 1957 )

Lord Loam has modern ideas about his household; he believes in treating his servants as his equals - at least sometimes. His butler, Crichton, still believes that members of the serving class should know their place and be happy there. But when the Loam family are shipwrecked on a desert island with the self-reliant Crichton and between maid Tweeny, the class system is put to the test.

The story premise of a group of individuals stranded on a desert island is not a new one, but The Admirable Crichton is a fresh take on this old idea. It was based on a popular play by J.M Barrie, the author of "Peter Pan", and this film adaptation boasts a wonderful cast which includes Kenneth More as Crichton, Sally Anne Howes, Cecil Parker and Diane Cilento. You can read more about the film here. 

Ice Cold in Alex ( 1958 ) 

A group of Army personnel and nurses attempt a dangerous and arduous trek across the desert of North Africa during World War II. The leader of the team dreams of his ice-cold beer when he reaches Alexandria, but the problems just won't go away.

Ice Cold in Alex is the 1950s version of Humphrey Bogart's Sahara. Sylvia Syms and John Mills were probably two of the biggest box-office stars of the 1950s in England and it was great to see them teamed up in this adventure classic. Also in the cast is Anthony Quayle who not only made six films with Syms but starred with her in a number of television episodes as well ( including one from his own show The Strange Report ). 

Passionate Summer ( 1958 ) 

Set in Jamaica, an island paradise…where human emotions are laid bare under the tropical sun! Douglas Lockwood, (Bill Travers) is a gifted teacher at Leonard Pawley’s experimental school situated in Jamaica. During one summer, a private plane crashes into the mountains a short distance from the school. Lockwood helps rescue passenger Judy Waring (Virginia McKenna) and quickly develops a romantic interest in her while she convalesces at the school. Meanwhile, Leonard Pawley’s wife (Yvonne Mitchell) has her own romantic interest in Lockwood and a love triangle quickly develops. The love interest of the adults and the behavior of the school children see temperatures rise under the burning summer sun.

Passionate Summer certainly brims with passion! The hot locales make all of our leading characters drip in sweat and naturally, this oppressive heat causes their emotions to heat up as well. It is a soap opera alright, but a highly entertaining one. 

Conspiracy of Hearts ( 1960 ) 

In wartime Italy nuns in a convent regularly smuggle Jewish children out of a nearby internment camp. The Italian army officer in charge suspects what may be going on but deliberately turns a blind eye. When the Germans take over the camp security the nuns' activities become far more dangerous.

Betty Box is not a familiar name to American audiences but she - and her husband - were prolific producers and some of the best British films of the 1960s were Box productions. Conspiracy of Hearts is a difficult film to watch because it does not mask the prickly situation these nuns were in and show quite plainly what they had to contend with in getting the youngsters to safety. As you have probably guessed, Yvonne Mitchell is one of our favorite actresses, and she is in this film as well, but it is Lilli Palmer and Slyvia Syms who are the main attractions. Incidentally, this film reunited Mitchell and Syms who starred together in the box-office hit Woman in a Dressing Gown ( 1958 ). 

The Barber of Stamford Hill ( 1962 ) 

Mr. Figg, the barber, is fond of telling customers about his family, but he hasn't really got one - he's a bachelor quite alone in the world. He wants this status to change and soon makes up his mind that he will be a bachelor no longer. 

The Barber of Stamford Hill was originally a half-hour television play that became so popular that its screenwriter stretched it into this marvelous one-hour long film. There are only three principal players in the cast ( John Bennett, Megs Jenkins, Maxwell Shaw ) and each gives a tender performance in this very entertaining film all about character. 

The Fast Lady ( 1962 ) 

Murdoch Troon (Stanley Baxter), a naive Scotsman, puts away his bicycle and attempts to woe the daughter (Julie Christie) of wealthy businessman Charles Chingford (James Robertson Justice) by way of impressing her with a vintage Bentley - The Fast Lady of the title.

The Fast Lady is a fun comedy with a great cast. Stanley Baxter made a number of films but none so entertaining as this one ( although the follow-up, And Father Came Too is quite enjoyable ).

Want to read more? We reviewed this film several years ago and you can read about it here.

Young and Willing ( 1962 ) 

Harry Brown ( Ian McShane ) is a somewhat rough student (the wild) at Kilminster University, who has the ability to win friends, especially the underdogs like Phil ( Sir John Hurt in his introductory movie role ) who doesn't play "rugger", and can't sink a whole pint of beer, and African student Reggie ( Johnny Sekka ). He also has a way with the girls ( the willing ), one of whom is his professor's wife ( Virginia Maskell ), who likes the students, but also her comfortable life with her boring husband more. After Harry is rebuffed, he takes up the challenge to hang a banner from the dangerously crumbling University tower. The rather weak Phil insists on being part of this escapade.

Ian McShane makes an impressive film debut as the young Harry Brown. Young and Willing ( also released under the title The Wild and the Willing ) is not a cheerful picture of university life ( if you want to see a more light-hearted film take a peek at Bachelor of Hearts with Hardy Kruger ) but it is very engrossing. Virginia Maskell was a fine actress of the 1960s who died much too young. She gives an impressive understated performance here as the prof's wife. Also in the cast is a young Samantha Eggar. 

