In every old British movie ever

Inept, flustered and finger-wagging figures of authority.

old woman b&b owner type character

Prissy curate forever clutching a bible

John Mills, aged 32, playing a teenager

A guy in my year at school, age 15, looked like John Mills, aged 32, playing a teenager.

newspaper or wireless prop intoducing key plot point

overly loud introductory orchestral music

Police cars with a friggin' bell instead of a siren

ending credits screen somehow too large to fit into the tv screen

(might have imagined that one)

Abrupt jump between last scene and end credits.

Shitty colourised version of b&w movie shown on TV on rainy Saturday afternoon.

bar bolshy Trade Unionists

Good description of approx 28% of my friends

strangely unfinished ending

Inept, flustered and finger-wagging figures of authority.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, June 12, 2013 1:57 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...said the ilx mod

Police cars with a friggin' bell instead of a siren

^ On point

ding ding ding, you mean

Fire engine with one of those ladders with the big wheels on the back.

community 'spirit'

Impossible to have sex without resulting in pregnancy.

The word 'off' rhyming with 'wharf'

'Hallo, Madia Vale 231 please'

Paterfamilias (damping down tobacco in pipe): "Now look here, young John, you're 21 now, it's time for you to settle down and start thinking about your career. I mean are you serious about this Rosemary gel?"
John (also damping down tobacco in pipe): "I'm most frightfully fond of her, Papa."
Paterfamilias: "Well there's only one thing to be done, I'll put the wedding announcement in Times tomorrow."

'get me the ministry!'

Tea

Aside from Gracie Fields, absolutely no working class actresses under the age of 40

"I ain't never seen the likes!"

Aristocrat prefacing a vague threat with, "I want to make myself quite clear..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/jan/02/features.features11

http://www.britishpictures.com/articles/quota.htm

old men in rustic wool sweaters

Oliver Reed

The concept of an afterlife that is entirely administrated and populated with white folks.

Sorry. By white folks.

The concept of an afterlife that is entirely administrated and populated by white folks.

Probably a bit more otm!

I love the way in A Matter of Life and Death that there are British and Americans that seem to be spending eternity bogged down with bitchiness and mutual xenophobia.

68 year old police constables

Wilfrid Hyde-White

Peasants with poor teeth

Bicycle related humour.

this is my new favorite thread

"It's queer I tell you, downright queer, the goings on up at the old manor."

ending credits screen somehow too large to fit into the tv screen

this applies to almost all films made after 1953, whether from the UK or elsewhere, and also to the opening credits, and the rest of the film

(actually I think Academy ratio was far more prevalent in the UK than the US for a decade or so afterwards?)

Just get a bigger TV.

Francis L Sullivan's jowls

villagers only nominally christian

a certain low, country cunning

straight men calling each other "dear"

closeup of rita tushingham staring into space with her huge eyes

Women named Rosemary, Beryl, Shirley, Lesley, Vivian

Men named Beverly, Wilberforce, Ian, Leslie, Vivian

"'ere, let's all go down to the local 'n sort this out!"

xp I love that in A Hard Day's Night, the TV executive's assistant is a man named "Adrian."

Groups of grubby kids playing on crater scarred wasteland and bombed out buildings.

xps improved childhood treatment of adenoids?

https://focus.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/thumbor/HIHF1zTTvVO1uTRXgnqbB67Q0Lw=/0x0:1500x828/1280x853/prod-mh-ireland/c00903c8-951d-11ed-91ed-0210609a3fe2.JPG

Sam Kydd

Drawing rooms

Cigarettes in a cigarette case

This sound perfectly heard from inside a house

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtkXC6R20vY

Groups of grubby kids playing on crater scarred wasteland and bombed out buildings.

Including my mother, who was an extra in The Blue Lamp. She was supposed to have the only line ("ere, look what Queenie's found!"), but because she turned out to be a) too quiet and b) too posh, they gave it to one of her classmates instead.

I watched The Uncle on Talking Pictures TV the other day and it reminded me of something I associate with old British movies which is a particular way that adults talk to children, this mixture of kindly, amused and ironic. I feel like you don't see adults talk to kids this way often in modern movies or tv (or possibly real life? idk, I don't encounter children very often these days) - there seem to be fewer conversations between adults and children in movies generally (maybe there are fewer child actors these days, or at least more restrictions involved in using them?), but when they do appear the adults are more likely to be either trying to address the kid 'on their level', or in a polite but disinterested way, either way it lacks this slightly elliptical, mocking quality. I feel like I remember from my own childhood that adults would talk to you in this way that you see in old movies, this sense that they were all in on some private joke that seemed obscure to you?

Now picturing various scenes in Great Expectations.

(xp) Good one

“run along now”

🖼

I feel like you don't get guys with faces like this anymore

a chance encounter with a stranger in the compartment of a corridor coach train

housekeeper shaking her head and tut-tutting: "If I may be so bold, sire.. nothing good can come of this, mind you... nothing good at all"

In a similar style: Angry, slightly crazy landlady reprimanding the lead character for coming in after midnight