Our Ealing comedies series concludes with the studio’s (and director Robert Hamer’s) uncontested finest 1 hour and 46 minutes. Unlike most of the Ealing films that preceded it, this comedy is ink-black, the politics subversive, and the values amoral. Starring Alec Guinness in 8 different roles!

Long before Ocean’s 11 (the original!), director Charles Crighton and Ealing Studios assembled a lovable cast of eccentrics for a hectic and unpredictable bank heist you won’t soon forget. The Lavender Hill Mob is brilliantly spry entertainment, which exemplifies the British comedy at its finest.

After the incisive satire of The Man in the White Suit, the great Alexander Mackendrick continued his cinematic project regarding the struggles with modernity of the working class, but this time on the open sea. The Maggie is yet another perfectly pitched humanist comedy from Ealing Studios.

We continue our trip into the comic world of Ealing Studios with a Kafka-esque fable of exploitation, doubling as an ode to creation. Starring Alec Guinness long before his newfound fame with Star Wars, this concise comedy is composed of nothing less than brilliance, character, and style.

With an alluring scenario involving the recovery of a booty of (the titular) whiskey, Whiskey Galore! has the perfect charm found in so many of Ealing Studio’s productions. This is one of the most renowned British comedies for good reason: its hilarity and satirical edge are both truly singular.

Today we launch a retrospective devoted to the film company behind the golden era of post-war British comedies, Ealing Studios. We begin with one of the very best: Forget the misguided Coen brothers remake, Alexander Mackendrick’s 1955 gem starring Alec Guinness is a wickedly funny classic.