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“An Alastair Sim Quartet”
By Raymond Benson
Alastair George Bell Sim, popularly known as Alastair Sim, was one of those great British actors famous for his remarkable facial features, physical presence, and vocal delivery. Primarily a renowned stage performer from the 1930s to the 1970s, Sim also made several films—mostly comedies, because he could do “irony” as well as, say, Alec Guinness. Sim is perhaps best-known for his definitive Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, but his work portraying acerbic and sarcastic characters in other pictures in the late 40s and through the 50s, is outstanding.
The impressive Film Movement label has released this 4-disk package that highlights a quartet of notable Alastair Sim appearances in what are deemed to be among the best post-war “very British” comedies. This was a time when Ealing Studios, for example, was making its mark in the genre.
“An Alastair Sim Quartet”
By Raymond Benson
Alastair George Bell Sim, popularly known as Alastair Sim, was one of those great British actors famous for his remarkable facial features, physical presence, and vocal delivery. Primarily a renowned stage performer from the 1930s to the 1970s, Sim also made several films—mostly comedies, because he could do “irony” as well as, say, Alec Guinness. Sim is perhaps best-known for his definitive Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, but his work portraying acerbic and sarcastic characters in other pictures in the late 40s and through the 50s, is outstanding.
The impressive Film Movement label has released this 4-disk package that highlights a quartet of notable Alastair Sim appearances in what are deemed to be among the best post-war “very British” comedies. This was a time when Ealing Studios, for example, was making its mark in the genre.
- 5/14/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Shrewd film producer behind School for Scoundrels and Night of the Demon
Hal E Chester, who has died aged 91, was a juvenile actor, then a producer of low-budget movies in Hollywood, before he moved in 1955 to Britain, where he set up his own production company to take advantage of the lower costs of filming. Over the next 15 years he turned out a wide range of pictures, which often featured American stars such as Mickey Rooney, Dana Andrews, Yul Brynner and Paul Newman. For a period he specialised in British comedies. The first and best of these was School for Scoundrels (1960), loosely based on the popular Gamesmanship books of Stephen Potter. The impressive cast included Alastair Sim, Terry-Thomas and Dennis Price, with Ian Carmichael as the intrepid hero trying to impress Janette Scott.
Small, dynamic and fast-talking, Chester was perhaps a typical example of the shrewd and ambitious Hollywood producer. He...
Hal E Chester, who has died aged 91, was a juvenile actor, then a producer of low-budget movies in Hollywood, before he moved in 1955 to Britain, where he set up his own production company to take advantage of the lower costs of filming. Over the next 15 years he turned out a wide range of pictures, which often featured American stars such as Mickey Rooney, Dana Andrews, Yul Brynner and Paul Newman. For a period he specialised in British comedies. The first and best of these was School for Scoundrels (1960), loosely based on the popular Gamesmanship books of Stephen Potter. The impressive cast included Alastair Sim, Terry-Thomas and Dennis Price, with Ian Carmichael as the intrepid hero trying to impress Janette Scott.
Small, dynamic and fast-talking, Chester was perhaps a typical example of the shrewd and ambitious Hollywood producer. He...
- 4/16/2012
- by Joel Finler
- The Guardian - Film News
The School for Scoundrels actor Ian Carmichael, who has died aged 89, elevated muddled decency and likability to an art form
Ian Carmichael, who has died at the age of 89, was an actor with an incredible work ethic and appetite for the acting life: he filmed his last episodes of the period TV hospital drama The Royal just last year.
Before he became a TV regular with his performances as Bertie Wooster and Lord Peter Wimsey, he had been established as one of Britain's biggest post-war box office stars with innocent, guileless roles in classic Boulting Brothers films such as Private's Progress (1956) and I'm All Right Jack (1959). My favourite Carmichael film is also one of my favourite British films, and perhaps favourite films full stop. It is that tremendous 1960 comedy School for Scoundrels, the last film by the great, troubled director Robert Hamer (who made Kind Hearts And Coronets).
Based on the Stephen Potter Lifemanship books,...
Ian Carmichael, who has died at the age of 89, was an actor with an incredible work ethic and appetite for the acting life: he filmed his last episodes of the period TV hospital drama The Royal just last year.
Before he became a TV regular with his performances as Bertie Wooster and Lord Peter Wimsey, he had been established as one of Britain's biggest post-war box office stars with innocent, guileless roles in classic Boulting Brothers films such as Private's Progress (1956) and I'm All Right Jack (1959). My favourite Carmichael film is also one of my favourite British films, and perhaps favourite films full stop. It is that tremendous 1960 comedy School for Scoundrels, the last film by the great, troubled director Robert Hamer (who made Kind Hearts And Coronets).
Based on the Stephen Potter Lifemanship books,...
- 2/8/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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