1960s girls on London underground

Julie Christie of course, and below: Brigitte Bardot, circa 1955, and a guy - me, in 1966 .... thankfully the tube is more modern now, even if  more overcrowded. 

"Life during wartime" ...

Given my penchant for  1940s British movies, both of the war years and that grim post-war era, its surprising I never saw WATERLOO ROAD before. Its a 1944 Gainsborough gem set around Waterloo Road in South London, just behind Waterloo railway station and there are lots of shots of the station then and those streets and back to back houses.

I felt at times I was watching an alternative THIS HAPPY BREED or IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, as we encounter squaddie John Mills, unfaithful wife Joy Shelton (who does not register at all - it needed a Kay Walsh) and the widest of wide boys Stewart Granger (before he decamped for Hollywood) as the spiv putting the make on Mills' wife. Mills goes AWOL to track him down and that very brutal fight follows. 

Add in Alistair Sim as the local doctor, Jean Kent as local good time girl, Beatrice Varley as the worried mother and the great Alison Legatt (above)as another nagging spinster aunt (as she was in THIS HAPPY BREED). She is as under-rated as Kathleen Byron)  I loved it, directed by Sidney  Gilliat. Play it with HOLIDAY CAMP or THE WAY TO THE STARS or 2,000 WOMEN, THE BLUE LAMP, POOL OF LONDON etc.

Vanishing London - an occasional series

Today: Sandwich bars

The evolution of London into the new metropolis continues with the rise of all those new eateries and trendy new restaurants and foodie destinations like Borough Market, as detailed in the (now free) weekly "Time Out".

But those of us who worked in the city or west end in the '80s and '90s and early 2000s fondly remember the proliferation of sandwich bars, where office workers queued up at lunchtime for sandwiches made to your specifications so it was all fresh and at a reasonable price.  Those windows with their stacked piles of cold meats, chicken, ham, cheeses and salads of every description - like a New York deli in fact.. The premises did not need to be large, just enough room for a couple of tables as it was mainly takeaway business.

But since then the unstoppable rise of chains like Pret A Manger, EAT and all the rest, and all those gourmet burgers means most of these earlier fast food outlets are on the way out. I am as much to blame as anyone else - I loved those early Pret sandwiches and baguettes, even if they got soggy if left too long. Then Marks & Spencer got in on the lunchtime trade, and their sandwiches were and are top notch. I might be having their chicken and avocado today. The humble sandwich may be on the way out though as they all now promote wraps, flatbreads, quinoa pots etc. 

When I first began working in London in the Sixties there were still some Kardomah cafes with their super strong coffee, and at the other end of the spectrum those Wimpy Bars, how we liked those burgers wrapped in a frankfurter with all the trimmings. Worker then too got Luncheon Vouchers as part of their salary, which were used as part of paying for lunch.

Here are a few places I particularly liked: 

In Brewer Street, across from where I worked in Regent Street was a terrific outlet, run by a very friendly mother and daughter, where it seemed most of the office went for their freshly made sandwiches, they seemed to have an endless supply of different fillings and salads.

Down in The Strand too, in a tiny space next to one of the Drury Lane theatres, the most perfect sandwiches or baps were treats, with  perfect ham and fillings.

There were still some sandwich bars (maybe they are still there) in the Marylebone area just up from Oxford Street - a particular favourite was our Friday morning treat of a hot sausage sandwich with mustard, it set one up for the day, as did their bacon butties, maybe with a fried egg.

Progress of course is inevitable but one wonders where the next trendy food revolution will lead, and of course it won't be cheap and cheerful.

Vote for Britain

A crucial week here in the UK, with our election on Thursday and terror attacks escalating - lets return to the glory years of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s and all those British movies we love, part of our current Lists season, and no, I may not be able to stick to 20 each - but then, my blog - my rules. Reviews of lots of these at British label.

1940s:

• Lets start with 7 David Lean, all essential: IN WHICH WE SERVE / THIS HAPPY BREED / BLITHE SPIRIT / BRIEF ENCOUNTER / GREAT EXPECTATIONS / OLIVER TWIST / THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS
  
• 4 Michael Powell, even more essential: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH / I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING / BLACK NARCISSUS / THE RED SHOES
• 2 Carol Reed: THE FALLEN IDOL / ODD MAN OUT
• 2 Basil Dearden: SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS / THE BLUE LAMP
• Asquith; THE WAY TO THE STARS
• Annakin - HOLIDAY CAMP - the post war boom starts with those new holiday camps, 1947.
• Hamer – IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY - the grim side of postwar London / KIND HEARTS & CORONETS
• Crichton – WHISKEY GALORE.

