Realism and Tinsel

by Robert Murphy

I have a special fondness for this book… It brings to life so many films that were important to me, that I never read anything much about. I particularly enjoy it because it goes beyond the conventional admiration for the films that had made British cinema famous in the postwar years. The critic John Ellis used the phrase “the quality film adventure” of British cinema in the postwar period, from the mid 40s to the end. Those films are still remarkable, and I suppose they are the films that made British cinema internationally known, perhaps for the first time.