Nobody Runs Forever ( 1968 )

Scobie Malone ( Rod Taylor ), an Australian outback police detective is sent on a special assignment to the UK, to return an Australian citizen ( Christopher Plummer ) accused of murder. Only this is not an ordinary man, he is a UN high commissioner for peace talks taking place in London.

Nobody Runs Forever ( also released as The High Commissioner ) is one of many espionage/thrillers that were released in the wake of James Bond's popularity. Rod Taylor's tough-talking Australian character is quite endearing and this could have been a great start to a series of Scobie Malone pictures. Also in the cast is Franchot Tone in his last screen appearance. The wonderful opening theme was written by Georges Delerue. This is another great Betty Box production. 

To read more about the film, check out our review here. 

This post is our contribution to the 6th Annual Rule Britannia blogathon being hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts. Click on this link to read more posts about British actors and films from the 1920s-2000s. Be sure to search "Rule Britannia" to also read prior entries from this great blogathon. 

Turn the Key Softly ( 1953 )

"London, the biggest city in the world... and it's all yours"

Three women are being released from Holloway Prison on the same morning. They come from vastly different backgrounds and each has plans for what they want to do on their first day of freedom, but they have all agreed to meet for dinner that evening. This simple story, told with warmth and empathy, follows the lives of these women during the span of that one day and the touching and tragic events that take place before and after this dinner.

Turn the Key Softly, based on the novel by John Burphy, is an underrated British gem set within post-war 1950s London, a London that is no more. It plays out like a film noir with small but key scenes slowly unfolding events that all lead up to the nail-biting finale. Director Jack Lee, being the master that he is, manages to put so much character into these scenes, filling each with details that make it enjoyable to watch multiple times over. Five minutes after the credits roll, we understand the nature of each of these three inmates and are curious to see how they will fare once they step foot in the great city of London again. All wish to make a change, to live a better life on the right side of the law, but will they be pressured to slip back to their old ways?

First, there is Stella, portrayed by a young Joan Collins. She's a West-End girl, "a tart with a heart" who has a weakness for the good things in life...like dangling earrings and fishnet gloves. She has an honest bus driver waiting to marry her. Then there is Monica ( Yvonne Mitchell ), an elegant beauty, quite sophisticated, who clearly doesn't belong behind bars. She loved unwisely and took the wrap for her criminal boyfriend. Lastly, there is Mrs. Quilliam ( Kathleen Harrison ), a soft-spoken old-timer who was jugged for 15 counts of petty theft. She lost her daughter's affection but has the love of her beloved Johnny to keep her going.

"I wish you had a nice young man waiting for you" - Mrs. Quilliam
"I don't know any nice young men" - Monica

Jack Lee directed this opening sequence in such a way that the audience sympathizes immediately with the old lady and Monica, who have become a pair, and are merely amused by Stella, who it seems obvious will be visiting prison shortly again. Within hours each of them is tempted to criminal behavior, and it is then revealed that these first impressions may have been off the mark. The film is an excellent character study of humans and the desires that lead them to crime. None of these gals are intent on doing wrong, rather they seem to merely attract misfortune. 

Turn the Key Softly is beautifully photographed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth ( Scott of the Antarctic, 2001: A Space Odyssey ). He often utilizes close-ups to convey the thoughts and emotions of the characters when dialogue is not spoken. The editing, by Lito Carruthers, is also taut. Within its 80-minute runtime, no scene is wasted. The finale on the top of the building at night is especially well filmed and edited. It is during the finale that the meaning behind the title "Turn the Key Softly" is also revealed. 

"For a whole year, day and night, all I could think of was warmth, food, and love"

While all of the production values were excellent, what makes Turn the Key Softly truly stand out is the cast. Yvonne Mitchell, a popular British stage and screen actress, is perfect as Monica. This woman was capable of speaking volumes in stillness, utilizing her eyes alone. Four years later she would be cast in a role completely the opposite of Monica, that of the frumpy housewife Amy in The Woman in a Dressing Gown, for which she won the Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival. 

Joan Collins was only twenty years old at the time and was showing signs of the saucy siren she was to become. Her West End accent was over the top but she did a capable job portraying an easy gal who wants a little more in life than she knows she deserves. 

Kathleen Harrison was a legendary character actress having a career dating back to 1915. She was best known for playing Alice Thursday in the 1966 television series Mrs. Thursday and for playing Mother in the Huggett film series of the 1940s, but she made appearances in countless comedies and dramas as well. Mrs. Quilliam is one of her best roles. She is a gentle old gal and, in spite of her criminal record, is someone you would want to befriend....as Monica did. 

The handsome Terence Morgan plays David, the dishonest lover. Morgan was very much like Richard Greene and could play villains as well as heroes with equal skill. Also in the cast is Geoffrey Keen as a generous employer, Thora Hird as a landlady, Russell Waters as a respectable drunk, and Glyn Houston as Bob the bus driver. 