Let's throw in some Gainsborough melodramas which brightened up the war years: THE WICKED LADY, MADONNA OF THE SEVEN MOONS, CARAVAN, BLANCHE FURY, and some Anna Neagle epics: I LIVE IN PARK LANE, MAYTIME IN MAYFAIR. 

1950s:

Often seen as a bland decade for English movies, but lots of pleasure for those of us growing up then:

• Dearden – POOL OF LONDON / THE GENTLE GUNMAN  / VIOLENT PLAYGROUND
• Crichton – DANCE HALL (by Godfrey Winn - the leisure time of factory girls, as much a social document as SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING would be at the end of the decade)
• Hurst – DANGEROUS EXILE (ditto Belinda Lee in this 1957 costumer about the son of Marie Antoinette..)
• Box – CAMPBELL’S KINGDOM (Dirk and very tough guy Stanley Baker in the Canadian Rockies (actually the Dolomites in Italy), we loved it in 1957.
• Fregonese - SEVEN THUNDERS (Boyd leads a terrific cast in 1957 wartime thriller set in occupied Marseilles - one I enjoyed as a kid)
• J Lee Thompson - NO TREES IN THE STREET / TIGER BAY / NORTH WEST FRONTIER (all 1959)
• NO TIME FOR TEARS - 3 Anna Neagle classics:
• MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER 
• THE LADY IS A SQUARE
• THOSE DANGEROUS YEARS
• WONDERFUL THINGS
• SIMON AND LAURA 
• AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY
• NOR THE MOON BY NIGHT
• OUT OF THE CLOUDS
• JET STORM - Stanley Baker pilots the plane, Richard Attenborough has the bomb, all star cast in 1959. Love it 
• HELL DRIVERS
• ALIVE AND KICKING
• THE WEAK AND THE WICKED. Glynis Johns is sent to prison and shares a cell with Diana Dors, in this delicious 1954 meller, from J Lee Thompson.
• TURN THE KEY SOFTLY. More ex-jailbirds with Yvonne Mitchell and young Joan Collins in 1953
• PASSPORT TO SHAME 
  
• EXPRESSO BONGO
• SERIOUS CHARGE
• ROOM AT THE TOP.

1960s:

The new boys and girls and directors hit town:

• VICTIM
• A TASTE OF HONEY
  
• A KIND OF LOVING (above right)
• THE L-SHAPED ROOM (Leslie Caron joins the seedy Notting Hill bedsit set, 1962)
• WEST 11 (Di Dors also in Notting Hill bedsit land with gay Alfred Lynch, in early Winner 1963)
• TWO LEFT FEET (Young Hemmings and Michael Crawford shine)
• SOME PEOPLE, 1962 charmer about Bristol teenagers, with Hemmings again.
• THE BOYS - fascinating 1962 time capsule
• THE LEATHER BOYS - another early gay British saga, 1964, below)
  
• BILLY LIAR
• THE SERVANT
• DARLING (above right) - Julie and gay pal eye up the waiter .... both get him.
• THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES
• I WAS HAPPY HERE
• THE KNACK
• THE SYSTEM - perfectly 1964 as England began to swing ...
• THE WORLD TEN TIMES OVER - 1963 Soho saga
  
• A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
• HELP!
• THE PLEASURE GIRLS - 1965 Kensington girls, gays too!
• SATURDAY NIGHT OUT
• NOTHING BUT THE BEST
• REPULSION
• ACCIDENT.

SWINGING 60s:

• TOM JONES
• WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT?
• MODESTY BLAISE
• BLOW-UP
• SMASHING TIME
• HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH
• DEEP END
• PERFORMANCE.

All covered in detail at British/London labels. 

London theatre summer

It is shaping up to be a good summer for theatre in London with lots of new shows and revivals and transfers We enjoyed the revived BOYS IN THE BAND and the new DREAMGIRLS recently - see Theatre label for reviews. 

