Famous Black and White Fifties British Films

There was a time when Britain was at the height of film culture.  Almost all of these films were black and white but they had great drama and an almost inimitable sense of social consciousness to them. They were like a more civilized, talky version of the American film noir movies.   These films are still talked about today and screened in old London second-run houses as classics.

In 1950 one of the most talked about films of the year was Night and the City that was directed by Jules Dassin (actually a French Director.) This film was like a seedy look at London for tourists. Richard Widmark played a London lowlife who spent his time in the gritty basements of London’s crime-ridden speak-easy life. The film was very much a very long Twilight Zone episode where no character was experiencing any redemption.

In 1952,director Charles Frend who also made many famous live dramas for the BBC. This was a war film in the vein of showier films from that era like Ice Cold in Alex, The Dambusters and the Colditz Story. The star was an older, craggy Jack Hawkins who plays the embittered veteran recalling his terrible stories in a rainy and dark inner city London landscape.

Another very famous black and white feature of the time was directed by J.Lee Thompson in 1953. It was called The Yellow Balloon and also had the distinction of being Britain’s second X-rated film. In this sordid tale two boys chase a big yellow balloon and one falls to his death while chasing a larger balloon.

Hammer Productions, one of Britain’s most famous movie studios, put out a blockbuster black and white film called the Quatermass Xperiment in 1955. This film tells the tale of an astronaut who is the only survivor of an alien invasion on a rocket. One of the most famous scenes in English cinema history is when he slowly mutates into an alien right inside Westminster Abbey.

In 1957 Cy Endfield came out with a classic for “tough guys” called Hell Drivers. It was filmed in black and white event though other filmmakers had begun using color by then. This was a very macho film that stars a very young Sean Connery (James Bond),William Hartwell (from Dr.Who) and Patrick Goohan (The Avengers.)

These films were very influential in influencing other film and television dramas in the world and were distinguished by very intelligent British plots and dialogue and a sense of realism that was not being seen in Hollywood.