Brief Encounter 1945 N/R, 85 min. Genre: Drama / Romance
Director: David Lean Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg, Irene Handl, Valentine Dyall, Sydney Bromley, Marjorie Mars, Margaret Barton, Alfie Bass, Wallace Bosco, Dennis Harkin, Richard Thomas
In pre-World War II England, British housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and a married doctor, Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), meet in a train station and form a friendship during which they meet weekly at the station. They realize that they have fallen in love, but both Laura and Alec know that neither will be able to break their ties to the families they love. The story is sympathetic to their chaste affair.
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The Captain's Paradise 1953 N/R, 93 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Anthony Kimmins Cast: Alec Guinness, Yvonne De Carlo, Celia Johnson, Charles Goldner, Peter Bull, Bill Fraser, Miles Malleson, Ferdy Mayne, Nicholas Phipps, Sebastian Cabot, Walter Crisham, Roger Delgado, Victor Fairley, Tutte Lemkow, Ambrosine Phillpotts
This film is a comedy about Capt. Henry St. James (Alec Guinness) who is the captain of a steamer sailing regularly between Gibraltar and North Africa. He solves the problem of loneliness when away from home by having two wives. Maude (Celia Johnson) lives in Gibraltar, and Nita (Yvonne De Carlo) is in Tangiers. Problems rise to the fore when both women change their minds about the way they want to live, and Henry is left with no wives.
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In Which We Serve 1942 N/R, 115 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Noel Coward, David Lean Cast: Noel Coward, Bernard Miles, John Mills, Celia Johnson, Kay Walsh, Joyce Carey, Michael Wilding, Richard Attenborough, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Philip Friend, Derek Elphinstone, Robert Sansom, Ballard Berkeley
Written, produced, and directed by Noel Coward, this film focuses on the survivors following the sinking of the H.M.S. Torrin during World War II. As they find a haven in their life raft, crewmembers remember their pre-war experiences. Co-Directed by David Lean. In addition to Coward's receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Writing, he received an honorary Oscar for Outstanding Production Achievement for this film. Look for Richard Attenborough as a young stoker.
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A Kid for Two Farthings 1955 N/R, 96 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Carol Reed Cast: Celia Johnson, Diana Dors, David Kossoff, Joe Robinson, Jonathan Ashmore, Brenda De Banzie, Primo Carnera, Sydney Tafler, Sid James, Lou Jacobi, Irene Handl, Danny Green
Joe (Jonathan Ashmore) is a young boy who believes the story told by a tailor (David Kossoff) about captured unicorns granting wishes. Joe buys a goat with only one horn, and when good things start happening to his poor, hard-working neighbors, Joe is convinced that his goat really is a unicorn.
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Les Miserables 1978 TV, 150 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Glenn Jordan Cast: Richard Jordan, Anthony Perkins, Cyril Cusack, Claude Dauphin, John Gielgud, Flora Robson, Celia Johnson, Ian Holm, Joyce Redman, Christopher Guard
This made-for-TV adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic tale features Richard Jordan as Jean Valjean, the persecuted ex-convict, and Anthony Perkins as the mean-spirited policeman, Javert, who trails him for 40 years. The lavish production–with a great cast–includes scenes that have been ignored by other makers of this story.
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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 1969 PG, 116 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Ronald Neame Cast: Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson, Diane Grayson, Jane Carr, Margo Cunningham, Isla Cameron, Rona Anderson
Maggie Smith won the Academy Award for her role as Miss Jean Brodie, an Edinburgh schoolteacher in the 1930s. This is the story of her influence on her students in the girls' school in which she teaches via descriptions of her affairs–among other things! Jean Brodie: "Give me a girl of an impressionable age, and she is mine for life."
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Staying On 1979 TV, 90 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Silvio Narizzano Cast: Trevor Howard, Celia Johnson, Saeed Jaffrey, Pearl Padamsee, Fida Bai, Zia Mohyeddin, Ajit Saldanha, Habib Tanvir, Raj Bharti, Sushma Seth
Based on a novel by Paul Scott, this made-for-TV film tells the story of an elderly British couple (Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson) living their remaining lives in a Himalayan community and clinging to the memories of all that has occurred in their lives.
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This Happy Breed 1944 N/R, 110 min. Genre: Drama / Comedy
Director: David Lean Cast: Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, John Mills, Kay Walsh, Stanley Holloway, Amy Veness, Alison Leggatt, Laurence Olivier, Eileen Erskine, John Blythe, Guy Verney, Betty Fleetwood, Merle Tottenham
Adapted from Noel Coward's play, this is the story of the defeats and victories of a British family during the 20-year period between World War I and World War II. The lower-class Gibbon family–father Frank (Robert Newton), mother Ethel (Celia Johnson), and two children Queenie and Reg (Kay Walsh and John Blythe)–move into a large Clapham house but find that it takes more than a house to make a family.
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| 1. The Astonished Heart (1950)
2. Brief Encounter (1945)
3. The Captain's Paradise (1953)
4. In Which We Serve (1942)
5. A Kid for Two Farthings (1955)
6. Les Miserables (1978)
7. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
8. Staying On (1979)
9. This Happy Breed (1944)
In The News
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