Now I have booked for Andrew Scott as  HAMLET (my seventh stage Hamlet) transferring from the Almeida to the Harold Pinter Theatre for the summer season; and we cannot wait to book for the new National Theatre production of Sondheim's FOLLIES (above) opening in August and running to November, with Imelda Staunton (once she finishes her stint at Martha in the current WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?) and the fabulous Tracie Bennett in the cast (she sings "I'm Still Here" ...). Others in the cast include veteran Gary Raymond. There is a cast of 37 and orchestra of 31. The last FOLLIES I saw was back in the late 80s or early 90s, with Diana Rigg and Eartha Kitt, and if the new one is as good as the National's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC we will be well pleased .... (booking opens on 5 May _ seats now booked for 20 September, whew!)

We have also booked for Part One (a mere four hours and ten minutes) of the National's ANGELS IN AMERICA, a live screening to our local cinema in June. I had better see how I like that before booking for part two! The cast includes Andrew Garfield, Russell Tovey and Nathan Lane, and is of course a revival of Tony Kushner's great play on the Aids era in Reagan America. 

I could still book for a live screening of that new VIRGINIA WOOLF ...... Imelda is giving a tour-de-force in that too, but I don't really like the play that much.
I don't usually bother with shows based on films but the new AN AMERICAN IN PARIS is getting all the raves, and could be a summer treat too ... and it has Jane Asher too. 

That Blow-Up bluray ...

Its better than I imagined, after only having the bog standard dvd for years. As in the recent 4-disk LUDWIG pack, there is another chunky 64 page booklet, 1960s interviews with Antonioni, two interviews with David Hemmings from 1968 and 1977, that long 2016 interview with Vanessa Redgrave, a Jane Birkin interview, a marvellous documentary featuring people involved with the making of the film, including model Jill Kennington, and more. It puts it all in proper context, and yes the park and the studio and London then in 1966 - which I knew as I was 20 there then - are all just perfect. Even the street I lived in, Draycott Place, SW3 in 1972-73, crops up, as its next to that restaurant. We return to the park and studio as they are now too. Lots more at labels ... one funny thing: the characters are never named, but Hemmings is Thomas, Vanessa is Jane, Sarah is Patricia, Castle is Bill, Bowles is Ron.
The booklet points out something I and most other viewers miss, no matter how often we have seen it. As Thomas is driving through London, after leaving the park, just as the girl puts the protest placard in his car, the car following has the Jane from the park and her accomplice (we see her in her check shirt) who are following him, which is how she is able to turn up at his studio just as he arrives back - I never got that before. They were also trying to get into his car while he is in the restaurant, but that sequence was cut short by producer Ponti. 

There were two video-cassettes of BLOW-UP, then the dvd - I always loved the soundtrack album, on vinyl and cd, and now finally the bluray - its Region 1 though, 

London,spring 2017

London is gearing up for spring, bad weather and transport problems getting sorted, it will be quite a season for theatre and art folk.

The big new David Hockney exhbition opens at the Tate, and runs till May. Expect the crowds back, as they were at his Royal Academy exhibitions in recent years.
Few British artists have made a bigger splash than Hockney, so, after six decades keeping the art market (all those posters and books) afloat, the 79-year old enjoys a major retrospective of his work at The Tate, iconic swimming pools and all. 9 Feb to 29 May.

Lots of theatre revivals: we will be booking for the new BOYS IN THE BAND, led by Mark Gatiss, coming into town this month. 

I am seeing DREAMGIRLS on 22 February, Amber Riley is the latest Effie and she has been getting rave reviews.

Imelda Staunton returns (after her GYPSY success) in a major revival of Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? - Albee died last year, and it will be interesting to see another actress as Martha - most people now only know the Elizabeth Taylor version in Mike Nichols' 1966 film.

The latest HAMLET is that fascinating actor Andrew Scott (Moriarty to Benedict's SHERLOCK), but it seems the Almeida Theatre production is completely sold out already - but it should have live screenings to cinemas, as they did last year with Ralph Fiennes' RICHARD III.

The National are also doing a major new revival of ANGELS IN AMERICA, with an interesting cast led by Russell Tovey, Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane etc. and the National are also tacking a new Sondheim FOLLIES later this year, Imelda will also be headlining that ....

Bette is Madame Sin

Here's a delicious doozy for a dull winter afternoon. Bette Davis as MADAME SIN, a 1972 release, originally meant as a pilot for a tv series, but released in cinemas here in Europe. Another unintentional comic Trash Classic! 

Bette Davis is Madame Sin, a sinister-looking, totally evil, half-Chinese woman who indulges in endless machinations. Ensconced in a Scottish castle that is packed with an array of spy gadgetry, she runs afoul with counter spy, American CIA agent Anthony Lawrence (Robert Wagner), who is out to counter her plots for control of a Polaris submarine.

