Anthony Asquith's film adapted from Terence Rattigan's play (by himself) is based on real events that took place in 1912. When young Ronnie Winslow (Neil North) is expelled from Naval College after being accused of stealing a postal order, his banker-father (Cedric Hardwicke) remains convinced of his innocence and risks everything to press for a re-trial with the assistance of a high-profile barrister (Robert Donat). By doing so the trial becomes a cause celebre and the family's social standing becomes precarious. The film drew wide acclaim for the quality of its performances and was remade in 1999 by David Mamet.

The English composer William Alwyn was not only one of the most versatile creative figures of his age, writing music for the concert hall, recital room, operatic stage and film screen; he was also a virtuoso instrumentalist and conductor, the teacher of some of the most important composers of the succeeding generation, and the founder of a number of influential music committees such as the Composers' Guild of Great Britain. Alwyn was a gifted writer, too, alive to literature and art - especially pre-Raphaelite painting, on which he was an authority - as well as to music, and Composing in Words presents his most important writings: the autobiographical essay Winged Chariot; the diary, Ariel to Miranda, in which he chronicled the composition of his Third Symphony; an extract from Early Closing, Alwyn's reminiscences of his Northampton childhood; and essays on film music, and on other composers, among them Elgar, Bax and Puccini.

Collection of feature and short-length documentaries from British filmmaker Humphrey Jennings. The films in this volume include 'The Heart of Britain' (1941), 'Words for Battle' (1941), 'Listen to Britain' (1942), 'Fires Were Started' (1943) and 'The Silent Village' (1943).

Guy Hamilton directs this classic maritime drama starring Trevor Howard and Elsa Martinelli. The film follows James Prothero (Howard), the alcoholic skipper of a cargo ship, who begins a relationship with a beautiful young woman (Martinelli) who has been smuggled on board by one of his crew.

James Mason plays a hitman in this tense, atmospheric thriller from the director of 'The Third Man'. Johnny (James Mason) is the idealistic leader of an illegal organisation whi is on the run after escaping from prison. An attempt to hold up a linen mill goes wrong and Johnny is badly wounded. As the police hunt him down, Johnny searches for Kathleen, the woman who loves him.

Morality thriller. When John Harris's (Michael Craig) daughter is injured in a boating accident, only a blood transfusion will save her. Unfortunately, this goes against his religious beliefs, and as a result the child dies. Taken to court by local Dr. Brown (Patrick McGoohan), Harris eventually wins the case, but at what cost.

James Mason plays a hitman in this tense, atmospheric thriller from the director of 'The Third Man'. Johnny (James Mason) is the idealistic leader of an illegal organisation whi is on the run after escaping from prison. An attempt to hold up a linen mill goes wrong and Johnny is badly wounded. As the police hunt him down, Johnny searches for Kathleen, the woman who loves him.

Wartime drama starring Alec Guiness as Peter Ross, an RAF reconnaisance photographer assigned to trace and destroy an Italian convoy threatening to invade Malta. As the Luftwaffe threatens, Ross's romance with a local girl hangs in the balance.

Gentle Ealing comedy about childhood, guilt and half-truths starring a young James Fox (then known by his real name, William Fox) as Johnny Brent, a mischievous boy who tricks a younger boy (Keith Robinson) into giving him his magnet in return for an 'invisible' clock. Having successfully obtained the magnet, Johnny immediately starts to feel guilty about his swindling behaviour. His guilt sparks a chain of misplaced assumptions that lead to a search being mounted for the boy, who has run away after becoming convinced that he is wanted for murder.

1950s British film drama based on the novel by Nicholas Monsarrat. The crew of the Royal Navy's much-decorated Motor Gun Boat 1087 find the going much tougher following the end of the Second World War. Now unemployed, the men buy their old ship back from a scrap yard and use her to smuggle black market goods across the English Channel. As the crew's fortunes prosper they become more daring, but when they start carrying money and guns for London's criminal gangs, the old 1087 herself sems to be protesting against their activities. The mood on board becomes blacker still when a convicted child murderer is given refuge on ship, setting off a disastrous chain of events. Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Owen and Virginia McKenna co-star.

Basil Dearden directs this Ealing Studios racing drama. Disgraced jockey Sam (Bill Owen) has been banned from racing after taking a bribe. Unwilling to leave the racing world behind, he takes on a young protege, Georgie Crain (Fella Edmonds), and trains him up to be the next champion. But as financial pressures loom, do Sam and Georgie have what it takes to make it against all odds? Robert Morley and Honor Blackman co-star.

