Best Films - British films

British cinema: All genres (Page 1 of 14)

10 Rillington Place (1971)

Richard Fleischer

In 1948, Tim and Beryl Evans, a young married couple, move into a top floor flat at 10, Rillington Place, Ladbroke Grove, London. They have a one-year-old daughter and find it difficult to make ends meet, thanks to Tim’s illiteracy and learning difficulties. When Beryl discovers that she is pregnant with a second child, she decides to have an abortion... [More...]

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Stanley Kubrick

Millions of years ago, a tribe of herbivorous apelike hominids discover a mysterious black monolith which immediately exerts a strange influence over them. They learn how to kill other animals, to fashion bones into weapons and to assert their control over the world around them. Cut to the year 2001 AD, and Dr Heywood Floyd arrives at an American base on the moon where a remarkable discovery has been made... [More...]

The 39 Steps (1935)

Alfred Hitchcock

Not long after arriving in London, the Canadian Richard Hannay visits a music hall theatre to watch the star act, Mr Memory, a man who startles his audience with his infallible recollection of trivial facts. During the show, gunshots are fired. In the panic, Hannay leaves the theatre holding a woman he has never met before... [More...]

49th Parallel (1941)

Michael Powell

Early in WWII, a German U-boat surfaces off the east coast of Canada. Only six members if its crew survive when RCAF bombers destroy the submarine in a fierce raid. These six head for the 49th parallel, the unguarded frontier between Canada and the United States, hoping to seeking sanctuary in the latter country which has yet to enter the war... [More...]

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Richard Attenborough

September, 1944. D-Day has come and gone but the allied advance has slowed to a crawl owing to over-extended supply lines. Field Marshal Montgomery and General Paton are both confident that they can win the war with one more decisive push. U.S. President Eisenhower backs Montgomery’s plan – codenamed Operation Market Garden - to land 35,000 paratroops behind enemy lines to secure half a dozen bridges in Holland... [More...]

A Canterbury Tale (1944)

Michael Powell

One summer during WWII, three complete strangers are thrown together when they get off a train one evening at Chillingbourne village, several miles from Canterbury. Bob Johnson, a sergeant in the American army, had intended to spend part of his leave visiting Canterbury but disembarked at the wrong station... [More...]

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Stanley Kubrick

Alex DeLarge is a Beethoven-loving juvenile delinquent who spends his evenings indulging in orgies of violence with his droogies. This involves beating up rival gangs, breaking into houses and generally having a good time before heading back to the Korova Milk Bar for some nourishing lactose-based refreshment... [More...]

A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929)

Anthony Asquith

One night, a convict escapes from Dartmoor prison and races across open countryside towards a remote farm cottage. Unaware of the trouble that is coming her way, the young woman inside this solitary building is putting her child to bed. The man enters the cottage and confronts the woman, who realises in an instant what is to be her fate... [More...]

A Dandy in Aspic (1968)

Anthony Mann

Eberlin, a British intelligence operative, is surprised when his superiors assign him to find and assassinate a troublesome KGB agent named Krasnevin. The truth is that Eberlin is himself Krasnevin, a double agent who has been in the employ of the Soviets for nearly twenty years. Partnered with a ruthless British agent named Gatiss, Eberlin is sent to West Berlin, where Krasnevin was apparently last sighted... [More...]

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Charles Crichton

London gangster George Thomason has masterminded the perfect jewel robbery, which he is about to put into action with his henchman Ken Pile, an animal-lover with a crippling stutter, and a pair of Americans - Wanda Gerschwitz and Otto West. The latter pretend to be brother and sister but are in fact lovers who intend to double-cross George and Ken after the robbery... [More...]

A Kid for Two Farthings (1955)

Carol Reed

Joe is an 8-year old boy who lives with his mother, Joanna, in the East End of London. His father is away trying to make his fortune in Africa, and Joanna is anxiously awaiting news so that she and Joe can go and join him. In the meantime, Joe and his mother live with Kandinsky, a solitary old Jewish tailor, who delights in telling the boy extravagant stories... [More...]

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

Fred Zinnemann

England, 1527. King Henry VIII needs to divorce his barren wife Catherine of Aragon so that he can marry Anne Boleyn and ensure the Tudor succession. When Cardinal Wolsey fails to obtain an annulment from the Pope, Thomas More replaces him as Lord Chancellor, but he soon loses the King’s favour when his unwillingness to support the divorce becomes apparent... [More...]

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Michael Powell

During WWII, an RAF fighter pilot Peter Carter is returning to England after a raid over Germany when his plane is hit. Realising his has no parachute, he sends one last radio message, which is received by a young American radio operator, June, before bailing out to certain death. Miraculously, he survives and wakes up to find himself on a beach in the south of England, where he meets June and falls in love with her... [More...]

A Night to Remember (1958)

Roy Ward Baker

On 10th April 1912, RMS Titanic leaves the port of Southampton, England on her maiden voyage. At 883 feet in length, she is the largest ship ever to have been built, and is reputed to be unsinkable. The first class accommodation is palatial, whilst those who travel steerage class have to content themselves with bunks in cramped cabins... [More...]

A Passage to India (1984)

David Lean

In the 1920s, Adela Quested makes the journey from England to India, where she intends to marry her fiancé, Ronny Heaslop, the magistrate of a provincial town named Chandrapore. She is accompanied by Heaslop’s elderly mother, Mrs Moore, who, having barely set foot in the country, becomes disgusted by the way in which the local population suffer under British colonialism... [More...]

A Tale of Two Cities (1958)

Ralph Thomas

In 1775, the banker Jarvis Lorry travels to Paris to be reunited with his old friend, Dr Alexandre Manette, who has been held prisoner in the Bastille for the last eighteen years. Dr Manette is revived from his near-catatonic state when he sets eyes on his daughter Lucie and the pair leave for England to start a new life together... [More...]

A Town Like Alice (1956)

Jack Lee

In 1942, Jean Paget is working in Malaya when the Japanese army begins to attack the country. In no time, she ends up with a party of women and children who are instructed to walk fifty miles to Kuala Lumpur, where they will be allowed to leave the country for Singapore. Before they reach their destination, the party is halted by more Japanese soldiers and sent in another direction... [More...]

The African Queen (1951)

John Huston

In 1914, Rose Sayer assists her brother, the Reverend Samuel Sayer, in leading a missionary village in German East Africa. Their supplies are brought to them by Canadian Charlie Allnut on his steam-driven barge, The African Queen. The Sayers disregard Charlie’s advice to leave the village now that Germany is at war with England and decide to stay on... [More...]

Alfie (1966)

Lewis Gilbert

Alfie likes women, he likes them a lot. In fact, you could say that women are his main interest in life, his raison d’être so to speak. However, he’d rather leap stark naked into a bubbling volcano than get himself shackled to the same woman for the rest of his life. To him, a woman is like a hire car... [More...]

Alien (1979)

Ridley Scott

Commercial space freighter Nostromo is on its way back to Earth with a cargo of precious mineral ore. When the ship receives a distress call from a nearby planet, the crew - consisting of five men and two women – is revived from stasis and makes ready to investigate, in accordance with company procedure... [More...]

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