The budget ran to a helicopter and renting a castle in Scotland - Robert Wagner, a friend of Bette's, co-stars and co-produces, some British stalwarts are lined up: Denholm Elliot, Gordon Jackson, Dudley Sutton, Roy Kinnear ... what, no Harry Andrews? but it all looks rather cheap and second rate capturing that seedy London of the early 70s. 

Bette though has a whale of a time chomping out her lines in that Eurasian get up - is she channelling Ona Munson as Madam Gin Sling in THE SHANGHAI GESTURE or maybe Gale Sondergaard in her own THE LETTER, or even Death (in that black cape) in THE SEVENTH SEAL? She needed to do something to liven it up, Wagner looks good here in his early 40s, and there is an unexpected ending. Director David Greene did some interesting 60s films but is on auto-pilot here. Perhaps for Bette addicts only?

This was the year she appeared before us at the London BFI  (right) and brought the house down - as I have reported before - Bette, NFT labels, so it must have been after she filmed this. 

RIP, continued ....

Andrzey Wadja (1926-2916), aged 90. The venerable Polish director whose ASHES AND DIAMONDS was an international arthouse sensation in 1958, as successful as those early Fellini and Bergman classics. He won  awards like an Honorary Oscar and the Palm D-Or, A GENERATION and KANAL were also early films, and his later films included MAN OF MARBLE, MAN OF IRON, DANTON among his extensive credits in that long career. Another of the great European directors departs ....

Jean Alexander (1926-2016), aged 90. The veteran British actress who was a mainstay on television's CORONATION STREET for decades as the busybody Hilda Ogden, complete with her hair in curlers, a turban and a pinny as she cleaned the Rovers Return pub, and berated her workshy husband Stan, a role she played from 1964 to 1987. She later did a long stint in LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE from 1988 to 2010. The extensive tributes show how well-loved she was. We always relied on Hilda for a laugh among the ongoing drama on the cobbles, Jean's creation was the equal of those other great Northern Women who dominated CORRIE in its Golden Age; Vera Duckworth, Annie Walker, Ena Sharples, Elsie Tanner, Bet Lynch, Rita and Mavis etc. and dare one say Ivy Tilsley. Now we are stuck with the endless sagas of the boring Platts, Steve McDonald et al. At least Mary and snobby Sally and fab Tim provide some relief. Ta ra chuck, as Hilda would say. 

Peggy Spencer (1920-2016), aged 95. For decades the doyenne of ballroom dancing, Perhaps the current hit STRICTLY COME DANCING would not exist without her laying the groundwork through her dance competitions and ballroom teaching. She also choreographed a video for The Beatles ("Your Mother Should Know") and for Nureyev in VALENTINO. Her formation dance teams were often on television and danced for royalty and all those years of the earlier COME DANCING television shows.

Vintage Magazine Shop. We are sad to see the demise of another London legend, Brewer Street in Soho is certainly falling to the developers with a vengance. This massive store was a marvellous place to browse, buy current movie memorabilia, and their basement held an incredible stock of vintage movie and fashion magazines, (Thanks again Colin, for finding a 1959 number of "Films & Filming" which I needed to complete my collection). The shop is continuing on line, Here are some comments:

This is one of the most unusual shops in London. Perfect if you want to get a quirky gift.
As its name suggests, this is a shop selling vintage stuff but it doesn't just stop at magazines. You'll find posters, books, music, mugs and little gifts. The shop is a slightly messy treasure trove and you can lose yourself just browsing. 
It is with serious regret that on Thursday, 29-September-2016 that this Soho gem has finally closed down their doors for good. It has become yet another causality for independent shops in central London, due to the landlords obviously increasing rents, which go up every year.      

The Vintage Magazine shop will be missed immensely, and I have to say it had quite a few interesting things on offer for film fans, cinema goers and media & arts researchers, and people who simply browsing.

The Beatles 8 days a week

OMG, I just checked out of interest and my perfect condition 1964 Beatles Calendar is on sale on ebay for £92.99 ! I have had mine since '64, when I was 18 and a total Beatle nut. I was living in Ireland till then and I was told I was the first Beatle look-alike in North Kerry! - as per below. I even got my friend Mike to send me over a pair of those Beatle Chelsea Boots.