The city of London itself is a starring attraction, too. The location filming offers a snapshot in time of places such as Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the West End, the London Underground, and Shepard's Bush, one of the city's suburbs. London was rebuilding itself after the beating it got during the war and it was growing larger every year. In Turn the Key Softly the city is encased in fog, but it was looking grand nonetheless. 

This post is our contribution to the 5th Annual Rule Britannia Blogathon being hosted by Terence over at A Shroud of Thoughts. Be sure to head on over to the master page to read more reviews of famous and obscure British films of the 20th century. 

Yvonne Mitchell, Author & Playright

At some point in their career, most actresses feel the need to write an autobiography, but while there are many actresses who penned one of these personal books of praise, there are very few who put a quill in hand to write something more than an autobiography - to write a book. Lilli Palmer, Cornelia Otis Skinner, and Julie Andrews are several actresses that come to mind who have made a name for themselves as authors.....another is Yvonne Mitchell. 

Did you know that this striking English actress was quite an accomplished writer? One of her early works, a play entitled The Same Sky, won an Arts Council playwriting competition in 1951 and was performed at the Nottingham Playhouse that same year. Her writing may have possibly came about from her desire to address her feelings about being Jewish, which was a bit uncommon in the English stage scene. This play is set in London during the Blitz and deals with a romance between a Jewish woman and a non-Jewish man and the reaction of their families to this arrangement. 

Mitchell in "Woman in a Dressing Gown" ( 1957 )

Mitchell's husband, Derek Monsey, was a theater critic, journalist, and novelist himself, so they shared a passion for writing as well as for the theater. In 1957, at the height of her career, she wrote her autobiography entitled "Actress". That same year, she penned "Colette", one of the best biographies of the famous French author. Even while she was busy throughout the late-1950s and 1960s making films such as Passionate Summer, Tiger Bay, Sapphire, Conspiracy of Hearts, and The Trials of Oscar Wilde, she didn't put her writing on the backburner. It was during this time that she wrote "The Bed-Sitter" ( 1959 ), "A Year in Time "( 1964 ), "Cathy Away" ( 1964 ), and "The Family" ( 1967 ).

In the 1970s, Mitchell eased away from films and focused more on theater work, nonetheless, she also wrote novels such as: "Martha on Sunday" ( 1970 ), "But Wednesday Cried" ( 1974 ), "God is Inexperienced" ( 1974 ), "Fables" ( 1977 ), and "But Answer Came There None" ( 1977 ). 

There are so many reasons why fans and critics adore Yvonne Mitchell and it is wonderful that she was able to take her writing, which was a creative outlet for her, and build a reputation for herself as an author as well.

This entry is a part of our latest series entitled "Did You Know?".....sometimes we just feel like sharing interesting fragments of television and movie history and now we have a place to do just that. If you have a hot tip that you would like us to share on Silver Scenes, drop us a line!

Passionate Summer ( 1958 ) aka Storm Over Jamaica

An island paradise...where all human emotions are exposed under a tropic sun.

In spite of its engaging tagline, Passionate Summer, also known as Storm Over Jamaica, gives its audience a light drizzle of drama compared to the raging storm promised. It focuses on the traditional one-man/two-women love triangle with a little time off to pursue some interesting side plots. 

Bill Travers stars as Douglas Lockwood, a gifted teacher at Leonard Pawley's experimental school situated in the outskirts of Jamaica. During one summer, a private plane crashes into the mountains a short distance from the school. Lockwood helps rescue passenger Judy Waring ( Virginia McKenna ) and quickly develops a romantic interest in her while she convalesces at the school, much to the chagrin of love-starved Mrs. Pawley ( Yvonne Mitchell ) who was openly pursuing Lockwood. 

One of Lockwood's students, Sylvia ( Ellen Barrie ) is a holy-terror, an unruly emotionally disturbed girl who only delights in testing Lockwood's patience. Since he is a well-bred English chap, he came equipped with plenty of patience and insists on trying to reform Sylvia without punishment, a practice that Mr. Pawley ( Alexander Knox ) supports. What Pawley doesn't realize is that Lockwood seems to have trouble getting his own life untangled, and wrestles with his love for Judy Waring, knowing very well that she may just be using him. 

Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, who married in real-life, were both talented actors even though their range was limited. They each bring a fair amount of passion to their parts, but never let their emotions get out of hand.....a quality that Hollywood would have eagerly exploited had they snatched the rights to Richard Mason's novel, which Passionate Summer was based upon. 

Yvonne Mitchell, on the other hand, did an excellent job of portraying the slightly neurotic wife of headmaster Pawley. Pawley's indifference towards her is plain and - during the titular storm - she shows no shame in flaunting her love for Lockwood. 

The film features some good set design and beautiful Jamaican location filming which was shot in Eastman colour, but fails to leave a memorable impression after viewing. Even the music, penned by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, is rather bland compared to his fine work on Conspiracy of Hearts ( 1960 ).