Martin Scorsese's 53 Favorite British Movies
Martin Scorsese shared a list of some of his favorite British Films with Edgar Wright in a letter dated October 17th 2020.
The list was later shared on Edgar Wright's Twitter-account on the 19th of February 2021:
"In an exchange with Martin Scorsese I asked him out of curiosity, if he had a list of British films that he admired or had inspired him growing up, since his choices are always fascinating. A few months later he sent me a voice memo with a list of British films to watch...
Here is the list he sent me, shared with his permission. It must be stressed that this is a personal list of favourites and also, by his admission, incomplete. For example Powell & Pressburger, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, classic Hammer, Kubrick etc. do not feature, as he's praised them on many occasions, so their work is taken as read." -Edgar Wright
The list was later shared on Edgar Wright's Twitter-account on the 19th of February 2021:
"In an exchange with Martin Scorsese I asked him out of curiosity, if he had a list of British films that he admired or had inspired him growing up, since his choices are always fascinating. A few months later he sent me a voice memo with a list of British films to watch...
Here is the list he sent me, shared with his permission. It must be stressed that this is a personal list of favourites and also, by his admission, incomplete. For example Powell & Pressburger, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, classic Hammer, Kubrick etc. do not feature, as he's praised them on many occasions, so their work is taken as read." -Edgar Wright
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53 titles
- DirectorSeth HoltStarsCarroll BakerIan BannenDenholm ElliottA beautiful blonde (Baker) joins a small group of men running an oil station in the Sahara Desert and starts the emotions soaring.
- DirectorRobert HamerStarsDennis PriceAlec GuinnessValerie HobsonA distant poor relative of the Duke D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
- DirectorEdmond T. GrévilleStarsPaul LukasLinden TraversHugh WilliamsBefore he leaves for a posting in India, young Jim Wyndham has a fling with pretty Helen Norwood. After he leaves, Helen marries Prof. Paul Bernardy, a much older man. Four years later Jim returns from India, ready to take up where he left off with Helen, only to find out that she's now married. Complications ensue.
- DirectorBasil DeardenAlberto CavalcantiStarsMervyn JohnsGlynis JohnsTom WallsA group of travellers, all with something to hide in their past, take shelter from a storm in an old inn. The inn-keeper seems a little mysterious...
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiStarsLeslie BanksC.V. FranceValerie TaylorAn English village is occupied by disguised German paratroopers as an advance post for a planned invasion.
- DirectorSeth HoltBasil DeardenStarsGeorge NaderMaggie SmithBernard LeeIn London, a Canadian serving prison time for grand theft escapes prison and attempts to retrieve his loot, kept in a bank safety deposit box, but his accomplice takes the security key while he only has the pass code.
- DirectorSeth HoltStarsBette DavisWendy CraigJill BennettThere's just something not quite right when Bette Davis stars as an English nanny. And is her 10-year-old charge an emotionally disturbed murderer or just an insolent brat?
- DirectorArthur CrabtreeStarsPhyllis CalvertStewart GrangerPatricia RocA respectable, convent-raised woman is haunted by the memory of being raped as a teenager. But when her grown daughter returns from school, her life begins to unravel in monumentally surprising ways.
- DirectorLeslie ArlissStarsMargaret LockwoodJames MasonPhyllis CalvertAfter a brutish, hedonistic Marquis marries a pretty young Clarissa to act as a 'brood sow,' he begins an affair with her friend who plots to take her place.
- DirectorAntony DarnboroughTerence FisherStarsJean SimmonsDirk BogardeDavid TomlinsonVicky Barton visits Paris with her brother Johnny, only to discover the following morning he has gone missing and the hotel staff have no recollection of his presence.
- DirectorTerence FisherStarsPaul HenreidLizabeth ScottAndré MorellA doctor repairs a female inmate's disfigured face to match the lovely woman who left him, and marries her, only to find out how abusive she is.
- DirectorTerence FisherStarsHoward DuffEva BartokAlan WheatleyA small group of closely-guarded British scientists test their first rocket amidst indications of matrimonial strife in the community. After the partial failure of the firing, a couple go missing - have they gone off together or are their murdered bodies circling the earth in the remains of the rocket?
