When the film-maker Edgar Wright told his hero Martin Scorsese he’d “always been curious as to what some of your favourite British films were growing up”, the great director responded with this list of mid-20th century gems.
Shooting Stars
Anthony Asquith (1927)
Underground
Anthony Asquith (1928)
Brief Ecstasy
Edmond T Gréville (1937)
Went the Day Well?
Alberto Cavalcanti (1942)
The Man in Grey
Leslie Arliss (1943)
The Halfway House
Basil Dearden (1944)
This Happy Breed
David Lean (1944)
The Seventh Veil
Compton Bennett (1945)
Dead of Night
Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer (1945)
Madonna of the Seven Moons
Arthur Crabtree (1945)
Pink String and Sealing Wax
Robert Hamer (1945)
Green for Danger
Sidney Gilliat (1946)
It Always Rains on Sunday
Robert Hamer (1947)
Uncle Silas
Charles Frank (1947)
Hue and Cry
Charles Crichton (1947)
To the Public Danger
Terence Fisher (1948)
The Queen of Spades
Thorold Dickinson (1949)
The Blue Lamp
Basil Dearden (1950)
So Long at the Fair
Terence Fisher, Antony Darnborough (1950)
The Sound Barrier
David Lean (1952)
Stolen Face
Terence Fisher (1952)
Mandy
Alexander Mackendrick (1952)
Spaceways
Terence Fisher (1953)
Four Sided Triangle
Terence Fisher (1953)
The Good Die Young
Lewis Gilbert (1954)
Yield to the Night
J Lee Thompson (1956)
Nowhere to Go
Seth Holt (1958)
The Snorkel
Guy Green (1958)
Sapphire
Basil Dearden (1959)
The Flesh and the Fiends
John Gilling (1960)
Taste of Fear
Seth Holt (1961)
The Innocents
Jack Clayton (1961)
Station Six Sahara
Seth Holt (1962)
Night of the Eagle
Sidney Hayers (1962)
The Damned
Joseph Losey (1963)
The Mindbenders
Basil Dearden (1963)
The Pumpkin Eater
Jack Clayton (1964)
Guns at Batasi
John Guillermin (1964)
The Nanny
Seth Holt (1965)
A High Wind in Jamaica
Alexander Mackendrick (1965)
Plague of the Zombies
John Gilling (1966)
Quatermass and the Pit
Roy Ward Baker (1967)
Whistle and I’ll Come To You
Jonathan Miller (1968)
The Devil Rides Out
Terence Fisher (1968)
Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Roy Ward Baker (1971)
The Asphyx
Peter Newbrook (1972)
The Legend of Hell House
John Hough (1973)
Vampyres
José Ramón Larraz (1974)
The Long Good Friday
John Mackenzie (1980)
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
Jack Clayton (1987)
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