Alastair Sim Collection - 5-DVD Set ( The Green Man / Folly to Be Wise / Geordie / Left Right and Centre / Laughter in Paradise )

Alastair Sim Collection - 5-DVD Set (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: The Green Man / Folly to Be Wise / Geordie / Left Right and Centre / Laughter in Paradise
Screened, competed or awarded at:
BAFTA Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Mono )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
447 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Multi-DVD Set
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1951 - 1959 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Robert Day
Basil Dearden
Frank Launder
Sidney Gilliat
Mario Zampi

Written By:
Sidney Gilliat
James Bridie
Frank Launder
Jack Davies
Michael Pertwee

Actors:
Alastair Sim ..... Hawkins
George Cole ..... William Blake
Terry-Thomas ..... Charles Boughtflower
Jill Adams ..... Ann Vincent
Raymond Huntley ..... Sir Gregory Upshott
Colin Gordon ..... Reginald Willoughby-Cruft
Avril Angers ..... Marigold
Eileen Moore ..... Joan Wood
Dora Bryan ..... Lily
John Chandos ..... McKechnie
Cyril Chamberlain ..... Sgt. Bassett
Richard Wattis ..... Doctor
Vivien Wood ..... Leader of Trio
Marie Burke ..... Felicity
Lucy Griffiths ..... Annabel
Alastair Sim ..... Capt. William Paris
Elizabeth Allan ..... Angela Prout
Roland Culver ..... George Prout
Colin Gordon ..... Prof. James Mutch
Martita Hunt ..... Lady Dodds
Janet Brown ..... Jessie Killegrew
Peter Martyn ..... Walter
Miles Malleson ..... Dr. Hector McAdam
Edward Chapman ..... Joseph Byres M.P.
Cyril Chamberlain ..... Drill Sergeant
Michael Ripper ..... Drill Corporal
Robin Bailey ..... Intellectual Corporal
Michael Kelly ..... Staff Sergeant
George Cole ..... Soldier in Brains Trust audience
Alastair Sim ..... The Laird
Bill Travers ..... Geordie
Norah Gorsen ..... Jean
Molly Urquhart ..... Geordie's Mother
Francis De Wolff ..... Samson
Jack Radcliffe ..... The Minister
Brian Reece ..... Olympic selector
Raymond Huntley ..... Olympic selector
Miles Malleson ..... Lord Paunceton
Jameson Clark ..... Georgie's Father
Doris Goddard ..... Helga
Stanley Baxter ..... Postman
Duncan Macrae ..... Schoolmaster
Paul Young ..... Young Geordie
Anna Ferguson ..... Young Jean
Ian Carmichael ..... Robert Wilcot
Alastair Sim ..... Lord Wilcot
Patricia Bredin ..... Stella Stoker
Richard Wattis ..... Harding-Pratt
Eric Barker ..... Bert Glimmer
Moyra Fraser ..... Annabel
Jack Hedley ..... Bill Hemmingway
Gordon Harker ..... Hardy
William Kendall ..... Pottle
Anthony Sharp ..... Peterson
George Benson ..... Egerton
Leslie Dwyer ..... Alf Stoker
Moultrie Kelsall ..... Grimsby Armfield
Jeremy Hawke ..... TV interviewer
Russell Waters ..... Mr. Bray
Alastair Sim ..... Deniston Russell
Fay Compton ..... Agnes Russell
Guy Middleton ..... Simon Russell
George Cole ..... Herbert Russell
Hugh Griffith ..... Henry Russell
Ernest Thesiger ..... Endicott
Beatrice Campbell ..... Lucille Grayson
Mackenzie Ward ..... Benson
A.E. Matthews ..... Sir Charles Robson
Joyce Grenfell ..... Elizabeth Robson
Eleanor Summerfield ..... Sheila Wilcott
John Laurie ..... Gordon Webb
Veronica Hurst ..... Joan Webb
Anthony Steel ..... Roger Godfrey
Charlotte Mitchell ..... Ethel

Synopsis:

Born in Edinburgh, Alastair Sim began life as the academic he was often to play on screen. Briefly in the family tailoring business, he was soon involved in teaching poetic drama in his native Edinburgh. In his late twenties Sim came to London, and friends, seeing him perform in amateur productions, urged him to turn professional. Sim came to the fore with the three popular Inspector Hornleigh comedy thrillers made between 1938 and 1941, they also marked the first major association between himself and the filmmaking partnership of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, later to give him several of his best roles. Titles Comprise: The Green Man (Dir. Robert Day/Basil Dearden) (1956); Folly To Be Wise (Dir. Frank Launder) (1953); Geordie (Dir. Frank Launder 1955); Left Right And Centre (Dir. Sidney Gilliat 1959) & Laughter in Paradise (Dir. Mario Zampi 1951).

The Green Man
Alistair Sim plays a mild, innocuous little watchmaker who spends his off-hours as a professional assassin. His present target is windbag cabinet member Raymond Huntley. After various misfire attempts, Sim plants a bomb in a small radio and waits for the tube to warm up--but the authorities by now are on to him. The Green Man has some excellent setpieces, notably a droll snatch of black humor involving a body stuffed in a piano. The film's only debit is that, in the play upon which it is based, Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's Meet the Body, Sim's character is secondary, almost peripheral. By reshaping the film into a star vehicle, much of the play's intimate (albeit ghoulish) charm is dissipated.
Folly to Be Wise
A newly-arrived army padre is put in charge of camp entertainment and has the idea of putting on a Brains Trust with local notables. Unfortunately for him, it emerges from a question on the rights and wrongs of marriage that there is more going on between three of the panellists than he wants to know about - though the audience obviously thinks differently.
Geordie
Concerned about his small stature, a young Scottish boy applies for a mail-order body building course, successfully gaining both height and strength. At the age of 21, he displays a talent for hammer-throwing, and is selected to represent Britain in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.
Left Right and Centre
At the Earndale by-election natural history expert and TV personality Bob Wilcot for the Conservatives finds himself up against Billingsgate girl Stella Stoker for the socialists. Amateur politician against committed activist. But could it become boy-who-fancies-girl against girl-who-fancies-boy? The party agents are soon colluding against such a disaster.
Laughter in Paradise
Famed practical joker Henry Russell leaves 50,000 pounds to each of his four surviving relatives. But his will has one last joke - they each have to undertake a task completely out of character within a month. As each sets out on their objective they find that quite apart from the promised riches, they are unexpectedly getting a lot out of the challenge. All except caddish Simon Russell, that is.

Alongside Mario Zampi's deliciously dark LAUGHTER IN PARADISE three of the Sim/Laundner/Gilliat partnerships are to be found in this collection. Securing the public's affection in films such as Hue And Cry, Scrooge and the whimsical farce FOLLY TO BE WISE, a project close to Sim's heart, the 1950s saw Sim emerge as one of Britain's biggest stars. GEORDIE ably demonstrated that the public would pay to see him even when he did not enjoy top billing, the film also demonstrating the actor's ability to quietly impose himself on projects in supporting roles. Sim continued to have audiences eating out of his hand, doubling as the headmistress and her bookie brother in The Belles of St Trinian's, and becoming one of the world's least likely assassins in the irreverent THE GREEN MAN. At the end of the decade Sim established a notable rapport with Ian Carmichael - the pair reuniting the following year for the seminal School For Scoundrels - as an avaricious uncle in the political satire LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTRE.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 04 June, 2008.

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