Alastair Sim Movies
Droll, moon-faced Scottish actor Alastair Sim was for the first decade of his adult life a professor of elocution. A late bloomer, Sim made his stage debut at age 30; in 1935, he broke into British films, appearing in no fewer than five pictures during his first year. In many of his early films, Sim portrayed slow-witted, regional types, notably the buffoonish sergeant in the Inspector Hornleigh mysteries of the late '30s. He achieved movie stardom during the 1940s, frequently portraying dithering eccentrics who weren't quite as distracted or disorganized as they seemed: the undercover detective in Cottage to Let (1943), the inquisitive Inspector Cockrill in Green for Danger (1946), and the befuddled birdwatcher in Hue and Cry (1947), for instance. Among his most fondly remembered roles of the 1950s were the taciturn moralist forced to break the law in order to qualify for an inheritance in Laughter in Paradise (1952); the enigmatic "voice of conscience" in An Inspector Calls (1954); the mild-mannered professional assassin in The Green Man (1956); his "drag" appearances as the snooty headmistress in the St. Trinians farces; and, of course, the title role in Scrooge (1951), his finest hour and a half. Seemingly growing funnier with each passing year, the 72-year-old Sim all but stole the show as a doddering cleric in the outrageous The Ruling Class (1972). Throughout his four-decade film career, Sim retained his ties to the theater, directing and starring in several of the works of playwright James Bridie and, by popular request, made frequent appearances as Captain Hook in Barrie's Peter Pan; Sim made his last stage appearance in 1975, the year before his death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1971
This well-animated version of Dickens' classic Christmas story stays quite faithful to its source as it chronicles the painful lesson learned by a bitter old miser whose money lust alienates him from humanity. His lesson comes in the form of ghostly intervention from a trio of spirits who force him to reassess the direction of his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Michael Hordern, (more)
Widely considered to be the definitive of the many film versions of Charles Dickens' classic novel is this 1951 British adaptation, starring Alastair Sim (entitled "Scrooge" in its U.K. release). Sim plays Ebenezer Scrooge, a London miser who, despite his wealth, refuses to make charitable contributions and treats his sole employee, Bob Cratchit, as an indentured servant. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, who was as selfish as Scrooge in life and has been condemned to an eternity of wandering the Earth in shackles. Marley informs Scrooge that he's to receive a trio of spirits that night who will take him on a journey through Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come. As Scrooge encounters each apparition, he is taken on a tour of his life and realizes what a wretch he is, transformed by greed from an idealistic youth into an embittered ogre. Infused with a new, cheery outlook, Scrooge sets about earning his redemption. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, (more)
- 1935
In this comedy, two convicts are finally released after spending a decade prison. They immediately head back to the remote place where they buried their cash.They are appalled to discover that the area has been developed. A store now stands where the jewels are hidden. Fortunately, the store managers have had trouble keeping their establishment afloat and are only too happy to help the cons burn it down so they can find the loot. Unbeknownst to them, a woman has already taken the jewels. They burn the store down for nothing. It turns out that the woman is the legitimate heiress to the gems as they originally belonged to a relative of hers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1938
The continued adventure of the magic button that was crafted from the metal of Aladdin's magic lamp. Alf finds that this newfound device makes him master of his own fate. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1954
The comfortable complacency of the British Birling family is upset when Inspector Poole (Alastair Sim) comes calling. An impoverished young working girl named Eva Smith (Jane Wenham) has committed suicide, and Poole hopes that the Birlings will help him find out why. As the evening progresses, a series of flashbacks reveal that each member of the Birling family has in some small way been responsible for Eva's demise. A twist ending adds a mystical, thought-provoking touch to the proceedings. Bryan Forbes, who plays the Birling son, matriculated into the noted director of such films as The L-Shaped Room, King Rat and The Whisperers. An Inspector Calls was based on a play by J.B. Priestley, which recently scored a huge hit when it was revived in London and New York. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Arthur Young, (more)
- 1956
Writer/artist Roland Searle's diabolical "belles" of St. Trinian's Girls School return in this raucous British comedy. Because the girls cannot behave themselves, their headmistress (Alastair Sim in drag!) has been thrown in jail, and the school is surrounded by police and army troops. The students escape their durance vile by winning an all-expense-paid trip to Europe (by cheating, of course). While laying waste to the Continent (with Terry-Thomas driving the bus), the girls are enmeshed in a diamond theft instigated by the father (George Cole) of one of the students. The film ends with an elongated water polo game, played with the ladies' usual sense of sportsmanship and fair play. In the 1950s and 1960s, the "St. Trinians" series was as popular a British movie attraction as the "Carry On" films--but unlike "Carry On", they don't play quite as well with American audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry-Thomas, George Cole, (more)