University lecturer Norman Taylor earns the enmity of his colleagues when it is rumoured that he has obtained a major promotion. However, this is no ordinary professional jealousy; someone is using the occult to try and ruin Norman's life. After his own wife falls prey to the powers of darkness, Norman is forced to do battle with demonic forces which bring him to the verge of Hell itself.

John Mills stars as Alfred Polly, recently sacked from his job he inherits money from his father, thus enabling him to take a bike tour of the country. He falls in love but it all goes wrong so Alfred ends up marrying his cousin, Miriam. They set up a draper's shop in a small town. Miriam sours, they face bankruptcy and boredom and Mr Polly comes to hate his life. In utter despair he decides to commit suicide, but even this goes wrong and he is forced to take to the road again.

David Lean directs this film based on the true story of a Glasgow woman accused of murdering her lover in 1857. Madeleine (Ann Todd) is the eldest daughter in a respectable Victorian Glasgow family. She begins an affair with Frenchman Piere Emile L'Anglier (Ivan Desny) without her father's knowledge. Meanwhile, Madeleine's father (Leslie Banks) insists on her seeing various suitors. When Madeleine becomes engaged to William Minnoch (Norman Wooland), Pierre threatens to reveal their relationship. Five weeks later, Pierre is found dead, and Madeleine is arrested for his murder.

A collection of five Alastair Sim films. In 'The Green Man' (1956), seemingly mild-mannered watchmaker Hawkins (Sim) is in fact a skilled assassin. His latest target is leading politician Sir Gregory Upshot (Raymond Huntley), who is due to stay the weekend at the Green Man hotel. However, Hawkins' well-planned attempts to remove Sir Gregory permanently from public life are frustrated by well-meaning vacuum cleaner salesman William Blake (George Cole). In 'Folly To Be Wise' (1952), Sim plays a new Entertainments Officer at a local army camp who attempts to revitalise things by getting rid of the lady violinists and trying to modernise entertainments with chaotic results. In 'Geordie' (1955), Sim plays a Scotsman who takes up a course in Physical Culture, and goes on to become an Olympic hammer throwing champion. In 'Left, Right and Centre' (1959), Robert Wilcot (Ian Carmichael) is the prospective Tory candidate at the Earndale by-election. Travelling down to the town from London, he strikes up a conversion with a pretty young girl and the pair seem to hit it off. It's not until he's photographed carrying her bags along the platform that he discovers Stella (Patricia Bredin) is actually the town's socialist candidate. In 'Laughter In Paradise' (1951), when it's time for the reading of Henry Russell's will, his relatives gather in eager anticipation of the wealth that could be theirs. But they are surprised to discover that their inheritance is conditional upon them each performing a certain humiliating task. Snobbish Agnes (Fay Compton) must take work as skivvy, timid bank clerk Herbert (George Cole) must become a bank robber, pillar-of-the-community Deniston (Alistair Sim) must get sent to prison, and playboy Simon (Guy Middleton) must get married. Will the lure of money be enough to get these characters to go against type? Of course it will.

1950s comedy drama starring Bill Travers. Not content with being so small and slight in stature anymore, young Scots lad Geordie (Travers) sends away for a home body building kit in an effort to bulk himself up. As the months progress, Geordie becomes a muscley, toned athlete with a particular aptitude for hammer throwing. As he becomes a national champion, he finds himself being selected to represent the UK in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.

Four films based on the literary works of Graham Greene. In 'The Third Man' (1949), writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives in war-torn Vienna to take up a job with his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). He is informed that Lime died a week previously in a car accident, but upon investigating further discovers that the circumstances of Lime's death are shrouded in confusion. Martins begins to wonder just how well he knew his old friend after the head of local military police, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), convinces him that Lime was in fact a black market drug racketeer responsible for many deaths. In 'Brighton Rock' (1947), 16-year-old gangster Pinkie Brown (Richard Attenborough) uses young waitress Rose Brown (Carol Marsh) as an alibi after commiting a murder at the race track. Worried that she will give him away, Pinkie marries Rose. However, his subsequent attempts to drive her to the point of suicide do not go according to plan. 'The Heart of the Matter' (1953) stars Trevor Howard as Scobie, an assistant police commissioner posted in Sierra Leone in World War 2. Exploring familiar Greene themes such as religion and work politics, the film co-stars Elizabeth Allan and Maria Schell as the wronged wife and the hard-done-by mistress. 'The Fallen Idol' (1948) is an award-winning adaptation of Greene's short story 'The Basement Room', and is told primarily from a child's perspective. Philippe (Bobby Henrey) is the young son of a diplomat who idolises Baines (Ralph Richardson), his father's butler. When Baines' wife is found murdered and Baines is implicated, Philippe does everything he can to point the investigation away from the butler. In doing so he makes matters worse - and also discovers that his hero is not the man he thought he was.

