A historical and critical assessment of the cinema of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph, one of the most significant filmmaking teams that characterised British cinema in the postwar decades.

Ealing Revisited provides a major reappraisal of one of British cinema's best-loved institutions, Ealing Studios. During its heyday, Ealing produced a string of classic comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), but there is much more to Ealing than these films, as this volume of new writing on the studio shows. Addressing both known and less familiar aspects of Ealing's story, its films, actors and technicians, the contributors uncover what has gone unexplored, or unspoken, in previous histories of the studio, and consider the impact that Ealing has had on British cultural life from the 1930s to the present. Listed in the Independent on Sunday's Cinema books of 2012 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/ios-books-of-the-year-2012-cinema-8373713.html

Victim (1961) was a landmark in the history both of the cinema and of British society. This modest black-and-white thriller, produced by Michael Relph and directed by Basil Dearden, tackled explicitly the existing law governing homosexual offences, and in doing so eased the path towards partial decriminalisation in 1967. It was also a key moment in the life of its star, Dirk Bogarde, who, despite the risk to his box-office appeal, seized upon the role of a compromised barrister. In doing so, he shed the mantle of matinée idol and soon afterwards embarked on a more fulfilling career in the intellectual cinema. John Coldstream's intimate study of Victim examines in detail the background to the production, focusing especially on the relationship between the film-makers, the screenwriters and the censor, John Trevelyan, whose participation at the script stage was crucial to its development. Half a century after its original release, one looks in vain to find Victim in the spasmodic surveys dedicated to identifying the greatest films of all time. However, as Coldstream argues, its recognition as a classic is more than justified by the vital contribution it made to gay cultural history and by its status as 'a movie that mattered'.

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Making substantial use of new and underexplored archive resources that provide a wealth of information and insight on the period in question, this book offers a fresh perspective on the major resurgence of creativity and international appeal experienced by British cinema in the 1960s