- 1947
Set in early 19th-century Ireland, this fact-based drama chronicles the peasant uprising of peasants who finally tire of the brutality of Captain Boycott, the rent collector for the Earl of Erne. The impoverished farmers conspire to banish him from the area. When Boycott learns of this, he tries to change his image by spending his entire fortune launching a newspaper promotion of his good points. It doesn't work and in desperation, he squanders the rest of his fortune on buying a race horse. He enters it in a big race and bets the rest of his fortune upon it. Unfortunately, just before it wins, the peasants spring to action, start a riot and successfully oust the cruel captain from their lands. It is from this situation that the English word "boycott" is derived. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Byrne, Maureen Delaney, (more)
- 1938
Originally conceived as a musical (called Asking for Trouble) to showcase the talents of leading lady Jessie Matthews, Climbing High emerged as a straight romantic comedy, albeit one that sometimes sets up musical numbers that don't occur. Michael Redgrave plays Nicky Brooke, a millionaire unhappily involved with a society dame who is primarily interested in him for his money and name. Matthews plays a beautiful young girl of limited means, Diana Castle, who works as a model (along with her roommate, Alastair Sim, portraying a communist forced to take a job as the loincloth-clad "before" picture in a muscle-building ad). While out driving, Brooke nearly runs over Diana; in the process, he falls for her but decides that he will have a better chance of getting his love returned if he courts her in disguise. Disguised as another ordinary working man, he succeeds -- until his real identity is revealed. More complications ensue -- including an escaped lunatic and a finale in which all of the characters end up climbing the Alps -- before Brooke and Diana end up together, where they always belonged. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessie Matthews, Michael Redgrave, (more)
- 1937
In this romance a run away schoolgirl impersonates a socialite to hook a handsome RAF pilot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Adapted from the 1932 comic novel by Stella Gibbons, this version of Cold Comfort Farm stars Sarah Badel as Flora Post, a precocious 19-year-old whose parents were lost to the Spanish plague. Left with only 100 pounds a year for survival, Flora writes to several relatives in hopes of finding one that will take her in and offer her the stockings-and-furs lifestyle to which she has become accustomed. Eventually, she is invited to Cold Comfort farm where, as an aspiring author, Flora comes into contact with a group of individuals quirky enough to provide inspiration for years to come. The cast includes Alastair Sim and Brian Blessed, and the story itself was adapted again in John Schlesinger's 1995 film starring Kate Beckinsale. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- 1941
Cottage to Let is a taut British wartime spy thriller, laced with moments of genuinely hilarious comedy. The "maguffin" in this instance is a revolutionary new bombsight, designed by inventor John Barrington (Leslie Banks). A group of Nazi spies intend to steal the blueprints for the invention (hence the film's alternate title Bombsight Stolen), and to that end dispatch one of their top agents (John Mills), who parachutes into the story posing as wounded RAF pilot Lt. Perry. Hailed as a war hero by the gullible locals, Perry rents a cottage from the unsuspecting Barrington and his wife (Jeanne de Casalis). The treacherous Nazi meets his match in the unlikely form of oafish Charles Dimble (Alastair Sim), who turns out to be a British undercover agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Banks, Jeanne de Casalis, (more)
- 1948
Assembled by the reliable team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, London Belongs to Me stars Richard Attenborough as a young, full-of-beans boy looking for fun. Bursting into a staid, wearisome London neighborhood, Attenborough exhorts the others to get some kicks out of life. Unfortunately, his search for thrills gets him involved in a murder. Just when you think that the film is a dour "slice of life" drama, a new comic element is introduced as the locals start up a petition to release Attenborough from jail. The presence of Alastair Sim in the cast should have tipped us off that London Belongs to Me wasn't meant to be taken entirely seriously. The film was released in the US as Dulcimer Street. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Attenborough, Alastair Sim, (more)
- 1955
