Forever Ealing A Celebration of the Great British Film Industry

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The British film industry now seems little more than an out-station of Hollywood, with the stages of Pinewood, Elstree and Shepperton playing host to multi-million-dollar spectaculars made with American money. This was not always the case. Although crisis is a semi-permanent condition of British film-making, there was one studio which, over a period of twenty-five years, succeeded in evolving a distinctive, consistent and original style in films whose reputation is still valid today, after a quarter of a century or more.

The quality of the product of Ealing Studios was largely determined by Sir Michael Balcon, who exerted his powerful personality on the character of the place, creating 'The Studio with the Team Spirit' and fostering the inventive talents of a disparate group of film-makers. The results were extraordinary; not only the great comedies most associated with the Ealing name - 'Passport to Pimlico', 'Kind Hearts and Coronets', 'Whisky Galore', 'The Lavender Hill Mob' - but also serious films such as 'San Demetrio London', 'Dead of Night', 'It always Rains on Sunday', 'Scott of the Antartic' and 'The Cruel Sea', which remain some of the best of their kind ever made in Britain.

This book is the first comprehensive, fully-illustrated history of the studio. Every film made during the Balcon era is described and assessed, as are stars such as Will Hay, Stanley Holloway, Alec Guinness, Googie Withers, Alastair Sim, Jack Hawkins and Gordon Jackson, and the directors, writers and editors. The financial and business structure of Ealing Studios is fully and clearly outlined, and evocations of the social and political mood of the day help to put the films in context. Thanks to television, many of them can still be seen today. This book is an invaluable account and reference work for anyone who wants to know the Ealing story.