I also have, also from 1964 - when I was 18 and new in London - a Beatles headscarf, with images and facsimile autographs of The Fabs on it. Maybe thats worth a bit now too - there is a sold out one on ebay. The calendar has those great shots by Robert Freeman, who shot their early album covers, and the images seem unique to this calendar. I am open to offers .... 

The Beatles are now back again in Ron Howard's documentary on their touring years, EIGHT DAYS A WEEK, we will have to go and see it, a lot of that footage, particularly their American tours, will be new to me, as I did not watch television back then, in my London bedsit. Sniff .... thats why much as we loved A HARD DAY'S NIGHT it was utterly fabulous to go and see them on the big screen in colour in HELP! in 1965 - I sat through it twice at the Odeon Harlesden in North London, in those days of continuous performances. 

Now for EIGHT DAYS A WEEK ...  as they said on morning television here earlier, 52 years later and we are still talking about and listening to The Beatles. Good to see Paul and Ringo on the blue carpet at last night's premiere but we know they are 74 and 76, they don't need to dye their hair and beard. We have moved beyond "When I'm 64"!

RIP: Clubbing

That seems a spectacular own goal by the London licencing authorities - just as London becomes an all-night city (well, at weekends anyway for now) by the introduction of all-night underground trains they go and close the main London club for clubbers and night owls, so its RIP to renowned superclub Fabric, following all those other clubs and music venues that have closed here in the last decade or so.

I had not been to Fabric - having more or less retired from clubbing a decade or so ago, but knew and frequented others, both gay and straight, then, in London and Brighton: The End, Crash, Action, Substation in Brixton and Soho (those clubs run by Wayne Shires and Patrick Lilley), Club Colosseum, Turnmills etc. all gone now too, as well as havens like The Shadow Lounge and  Madame JoJo's in Soho. The Astoria (G-A-Y and Falconburg Court) have been demolished for the new Crossrail line, At least we still have Heaven (G-A-Y).

Soho in fact is in danger of being swept away by gentrification too. The Yard, a super gay venue, with an open courtyard and outdoor area, right in Wardour Street, has just successfully fought off another round of developers wanting to close the open space and build more luxury flats. The Royal Vauxhall Tavern (see below) at least got listed status to keep it as an entertainment and musical venue. Over the past decade over 40% of London's club;s and live music venues have closed, leaving the city a quieter and less exciting place. We do not all want to trek out to the O2 for some over-priced concert. So who is next?

Of course it is beyond tragic that two clubbers at Fabric either bought or got drugs there and fatally overdosed. It makes me realise how lucky I was in my clubbing days - but some people will always take drugs in clubs, or take them before they go in, despite all the management can do to keep the venue clean, but closing the clubs is not the answer, it only makes it all go underground and less regulated.

Nightclubbing is a large slice of London's economy and like all major cities needs its clubs and music venues.  How soon perhaps before another block of expensive flats rises on this prime real estate building?  London needs its iconic clubs like Fabric and the rest, especially if it is going to be an all-night city.
The London gay scene is constantly evolving but its astonishing to realise that a lot of the venues I knew over the last 20 years or so are no longer here: Crews, Brief Encounter, Bromptons, The Colherne, The Copacabana, The Black Cap, The Market Tavern, The London Apprentice, Escape, Barcode, Crash, 79CXR, The Queen's Head pub off the Kings Road in Chelsea (I lived near it in the '70s), etc as the 'scene' moved from Earls Court and the West End to Vauxhall and on to East London .... 

Romeo & Juliet at The Garrick

To London for the Kenneth Branagh production of ROMEO AND JULIET, co-directed by Branagh, a Shakespeare I am not that keen on and it has been done so many times (at least 6 films?), but the cast of this current production whetted the interest. 

The leads are Freddie Fox (whom I last saw on stage as Bosie to Rupert Everett's Oscar Wilde in THE JUDAS KISS a few years ago, and who has since done TV work like CUCUMBER and films like PRIDE); Freddie stepped in at 48 hours notice (due to the injury of Richard Madden); Juliet is the equally busy Lily James (DOWNTON ABBEY, WAR & PEACE, CINDERELLA), 

Meera Syal gets a lot of value of value out of the Nurse, and Derek Jacobi now in his 80s is a very lively if older Mercutio - he even dances around the stage and seems fully recovered from leg injuries. 

Lady Capulet is that international star since the 1970s Marisa Berenson (DEATH IN VENICE, CABARET), whom I like watching as The Countess of Lyndon in re-runs of Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON (currently on release again after 40 years). She is just as mesmerising and ageless on stage here. 