Classic documentary drama based on Walter Lord's book about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Told from the perspective of Second Officer Charles Lightoller (Kenneth More), the story follows the supposedly 'unsinkable' ship as she embarks on her maiden voyage and ultimately founders in the North Atlantic Ocean. The ship leaves port and soon Captain Smith (Laurence Naismith) is given several ice warnings but decides not to decrease the Titanic's speed. When the ship hits an iceberg late at night on April 14th the situation looks bleak, especially with the realisation that there are not enough lifeboats to carry all on board. The Titanic's distress call is received by the Carpathia but she is four hours away and unlikely to reach the ship before it sinks. Chaos breaks out both above and below deck as the passengers and crew race against time for their survival.

Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer star in this 1940s drama directed by Sidney Gilliat. When young aristocrat Vivian Kenway (Harrison) fails in his studies at Oxford, he decides to use the talents he has - namely, his irresistible charm - to create a new career centred around decadence and promiscuity. When World War II breaks out Vivian is given a chance to create a lasting name for himself. Will he take it?

Collection of ten classic films from the award-winning British director. In 'The Sound Barrier' (1952), Ralph Richardson stars as an aircraft manufacturer whose all-consuming passion with making the ultimate supersonic jet kills both his son and son-in-law and almost destroys him and the rest of his family. In 'Hobson's Choice' (1953), Lancashire bootmaker Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) keeps a tight rein on his three daughters until his eldest, Maggie (Brenda De Banzie), marries his assistant, Willie Mossop (John Mills), and sets him up in his own bootmaking firm. To Hobson's consternation, Willie has soon become his father-in-law's main business rival. In 'Blithe Spirit' (1945), cynical writer, Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison), asks a medium (Margaret Rutherford) to hold a seance in his house so he can collect material for his latest book. No one is more surprised than the medium when she inadvertently conjures up the ghost of Condomine's first wife (Kay Hammond). The ghost refuses to go away, preferring to taunt her less sophisticated replacement (Constance Cummings). In 'Brief Encounter' (1945), a respectable, happily married doctor (Trevor Howard) comes to the aid of an equally upstanding housewife (Celia Johnson) when a passing train blows cinder into her eye. Thus begins a tentative romance, conducted in the tearooms and railway cafe of a small English town. In 'Great Expectations' (1946), orphan, Pip (Anthony Wager), befriends an escaped convict before being elevated to higher circles as the companion of Miss Havisham and her niece, Estella (Jean Simmons), with whom the boy quickly falls in love. When the adult Pip (Mills) discovers a mysterious benefactor has paved the way for him to become a gentleman, he assumes Miss Havisham is responsible. In 'Oliver Twist' (1948), Oliver (John Howard Davis) is a young orphan boy who is expelled from the workhouse run by Mr Bumbel (Francis L. Sullivan). After becoming an apprentice to an undertaker, Oliver decides to run away to London, only to meet the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) and fall amongst his gang of thieves, led by the scheming Fagin (Alec Guinness). In 'Madeleine' (1949), Madeleine (Ann Todd) is the eldest daughter in a respectable Victorian Glasgow family. She begins an affair with Frenchman, Emile L'Anglier (Ivan Desny), without her father's knowledge. Meanwhile, Madeleine's father insists on her seeing various suitors. When Madeleine becomes engaged to William Minnoch (Norman Wooland), Emile threatens to reveal their relationship. 'The Passionate Friends' (1944) is an episodic tale of an average working class family in the interwar years. The story traces the melodrama caused by illicit affairs, family bereavement, the first ripples of women's liberation and political instability in the country during the General Strike. It highlights the fact that these internal wranglings are all happening in one house in an average street, and that each average house has its own dramatic stories to tell. Finally, 'In Which We Serve' (1942) is a World War II drama about a destroyer, told through flashbacks and the reminiscences of the surviving crew after their beloved ship is torpedoed.

Anthony Pelissier writes and directs this dark fantasy drama based on a short story by D.H. Lawrence. An adolescent boy, Paul (John Howard Davies), lives with his upper class family in London. His mother, Hester (Valerie Hobson), is a compulsive shopper, continually spending far beyond the family's means, while his father, Richard (Hugh Sinclair), is a gambler who eventually loses his job as a result of his bad habits. As his family fast approaches bankruptcy, Paul befriends handyman Bassett (John Mills) and discovers that he can magically predict the winner of horse races by riding his rocking horse. The money is soon rolling in, but Paul realises too late that it comes at a fatally high price.