Alastair Sim plays the title character in what was considered for decades to be maybe the definitive version of the Dickens story, though I was a little thrown by the way the movie makes up a bunch of extra bits of Scrooge’s origin story for no discernible reason.
Tag Archives: British movies
NIGHTHAWKS (1978)
I found this very focused portrait of a gay teacher in 1970s London really interesting for being a very specific window into a time and place.
HENRY V (1989)
The debut film for actor/director Kenneth Branagh, whose new, autobiographical movie “Belfast” is in theaters this weekend, ushered in a new era of Shakespeare on screen.
THE HAUNTING (1963)
Horrorfest ’21 begins with this classic haunted house story that steadfastly refuses to show us any ghosts or really tell us what’s going on.
THE DUELLISTS (1977)
The first film from director Ridley Scott was also about some very American actors fighting duels while dressed up as historical French guys.
DR. NO (1962)
With the 25th James Bond movie releasing today, we revisit the very first, which is much slower but does find the character himself fully formed.
BARRY LYNDON (1975)
Stanley Kubrick’s period epic tells the life story of a 1700s rogue with spectacular visuals and a maximum of emotional detachment.
THE THIRD MAN (1949)
A movie of black and white paranoia that to me is one of the all-time classics, perfectly capturing a very specific time and place.
CHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981)
Maybe the most British sports movie ever made, it uses track & field in the 1920s to deal with complicated issues of personal conviction, racism, and classism, and also some guys run on a beach.
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
An epic of Russian history that’s more interested in its central love dodecahedron than it is in Russian history, a fact that leaves me wondering what the point of it all is.
Movie Valhalla 