VCI put out the 1st volume of the British Cinema Collection, subtitled Classic B Films, back in 2008. It says Overlooked Gems From the 1940s & 50s on the box. Ironically, a third of the films are from the decades either side of those. The films are a mix, entertainment wise, and the same can be said for the video and audio quality. They haven't been lovingly restored but they don't charge a lot either. You can still buy the set new for about 20 smackaroonies.
The Siege Of Sidney Street 1960 Jimmy Sangster wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Alexander Baron. Jimmy also plays the uncredited role of Winston Churchill, the Home Secretary at the time the movie was set. It was Jimmy's only acting part. The directors are Robert S Baker and Monty Berman.
It's based on a true story from 1911 about a street battle between the police and some Latvian criminals. It started with a robbery of a jewellery store in Houndsditch, London that went wrong. Three cops died, the leader of the gang died, as did two others. The rest of the gang gets rounded up except for two who are holed up in a building on Sidney Street in Stepney. There was a six hour siege, a cop was killed, one of the crooks got shot, then building caught on fire and cooked the last crook. A fireman died when the building collapsed. The siege was used by Hitchcock in his 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much.
The Siege Of Sidney Street mashes the siege with the robbery from the 1909 Tottenham Outrage and makes out like one lead to the other. Latvians are turned to Russians. It's still a fairly decent story with criminals you can enjoy seeing burnt to death. They were scum. I was not thinking it would be quite as entertaining as it turned out to be.
The Frightened Man 1952 Written and directed by John Gilling. Another compelling story, Dermot Walsh returns home after being expelled from Oxford for not being a dick. His father runs a junky antique store and wants Dermot to work for him. Dermot wants more and gets involved with some jewel thieves. Turns out Dermot's dad has a deep dark secret going on and that turns a bad situation worse. It's gritty and grimy and a bit bleak. Good performances all around. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Crimes At The Dark House 1940 Based on the 1860 Wilkie Collins novel The Woman In White, screenplay by Frederick Hayward, Edward Dryhurst and HF Maltby, with George King directing.
Todd Slaughter plays an absolute scumbag, he murders a fellow miner to steal the identity of Sir Percival Glyde, hoping to cash in on an inheritance. The fake Sir Percy travels to his ancestral home only to find that the place is a ruin and he's now heavily in debt.
To raise some cash the fake Sir Percy plans to marry a local heiress. Anyone who gets in his way, or thinks he's not the real Sir Percy, is lured down to the boat house, strangled and tossed into the river. Luckily that heiress has a friend or two or she'd wind up in the river too.
It's lurid and ludicrous as most Todd Slaughter films are but it's got entertainment value clutched in Todd's strangley hands. Todd is such a ham, he's a triple decker ham stacker with 3 kinds of cheese and plenty of pickles. Like the first two, I'd watch this again.
The Hooded Terror 1938 TV re-title of Sexton Blake And The Hooded Terror and another film with Todd Slaughter. Pierre Quiroule wrote the story, The Mystery Of No 13 Caversham Square, and AR Rawlinson wrote the screenplay, George King is the producer and director.
Sexton Blake is a bit like Sherlock Holmes, his Watson is a guy called Tinker. Todd plays the villain, a rich guy heading a big crime organization. We meet the three of them at a stamp auction. There's a hobby that used to be something. There's all the usual nefarious activity and detecting to keep you interested to the end but it's pretty average and not quite as entertaining as the previous films. Still, I'd watch it again. Possibly as part of a Sexton Blake marathon or when I get around to this set someday.
The Girl In The News 1940 Based on the novel of the same name by Roy Vickers, Sidney Gilliat wrote the screenplay, Carol Reed is the director.
Margaret Lockwood is a nurse who's charged with murder when her patient dies under suspicious circumstances. She's acquitted but can't find work. She takes applies to an ad for a nurse with another name and gets hired. Little does she know that the patient's wife and butler have a plan to kill the guy and frame Margaret.
Good story and a nice bunch of actors. Basil Radford plays a doctor, he was Charters, of Charters and Caldicott, in The Lady Vanishes, Night Train To Munich, Crook's Tour and Millions Like Us. Others I liked were Roger Livesey, Mervyn Jones and Kathleen Harrison. I liked this one better than any in the set.
Tread Softly Stranger 1958 Based on a play called Blind Alley by Jack Popplewell, screenplay by George Minter, directed by Gordon Parry.
George Baker runs up gambling debts in London and decides to lay low in his northern home town. he's got a brother there, played by Terrance Morgan. Diana Dors plays his girlfriend, she's got her own apartment across the roof. Terrance is an accountant and he's in big trouble, he's embezzled a stack and the company plans to go over the books in a few days.
Diana comes up with a plan, rob Terrance's payroll, pay back the embezzled money and pay off the gamblers. Not the best plan but they're dumber than she is, so they go ahead. Things don't go as planned.
An entertaining story and good performance from the cast, especially Diana. It's vying for for my favorite film in the lot with The Girl In The News. I'd certainly watch it again. Here are a couple more posters, the movie had some good posters in foreign countries. though the figure in the poster on the right below is pretty poor..
A good collection worth the money, glad I picked one up. You can see most of them on YouTube in the links in the titles.