In every old British movie ever

James Robertson Justice

Gang of boys in shorts playing with a stick - or something equally joyless - on the street, then stopping to pause suspiciously as a smartly dressed stranger approaches them.
"I say boys, could you tell me where I might find Mrs Brown's Boarding House."
(Silence)
"There's a farthing for the likely lad who can tell me!"

Guineas and A4 sized banknotes

Supercilious civil servants/ foreign office types - played by e.g. Richard Wattis or Colin Gordon.

A lot of harrumphing... by Cecil Parker et al

urchins

A still image later found on a Smiths release.

^ nice one

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?)

saw the BFI print of Never Let Go (1960) at SFF yesterday - they pulled the curtains across to close off the frame, but imdb says 1.66:1 -- however the closing titles have a big thick margin on either side. /toomuchtimeonilx

"Why how perfectly beastly of them, darling."

"Perishing cold, it is".

Future cast members of the Carry On franchise turning up in peripheral roles

Empty London streets save for a lorry with Smith & Sons Lincoln 347 written on side.

Backfiring Morris Minors or Ford Anglia/Cortinas.

Awkwardly shoehorned-in appearances by Trad Jazz combos and/or beat groups.

Mona Washbourne

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

There were a lot of 'queers' in the Ralph Richardson film that was on today.

Music Composed by WILLIAM ALWYN
Played by THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Conducted by MUIR MATHIESON

"'En it marvellous?"

Bucolic countryside with a vicar cycling down a country lane.

Terry-Thomas

Xp
Also "bleedin' marvellous innit"

"Hard cheese old man"

“Coming soon on Talking Pictures TV…”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Maddern#Partial_filmography

I was reading this list of roles played by Victor Maddern and more or less every one is distinctly 'old British movie', eitherf just job titles like 'British N.C.O.', 'First Tram Conductor', 'Shop Steward', or people named stuff like 'Joe Biggs'. My choice for the two most evocative of old British movies - 'Grouchy Soldier Clearing Rocks' and 'Sailor fishing for bike'

Always looked about 55, even in his 20s.

but simultaneously always looked somehow boyish even when he was in his 50s

https://downstairslounge.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/maddern.jpg

https://scontent.fman4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/89861621_3014621605258794_3114549483778605056_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dd63ad&_nc_ohc=BLwOCc7loD8AX_U9Av8&_nc_ht=scontent.fman4-1.fna&oh=00_AfDIwkgeQzo4JVJmA4_BxnSnacF7Kcky6EyhlIfJWnPWrA&oe=660AA620

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

always handy to be good friends with a pianist

Xp D&B bloke DJ Voltage would look like that without the beard imo

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