Alastair Sim Collection (Comic Icons)

Our DVD Price: £17.99 RRP: £34.99 Save £17.00 (48%)   special offer Classic British Films from just £5.99! click for details Availability In Stock - should be despatched within 24 hours.  This product will be dispatched from Guernsey. Delivery times   Earn 85 Bonus Points when you buy this product. More info

Film Description

A collection of five films starring the wonderfully lugubrious Alastair Sim. Comprises:

The Green Man (Robert Day, 1961)
Classic British farce, and arguably Alistair Sim's funniest film, in which he plays an assassin with a nice line in fitting killings. However, bumbling vacuum-cleaner salesman George Cole stands between him and one of his targets, pompous politician Gregory Upshott (Raymond Huntley).

Folly to be Wise (Frank Launder, 1953)
With Sim as an army chaplain trying to organise entertainment for his troops.

Geordie (Frank Launder, 1955)
In which a young Scots lad is sent to the Melbourne Olympics to represent his country in hammer-throwing, kilt and all.

Left, Right and Centre (Sidney Gilliat, 1959)
Love and politics collide in this by-election comedy, as two rival candidates find they have more in common than they might admit.

Laughter in Paradise (Mario Zampi, 1951)
A Brewster's Millions for the ration book generation, Laughter in Paradise sees the desperate benefactors of deceased prankster Hugh Griffith having to complete a number of unlikely challenges before getting their hands on the loot. Look out for Audrey Hepburn in a tiny role.

Film Information

DVD Extras

5 discs.

Technical Details

Film Media

2 Stills

View Stills

Reviews & Articles

Share your thoughts and opinions - write a review

Review by Michael Brooke on 8th October 2007

With his great bald dome, nervous snaggle-toothed laugh, absurdly impeccable diction and a body made for physical comedy, Alastair Sim was one of British cinema's true originals. So original, in fact, that few of the directors who shoehorned his gifts into assorted light comedies and thrillers really understood how best to use him. Thankfully, two exceptions were Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, behind four-fifths of the films in this box set. The Green Man (1956) is probably the best known, and sees Sim at the height of his powers as the demented assassin Harry Hawkins, who has dedicated his life to wiping out the pompous and self-important. There's little question who we're supposed to root for, though the bumbling investigations of inept vacuum-cleaner salesman William Blake (George Cole) have a charm of their own.

Sim and Cole also play two of the quartet at the heart of Mario Zampi's Ealingesque Trouble in Paradise (1951), forced to humiliate themselves for a share of a practical joker's bequest. Sim rightly gets the lion's share of the running time as a fastidious author of hard-boiled thrillers (the scene in which he dictates a violent scene from one of these in his inimitably patrician tones is worth the price on its own) who has to commit a real-life crime, to the horror of long-term fiancée Joyce Grenfell.
Dad's Army fans will also enjoy John Laurie's performance as a miserly invalid, in what was clearly a dry run for Private Frazer.

In Folly to be Wise (1952), Sim's well-meaning army chaplain causes chaos when he takes over the job of entertaining the troops. The low-key charmer Geordie (1955) sees Sim acting in his native Scottish accent as the kindly laird who supports the Olympic ambitions of Wee Geordie (Bill Travers), while Left, Right and Centre (1959) is a romantic comedy with overtones of political satire as Tory and Labour by-election candidates (Ian Carmichael and Patricia Bredin) inadvertently fall for each other. Sim is Carmichael's uncle, whose Machiavellian scheme for capitalising on his nephew's victory is threatened with disaster unless the two are kept apart.

View more reviews by Michael Brooke

Review by Barry Forshaw on 23rd October 2007

His star may burn dimmer at these days, but the merest glance at this choice collection of films featuring one of Britain's most beloved comic actors would show you just why Alistair Sim was held in such high esteem. There are classics here (such as The Green Man and Laughter in Paradise) alongside lesser movies, but even in minor fare, Alistair Sim’s comic genius never deserted him.

View more reviews by Barry Forshaw

Browse all Film Reviews

Customers who bought this also bought...

Recommendations from fellow customers

The Leopard

by Luchino Visconti

The Noël Coward Collection

by Various / Compilation

Quartet (1948)

by Various

Trio

by Harold French / Ken Annakin

Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950

by Various / Documentary

Other films by...

More films directed by Various / Compilation

The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (Volume 4)

Jack Nicholson - In The Frame Collection

Cinema Legends - Ernest Hemingway

Easy Rider / Two-Lane Blacktop

Julia Roberts - In The Frame Collection

View more >

More films starring Alastair Sim

Scrooge

by Brian Desmond Hurst

The Green Man

by Robert Day

Hue And Cry

by Charles Crichton

Cottage To Let

by Anthony Asquith

London Belongs To Me

by Sidney Gilliatt / Frank Launder

View more >

For questions or assistance, call us on (+44) 0844 776 0900 or email on enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

© 2004-2007 MovieMail, Ltd., All Rights Reserved. Find out more about MovieMail