Escapade has to be one of the most overused titles in movie history. This particular Escapade is a mild British comedy with something to say. John Mills plays a renowned pacifist author, whose sons Andrew Ray and Peter Asher are completely sympatico with their dad's views. Convincing their schoolmates to sign a petition begging for universal peace, the boys decide to present the list of signatures to the four world powers occupying Germany, including those rascally Russians and unpredictable Yanks. But they have to get to Berlin first, and to do that the headstrong lads steal an airplane. It turns out that the boys' long-term goal, cooked up with their sister Yvonne Mitchell, is to reunite their bickering father and mother. Escapade opens up the original Roger MacDougall play to the extent that we actually witness the plane in flight; beyond that, the dialogue and situations remain the same--even down to the slight pauses after the laugh lines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Yvonne Mitchell, (more)
- 1953
This low-key Launder-Gilliat production was inspired by a play by James Bridie. Alastair Sim carries the ball as Captain Paris, an army chaplain who endeavors to organize a camp show for the troops. Practically everyone with whom the Captain comes in contact is an "expert" on the sort of entertainment that the soldiers will like. Ultimately, things degenerate into a battle of egos between an effete artist and his professorial wife. The film's best scenes are those in which Captain Paris tries out his own offbeat notions of entertaining the boys in khaki. Incidentally, the title of the original Bridie play was It Depends What You Mean. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Roland Culver, (more)
- 1937
In this musical, a plucky London newspaper journalist boards a transatlantic ocean liner in hopes of interviewing a prominent Hollywood starlet. She is followed by a Scotland Yard inspector who is looking for the jewel thief he knows is on board. Unfortunately, the inspector doesn't know the actual identity of the thief and his prime suspect becomes the hapless reporter who also finds herself pursued by a determined gangster who has made the same assumption. Before the boat docks in New York, the reporter is kidnapped and forced to work for the gangster's boss. Fortunately, the inspector finally discovers the thief's true identity and brings her to justice. The plot is based on a Dwight Taylor story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessie Matthews, Olive Blakeney, (more)
At a World War II emergency hospital, a postman dues under anesthetic during a relatively minor operation. One of the nurses who was present announces that the man's death was no accident, but a murder -- and then she, too, is murdered. The police are called in, led by Inspector Cockrill (Alastair Sim) of Scotland Yard, and he soon determines that any one of the five surviving members of the surgical team might have had a motive for the murders. In the course of his investigation, he also uncovers an array of both eccentric and ugly personal information about most of those present, but no killer that he can ascertain for certain. He must finally draw the murderer out by putting one of the suspects at risk. In the midst of the suspense are moments of droll comedy, of the sort that one would expect from a movie made by the authors of The Lady Vanishes, along with a palpably rich late wartime atmosphere which, surprisingly, did not repel war-weary audiences on either side of the Altantic. Indeed, Sim is so beguilingly witty and charismatic in his eccentric way as Inspector Cockrill, that the wonder is that there was never a follow-up movie or even a series built around his character. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Leo Genn, (more)
- 1947
Alastair Sim is a delight to behold as always in the British Hue and Cry, but the film's true star is approximately 40 years younger and two feet shorter than the estimable Sim. Harry Fowler plays Joe Kirby, an intelligent cockney lad who is addicted to a weekly boys' magazine. He begins to notice a curious pattern emerging in the dialogue of a serialized blood-and-thunder detective story. And well he should: a gang of literate crooks are using that story to transmit information concerning robberies, smuggling, fencing, and the like. When the local constabulary refuse to take Joe's warnings seriously, he rallies his chums together to foil the crooks. Elements of Hue and Cry would later pop up in several American films, including the Bowery Boys' Angels in Disguise (1949) and the Jack Carson vehicle The Good Humor Man (1950). This is only fair, since T.E.B. Clarke's screenplay is inspired in part by the old German perennial Emil and the Detectives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Douglas Barr, (more)
- 1953
Innocents in Paris is a series of anecdotes bundled together by geography. First we see the efforts by British diplomat Alastair Sim to loosen up Soviet-agent Peter Illing long enough to forge an economic plan between Russia and England. Then we watch as dotty artist Margaret Rutherford purchases a copy of the Mona Lisa. Next we see British officer Jimmy Edwards go off on a toot in a Parisian bistro. The next vignette involves impressionable Claire Bloom, who is swept off her feet by a local rake (the human variety, not the garden implement). And so it goes for 102 minutes in the British version of Innocents in Paris, and 93 minutes in the American print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Ronald Shiner, (more)
- 1939