The production (almost three hours long) does have its longeurs when reams of dialogue have to be delivered, but the essentials grip one and the staging is eye-popping, 

set in a 1950s Verona in the grip of the LA DOLCE VITA era: cue sharp suits, white shirts, sunglasses at night. The Capulet's masked ball is rather like that disco in THE GREAT BEAUTY and it certainly commands the attention. I liked it a lot more than the drab black costumes on a black stage setting of that RICHARD III also seen recently - see Shakespeare label. 

This R&J finishes this week and we then get Kenneth Branagh as John Osborne's THE ENTERTAINER, hardly revived since Olivier did it. 

4 British classics ....

As mentioned we moved house back in May, downsizing to an apartment 10 floors up, with great views. So we have been re-sorting and getting settled ok. A box of dvds though seems to have gone astray, maybe thrown out by mistake ..... I have had to re-buy several I had to have, but at least they are very cheap now. 

There were 4 essential British classics I had to have back:

THE BLUE LAMP - the 1949 thriller with a young Dirk Bogarde in his break-out role as the spiv with a gun in grim postwar London - its still terrific now, with great location filming. This is the one where PC Dixon of Dock Green (Jack Warner) gets shot by Dirk, but was later resurrected for that long-running TV series, which I remember seeing when new in London in the '60s.

POOL OF LONDON - a museum piece from 1951 showing the busy docks of London around London Bridge and surrounding bombsites after the war - its all different now of course with the new City Hall by London Bridge, ships can't moor there any more. A sterling British cast of the time headed by Bonar Colleano and Earl Cameron  as sailors on leave getting involved with crime and robbery, and there's that early inter-racial romance ....

SAPPHIRE - a fascinating re-view now from 1959, with the murder of that girl whose body is found on Hampstead Heath, as we follow detectives Nigel Patrick and Michael Craig as they discover that the girl, Sapphire, was passing for white - we follow the investigation through the London night clubs and to that ordindary suburban family. Yvonne Mitchell is marvellous as ever here. Those gals passing for white just can't resist those bongo drums, as detective Michael Craig realises in that seedy Notting Hill clip-joint ....

VICTIM - London in 1961 with those homosexuals being blackmailed, as we see all sections of society from titled toffs to grubby bedsits, taking in the famous Salisbury (gay then) pub, and the bookshops around Charing Cross Road, as barrister Melville Farr (Bogarde again) determines to find the blackmailers who have caused the death of the young man (Peter McEnery) he had been seeing, to the consteration of his wife Sylvia Syms, who does not understand ....

It was only after ordering them I realised all four are of course directed by Basil Dearden (killed in a car crash in 1971 aged 60) - one of the great directors of British films, but not as lauded as the Schlesingers, Loseys or Richardsons were. 

Other British classics of that post-war era, which I like a lot, and are reviewed here, at British/London  labels include IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY, HOLIDAY CAMP (both 1947), and  DANCE HALL from 1950. The early '50s also provided those enjoyable entertainments like TURN THE KEY SOFTLY, THE WEAK AND THE WICKED, THE GOOD DIE YOUNG, IT STARTED IN PARADISE (with Kay Kendall in a small role before hits like SIMON AND LAURA). Then there's those enjoyable Rank romps like AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY, THE SPANISH GARDENER, CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM, DANGEROUS EXILE, PASSPORT TO SHAME and more, keeping the likes of Dirk Bogarde, Glynis Johns, Joan Collns, Yvonne Mitchell, Stanley Baker Michael Craig, Laurence Harvey, Diana Dors, Belinda Lee busy ...
So British cinema in the 1950s was very productive too, the Forties may have been the golden era of David Lean, Michael Powell, Carol Reed, Anthony Asquith, and the Sixties to early Seventies saw the new crowd of Tony Richardson, John Schlesinger, Joseph Losey, Richard Lester, Clive Donner etc. before the Trash merchants took over. 
The Fifties also saw that British War Era as they re-fought World War II keeping Dirk in uniform, along with Richard Todd, Kenneth More, John Mills, Jack Hawkins, Peter Finch, Stanley Baker, Michael Redgrave etc: THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM, THE CRUEL SEA, SEA OF SAND, DUNKIRK, THE DAM BUSTERS, REACH FOR THE SKY, THE MALTA STORY, APPOINTMENT IN LONDON, THEY WHO DARE, ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE, YANGSTE INCIDENT etc.