The Ealing Comedies - Making Light of Crime?

When the studio was sold in 1955, [Michael] Balcon wrote the inscription for a plaque erected there: 'here during a quarter of a century many films were made projecting Britain and the British character.'
The Ealing comedies have, by critics, been accused of provincial narrow-mindedness, snobbery, sexual repression, verbosity, archness and sentimental nationalism. Sarah Street identifies the key films in the Ealing comedy cycle as Hue and Cry (Charles Crichton, 1947), Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius, 1949), Whisky Galore! (Alexander Mackendrick, 1949), Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robe…