- DirectorTerence FisherStarsBarbara PaytonJames HayterStephen MurrayBill and Robin, helped by their childhood friend, Lena, develop a "reproducer" which can exactly duplicate any object. Bill, crushed when Lena marries Robin, convinces her to allow him to duplicate her, so that he may have a copy of her for himself. The experiment, at first deemed a success, seems to have worked only too well as the duplicate, Helen, is such an exact copy that she also loves Robin, not Bill. Bill hopes to rectify the situation with another radical experiment.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsRalph RichardsonAnn ToddNigel PatrickFictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsRobert NewtonCelia JohnsonJohn MillsJust after World War I, the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. They live an ordinary life throughout the years, but everything changes when World War II breaks out.
- DirectorJohn GuillerminStarsRichard AttenboroughJack HawkinsFlora RobsonAnachronistic strict Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale (Sir Richard Attenborough), on a remote colonial African army caught in a local coup d'etat, must use his experience to defend those in his care.
- DirectorSidney GilliatStarsAlastair SimSally GrayTrevor HowardAfter the nurse who declares that a recent surgical death was a murder also dies, an enigmatic Scotland Yard inspector arrives to investigate.
- DirectorBasil DeardenStarsDirk BogardeMary UreJohn ClementsDedicated British scientist Dr. Henry Laidlaw Longman (Sir Dirk Bogarde) tests the possibility of brainwashing. If the experiment succeeds, he will stop loving his wife Oonagh (Mary Ure).
- DirectorTerence FisherStarsDermot WalshSusan ShawBarry LettsFour people with very different backgrounds meet by chance at an English pub and gradually become carried away in an alcohol-lubricated bout of thrill-seeking (so far as that was possible in England in the late 1940s). When their spree gets out of hand, each person faces a moral choice with lasting consequences.
- DirectorRobert HamerStarsGoogie WithersJack WarnerJohn McCallumAn escaped convict tries to hide out at his former lover's house, but she has since married and is reluctant to help him.
- DirectorJohn MackenzieStarsBob HoskinsHelen MirrenPaul FreemanAn up-and-coming gangster is tested by the insurgence of an unknown, very powerful threat.
- DirectorAlexander MackendrickStarsAnthony QuinnJames CoburnDennis PriceIn 1870, a Jamaican colonial family sends its children to Britain for proper schooling but their ship is taken over by pirates who become fond of the kids.
- DirectorThorold DickinsonStarsAnton WalbrookEdith EvansYvonne MitchellAn army officer becomes obsessed with learning the secret to a card game for which an elderly countess sold her soul years earlier.
- DirectorCharles CrichtonStarsAlastair SimFrederick PiperHarry FowlerA gang of street boys foil a master crook who sends commands for robberies by cunningly altering a comic strip's wording each week, unknown to writer and printer. The first of the Ealing comedies.
- DirectorRobert HamerStarsMervyn JohnsMary MerrallGordon JacksonA drunken, abusive tavern-keeper's adulterous wife uses the backward son of a rigid, puritanical pharmacist who makes his entire family miserable.
- DirectorBasil DeardenStarsJack WarnerDirk BogardeJimmy HanleyThe daily routine of two London Policemen is interrupted by a killer.
- DirectorLewis GilbertStarsLaurence HarveyGloria GrahameRichard BasehartIn London, three otherwise law-abiding good men and their unscrupulous leader are about to commit a serious crime, but for different reasons.
- DirectorAlexander MackendrickStarsPhyllis CalvertJack HawkinsTerence MorganMandy Garland was born deaf and has been mute for all of her life. Her parents believe she is able to speak if she can only be taught, and they enroll her with a special teacher.
- DirectorJosé Ramón LarrazStarsMarianne MorrisAnulka DziubinskaMurray BrownA pair of women lure passers-by to their countryside mansion to feed on them to satisfy their need for blood.
- DirectorCharles FrankStarsJean SimmonsDerrick De MarneyKatina PaxinouFollowing her father's death, a teenage British heiress goes to live with her guardian uncle--who is broke and schemes to murder her for her inheritance.
- DirectorJohn HoughStarsRoddy McDowallGayle HunnicuttPamela FranklinA physicist, his wife and two mediums are hired to investigate the Belasco House, where 27 guests had inexplicably died in 1927, along with most of a team of paranormal investigators that was sent in the early 1950s.
- DirectorSidney HayersStarsPeter WyngardeJanet BlairMargaret JohnstonA woman who may be a witch defends her husband from forces attempting to harm him.
- DirectorJohn GillingStarsPeter CushingJune LaverickDonald PleasenceIn 1828 Scotland, Edinburgh surgeon Dr. Knox does medical research on cadavers he buys from murderers Burke and Hare, without questioning the unethical procurement methods.