Inspector Hornleigh was the first of three lively British crime films inspired by the popular BBC radio serial "Monday Night at Eight". Hornleigh is played by Gordon Harker, while Alastair Sim assumes the comic-relief responsibilities inherent in the character of Sergeant Bingham. The "maguffin" in this film is a set of bags stolen from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which Hornleigh and Bingham set about to retrieve. The principal suspect is an unscrupulous millionaire who hopes to corner the British stock market. Based on characters created by Hans Wolgang Priwin, Inspector Hornleigh inspired two cinematic sequels, both filmed in 1939. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, (more)
- 1939
In this mystery, the last entry in the Inspector Hornleigh series, Inspector Harker and his assistant take a two-week vacation to the English seaside. Just as the vacation is about to end, a fellow guest in their boardinghouse drives over a cliff and is burned to death. The local cops consider it an accident, but the Inspector has his own suspicions and begins to investigate. He soon exposes a gang of crooks planted the car with another body to cash in on an insurance policy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gordon Harker, Alastair Sim, (more)
- 1936
In this comedy, a young man learns that he is supposed to inherit some valuable jewels and enlists the aid of his shyster lawyer to see that he gets them. The trouble is the stones are tucked away into the lining of one of six antique chairs that have mysteriously vanished. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1951
Despite its lighthearted title, Lady Godiva Rides Again is a fairly potent indictment of the darker side of beauty contests. Waitress Marjorie (Pauline Stroud) enters one competition after another, hoping for fame and fortune. She manages to make the finals of a "Lady Godiva" contest, never suspecting that the outcome has been rigged. By accident, Marjorie wins First Prize, a huge sum of money and a movie contract. Alas, she hasn't the talent to parlay her win into a lasting career, and soon Marjorie is scrounging around for any "girlie show" job she can find. Only when reduced to performing nude in a French cabaret review is Marjorie rescued by her Australian boyfriend Larry Burns (John McCallum), who makes her promise to stop all this nonsense and settle down to domesticity. The well-chosen cast includes Dennis Price as a lascivious movie star and Stanley Holloway and Gladys Henson as the girl's nonplused parents. Featured in smaller roles are such future leading ladies as Kay Kendall, Diana Dors, Dagmar (later Dana) Wynter and, in an uncredited bit, Joan Collins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Price, John McCallum, (more)
- 1935
In this drama, a cub reporter from the Daily Gazette attempts to catch a bank robber. He is assisted by a woman who wants to provide him with valuable information. Unfortunately she is killed before he can meet with her. The reporter eventually finds the crook, catches him and sends him to the police. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1951
Four relatives find themselves going to unusual lengths to inherit a fortune in this British comedy. Henry Russell (Hugh Griffith) was a practical joker all his life, and his sly sense of humor is hardly stilled by his death; when his four closest relatives gather for the reading of the will, they discover that each is to be left $140,000 -- but, as always, there are strings attached. His sister Agnes (Fay Compton) has always treated her hired help with an attitude bordering on contempt, so Henry leaves her the money with the proviso that she must first work as a maid for 28 days. His cousin Deniston (Alastair Sim) writes detective novels for a living, so Henry insists that he get a clearer perspective on how bad guys live -- to collect his inheritance, he must spend four weeks in prison. Herbert (George Cole), a milquetoast clerk at a bank, will only receive his share if he's able to pull off a robbery at his place of employment. And Simon (Guy Middleton), a confirmed ladies' man, must marry the first girl he meets (and stay married to her) if he's to collect his $140,000. Keep an eye peeled for a youthful Audrey Hepburn, who has a bit part as a cigarette girl. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Fay Compton, (more)
- 1958
A father discovers that being a good role model for your son isn't always easy -- especially when you're a criminal -- in this bright British comedy. Percy Brand (Michael Redgrave) is an all-purpose con artist and small-time crook who makes a good living on the wrong side of the law but often finds himself behind bars as a result. Not wanting to present too bad an example to his son and needing an explanation for his frequent time away, he tells young Colin (Jeremy Burnham) that he's a missionary working with a religious group, and his good deeds take him all over the world on sudden missions of mercy. Colin accepts his father's word to the letter, and he grows up to be a law-abiding citizen who works as a barrister for Judge Crichton (Robert Morley), who has had to deal with Percy a number of times over the years. By this time, Percy has retired to a village by the ocean and is living nicely off his ill-gotten gains, but he gets roped into a scheme smuggling brandy and soon finds himself in trouble with the law again. Rather than go back to the pokey (and embarrass Colin), Percy and his mates concoct a bizarre plan by which they'll implicate Judge Crichton in the smuggling and send him to jail in their place. Director Charles Crichton directed a number of fine British comedies, right up to his final picture, A Fish Called Wanda, which he completed at the age of 78. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Redgrave, Robert Morley, (more)