- DirectorGuy GreenStarsPeter van EyckBetta St. JohnMandy MillerAlthough the police have termed her mother's death a suicide, a teenage girl believes her step-father murdered her.
- DirectorSeth HoltStarsSusan StrasbergAnn ToddRonald LewisA wheelchair-bound young woman returns to her father's estate after 10 years, and although she's told he's away, she keeps seeing his dead body on the estate.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsMacdonald CareyShirley Anne FieldViveca LindforsAn American tourist, a youth gang leader, and his troubled sister find themselves trapped in a top secret government facility experimenting on children.
- DirectorJohn GillingStarsAndré MorellDiane ClareBrook WilliamsDuring a mysterious epidemic in a small Cornish village, the local doctor summons his professor friend for help.
- DirectorRoy Ward BakerStarsJames DonaldAndrew KeirBarbara ShelleyA mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass is called in to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people.
- DirectorVal GuestStarsBrian DonlevyJack WarnerRichard WordsworthProfessor Bernard Quatermass' manned rocket ship returns to Earth, but two of the astronauts are missing and the survivor seems ill and unable to communicate.
- DirectorRoy Ward BakerStarsRalph BatesMartine BeswickGerald SimA Victorian scientist tests a serum that transforms him into a sensuous murderess.
- DirectorTerence FisherStarsChristopher LeeCharles GrayNike ArrighiDevil worshipers plan to convert two new victims.
- DirectorPeter NewbrookStarsRobert PowellRobert StephensJane LapotaireEnglish country squire Sir Hugo Cunningham searches for immortality by literally 'bottling up' the Spirit of the Dead, or Asphyx.
- DirectorAnthony AsquithStarsBrian AherneElissa LandiCyril McLaglenA working-class love story set in and around the London Underground of the 1920s. Two men, gentle Bill and brash Bert, meet and are attracted to the same woman on the same day at the same Underground station. But the lady chooses Bill, and Bert isn't the type to take rejection lightly.
- DirectorAnthony AsquithA.V. BrambleStarsAnnette BensonBrian AherneDonald CalthropThe husband and wife acting team of Mae Feather and Julian Gordon is torn apart when he discovers she is having an affair with the screen comedian Andy Wilks. Mae hatches a plot to kill her husband by putting a real bullet in the prop gun which will be fired at him during the making of their new film, 'Prairie Love'.
- DirectorBasil DeardenStarsNigel PatrickYvonne MitchellMichael CraigThe murder of a young woman in London exposes deep racial tensions and prejudices inherent in the area.
- DirectorJonathan MillerStarsMichael HordernAmbrose CoghillGeorge WoodbridgeClassic BBC adaptation of an equally classic ghost story about a skeptical professor on vacation in Norfolk who finds a cursed whistle. Unlike most other episodes of this documentary series about music, this one is live action folk horror.
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiCharles CrichtonBasil DeardenStarsMervyn JohnsMichael RedgraveRoland CulverGuests invited to a weekend in the country share their supernatural stories, beginning with Walter Craig, who senses impending doom as his half-remembered recurring dream turns into reality.
- StarsTimothy SpallEleanor Worthington-CoxJuliet StevensonAn 11 year-old Janet terrorized by the paranormal activity permeating every room - or so she'd like everyone to believe; especially Mr. Grosse, the doting researcher who goes to great lengths to protect her from the strange, dark forces.
- DirectorJack ClaytonStarsMaggie SmithBob HoskinsWendy HillerA middle-aged spinster falls in love with a fellow resident of her boardinghouse, who mistakenly believes she has the money to help him start a new business.
- DirectorJack ClaytonStarsAnne BancroftPeter FinchJames MasonBeautiful Mother of five Jo leaves the banality of her marriage to second husband Giles to wed her passionate screenwriter lover, Jake Armitage. As suspicions of Husband Jake's philandering grows, Jo's sanity spirals.
- DirectorJack ClaytonStarsDeborah KerrPeter WyngardeMegs JenkinsA young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
- DirectorCompton BennettStarsJames MasonAnn ToddHerbert LomA concert pianist with amnesia fights to regain her memory.
- DirectorJ. Lee ThompsonStarsDiana DorsYvonne MitchellMichael CraigWoman abused by men meets a man she thinks loves her. He cheats, she kills his mistress. Based on Ruth Ellis, last woman executed in Britain. Less than